CPU Upgrade for Dell Inspiron 546

[BlessedNoob]

I have a Dell Inspiron 546 with a 0F896N motherboard, Athlon II x2 215 CPU. The chipset is 780G. My Athlon that I have now is an AM3 Socket in an AM2 socket motherboard. I was wondering if i can put a Phenom II X4 955 95W or Phenom II X4 960T 95W in my PC. If i can do both which one? Im leaning towards the 960T for overclocking, but if i cant OC because of my motherboard then i'll go with the 955 95W. If i cant use the above mentioned CPUs then what is the best CPU upgrade that i can get?

 

[voltoid27]

This thread says an Athlon II X4 640, a 95W AM3 proc, works fine: http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/desktop/f/3514/t/19357119

That said, almost no Dell motherboard supports overclocking officially (you'll have to go back to the first-gen XPS desktops for that), so you might as well go for the 955. Bear in mind that your 546 will run hotter and louder after the upgrade. Personally I'd pick the Athlon II X3 425e or the Athlon II X2 280 since I like quiet computing, but that's just me.

 

[BlessedNoob]

This thread says an Athlon II X4 640, a 95W AM3 proc, works fine: http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/desktop/f/3514/t/19357119

That said, almost no Dell motherboard supports overclocking officially (you'll have to go back to the first-gen XPS desktops for that), so you might as well go for the 955. Bear in mind that your 546 will run hotter and louder after the upgrade. Personally I'd pick the Athlon II X3 425e or the Athlon II X2 280 since I like quiet computing, but that's just me.

Thank you so much, ive looke every where for an answer. even that post and it very confusing, there wasnt really a clear answer. I'm fine with the 955 because it'll be a big improvement compared to the Athon II X2 215. And i ordered a Cooler Master Hyper Evo 212 that i will be using with this CPU.

 

[voltoid27]

And i ordered a Cooler Master Hyper Evo 212 that i will be using with this CPU.

In that case no need to worry about the 95W TDP!

 

[BlessedNoob]

And i ordered a Cooler Master Hyper Evo 212 that i will be using with this CPU.

In that case no need to worry about the 95W TDP!

why not worry about the 95W TDP? I made another post asking this and everyone said that it can fry your motherboard and/or CPU.
I ordered the Phenom II X4 955 95W versions, since OCing wasnt an option and i thought i couldnt use 125W CPUs.

I will post back when the CPU arrives and tell you how the installation goes and all that

 

[voltoid27]

If 95W TDP CPUs could fry a 546's board, the guy in the Dell thread would've said so, or least I hope he would. I'm just basing my statements off the compatibility of the 640, which actually has slightly higher voltage requirements than the 955.

But yeah, I would definitely not recommend a 125W CPU in an OEM board unless it already had one to begin with, most just aren't designed for that kind of heat/wattage.

 

[BlessedNoob]

So the CPU finally arrived and it took about 45 mins to take everything apart, install that new CPU and heatsink. The Hyper Evo 212 is like 1 inch bigger than my case so i just left the cover off. Probably not a good idea. I put everything back in and pushed the power and....hell yeah!!. It booted up nicely checked CPU-Z to make sure that it was installed and it recognized it. After boot up there was some sort of driver update, HL-%&$*#%&. don't remember after HT. Max TDP according to CPU-Z is 96.9 W but I'm not too worried. i will take some screen shots and upload them as well.
Just kidding don't know how to do pictures :/

 

[voltoid27]

HT probably stands for HyperTransport, which is like the FSB of AMD CPUs, so that's normal. Glad it worked out! Aside from the 212 being too big, but you'll figure something out

 

[BlessedNoob]

HT probably stands for HyperTransport, which is like the FSB of AMD CPUs, so that's normal. Glad it worked out! Aside from the 212 being too big, but you'll figure something out

Yea, the 212 being big kinda sucks, i still installed it regardless. I tested it on World at War zombies, lol, I was running it at 720p with everything low. and i just ran it fine at 1600x900 with normal everything and was getting 61fps. So im pretty stoked im gonna test some more games see how much better it is. Just out of curiosity, how much of an improvement is the Phenom II X4 955 vs Athlon II X2 215. example: XX% better

 

[voltoid27]

In single threaded performance (ie old games) you're looking at 30%, in multi-threaded performance it'd be 125% faster.

 

[BlessedNoob]

In single threaded performance (ie old games) you're looking at 30%, in multi-threaded performance it'd be 125% faster.

Holy mother of god! im so glad this CPU works. Thanks for all the help, really appreciate it. You have no idea how much better you've made my gaming experience

 

[voltoid27]

Sure thing! Hope you enjoy it

 

[BlessedNoob]

Sure thing! Hope you enjoy it

One last thing, since i cant put the side panel back onto the PC because of the 212 being too big, could i make sharpie lines where the 212 is and cut that out of the side panel? I dont think leaving my PC case open is really good, maybe for cooling and air flow but a lot more dust right? it would look kinda cool too, the 212 sticking out of the PC