Dell Inspiron 530 Q6600 Quad Upgrade-Video Card & RAM

Doing an upgrade on this computer that I found @ an estate sale for only $40. It was very clean & worked fine on Windows 7, but I wiped the drive & installed fresh Windows 10, works great. The vid card & extra RAM should help me to use it for some gaming.

The BSEL MOD I did is elsewhere on Youtube & other sites if you want more info. I'll answer questions if I can; this stuff is still very new to me. Still kinda amazed that you can get a 20-25% performance increase from 1 little piece of tape!

[nightstalkerrc]

G33M02 boards will support 8 gbs of RAM as well, with bios versions 1.0.12 and up. I'm running it in mine. I'm running 1.0.18

[tomz]

Okay, I think I know what might be wrong. I went back and found a difference in the memory I purchased and what I told you. This is the memory I got "A-Tech 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 1066MHz / 1067MHz DIMM PC2-8500 UDIMM Non-ECC 1.8V CL7 240-Pin Desktop Computer RAM Memory Upgrade Kit". It says CL7, which the others don't. Also, in the pictures on Amazon, they all have 1.8V printed on the memory. Mine doesn't. But it is DDR2. And on the actual packaging it says 1066Mhz not 1066/1067Mhz like the listing.

The same RAM only being sold as one stick also says "A-Tech 2GB RAM Replacement for CT2CP25664AA1067 | DDR2 1066MHz PC2-8500 CL7 UDIMM 1.8V Non-ECC DIMM 240-Pin Desktop Memory Module" and "Single 2 GB Module; DDR2 DIMM 240-Pin; Speeds up to 1066/1067-MHz, PC3-8500/PC3-8500. NON-ECC Unbuffered (UDIMM); JEDEC DDR2 standard 1.8V"


Then there's another stick for only $8.99 that says "A-Tech 2GB RAM Replacement for Crucial CT25664AA1067 | DDR2 1066MHz PC2-8500 UDIMM Non-ECC 240-Pin DIMM Memory Module" No "CP" is behind "CT2" and before "256664.."

Funny, the 1066Mhz is $8.99 and the 1066Mhz/1067Mhz is $29.98. If I paid $120, which I did, then I must've gotten the 1066Mhz/1067Mhz even though the packaging only says 1066Mhz on it. If I re-buy it I'll get four $8.99's then which will be $36.

Also, Amazon was only the middleman. A-Tech sold this memory I bought and also shipped from them.

Which one should I be getting??

[tomz]

So I wonder if the fans revving up when I'd do a restart had to do with the old PSU that blew up. Maybe the computer was trying to tell me something. I hit restart this morning and they didn't rev up. They sometimes would rev up and sometimes wouldn't though. We'll see.

I decided to start a new thread because scrolling through 200 responses was enough. And I think Google email was only listing some of the emails from these responses and we were missing some of reponses which was causing confusion. This should make things easier. I'm typing on the Inspiron right now. After I get ready for the day I'll give it a shot with the memory.

[saarathicrafter]

Hey sir, can i use geforce gt 1030 for foxconn

[speedy]

I am very interested in the tape mod you done to this, I have a DG33MO3 that I am about to put a Q6600 quad core into.. I have 7Gb ram with win 10 but only intel duo 1.8Ghz atm

[tomz]

So after many attempts to try and get the 1066MHz memory to work I've decided it's either all bad or some of it is bad. I tried many times with a 4 sticks of RAM but always got a 4 beep RAM read/write error. And after many attempts decided to divide the RAM into 2 sets to see if 1 stick may be bad. One set of the A-Tech RAM has stickers on both sides. The other just on one side. So the set with stickers on both sides gives a 4 beep error code and the set with stickers on one side gives a 1 beep error code which is the CMOS/motherboard failure. I'd think the 4 beep RAM read/write error code is better. The RAM creating 1 beep must be causing a feedback or crossing of the wires to the motherboard or something.

I did all of this with long pauses after turning off the computer. Not like before only giving a few seconds. I also was shifting around the memory and reseating them constantly.

So I finally gave up and put in the 800Mhz memory that was in the computer before. Now I was fearful of a reocurrance of the white smoke from before so I turned on the Power Supply Unit. Kept my finger on the PSU switch and pressed the computer power button. It started and ran fine. whew!

So now you may say "Well there's the problem". I got this memory from Amazon. The A-Tech 800Mhz memory I got for this computer and my mom's computer I also got from Amazon and it's working fine. I also got the 32GB's of memory for my XPS 8300 from Amazon. But, I'm betting they all did not come from the same supplier.

So this memory must've come from somewhere else than the other memory. And I find it odd one set had stickers on both sides and one set didn't.

Where did you get your memory from? Direct from A-Tech?? I'll buy another set from somewhere else. I'll check the order history from Amazon and see if it says where they got it from. I might try again with another source through Amazon, especially if it's from the same source as the 800Mhz and memory I got for my XPS 8300.

But I'm very glad that my Inspiron is still working just fine with the new PSU.

[j.lietka]

There can be only one! Where did you see that the m/b or case can support a quad core? Thanks does the tape trick work on an AMD board? Got a hold of a 531 (tossed out but works) featuring a Sempron LE 1250 2.2Ghz. can it be upgraded to a dual (or quad if m/b allows) core Athlon? Thanks also subbed! 🤓

[fdfddfdfdfds]

Sorry mate but the ram prices aren’t due to crypto miners but yet down to the manufacturers all agreeing to raise the price of ram. But DDR2 will also not be effected by anything due to the age of them. However the video was very good I learnt a lot, keep up the good Work.

