Dell Dimension E510 Teardown and Restoration

[@phendee1]

My 99 year old Mom had the E521. Never turned it on. A little dust. But not bad. Upgraded to 4 Gig of RAM, New video board, New WiFi board, Added 500 Gig HD and upgraded system from Windows 7 to Windows 10 Pro. I just do MS Word, some graphics and internet. This machine now runs perfectly for my purposes. Will watch for more of your videos.

[@TheOriginalCollectorA1303]

Nice, it’s a good system and it does have a lot of upgradable parts. Glad you enjoyed it!

[@phendee1]

Do you have a video on installing a secondary HD?

[@TheOriginalCollectorA1303]

Not at the moment, but once I get some parts for it, I’ll definitely make an upgrade and installation video.

[@JohnSmith-bw8xv]

That's pretty amazing. I'm looking to do that for a while (I actually still use an E521) . How did you get windows 10 drivers for such old hardware ?

[@avamaria8447]

You were able to install win 10 on the 32-bit?

[@goqwertygo]

I got my 5150 from craigslist in 2012 for $20. Non working. One of the CF card reader pins was bent shorting it out stopping it from doing anything. Easy fix. I overhauled mine to accommodate the E510 motherboard. $30 ebay motherboard. Then sold the 5150 motherboard for the same cost. The E510 supports Core 2 Quad. I have a Q6700 in it. The 5150 barely supported Pentium D. I swapped the stock heat sink for a much beefier Dimension 9100 heat sink. I also dremeled additional space above the top PCIE slot to accommodate dual slot GPUs.

[@TheOriginalCollectorA1303]

Sounds like it was a solid system to use! Nice that you swapped out the motherboard for it to be more capable, I’m sure the Core 2 Quad made a big difference in performance. Are they pin compatible or did it require some modifications to make it use the E510 case? Dual GPUs in a system like this would be an awesome upgrade to add. Even nowadays these machines are still decent to use, maybe more for older games/software, but still nice to use considering how upgradable they are.

[@goqwertygo]

@@TheOriginalCollectorA1303 Correction, I have a E520 not E510. The 5150 and E520 motherboards are slightly different. I had to dremel out the back panel from 5 3.5mm audio jacks to 6 jacks, 2 additional USB ports, and for some reason they decided to move the VGA port down, so a new hole for that. I also had to replace the front I/O/USB/power button board since the E520 motherboard wouldn't boot with the original 5150 I/O power button board. It only has a single, double slot GPU. It was originally meant to only have one single slot GPU. It's had a number of different GPUs starting with an MSI N9600GT(had to cut some of the plastic shroud to fit it), then a EVGA 740GT-4GB, then down to a ecs GTX560 removed (gpu shroud cover) now it has a EVGA 750-2GB. Some of my old gaming videos around 2015 feature this PC. I listed the specs when I did, and a few other Dells😄

[@TheOriginalCollectorA1303]

Interesting, at least it still fit inside the case even with the different I/O placements. Also interesting to hear that the power button doesn’t allow the different motherboard to boot, but that seems like another proprietary system thing. I also read that wrong about the GPU, but at least it worked after fixing the space limitation. It’s cool to see how much can be done to upgrade these machines!

[@goqwertygo]

@@TheOriginalCollectorA1303 I just blew the dust off mine after moving. It's been about 5 years since I've used it. Nostalgia tripping touring all my old Sims 3 houses and buildings. Playing Burnout Paradise since its the only PC I have that the activation still works on.

[@TheOriginalCollectorA1303]

Nice! Also nice to have it still play games without any modern complications. Activation is a whole other thing, but at least it still works.

[@RichieTozier77]

I am So Glad I Found This Video Because I Have One of Those Dell Dimension E510 PCs and Planning To Tear It Down and Reassemble It For Turning It Into a Windows XP Gaming PC, Thanks For Making This. 👍

[@TheOriginalCollectorA1303]

Thanks! Hope it becomes a solid XP system!

[@womanofspirit536]

Just finished cleaning the inside. Any tips how to get that Dell Dimension E510 side cover back on? I line up the tabs at the bottom & press upward, won't close. I pull back the top sliding tab as I'm lining up the case, won't close. Have Win Professional 7 as upgrade from XP. Though Microsoft sunsetting Win 7 very soon, would like to continue using optical drives for DVDs, CDs, etc. Thanks.

[@TheOriginalCollectorA1303]

It can be kind of difficult to put it back on so I know what you mean. I’ve found that tilting the PC or laying it on its side can help so that way when you line up the cover, it won’t touch the ground. Then just firmly push it in along the top and it should click. You can pull back the top tab but it’s not necessary as it will lock into place. Also make sure that nothing is bent just in case.

