Cody_49 :
Hello there everyone, i have been wanting to get myself a gaming computer for quite some time now, and i am on a very tight budget. Between rent and other living expenses i don't have a ton of extra money to spend. However, i found out that the old dell t3500 contains a xeon quad core and 12gigs of ram! I also noticed the case is large enough to fit almost all low to mid tier graphics cards.
I have two questions.
1. Would it be worth buying and putting a graphics card in it or should i just get cheap new parts?
2. I heard that the motherboard is not capable of hd audio, and i have a cheap external sound card for my sennheiser game one on my laptop at the moment, so i was wondering if that would be enough to solve that problem or if i would need something more robust.
Cody_49,
I/m a big fan of the Dell Precision TX500 series: beautifully made, ultra-reliable, healthy power supplies, and use one of the great Xeon series, LGA1366. I bought a T3500 for $53 a year ago and made a list of the best performing T3500's:
Passmark Ratings:
Top scoring T3500 (710 tested_12.13.15):
A. Rating = 4155 (X5690 / GTX 680 / Raid / 12GB)
B. CPU = 9712
C. 2D = 684
D. 3D= 5723
E. Mem = 1878
F. Disk = 5378
Top score T3500 by Parameter:
A. Rating = 4155
B. CPU = 9712 (X5690)
C. 2D = 891 (GTX 570)(Highest workstation: 781 Quadro FX 1800)
D. 3D= 8131 (GTX 970)(Highest workstation: 3024 Quadro K4000)
E. Mem = 1965 (24 GB> Quadro FX1800)
F. Disk = 8189 (Samsung 840 series)
And separately, the LGA1366 CPU's:
LGA1366 CPU’s:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Xeon_microprocessors
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php
http://ark.intel.com/products
4-Core: Passmark CPU Average Ebay_12.13.15
_W-3500 series / 45nm / 8MB cache / 130W / 24GB > 800,1066 / HT
I. W3520
II. W3530 2.8 / 3.06GHz _5372 _$11 > $65
III. W3540 2.93 / 3.2 _5492
IV. W3550 3.06 / 3.33 _5761
V. W3565 3.2 / 3.46 _6083
VI. W3570 3.2 / 3.46 _6261 _$25 > $50
VII. W3580 3.33 / 3.6 _6586 _$50 > $95
_X-5500 series (8MB cache / 45nm / 95W_ 2009)
I. X5550 2.67 / 3.06 _5422
II. X5560 2.8 / 3.2 _5442
III. X5570 2.93 / 3/33 _5638 _$14 > $45
IV. X5590 3.33 / 3.6 _9216 _$37 >
_W-5500 series (8MB cache / 45nm / 95W_ 2009)
I. W5580 3.2 / 3.46 (130W) _5718 _$21 > $50
II. W5590 3.33 / 3.6 _6314 _$32 > $200
_X-5600 series 32nm/ 8MB/ 95W_ 2011)
I. X5647 2.93 / 3.2 _5996
II. X5667 3.07 / 3.46 _4655 _$16 > $40
III. X5672 3.2 / 3.6 _5148 _$45 > $87
IV. X5677 3.46 / 3.73 (130W)_7046 _$33 > $80
V. X5687 3.6 / 3.86 _7217 _$70 > $130
6-Core
_X-5600 series 32nm / 12MB / 95W_2011)
I. X5660 2.87 / 3.2 _7587 _$68 > [$100] > $180
II. X5675 3.07 / 3.46 _8584 _$78 > [$112] > $215
III. X5680 3.33 / 3.6 (130W) _9011 _$113> [$140] > $274
IV. X5690 3.47 / 3.73 (2011) _9216 _$182 >[$220] > $291
_W-3600 series / 32nm / 12MB / 130W > 24GB >
I. W3670 3.2 / 3.46 (1066) _6261 _$90 > $160
II. W3680 3.33 / 3.6 (1333) _9398 _$140 > $208
III. W3690 3.47 / 3.73 _9703 _$160 > $400
The original $53 system:
Precision T3500 (2011) (Original) Xeon W3530 4-core @ 2.8 /3.06GHz > 4GB (2X 2GB) DDR3-1333 ECC > GeForce 9800 GT (1GB)> WD Black 500GB
[Passmark system rating = 1963, CPU = 4482 / 2D= 609 / 3D=805 / Mem= 1409 / Disk=1048]
And, after upgrading:
Dell Precision T3500 (2011) (Rev 2) Xeon X5677 4-core @ 3.46 / 3.73GHz > 12GB (6X 2GB) DDR3-1333 ECC > Quadro 4000 (2GB) > PERC 6/i + Seagate 300GB 15K SAS ST3300657SS + WD Black 500GB > 525W PSU> Windows 7 Professional 64-bit > 2X Dell 19" LCD
[Passmark system rating = 2751> CPU = 7236 / 2D= 658 / 3D=2020 / Mem= 1875 / Disk=1221]
I cloned my main workstation system (HP z420) drive of the time to the T3500, so it's running Autodesk building Design Ultimate 2014, Solidworks 2014, Adobe CS6, Wolfram Mathematica, Office Pro 2013 and works really far better than I'd imagined, though I haven't really had to use it much as my two regular systems are completely reliable.. The GPU and drives were left-overs from other systems and of course it would benefit from an SSD. They will support two 150W GPU's though not SLI.
The T3500 is highly recommended. If you buy one, consider adding aPERC H310 RAID controller and that will change the Disk system from 3GB/s to 6GB/s. I did that in a T5500 and with no other changes, the Passmark disk score went form 1940 (Samsung 850 250GB) to 2649.
For gaming, consider a Xeon X5677 as above or better, a X5687 3.6/3.83GHz, 12GB RAM (it's triple channel in sets of three, 24GB max), a GTX 1060, Samsung 750 Evo _ WD Blue 1TB. Take off the front grille and paint it satin black and stencil "T3500" in red military style lettering.
Cheers,
BambiBoom
CAD / 3D Modeling / Graphic Design:
HP z420 (2015) (Rev 3) > Xeon E5-1660 v2 (6-core @ 3.7 / 4.0GHz) / 32GB DDR3 -1866 ECC RAM / Quadro K4200 (4GB) / Samsung SM951 M.2 256GB AHCI + Intel 730 480GB (9SSDSC2BP480G4R5) + Western Digital Black WD1003FZEX 1TB> M-Audio 192 sound card > 600W PSU> > Windows 7 Professional 64-bit > Logitech z2300 2.1 speakers > 2X Dell Ultrasharp U2715H (2560 X 1440)
[ Passmark Rating = 5581 > CPU= 14046 / 2D= 838 / 3D= 4694 / Mem= 2777 / Disk= 11559] [6.12.16]
Analysis / Simulation / Rendering:
HP z620 (2012) (Rev 3) 2X Xeon E5-2690 (8-core @ 2.9 / 3.8GHz) / 64GB DDR3-1600 ECC reg) / Quadro K2200 (4GB) + Tesla M2090 (6GB) / HP Z Turbo Drive (256GB) + Samsung 850 Evo 250GB + Seagate Constellation ES.3 (1TB) / Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium PCIe sound card / 800W / Windows 7 Professional 64-bit > Logitech z313 2.1 speakers > HP 2711x (27" 1980 X 1080)
[ Passmark System Rating= 5675 / CPU= 22625 / 2D= 815 / 3D = 3580 / Mem = 2522 / Disk = 12640 ] 9.25.16
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