Here's mine:
This poor E520 was going to be thrown in the trash. It was my grandmothers system. It lived most of its life inside a closed in desk cabinet running warm with Windows XP and 50 icons named random things such as "New Folder (3)". It also chugged along 2 expired antivirus and god knows how much actual malware. Every time I'd go over there I would do a quick msconfig / autoruns clean up to keep it going just a little longer. Well, it did its job. She used this system for YEARS, not once reinstalling Windows XP. Earlier this year she wanted to upgrade, so this thing was retired. I offered to take it.
Here is the poor troopers original specs:
Pentium 4 2.8ghz (with HT, so that's a plus atleast)
2x 256MB DDR2-533 (512MB)
250GB HD
Floppy Drive
56K modem (she MIGHT have actually used this before she got broadband, not sure, haha)
Integrated Graphics
Dell 305W PSU
![Old_E520.jpg](http://s18.postimg.org/fbvk9kdnd/Old_E520.jpg)
Case badges tell the story of the struggle:
![IMG_2376.jpg](http://s29.postimg.org/9lwjay9qf/IMG_2376.jpg)
Thanks grandma for this junker. Let's see what we can do with it. I was somewhat excited I admit, since it DID have a PCIe 16x slot, PCIe 1x slot, and 4 x DDR2 DIMM slots. My initial impression was that it has potential to be decent. The manual states it runs an Intel 965 based chipset with a FSB of 800/1066. That's a GREAT start. That means we might be able to run Core2 ! It also states a maximum of 4GB in 4x1GB layout, but we all know how manuals can be with their somewhat outdated information, so I had hopes I could push it to 8GB, a theory reinforced by the wiki page showing 965 chipsets can run 8GB.
My Core2Duo proved a success and booted right up. But I decided to take it a bit further and throw in a Core2Quad because why not? SUCCESS! It runs great! The only problem was that it was running HOT. I had to upgrade the heatsink. This heatsink with it's heat pipe goodness is from a different Dell system and is labeled J9761:
![New_E520_4.jpg](http://s2.postimg.org/6hnmejyp5/New_E520_4.jpg)
Installed and ready to go:
![IMG_2379.jpg](http://s23.postimg.org/nf91bb8kr/IMG_2379.jpg)
And you know what? We don't really need a floppy drive right now, and the manual shows it has a "FlexBay" header on the board - ie a USB 10 pin header for card readers, so lets throw this guy in:
![New_E520_5.jpg](http://s9.postimg.org/9bqt9jr2n/New_E520_5.jpg)
The funny part about this card reader is the USB labels are SS ie "SuperSpeed" which is reserved only for USB 3.0. This is a USB 2.0 card reader with a USB 2.0 header, so it's labeled wrong, but regardless I thought that was amusing. Looking better:
![IMG_2375.jpg](http://s11.postimg.org/fneaxx9qr/IMG_2375.jpg)
Now, the GPU was an interesting problem. Since it's a BTX style motherboard, everything is flipped upside down. This system only officially supports single slot GPU's, any dual slots won't fit or would interfere with the CPU heatsink shroud, here's a good pic showing the issue:
![7288_755_SLOT.jpg](http://s24.postimg.org/ki6zc6olx/7288_755_SLOT.jpg)
But lucky me, when I bought my Radeon HD 4830 years ago, I got the MSI version with the orb style cooler. I cut the mounting bracket in half to make it "single slot".
![MSI_Unveils_Four_Radeon_HD_4830_Graphics_Cards_5.jpg](http://s4.postimg.org/53vi6vhn1/MSI_Unveils_Four_Radeon_HD_4830_Graphics_Cards_5.jpg)
I also added a nice little 500W PSU and an Intel Pro/1000 Gigabit nic. So now here we are:
Grandma's tricked out Dell E520:
Intel Core2Quad Q6600
8GB DDR2-800
1TB HD
Radeon HD 4830
Card Reader w/ 4 USB
Intel Pro/1000 Gigabit Nic
500W PSU
Windows 7
It now has no problems doing modern tasks, with a modern OS. It can play most 2012 and under games nicely and can multitask like a beast now with the quad and 8GB ram.
![New_E520_3.jpg](http://s14.postimg.org/hhv8y0ypt/New_E520_3.jpg)
Living a peaceful cool life now as a living room computer, don't mind the desk, it's temporary:
![E520_final.jpg](http://s21.postimg.org/tpc8wdn2v/E520_final.jpg)