fastest cpu upgrade for Dell Optiplex 320?

Thanks for the update info on your upgrade.  Was wondering if you also added a video card so that the system memory doesn't take a hit because of the onboard video?  I've done the Ram upgrade to 2MB, added a 6000 Series ATI Video Card, 430 Watt Power Supply and a SATA DVD burner and am pretty happy with the Optiplex 320.  Only thng left to do is upgrade the CPU to the E4700.  I had tried CPU upgrade with either a E6000 or E5000 series CPU (can't remember which) and that was no successful.

Yeah...In my previous post I had outlined my configuration...I put a Nvidia G310 video card that I had laying around

that was out of my I7 system (I upgraded the card in that)...The Nvidia G310 card is a perfect fit for the system

as it is a low power 512MB card that requires only a 300 Watt P.S. and it's happy running on the stock 305 Watt

power supply that come in the Optiplex 320 MT...My system came with a DVDRW Sata drive already and have

Nero 10 working fine with that...The system is very fast (Using WinXpPro 32bit)...Faster than my I7 running Win7Pro 32bit...

Yeah I confirm that either a E4600 and a E4700 both work fine and gave me a nice boost in performance...The E4600 I had overclocked

to 2.7Ghz (from 2.4Ghz)...The E4700 I have it overclocked at 3.0Ghz  (from 2.6Ghz) (Probably successful because of the Corsair XMS 2 memory I got with

the E4700 chip)..Everything works great and is very stable and temps are good (Ran a 20 minute stress test with Orthos)...The memory

is at 2GB because of the restriction of this motherboard to either use an external video card OR 4GB memory but not both...

Interestingly on your OC CPU. Can you tell me how can  overclock the cpu on the dell optiplex 320?

Oops...Got my gigas and megas mixed up...I meant to say don't go higher than a 300 to 400 Mhz (not Ghz) increase in your CPU speed...

Yes...You have to use an overclocking software utility since there is no overclocking capability in the Optiplex 320 BIOS...

I am using Clockgen.exe (Version 1.0.5.3)...You can download it here ..

http://www.filecluster.com/System-Utilities/Benchmark-Diagnostics/Download-ClockGen.html  (Make sure to scan it for virii)...

There is a video on how to use Clockgen  here  ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yXW4pqLE70

You will need to select the PLL for the Optiplex 320...I'll save you the trouble of selecting each to see which works...The PLL

to select in Clockgen is ICS 952505 for the Optiplex 320...This will identify the motherboard speeds correctly...Then you adjust the CPU speed

up slowly and apply it....Don't go higher than 300 to 400 Ghz...But go up to that by applying it 100Ghz at a time...Once

you get up to where you are going and have determined it doesn't lock up your PC you can select to make it this all the time

on boot...Be careful though that you don't set it too high as what works once booted may not work on boot...

I can confirm that I successfully overclocked an E4600 to 2.7Ghz...And my current E4700 to 3.0Ghz but that is using high quality

Corsair XMS 2 memory (2GB total)...Anyway download and virus scan it...install it...Watch the video and select the PLL I gave you

and be careful with the overclocking that you don't over do it and cause damage to your PC. Regards.

That's wonderful. Thank you so much. I will try it on my E4300.And 100mbz once at a time to see how fat it can go.

Thanks again!!!!!

thank you very much for your sharing. I tried the PLL you posted. But it didn't work or maybe didn't match my computer. So I found  ICS 951416 for instead, from this website: www.overclockers.com/.../showthread.php

And the PLL works. My Optiplex 320 has E4300 CPU, I can now overclock it from 1.8G to 2.1G, in the range 300-400Mhz that you suggests. I have two 1GB RAM. One is samsung and the other is Kingston. And I have a G210 graph card and 1 Ethernet card after the card on the motherboard stopped working.

Glad you got it working...Yeah your motherboard must be different than mine...

There were a couple of different motherboards used in the Optiplex 320 apparently...

Some will work with 4GB memory (with no external video card) and some won't no matter what...

So.....

I'm probably one of the last people in the world still running this old computer...

It's actually my wife's now...We currently have it upgraded with a Samsung Evo 850 120GB SSD...

We are using the onboard video with the old driver running under Windows 10 (Have to load

old DirectX)...This is so we can run 4GB of RAM...This board will not run more than 2GB

if an external video card is used. For the CPU I have found the highest processor so far is an

Intel X6800 Core2Exreme (2.93Ghz) that will run properly. (Very stable).

I just tried a Core2Quad Q6700 but it would not even POST...

Just thought I'd post this just in case anybody is still running this old PC...

In conclusion...For Windows 10 to optimize...

1. Use an SSD

2. Use the onboard video so you can use more than 2GB of RAM. (1440x900)

3. Two 2GB of appropriate RAM for a total of 4GB.

4. Intel X6800 Core2Extreme (2.93Ghz) (Available on Ebay from China)...

Too bad the Core2Quad would not work...Oh well...My wife's happy with it...

Actually 3 gig works but not 4.  4 gigs will not post. 

I ordered two sticks of the same RAM 2GB each...It posts just

fine...The system reports 3.5GB of ram and 3.2GB usable. But this is only possible if you are using

the onboard video. If you mean you can post with 3GB of Ram AND an external video card I did try that but the 1GB of RAM was slightly different and it didn't post. But once I had the two exact same sticks of 2GB RAM it posted fine and the system sees 3.5GB (Presumably the missing RAM is eaten by the system to suppport video, etc.