XPS 700 Processor Upgrade

AltairDusk:\

That is one of the many problems with the XPS700 - it does not support all of the 65nm CPU's muchless the 45nm ones.   Due to this and many other misrepresentations and problems, Dell was forced to offer the mobo exchange to convert the XPS700 to an XPS720.   The XPS720 with the nVidia 680i mobo is compatible with many Intel CPU's.   Check out the Rampant Speculation forum for much better information than you will find here.  You will find test results on various 45nm CPU's with the 680i mobo. 

Your best bet is to order the mobo from Dell and install it yourself if you want to be able to use 45nm CPU's and overclock your system.  You cannot overclock the XPS700.

Thanks for the quick response, not what I was hoping to hear but I was afraid that might be the case.  I wish I had researched the motherboard upgrade and asked if it had been done before I bought it but I can't complain too much as I still got a good deal on it ($650 with a 20" widescreen Ultrasharp almost a year ago )  Any idea how I'd go about getting a price from Dell on the XPS720 board?

AltairDusk,

The Wolfsdale is not validated on the XPS 700. Your best bet is the last one on this list -

PY390 Presler P4 EE 965, 3.73GHz, 1066FSB, 2X2MB, C1
CJ163 Presler P4 960, 3.60GHz, 2x2MB, 800FSB, B1
YH754 Presler P4 950, 3.40GHz, 2X2MB, 800FSB, C1
DK050 Presler P4 940, 3.20GHz, 2X2MB, 800FSB, C1
YH751 Presler P4 930, 3.0GHz, 2X2MB, 800FSB, C1
YH750 Presler P4 920, 2.80GHz, 2MB, 800FSB, B1

DK594 Cedar Mill P4 661, 3.60GHz, 800FSB, 2MB, C1
MW529 Cedar Mill P4 651, 3.40GHz, 2MB, 800FSB
PY394 Cedar Mill P4 641, 3.20GHz, 2MB, 800FSB
DK593 Cedar Mill P4 631, 3.00GHz, 800FSB, 2MB, C1

WM543 Conroe XE X6800, 2.93GHz, 4MB, 1066FSB, B2
PN416 Conroe E6700, 2.66GHz, 4MB, 1066FSB, B2
KU345 Conroe E6600, 2.40GHz, 4MB, 1066FSB, B2
KN977 Conroe E6400, 2.13GHz, 2MB, 1066FSB, B2
DT893 Conroe E6300, 1.86GHz, 2MB, 1066FSB, B2

GK159 Prescott P4 Kit, 670, 3.80GHz, 800FSB, 2MB, R0

Chris_Mixon,

Thanks for that list, I was trying to find something like that for awhile.  I probably should have mentioned my current processor is:

KN977 Conroe E6400, 2.13GHz, 2MB, 1066FSB, B2

As I run dual monitors and tend to have multiple programs open when gaming (mostly WoW) I would prefer not to give up dual core, the Xtreme Edition is far out of my price range unfortunately.  Do you know anything about this one as far as the XPS 700 goes?  http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3241546&csid=ITD&body=MAIN#detailspecs

Thanks,

AltairDusk

I have that exact same system and upgraded the Conroe to a Kentsfield Q6700 2.6 Quad processor about 2 months ago. You have to ensure that the most recent XPS700 BIOS update is installed first though, as this is the update that allows for a small selection of the earlier Quad processors.

Apparently this is not 100% sanctioned by Dell, but what the heck, it works and the performance increase was huge. After I had installed the processor and a new Geforce 260, my 3DMark test score pretty much doubled.

As ever though, make sure you get some Arctic Fox Arcticlean and some Arctic Silver paste (or similar), in order to properly 'degunk' the Heatsink and prep the new processor for installation.

Hello Jim, probably too late to get a response here, but I wanted to confirm that you really did this with a stock 700 motherboard (and not a 720 mboard)?

This would be fantastic for the 700's that missed the 720 upgrade window as there are still Kentsfields out there available (but not for long it appears).