[Creaper]

Hey, nice video, and build; GT 1030 is an amazing low-mid range card for gaming. Just wanted to ask a question. I'm having issues here with the RAM. I've installed 8gbs ddr2 800mhz into the DG33M03 motherboard, but in the OS it only shows up as 3.2gbs. I find it weird that all 8gbs shows up in the BIOS, but not the OS. The OS is 64-bit too... Any help would be appreciated! Thanks.

[unknownwolf]

I have same one but Ram Quit working on it not sure why

[oneplustwo]

Hey pls help i need to fix a RX 580 8Gb in my inspiron 530...i have bought the 500W power supply but not sure if the board would be compatible with the card??pls help

[tomz]

So my "new" Dell Inspiron 530 I got a month ago has a solid amber light on the power button. Surprisingly when I pressed the amber button it went blue and it DID POST a couple times and I checked out the BIOS. I put a solid state drive in it and powered it on but it won't POST now. I disconnected the SSD but it still won't POST. It now still has the solid amber light but when I press the power button it goes blue like before but it will not beep. The screen doesn't power on now either. I press the power button again and it turns off. I don't have to hold it in to turn it off. I guess I'll get a new Power Suppy Unit but do you know if it might be something else? I'd hate to get the new PSU and it still does this. I DID replace the CMOS battery as I was told the old one was bad and the guy I bought it from replaced it with another old battery and he wasn't sure about it. So I put in a new one. But my power button isn't flashing orange which I think means its the CMOS. It's light is solid amber. So solid orange means a power supply problem, I've read. Could it be something other than the PSU?? I will point out that there is two different kinds of memory in the computer, all four are 2 GB's I think, but with the amber light meaning a power problem could it be the memory?

I think I'm going to unplug all none essential components and see if it POST's. Then maybe reset the BIOS as the guy I bought it from said when he turned off the power the BIOS was resetting. This computer doesn't work with 8 GB's of RAM without the 1.0.18 BIOS from what I've read but yet it said it has 8 GB's of RAM and the 1.0.15 BIOS. I never actually saw that it's 8GB's though. Just what I was told. But yet it DID POST a couple times with 1.0.15 BIOS. Could the BIOS revert to the 1.0.15 after no power? Or is that impossible? Wish I had gotten look at the memory in the setup screen. I'm going to remove all the memory and see if it POST's a no memory beeping. First I have to remove the Graphics card because I can't remove the first DIMM without the GPU out of the way. I'll also try plugging my 750 watt PSU from my XPS 8300 into the Inspiron's motherboard and see if that works. Thanks for any input! You've been a big help! - Tom.

[tomz]

So will 1066MHz RAM actually run at 1066MHz or will it be knocked down to 800MHz in the BIOS? I have a Dell XPS 8300 with 1600MHz but will only run at 1333MHz because the BIOS won't allow higher than 1333MHz. So it will support it but it doesn't run at that frequency.

My mother has a Dell Inspiron 530 with the E2200 CPU on the G33M02 motherboard. I wanted to upgrade her computer to run 1080p 60FPS video. So I ended up buying another Inspiron 530 online so I could work on it while not interfering with hers while she's using it. Plus, if I ran into a problem on the "new" Inspiron then it would be no big deal. I thought the only difference between being able to run a Quad CPU on this computer was the G33M03 or the G33M02 boards. I could never find what the difference between DG33M03 and G33M03 was. I did find out that the Q9550S and Q9505S processors will work on the G33M02 board because "S" processors use less power.

So I've purchased a Q9650 CPU, 8GBs of RAM, a Blu ray drive, SSD drive, GTX 1050TI card, still waiting on the thermal paste. I'd like to have it running by this weekend for Christmas.

This computer came with 8 GB's of mismatched small RAM and normal sized RAM. I guess that would be SODIMM for the small RAM. It came with an Inland 600W PSU. And It came with a Q9400 CPU, which I was going to keep, but after having purchased the GTX 1050TI months earlier I was fearful that the Q9400 might not keep up. So I got the Q9650. I don't know how that will work out either. I didn't even realize how her computer was performing until I looked at video playing with the Task Manager running and it said 100% CPU and 6% GPU (GTX 750TI) so her GPU is more than adequate. I've also read that Task Manager is not good for measuring GPU performance. I looked at video on my XPS 8300 and compared performance with the Task Manager and the Xbox Game Bar and the GPU percentage was double what Task Manager was saying.

Why am I doing all this? My mom likes her computer. So I thought I'd make it better. I want her to be able to have 1080p 60 FPS video.

But so anyway, will 1066MHz RAM be able to run at 1066MHz on the Inspiron? With the computer only being able to support 8GB's of RAM, the more speed the better!

[abhijeetkalkhair]

I want to upgrade my dell Inspiron 530 as well can you tell me which graphic card you used

[playboyjamz]

I have the G33MO2 what should I do to it any tips

[zinput]

I got a GTX 1050 that I want to put in this computer. The farthest I got was a perpetual Windows 10 login screen that only filled half the screen. Most of the time it never wanted to display anything.

[keepphobia]

Can anyone recommend a low profile video card for my 530s? I hate its internal graphics

[redhotforjesus]

I am trying to revive an old inspirion 530 can I call you sometime. Or you can call.me?