Will an Intel Q9550 work in an XPS 410?

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nalzay

Hey,
I consider myself moderately tech savvy, but I don't know all that much about processors so excuse me if this is a noobish question. I got an XPS 410 just about 2 years ago right before going to college.

Also, since I'm new, it isnt letting me post links, and when I just post the URLs and say remove link, it's still blocking me from posting it, so sorry no direct links. I'll try to suffice

It has an Intel Core 2 Q6600 CPU
Nvidia 8600 GTS 256MB
4 GBs of DDR Ram

So I'm wanting to upgrade the CPU and Video Card.
CPU:
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 Yorkfield 2.83GHz
(sorry no links allowed for Newbs like me :p)

Video Card:
EVGA GeForce GTX 275 FTW Edition 896MB
(Not really relevant to the problem. I'm just providing it so you guys don't think I'm just upgrading the CPU and leaving the crappy vid card. I know it'll work... and also for the super observant among you, I know I have to buy a new PSU because of the 410's stock 375 watt PSU :p)


It also might be worth noting that since buying it, I've downgraded from Vista that came with it to XP Pro (both 32 bit)


So I was looking around and saw that the socket is the right one, but that sometimes the chipsets aren't compatible. Here are the details I could find on my MotherBoard

Manufacturer: Dell
Model: 0CT017
Chipset:Intel(R) G965 Express Chipset (Though on CPU-Z it also says P965, not sure if that matters)
Socket: LGA 775

Documentation(again, sorry, not allowed to link, so exuse the ghettoness):

Google "XPS 410 Documentation" >English>Service Manual>Specifications

Google "Intel desktop chipsets comparison chart" >Scroll to P965 or G965 (they're the same as far as I can tell)


So at first glance, it would look like the Processor I want wouldn't work, but according to the documentation, the one I have right now wouldn't work either :p
So I assume the documentation is just outdated. I saw somebody (I believe on this forum) in a post from about a year ago who was actually trying to upgrade to the processor I have right now. Apparently Dell just updated the BIOS so it would work with them.

So now, contrary to the documentation, the chipset supports Quad Core Processing, but would it support the newer quad core processors?

Hope that's enough background on the situation. Sorry if this post is a little rambling. I've been trying to figure this out for hours and my brain's a little fried :p.
 
Well I'm a 3D animation student, and I also like to play games on this. I'm also minoring in technical direction so I'll be getting in to advanced rendering and some dynamics simulation. So faster rendering and simulation is always a plus.
 
Even though the Dell WG855 motherboard is socket compatible with the Q9550 and will support multiple types of processors that leaves the problem of the 965 chipset which is not compatible. Check this page at the bottom http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=33924 As far as I can tell you cannot overclock that motherboard (I may be wrong). There is a mod you can do into tricking the CPU onto a higher "default" speed. It is called a BSEL Mod
 
Darn, I guess I'll just upgrade the Video Card and possibly in about a year, just start from scratch. It's not that my computer's slow for my needs, just not quite up to snuff. F'in dell. Thanks for the help. I'll just try to get by with overclocking or something.

Also, to avoid making another thread, I have another issue that I can't really solve.

When I formatted and put XP on it, one of my sticks of ram isn't showing up in windows. As I mentioned before, my computer has 4 gigs. Before, one of the gigs was dedicated to the video card, which I didn't mind, cause 256 was a little sparse. But after formatting my computer, in DXDiag and System in Control panel, it now just shows as 256 VRAM and 3 gigs of regular RAM. However, in BIOS and CPU-Z it shows all 4. I'd actually prefer to put the gig back on the video card for now if at all possible, but I wouldn't mind putting it back to normal, just as long as it's getting used. Any Ideas?
 
nalzay said:
When I formatted and put XP on it, one of my sticks of ram isn't showing up in windows. As I mentioned before, my computer has 4 gigs. Before, one of the gigs was dedicated to the video card, which I didn't mind, cause 256 was a little sparse. But after formatting my computer, in DXDiag and System in Control panel, it now just shows as 256 VRAM and 3 gigs of regular RAM. However, in BIOS and CPU-Z it shows all 4. I'd actually prefer to put the gig back on the video card for now if at all possible, but I wouldn't mind putting it back to normal, just as long as it's getting used. Any Ideas?
Click to expand...