I have had the same questions.  Please read and take note of the last note of Lionel Mancha post.

http://en.community.dell.com/blogs/direct2dell/archive/2007/08/07/23664.aspx

A statement is made reference processors that can be used on NON XPS 720 H2C motherboards.. 

Based on this I acquired a x6800 2.93ghz  4mb cache processor and it works fine.  Bios is 1.4.1  on a XPS 700.

Sasparilla:

Hello Jim, probably too late to get a response here, but I wanted to confirm that you really did this with a stock 700 motherboard (and not a 720 mboard)?

This would be fantastic for the 700's that missed the 720 upgrade window as there are still Kentsfields out there available (but not for long it appears).

Hi Sasparilla,

Yes, this was definitely with the basic old 'stock' 700 motherboard.

I upgraded my GPU from a 7950GX2 to a Geforce 260 a week prior to the processor upgrade, and I saw a reasonable amount of improvement in performance with this, but I was staggered how much better the system ran once I put the Q6700 in - well worth the asking price.

Don't even get me started on the 720 upgrade window - I've been a loyal Dell customer since about 1993, but I feel very let down about the whole thing frankly, so at the risk of sounding a bit petty, this is definitely the last Dell system I will ever buy now. :(

Hello Tom, that is great news you were able to get QX6800 processor running as well - what a honking processor. 

Something to note, the article you linked to said the following "what processors we'll support on the non-H2C XPS 720 motherboard".  I believe this meant processors for the non water cooled 720 motherboard (not the old 700 motherboard).

I'm pretty sure Dell doesn't officially say these work at all for the 700 (only the few Conroe processors they sold with it are officially supported).  I think we're just lucky these chips work in the 700 with that last bios update (whoever put that together inside Dell deserves a moment of thanks).

Thanks for the reply, I feel alot better about taking the plunge and pulling my processor.

jimatargoed:

Yes, this was definitely with the basic old 'stock' 700 motherboard.

I upgraded my GPU from a 7950GX2 to a Geforce 260 a week prior to the processor upgrade, and I saw a reasonable amount of improvement in performance with this, but I was staggered how much better the system ran once I put the Q6700 in - well worth the asking price.

Thanks for replying Jim and this is great news. 

I no longer have to consider trying to find a old 720 motherboard / hens tooth.  Tom dropped that honkin 3Ghz QX6800 in a 700 as well - wish I would have known that before, I might have tried for that chip...but such is life.  I've got Q6700 on the way.  My machine, bought it used not long ago, is a 1.9Ghz Core 2 (slowest version), so the performance jump should be "noticable".  ;-)

Thanks again to you and Tom for putting your experience here.

Jim,

I can't thank you enough for this advice. I've spent MONTHS trying to hunt down second hand XPS 720 mobos with no luck and refused to pay the $289 for a 720 mobo from Dell (which I was told is part # GR909 from their support) + another $200+ for a CPU.

I sucessfully upgraded my 700 mobo with the 1.4.1 firmware to a Q6600 last night. Worked flawlessly and my 3dmark06 score jumped nearly 4500 points! The 1.86ghz E6300 I had was a huge bottleneck for my upgraded Radeon 4870.

Thank you for being the ONLY person on the internet to have this advice. I wish more people knew about this, the motherboard upgrade would be a non issue!

No problem guys, just glad to be of some help.

In all fairness though, there was a fair bit of activity around the same subject on the old forum, but that seems to have been lost or at least is very hard to locate now since the move to the new format.  Several folks had been successful with the same upgrade, so it pursuaded me to take the plunge myself, so I'm just passing it on really.

Hi Guys,

I do have a XPS 700 with a QX6800 overclocked to 3.46 (from the Bios obtion) running with the stock XPS heatsink and fans and it is running fine,  idle (28 - 30C)  and full load (40 - 43 C) . same as for the memory I'm using Corsair  XMS2 DHX PC-6400 and it's working great even with the EPP enabled in the Bios and @ 2.2 v. Just make sure to use a good thermal paste. Hope this helps.