internal hard drive upgrade: Inspiton 531 desktop vista 32 bit AMD64 2core?

"... it's a Windsor 3800 - so i can up to a 6000 - if there are any around still in town?"

ugh!

never a truer word ...

looked at about 20 retailers and all list 'Out of Stock'

but at least i know there is a potential upgrade - and i am not ready to up the cpu yet anyway - but could be cool, even if i have to look for a second hand 6000+ ?

R

kr236rk

That processor could be hard to find, try eBay.

Newegg has AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ Brisbane 3.1GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2 89W Dual-Core Processor - OEM [ETA 7.6.2009], but there are strings attached to it's purchased.

Bev.

yes, it will be a difficult one - is it that production has ceased yet there is still a massive demand?

why do they do this?! i have been in this boat before :-|

what i did notice was that all the 6000+ Windsor cpu's i saw were 125W instead of 89W - is this significant please?

R

kr236rk

I would say, it's both demand and not being made anymore. 

Yes, it's 'significant', you need the 89w version, if you use the 125w there will be problems, like overheating.

Bev.

thanks

o gosh - needle in a haystack?

[lol]

thanks

R

ps - would the 6000+ have the same heatsink/fan as the 3800 please?

and would 89w models be interchangeable - like the 'Brisbane'?

thanks again

kr236rk

Regards to the heatsink, see HERE, yet members have reported that the original heatsink/fan that came with the computer works fine with the 89W 6000+ processor, see the 2nd post HERE.

Your choice.

Personally, I would use the original heatsink/fan and see if it can handle the new processor.  

Bev.

kr236rk:

and would 89w models be interchangeable - like the 'Brisbane'?

thanks again

kr236rk

It would seem so, check out the second link, in my previous post.

Bev.

cool (no pun) and thanks for those threads - how does this sound - would i notice a performance hike or would it just be an academic exercise replacing a 3800 with a 5600?

"AMD Athlon 64x2 5600 2.2GHz AM2 89w"

R

kr236rk

Yes, you would see a performance gain and it would a good upgrade.

Bev.

ok thanks - although i need an external HDD to help the D:/  these processors look like they might not be around for too much longer - there were only 2 left in stock at ITC -  external HDD's are not an endangered species ;)

will update / with many thanks: R

kr236rk

Happy to have helped and yep, there's plenty of external hard drives around.

Over the years, I've had good luck buying processors on eBay.

Bev.

it's great Bev, thanks - we have pulled my 531 back from the brink :) and souped up the hardware to boot!

i have a year 2000 P3 i upgraded the cpu for on eBay - was well pleased with myself - until the day came to buy an ethernet cable for the P3 after upgrading to broadband: the pc would not connect to the internet, no real reason, apart from the fact that Microsoft had 'done something' to the P3's net code to stop it making a connection: have you heard of this one? the pc is too slow to be much use now but MS really irritate me when they pull stunts like this; oh yes, they said there was a 'fix' for it, for a sum ...

but moan over - you certainly can pick up a bargain on the bay! :)

R

Hi,

some success! after a shaky start managed to boot up the 531 with new 5600 processor on board :)

but i  fitted a new hard drive as well - a Sata II Western Digital 500GB - and no sign of it under 'Computer'?

also received two cables, a quite long red Serial ATA which i fitted as per the instructions, and also a ludicrously short HDD power cable, all generous 4 inches of it! However, the original HDD had a second empty power cable plug descending from it, so i used that; the power cable which turned up would not reach the power socket area on the mobo - is that where i went wrong? but what is the spare power plug for then, suspended directly over the spare HDD bay?

advice please

many thanks

Ric

shesagordie:

kr236rk

A SATA II hard drive will be fine, you will need to buy a SATA data cable, there should ba spare SATA power connector inside the case.

Personally, I would transfer the data on the 10gb D:/ to an external hard drive.

I use the following method to safe guard my data:

Using SATA two hard drives and an imaging utility, like Acronis, or Casper to image the C:/ drive to the secondary hard drive.

When there is a problem, all I need to do, is to swap the data cables and boot the system. 

Then image the new C:/  to the corrupted second hard drive, creating a corrupt free image again.

Plus make regular backups of the files and folders to an USB external hard drive.

Bev.

update

just had the cover off the pc and checked all the connections again - the power cable might just stretch to where it shows on the Dell 531 instructions but this cable ends in a four pin plug - there are no four pin sockets or anything that i can see with four sockets???

still no sign of the 3rd hard drive - 'Computer' shows 'C' and backup 'D' and that's all :(

R