The video RAM setting is usually in the BIOS. 32 bit windows (XP) will only address 4GB total including video RAM, regular RAM and some other miscellaneous RAM. When you say it just shows 3 gigs of regular RAM what is the exact amount in bytes. It could be over 3GB. My system has 4GB total and 256MB for video. In task manager under the performance tab I show 3659884 as available RAM (Physical Memory). That is 3.5GB (approx).
 
For me it shows
3143528 total
2418304 available
So for available it shows me as a little less than 2.5
I can't really do that much in BIOS other than look at settings cause dell's got it locked down tight
 
You will not see any major performance increase from going to the Q9550, since it only gives you a ~400MHz frequency increase, which is marginal. The main difference would be in power consumption and heat output, which is a moot point since you cannot overclock.

IMO, if you really need the extra power, get a Core i7 machine. You will get a dramatic boost in rendering speed. They are expensive though, but if you can use the extra processing power, I would get one.

The best option IMO, would be to go for a workstation card like the FireGL V7700. It's good enough for games, and fantastic for rendering as well. You would likely pay more than you would for a Q9550, but it would be cheaper than paying for a new i7-based system. Be warned that the V7700 will provide decent framerates, but will not be able to keep up with powerful gaming cards like the GTX 275\HD 4890, since drivers are written very differently for both. Gaming card drivers are written with maximum rendering speed in mind, while workstation card drivers are written with maximum rendering precision in mind; both of these qualities are mutually exclusive, unless you are willing to shell out $3000+ on a ultra-high-end workstation card like the Quadro FX5800.
 
If you decide to upgrade just the video card then you'll want to be very careful; that Dell only has a 375 Watt power supply. Most decent video cards want at least 450 watts these days.
 
No, it will not work without major adjustments... and if it did work, you would not detect a noticable difference.
The video card will make a lot of improvement.

It would be good to remove the CPU cooler, and clean the processor before applying a VERY thin layer of thermal past...

The best improvement you can make is to change the memory to 4 GB of high quality (not value RAM, not Hynix) DDR2 PC2-6400 memory... all identical... one module for each slot... at about $18-$20 per slot.

You will see and feel a change from that upgrade more than any other except the video graphics...

But if you upgrade the video graphics, you should also upgrade the power supply to 550 or 600 Watts of a high quality power supply such as Seasonic, FPS, OCZ, Corsair, Sparkle or other top line of power supply... DO NOT SCRIMP on the power supply.
 
The Intel 965 chipset, at least to the best of my knowledge, cannot be made compatible with any 45nm process CPUs. In fact, due to the 1066Mhz FSB limitation, it won't run any 6x50 series C2D processors either
 
captaincranky said:
The Intel 965 chipset, at least to the best of my knowledge, cannot be made compatible with any 45nm process CPUs. In fact, due to the 1066Mhz FSB limitation, it won't run any 6x50 series C2D processors either
Click to expand...
A gigabyte ga-965p-ds4 rev 3.3 does support 42nm core 2, at least in the latest rev 3.3 board. Does this have a new P965 Express chipset version, or is it just because board and chipset are officially tested and guaranteed 1333 mhz FSB support by gibabyte? Does this mean a Q9550 would run fine in a rev 1.0 motherboard if it was stable at 1333 mhz fsb?

check out gigabyte ga-965p-ds4 at gigabyte website (google gigabyte ga-965p-ds4 and follow one of the first links)
 
DarkUltra said:
A gigabyte ga-965p-ds4 rev 3.3 does support 42nm core 2, at least in the latest rev 3.3 board. Does this have a new P965 Express chipset version, or is it just because board and chipset are officially tested and guaranteed 1333 mhz FSB support by gibabyte? Does this mean a Q9550 would run fine in a rev 1.0 motherboard if it was stable at 1333 mhz fsb?

check out gigabyte ga-965p-ds4 at gigabyte website (google gigabyte ga-965p-ds4 and follow one of the first links)
Click to expand...

I haven't researched your links yet,but I will.

At the moment I can only offer this a parallel speculation. In the Intel 945 chipsets, as the revisions progressed, the boards were able to handle newer CPUs. But, the early versions were only able to handle the P4, and a few of the Pentium D models. This at least with respect to the Foxconn models I am familiar with. The older boards could not be made compatible with C2D, even though the FSB WAS 1066Mhz. The BIOS updates weren't available, and as a guess, the base hardware may have been different.
 
The Wolfdale 45nm chips with 1066 and 800Mhz FSB is rated as N/A so maybe it isn't just FSB limit. I guess I'll go for a Q6700 instead...
 
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