[SOLVED] Highest possible upgrade of dell optiplex 330 pentium dual-core

[chawila]

i have dell Optiplex 330 Pentium dual-core, i want to upgrade it to it's highest possible upgrade at low cost.
my plan is to have at lest:

1. 15GB RAM
2. i5 intel (or any AMD equivalent)
3. Better graphics card (i want to open 3 monitors when developing)

I am not too peaky about the storage, just 100GB is fine.

Now my questions is:
Is it possible to achieve that?, will i have buy a new motherboard?.
And if anyone have suggestion of list of component, please help..

Thank you.

 

[aldan]

there is no upgrade path on that pc that would be feasable.if you are going to buy ram and cpu anyways why not go for a motherboard as well and build a more modern platform.firstly,what is your budget? and what are you going to be using the pc for.

 

[Alabalcho]

You won't be able to get any modern motherboard into that BTX format chasis. You might be able to put C2D, depending on what the current motherboard supports. But whatever you put, it will be slow.

 

[SamirD]

i have dell Optiplex 330 Pentium dual-core, i want to upgrade it to it's highest possible upgrade at low cost.
my plan is to have at lest:

1. 15GB RAM
2. i5 intel (or any AMD equivalent)
3. Better graphics card (i want to open 3 monitors when developing)

I am not too peaky about the storage, just 100GB is fine.

Now my questions is:
Is it possible to achieve that?, will i have buy a new motherboard?.
And if anyone have suggestion of list of component, please help..

Thank you.

1. Max ram you can install is 4gb comprised of 2gb x2 ddr2 modules. Larger ddr2 modules weren't generally made or supported.

2. The highest you can go that I've found is a q8400 or e8600 processor. It doesn't seem to support higher quads. You cannot install any other processors outside of an lga775 variant.

3. This is an area that is a lot more open. As long as the card fits and works within the power limitations of your system and well as power connectors, I think it would be quite easy to find a card that will support 3 monitors. The gtx 750 ti low profile is such a card that would work well. If you're not worried so much about graphics even cheaper cards like a gt 710 would work great. The only caveat you have to look out is that the card supports bios vs uefi as your system is not uefi.

Now, if you a biggest boost, you can install an optiplex 380 motherboard as it is a bolt-in swap with no modifications. The 380 supports up to the q9650 as well as even the lga775 xeons like the x3280:
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/Intel-Xeon-X3380-vs-Intel-Core2-Quad-Q9650/1286vs1050

But you need to see if the extra cores will help you more than just the raw single thread speed you may already have installed:
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compar...6700-vs-Intel-Core2-Duo-E8600/1102vs1106vs957

I have a 330 with a 380 motherboard in it. I upgraded to a x3360 (q9500 equal) and 4gb of ram with an older 9500gt and it works great.

 

[chawila]

1. Max ram you can install is 4gb comprised of 2gb x2 ddr2 modules. Larger ddr2 modules weren't generally made or supported.

2. The highest you can go that I've found is a q8400 or e8600 processor. It doesn't seem to support higher quads. You cannot install any other processors outside of an lga775 variant.

3. This is an area that is a lot more open. As long as the card fits and works within the power limitations of your system and well as power connectors, I think it would be quite easy to find a card that will support 3 monitors. The gtx 750 ti low profile is such a card that would work well. If you're not worried so much about graphics even cheaper cards like a gt 710 would work great. The only caveat you have to look out is that the card supports bios vs uefi as your system is not uefi.

Now, if you a biggest boost, you can install an optiplex 380 motherboard as it is a bolt-in swap with no modifications. The 380 supports up to the q9650 as well as even the lga775 xeons like the x3280:
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/Intel-Xeon-X3380-vs-Intel-Core2-Quad-Q9650/1286vs1050

But you need to see if the extra cores will help you more than just the raw single thread speed you may already have installed:
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compar...6700-vs-Intel-Core2-Duo-E8600/1102vs1106vs957

I have a 330 with a 380 motherboard in it. I upgraded to a x3360 (q9500 equal) and 4gb of ram with an older 9500gt and it works great.

Thanks for the reply, really appreciate.
but i am still wondering if there is no any motherboard that i can install which support large RAM chips.

i cannot live with 4GB..

 

[chawila]

You won't be able to get any modern motherboard into that BTX format chasis. You might be able to put C2D, depending on what the current motherboard supports. But whatever you put, it will be slow.

Thanks for the reply.

So what do you mean?. should i buy a new chassis?..

 

[SamirD]

Thanks for the reply, really appreciate.
but i am still wondering if there is no any motherboard that i can install which support large RAM chips.

i cannot live with 4GB..

No. The BTX format was only used on the lga775 as far as I know.

But I found a solution that will work--and it is cheap. Replace the 330 motherboard with a 780 motherboard. From the preliminary research I've done, it does seem like it would be a simple swap as everything would just plug into the same place as before or close by.

The 780 has 4x memory slots so you can install up to 16GB of ram, and you can use the same processor or even upgrade all the way up to the fastest lga775, the q9650.

Now, the caveats are that I don't think anyone has ever tried this, and that you will need to buy new memory as the 780 uses ddr3 versus ddr2.

Aside from that it should literally be a drop-in replacement. And then you can add your video card and be in great shape. And the bonus is that a 780 motherboard seems to go for under $25 shipped, so the upgrade should be quite cheap overall.

 

[chawila]

No. The BTX format was only used on the lga775 as far as I know.

But I found a solution that will work--and it is cheap. Replace the 330 motherboard with a 780 motherboard. From the preliminary research I've done, it does seem like it would be a simple swap as everything would just plug into the same place as before or close by.

The 780 has 4x memory slots so you can install up to 16GB of ram, and you can use the same processor or even upgrade all the way up to the fastest lga775, the q9650.

Now, the caveats are that I don't think anyone has ever tried this, and that you will need to buy new memory as the 780 uses ddr3 versus ddr2.

Aside from that it should literally be a drop-in replacement. And then you can add your video card and be in great shape. And the bonus is that a 780 motherboard seems to go for under $25 shipped, so the upgrade should be quite cheap overall.

Sounds great let me try it..

 

[SamirD]

Sounds great let me try it..

Definitely let me know how it goes as I may do the same in some of my older dual core btx systems.