Dell EPP Inspiron 530 Desktop: Core 2 Quad 2.4 GHz, 1GB DDR2, 250GB HDD, DVDRW, 24" Widescreen E248WFP Monitor, Vista Home Basic $634 Or $609

[imcheapo]

Start here:

Request 10% coupon from here Request Dell EPP Coupons

If your email doesn't qualify, write to Dell_Special_Programs@dell.com requesting the coupon (like I did, took a day to get it). ANYBODY CAN GET THE COUPON, JUST MAKE UP A COMPANY OR GIVE YOUR UNIVERSITY NAME AS THE COMPANY.

After you got the 10% coupon:

• Go here: The Dell Online Store: Build Your System
  (if link doesn't work just go through epp website, choose k12 if you don't have an id, and choose desktop, inspiron 530 and then the one configured at 489)
• choose Vista Basic, downgrade the keyboard (-$10), remove the memory card reader (-$20) and add the 24" LCD (+$440)...you end up at $1019 before discounts.
• Apply $300 off $999 coupon 55CCDLXT1?JBTX at checkout
• Apply 10% OFF EPP coupon (for Inspiron Desktops) you requested before
• Receive 2% EPP member discount
• Use DPA for additional 4% discount (do the DPA TRICK, choose first to pay by credit card then you should see an offer to save 4% when paying by DPA.

The specs are

Dell Inspiron 530
PROCESSOR Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q6600 (8MB L2 cache,2.4GHz,1066FSB) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Home Basic - English
MONITOR 24 inch E248WFP Entry Widescreen Digital Flat Panel Monitor
MEMORY 1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz- 2DIMMs
HARD DRIVE 250GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™
OPTICAL DRIVE 16X DVD+/-RW Drive
VIDEO CARD Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3100
SOUND Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio
KEYBOARD & MOUSE Dell USB Keyboard and Dell Optical USB Mouse
FLOPPY & MEDIA READER No Floppy Drive Included
MODEM & WIRELESS 56K PCI Data Fax Modem


Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q6600 (8MB L2 cache,2.4GHz,1066FSB), Genuine Windows Vista® Home Basic - English $1,019.00

Save $300 on select Inspiron Desktop purchases $999 or more! -$300.00

10% off Select Inspiron Desktop systems priced $649 and above! -$71.90


Sub Total $647.10

Additional Discounts and Coupons
Receive 2% off systems priced less than $800 with 1/2yr At-Home service! - $12.42
Save 4% when you buy online and pay with Dell Preferred Account! - $25.88

Free Ground Shipping on Select Inspiron Desktops!

Total (before tax) $608.80 w/ free shipping!

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TO RUN YOUR QUAD CORE AT 3.0 GHZ:

Q6600 can be modded to run at 3 ghz (from default 2.4 ghz)
I have confirmed that doing the BSEL mod works, the bios and windows don't show the correct speed but cpu-z does.
Here is a link for how to do the mod 1333 FSB Mod, Confirmed To Be Working By Me. - XtremeSystems Forums so far the processor seems completely stable with the Dell PSU and with the default voltage

TIP FOR THE BSEL MOD TO MAKE IT EASIER:

The diagram is used for illustration purposes only. All I did was cut 3 tiny strips of electrical tape and taped it over the area that is marked in red. Make sure when you cut that it does not cover the pin in the middle of it that isn't marked in red or your CPU might be not detected. The diagram marks the RED in half a box shape but it's much harder when you got big fingers so I taped it down with more of V shape. If there will be heavy inquiries about this, I will take out my CPU and snap a shot of how I did it. Otherwise, I rather not mess around with it.

I can verify this statement, I've done it myself and worked like a charm. IN SHORT, THE BSEL MOD CAN BE DONE BY JUST TAPING OVER WITH ELECTRICAL TAPE INSTEAD OF TRACING WITH CIRCUIT INK.

ALL YOU NEED IS SOME ELECTRIC TAPE, GET TO THE PROCESOR, TAPE OVER THE 2 STRIPES THE RED LINE SHOWN IN THE DIAGRAM AND REASSEMBLE EVERYTHING. VOILA, YOU GOT YOURSELF A 3GHZ QUAD CORE PROCESSOR!! It takes max 10 min!!

BSEL DIAGRAM:

http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/f...boxador/OC.jpg

Sandra sisoft reports 3ghz as the frequency and also cpu-z 1330 as the front side bus speed. I've run a few benchmarks with Sandra Sisoft and I'm getting the same scores as the 3.0 ghz Quad core (don't remember model), around 15% to 20% higher than the reference Q6600 2.4 ghz processor.

This mod is just awesome, it took me around 15 min, with 5 of those min spent in reopening the case since I forgot to hook the cpu fan back in.

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RAID 0 Bios Mod:

If you want to run the Inspiron 530 in a Raid 0 stripe array now you can!! (normally Dell only gives the Raid 1 option, there's no option for Raid 0 on stock firmware). I have personally done this with my previous Inspiron 530 purchase, it involves a simple firmware update.

Go here for instructions:
Raid 0, 1, 5 and 0+1 support for Dell Vostro 200 / 400 and Inspiron 530 / 530s machines! (Finally)