[[email protected]]

I have recently come into a possession of a T3500 Precision workstation. Quad Core 2.93 Ghz. 6x1GB DDR3 Dimms.

I know a little (enough to be dangerous) but I am looking to make the most of this with very little investment. I know that this isn't cutting edge stuff here but to me it seems pretty solid.

I put win10 enterprise on it even though it isn't officially supported. It seems to work fine so does the NIVIA FX580 card.

Ideally i would use this as a primary workstation for the next 2 years. Is it worth upgrading memory? It currently has 6 DDR3 DIMMS with 1GB in each slot which is kind of annoying.

I guess I should throw this out there ... I dont do gaming. However, when I bring work home it often is with a lot of data.

I am, however, looking forward to having multiple monitors. I know I can have 2 with the FX580 and I have another card laying around - i have written down G-Force G315. So could I set up another monitor with that? I have the monitors. (I don't know, I just acquire stuff)

I also have the bad habit of having 10-15 browser processes going at the same time along with maybe a dozen office docs / PDFs open. Needless to say that the core duo with 3GB that I have been using with the one monitor off of the motherboard sometimes has issues.

Anyways - any recommendations on how to make the best out of this, let me know. On the bright side, it was free so I am playing with house money here.

[Advertisements]

 ksandman11

Yes, worth doing it little work on what is a solid system.

I would not have upgraded to W10, you may not be running on the optimal drivers and will have lost the Dell software/utilities, and I think, the recovery partition. 

There is some useful info and links in this post, > http://en.community....3514/t/19406351

I would upgrade to 12GB RAM, 6 x 2GB kit, use the Crucial scanner, > http://www.crucial.c...n/systemscanner.

 

GPU, yes, only two monitors active at any time.   best if both monitors have the same native resolution.  cabling will depend on the monitor/s input.

Two DisplayPort and one Dual-Link DVI-I:
Only two of the three connectors are active at a time
2560 x 1600 maximum digital resolution for DisplayPort and Dual-Link DVI-I connectors
DVI-I with DVI-to-VGA monitor adapter allows attachment of a VGA analog to DVI-I monitor port
2048 x 1536 maximum analog resolution
DisplayPort with DisplayPort monitor cables:
DVI-D digital and VGA analog monitors attach via a DisplayPort Monitor cable:
DisplayPort to Single-Link DVI-I Monitor Cable allows attachment of a DVI-D digital monitor to DisplayPort
DisplayPort to VGA Analog Monitor Cable allows attachment of a VGA analog to DisplayPort
1920 x0 1200 maximum resolution.

 

The  G315 is an OEM product, > http://www.nvidia.co...rce_315_uk.html  No problem with power draw at 35W but I don't think you will have much luck running it due to driver limitations.   If it does not work, consider selling the FX 580, which is a pro card geared towards Photo/CAD work, As you are not going to game, get a GTX 760/750ti/950, giving you all the options for monitor display.  

[iammykyl]

 ksandman11

Yes, worth doing it little work on what is a solid system.

I would not have upgraded to W10, you may not be running on the optimal drivers and will have lost the Dell software/utilities, and I think, the recovery partition. 

There is some useful info and links in this post, > http://en.community....3514/t/19406351

I would upgrade to 12GB RAM, 6 x 2GB kit, use the Crucial scanner, > http://www.crucial.c...n/systemscanner.

 

GPU, yes, only two monitors active at any time.   best if both monitors have the same native resolution.  cabling will depend on the monitor/s input.

Two DisplayPort and one Dual-Link DVI-I:
Only two of the three connectors are active at a time
2560 x 1600 maximum digital resolution for DisplayPort and Dual-Link DVI-I connectors
DVI-I with DVI-to-VGA monitor adapter allows attachment of a VGA analog to DVI-I monitor port
2048 x 1536 maximum analog resolution
DisplayPort with DisplayPort monitor cables:
DVI-D digital and VGA analog monitors attach via a DisplayPort Monitor cable:
DisplayPort to Single-Link DVI-I Monitor Cable allows attachment of a DVI-D digital monitor to DisplayPort
DisplayPort to VGA Analog Monitor Cable allows attachment of a VGA analog to DisplayPort
1920 x0 1200 maximum resolution.

 

The  G315 is an OEM product, > http://www.nvidia.co...rce_315_uk.html  No problem with power draw at 35W but I don't think you will have much luck running it due to driver limitations.   If it does not work, consider selling the FX 580, which is a pro card geared towards Photo/CAD work, As you are not going to game, get a GTX 760/750ti/950, giving you all the options for monitor display.  

[iammykyl]

Gday ksandman11

Not heard back from you, did you miss my reply?   Did you perform the upgrade?   How did it go?   An update would be appreciated.

 

Thanks.