Upgrade a Pentium Dual Core e5400

[Twisted1903]

Hi People,
I got a Pentium Dual Core e5400,2.70, the socket 775 which doesn’t support 64bit OS. I was wondering how best this PC can get with every possible upgrades. And would it really be worth of investing?

Thanks in advance

 

[DonkeyOatie]

For what purpose? If modern gaming, it's not going to do very well.

 

[Twisted1903]

For what purpose? If modern gaming, it's not going to do very well.

Thank you for your prompt reply. Mostly for the softwares like Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, After Effects. For now, it handles to some extent with 4gb of RAM. But I think 8gb would help me much better. To upgrade RAM, I need to have 64bits which is not supported by my CPU. So I am guessing, I need to upgrade the CPU first but not sure which would be suitable and if it would be a good idea.

 

[bambiboom]

Hi People,
I got a Pentium Dual Core e5400,2.70, the socket 775 which doesn’t support 64bit OS. I was wondering how best this PC can get with every possible upgrades. And would it really be worth of investing?

Thanks in advance

Twisted1903,

On Passmark Performance Test, the highest CPU score for the E5400 is 2908. In that series the fastest is the E5800 3.2Ghz which makes a top score of 2933 (on Gigabyte G4MT-D3), so that is not worthwhile. Socket 775 45nm is rich ground for some very good processors, but is the motherboard is 800 MHz FSB, you're quite limited as nothing higher than DDR2-400 RAM will have any benefit. That series is also not hyperthreading nor do they have a turbo boost speed.

That said, I would first analyze your performance needs and compare that with the possibilities relative to your budget.

The E5400 seem to have been common in laptops- that sell for about $40-450. My idea is to take the value of your current system plus the upgrade budget and look at the possibilities. If the upgrade budget can be $150 and the current system is worth $50, then the potential is far, far higher by selling the current system and buying a more modern system- at least two generations newer- and upgrading it. Personally, I would not put more money in the current system when for a similar effort and cost, the benefit can be much better.

For example with a total of about $200:

Dell Precision T3500 - Intel Xeon E5520 @ 2.27GHz - 4GB RAM - 250GB HDD sold for $36 + $19.50 shipping

ADD:

Xeon W3580 4-core @ 3.33 /3.6GHz (Passmark average score 7083) - about $50
RAM to have 12GB - about $30
Used GTX 750 Ti - about $60
SSD 120-128GB- about $60

System: $36
Shipping: 20
Parts: $200
____________
TOTAL = about $256 - $50 (value of original system) = $206.

As Dell Precisions were designed for it, the T3500 can be an excellent system for visualization- 2D and 3D CAD, graphic design, and even moderate video editing.

Two LGA1366 systems I upgraded:

Purchased for $53 + $24 shipping:

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]

CPU: $60
RAM: 40
GPU and disks left over from other system

Result:

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]

Purchased for $171 + $22 shipping:

Dell Precision T5500 (2011) (Original): Xeon E5620 quad core @ 2.4 / 2.6 GHz > 6GB DDR3 ECC Reg 1333 > Quadro FX 580 (512MB) > Dell PERC 6/i SAS /SATA controller > Seagate Cheetah 15K 146GB and 300GB > Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
[ Passmark system rating = 1479 / CPU = 4067 / 2D= 520 / 3D= 311 / Mem= 1473 / Disk= 1208]

CPU's: $230 + $170
2nd CPU /memory /fan riser: $75
RAM: $$80
Quadro K2200, Samsung 840 and WD RE4 HD left over from another upgrade Values about $320, $50, $40
PERC H310 RAID controller $60

Result:

Dell Precision T5500 (2011) (Revised) > 2X Xeon X5680 (6-core @ 3.33 / 3.6GHz), 48GB DDR3 1333 ECC Reg. > Quadro K2200 (4GB ) > PERC H310 / Samsung 840 250GB / WD RE4 Enterprise 1TB > M-Audio 192 sound card > Logitech z313 > 875W PSU > Windows 7 Professional 64> HP 2711x (27", 1920 X 1080)
[ Passmark system rating = 3844 > CPU = 15047 / 2D= 662 / 3D= 3550 / Mem= 1785 / Disk= 2649] (12.30.15)

And that would be my approach, to work backwards from a total cost and look at used LGA1366 systems- especially workstations that are built for reliability, have larger power supplies, can more or less have modern performance levels for quite low costs and can benefit from further upgrades.

The future potential is very good. Add an SSD, the Precision T3500 can use a Xeon W3690 6-core @ 3.47 /3.73GHz, and adding a PERC H310 as I did to a Precision T5500 can change the disk system to 6GB/s. have up to 24GB RAM, and two GPU's of up to 150W each. The 525W power supply could run a Quadro M4000 (8GB) or a GTX 1070. At my local particle research facility, they use T3500''s with Quadro K6000's- $4,000- to run Siemens NX and model ultra-precise (+- .0001mm_ linear accelerator modules!

Cost / Performance , Cost / Performance , Cost / Performance !

If you have about $600 there is another world of potential- Xeon E5.

Cheers,

BambiBoom