Dell OptiPlex XE CPU Upgrade

[jeffshead]

What's the fastest dual-core and quad-core CPU the OptiPlex XE SFF can handle with the stock heat sink and stock PSU?

Motherboard: 01KD4V, Q45 Express
PSU: 280 watt

The Dell Technical Guidebook lists E7400 dual-core as the fastest compatible CPU (no quad-cores) but I see many listings on eBay for OptiPlex XE's with E8400 CPU's. That leads me to believe that the newest BIOS (A05) supports CPU's with 1333 MHz FSB.

I'm looking at the E8600 and Q9650 CPU's in particular. I also see that the Q9550S is rated at 65 watts. I would like to know if any of these three CPU's can be used without temperature or power issues as well as the E8400.


Thanks for reading!


Cheers,


Jeff

 

[breakingfelony]

Well what else have you got in your system, GPU, HDD and case fans! The best one I would go for is the q9650 or even a Q6600 I still have one of these it overclocks sweet as hell

 

[jeffshead]

Well what else have you got in your system, GPU, HDD and case fans! The best one I would go for is the q9650 or even a Q6600 I still have one of these it overclocks sweet as hell

Thanks for replying!

I know the Q45 Express chipset is compatible with the Q9650 but what about the Dell OptiPlex XE BIOS? I haven't found anyone that has installed that processor in the XE. The Q9650 is rated at 95 watts and the E8600 and down dual-cores are rated at 65 watts.

I would be using the on-board GPU and a single 1TB 7200 RPM SATA HDD and stock fans.

So do you know if the stock XE can handle the Q9560? I'm worried about temperature and power from the stock components.
I see there is also a Q9550S that's rated at 65 watts but I read it's just a binned Q9550.

 

[breakingfelony]

I don't think there would be much of an issue with it, I only really deal with custom builds and dell bios's don't seem like they'd be much different. Before you do anything do an update of your bios to the latest one and I say you'd be fine. You don't seem to be using to much power with your HDD or anything

 

[jeffshead]

I installed a Q9650 processor and everything seems to be running OK so far but I'm concerned about core temps.

I used HWMonitor and ran Prime95's Small FFT's torture test. At idle, all core temps range from 32 C to 38 C. It took only 3 minutes for the temps to get up to 84 C and 4 minutes to get to 94 C at which point I stopped Prime95. I was afraid to let the test run longer for fear of damaging something.

Anything over 80 C is bad, right? What a shame. The OEM heat sink appears to be solid copper (maybe copper plating) with two case style fans attached to it. I was hoping that would be enough.

UPDATE:
I just tried an E8400 Core 2 Duo and the max core temps are 64 C and 58 C. I really wish I could use the Q9650 🙁

 

[breakingfelony]

From what I have read 80 C is about as high as people would like to go, could you not get a new cooler? I have Googled your computer and two appear a tower and a small flat desk computer which one do you have? Surely you could fit a small sort of flat cooler into the case? Its a shame your temps are to high.

 

[maxtheking]

Would a Q6600 work well? I also have the OptiPlex XE SFF with a E8400, but like to upgrade to a quad core Q6600.

 

[breakingfelony]

A Q6600 would work very well with it, however you may need to do a BIOS update to the latest version just to make it fully compatible.