![]() Maximum Upgrades on a Dimension E5.Hi All,I had to research the heck out of some topics before upgrading, and thought it would make sense to try and make a guide where people with an E5. . ![]()
Get support for your Dell product with free diagnostic tests, drivers, downloads, how-to articles, videos, FAQs and community forums. Or speak with a Dell technical. It seems that everybody wants to know the MAX upgrades that they can get out of their system. Why not? Most OEM manufacturers publish specifications with fault- tolerance built in - In other words, your system may be capable of much more than it states in the official Dell operator and service manuals. They do this in order to only suggest upgrades that will work at least 9. By doing so, it cuts down on the amount of customer support that they have to provide. This is a good thing and keeps most users from getting in over their head and also helps keep the prices of their computers reasonable. I have first- hand experience that often you can do more with your base system than factory documentation would suggest - my Inspiron 1. Dell lists and 4. GB ram in a laptop is a definite advantage with it has integrated graphics to make up for. I will be using WEI as a standard as I really hope it will become even more utilized in Windows. My whole family likes PC games and it is much easier for my wife and other family members to compare a simple WEI number than to give them a list of CPU's, RAM, GPU's, etc.. Most non- enthusiasts would assume that a game that calls for a 2. Ghz processor wouldn't run on a Turion 6. Pentium M @ 1. 6. Ghz - they are woefully unprepared to handle my son's Christmas list. WEI gives my extended family the opportunity to get my son the things that he actually wants for Xmas and birthdays - PC games. Upgrades that I have done to date: GRAPHICSInstalled PNY Nvidia 7. GS 5. 12. MB 1. 28bit GPU - this ran flawlessly and was only replaced to get Shader Model 4. SM4) and DX1. 0 support. Installed PNY Nvidia 8. GT 5. 12. MB 1. 28bit GPU - this runs great, has full DX1. SM4 support. With games that support DX1. GS. With DX9 games (which is most games), the 7. GS is actually slightly better. We like to watch a lot of movies on our PC and the 8. GT has great support for HD and all other video playback. Works well with Adobe Photoshop CS4 using the GPU to do some of the rendering. It was a good trade- off, I lost maybe 5 to 1. HD support. (I get WEI scores of 4. Aero and 5. 4 gaming with this card)Why not get the latest and greatest card? New games are starting to use DX1. I am looking forward to the better graphics and more realistic effects. If DX1. DX9 did, I am going to be very pleased. Also - I live in the peoples republic of Maryland and the power company BGE/Constallation Energy seems to control the strings of the state government. My power bill has gone from less than $1. ![]() I use approximately 2. I did then. This will be the primary PC and media center in our home and will run almost constantly. Using a better/newer GPU would likely require me to install a larger power supply to meet its power consumption demands. I would rather run a 3. Also, this is a budget- build, and I am trying to see how much bang- for the buck you can get. (My new GPU cost me less than $2. New from Newegg. com by combining a sale and a Mfgr's rebate.)MEMORYReplaced factory configuration of 2 x 5. MB DDR2 pc. 53. 00 6. GB PNY Optima DDR2 pc. Good memory, latency of 5, comes with heat shield) The bios recognizes it as 8. Windows Vista recognizes it too - the Windows Experience Index (WEI) gave me a 5. Vista gives - with 2. GB of this memory. You cannot get this score with 2. GB of 6. 67 as it measures the AMOUNT (in GB) and SPEED (in mhz) and latency (lag time - lower is better) of the RAM. (Under $3. Added 2 x 1. GB Crucial Ballistics Tracerz DDR2 pc. GB total. (This is ridiculously good memory, latency of 4 with heatshield and led lights - bought used for $2. Obviously still 5. WEI as this memory is even better than the other 2 sticks that max out on the scale. Why do I need 4. GB? Some GPU/video cards use both dedicated RAM which is built onto the card AND use shared memory as well. With Vista Basic 3. I lose about 5. 12. MB to OS addressing issues, and another 5. MB in shared video memory. By having the full 4. GB available, I actually have 2. GB available for the OS and applications to use. Even with selecting user and inputting password, it takes me under 2. I boot up. It's at least 5 seconds faster than with only 2. GB (which is really only 1. GPU/shared memory). I still get the 5. WEI score, but I think it would get a 6. Windows. 7's larger scale. Future: I am determined to try to see if it will take a 1x. GB stick of DDR2 pc. Hopefully 4x. 2GB) AMD Athlon. AMD CPU's have the memory controller onboard the CPU, not on the motherboard, there is a good chance that I can get more than the max 4. GB ram. Since 8. AM2 (the socket and chipset type for Athlon 6. I will try this soon and let people know if it works. Processor. The stock Athlon 6. CPU is installed. It only gets a 4. WEI. This PC is going to run 1.Also, my wife has no desire to fiddle with adjustments or put up with any instability issues or loud fans, etc.. Updating Remote Agent Backup Exec 2016 on this page. Just ordered a Athlon 6. It runs at 2. 8ghz instead of the 2. MB L2 cache instead of the 2x. L2 cache that the regular 5. By all accounts that I have read, this should be a faster chip 9. It should also prove to be a reliable upgrade and work well with the stock HSF (heat sink & fan) from the E5. Others have reported WEI scored in the 5. CPU. I will update this within the week. Storage. The stock 1. 60. GB 7. SATA HDD is being used and I have bought a used 8. GB Western Digital SATA drive to partition into a CS4 scratch- disk (1. GB) and Back- up disk (6. GB). I don't need any more than this space because even with taking college photography classes, my wife takes about 6. GB/year of pictures. By the time she is filling this up, I should be able to buy a used octo- core for a day or two's pay. Just the stock 1. GB drive gets a 5. WEI score. I am going to try and disable the (useless with 4. GB RAM) virtual memory/page file and see if this number improves. The WEI score is based on read/write speed - I would assume that 4. GB with no page would run faster than 2. GB with a 2. GB page file, since there is no disk read/write time. Other. Will be upgrading to Vista. CS4 has native 6. OS (supposedly). Also, newer games have 6. CPU's instead of having one core run the game and another running everything else. I look forward to hearing from others that are trying to seek out the potential of the E5. Dell may officially support. A Blinking Orange Power Light. Yesterday morning I plugged in my computer. I reached for the power button on my Dell Dimension 8. In my Dell manual, I found the section about power light signals and read: If the power light is blinking amber – The computer is receiving electrical power, but an internal power problem might exist. Ensure that the voltage selection switch is set to match the AC power at your location (if applicable). Ensure that the processor power cable is securely connected to the system board (see page 7. Well, I was sure that the voltage selection switch was in the right place. And I found it highly unlikely that the processor power cable would suddenly unseat itself. Ugh. Then I had an idea. I flipped off the surge protector and then flipped it back on. Tada! No more orange lights. Weird. The moral of the story: try the simple stuff first. Many visitors have provided additional solution ideas in the comments section below.
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