[@SgtBruddy]

Thanks for this, this is my family's first computer that we ever got and I have so many memories of it.

[@TheOriginalCollectorA1303]

Thanks! Hopefully I will be able to make more videos about it someday.

[@krazyeye5147]

This was my families PC growing up as well. I first learned about computers on it and by taking it apart. Eventually I upgraded the ram to I think 2 or 4 gb and installed a Geforce 8600 GT graphics card haha

[@GalenIRL]

Second here.. but man i could finally play counter strike 1.6!!

[@hughjas9383]

had this computer when i was a child, it was badass i remember playing miniclips and addicting games.

[@TheOriginalCollectorA1303]

It’s a great machine, still usable even today! Pretty good to use for games and extremely easy to swap out parts for upgrades.

[@hughjas9383]

@@TheOriginalCollectorA1303 you cannot imagine how many viruses i downloaded onto that machine

[@TheOriginalCollectorA1303]

“You won a free iPod, click here!” I’m sure those sites were filled with ads everywhere, one wrong click and malware for days.

[@BoxOfFeet]

I love that computer. I had one in college, it played some mean Battlefield 1942. I'm in the process of building one now for myself, for my 98/XP games. I found an E310 for $5 at a flea market. It looks the same, except silver instead of white. I'm putting an E510 motherboard in it, so I can get that sweet PCI-E slot back. You can also get that Samsung DDR2 ram super cheap now, so I'm going to put 2GB in there. I can't wait to play F.E.A.R. again, it ran terrible in Win 7!! Really happy to have a Pentium 4 again. That thing was fantastic at running Win 98 stuff. And it made a great space heater when I was at school in the Upper Peninsula.

[@TheOriginalCollectorA1303]

Cool to hear! Having an older system is always the best option for older games, plus it’s a lot of fun to use!

[@BoxOfFeet]

@@TheOriginalCollectorA1303 Have you been experiencing any random blue screens? I distinctly remember after putting in a Radeon X600, it was automatically overclocking the GPU by like 10%, and I had to install some tool to throttle it to 100% on boot. Or else it would blue screen in like 5 minutes. It worked great otherwise!

[@TheOriginalCollectorA1303]

My system has been stable when I’ve used it, but I also haven’t upgraded the GPU or anything. I’ll have to keep that in mind if it does that with other GPUs also.

[@The_Phone_Bin_Diver]

I recently bought the slimmer variant (C251) for $16 at a thrift store! It hasn’t been used in a long time because it had cobwebs inside the the case

[@TheOriginalCollectorA1303]

Nice! These older machines are still great to use, hopefully you’ll get some use out of it!

[@The_Phone_Bin_Diver]

@@TheOriginalCollectorA1303 I need to reinstall windows XP but I need to make a disc I plan on using to to downgrade my iPhone 2G

[@TheOriginalCollectorA1303]

Windows XP is a great OS to have as it’s helpful for older iOS software and jailbreaks!

[@The_Phone_Bin_Diver]

@@TheOriginalCollectorA1303 I just plugged it into restore install the OS and I think the power supply just exploded

[@TheOriginalCollectorA1303]

Oh no! That’s unfortunate, hopefully it’s something else causing the issue. But even if the power supply is not functional now, you might find a whole other unit to use for parts.

[@tinkerscorner54]

Try swapping out with an Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 (Core-2 Duo works, too. (I recommend the E8600 or better)), 4 X2 GB PC2-6400U RAM, Used Solid State Drive, and you will have a fairly quick Windows 10 machine for under $100. ((I spent $50.62 on the above parts.) depending on FleaBay prices at the time, Plus Win10 license. (I had one from a dead laptop.) You can throw in a used Nvidea 2-4 GB PCIe Graphics card for another $30 or 40 bucks and have nice graphics, too. Sure, you won't be playing GTR2 or the latest and greatest games, but it would do Quite well on many older 3D games (Medieval Total War, Rome Total War, Google Earth, etc) with no problems and rather nicely. I've gotten lots of life out of these LGA775 motherboards and am toasting one up for a friend now.

[@TheOriginalCollectorA1303]

Upgrades are definitely easy to get for a system like this, it might not be brand new but I agree, there’s a lot of life left in these Dells! I do have newer machines that can run 10, and I don’t plan on adding upgrades right now. I like how it works as a Windows XP system, great for older software and games! I could always dualboot and have a newer version also, but there’s a lot of options. Thanks for sharing your upgrade info also!

[@tinkerscorner54]

@@TheOriginalCollectorA1303 It runs Linux well, also, even with the original Pentium 4

[@TheOriginalCollectorA1303]

I’m sure, Linux works on old and new systems. A lightweight install would definitely use the Pentium 4 well.

[@tinkerscorner54]

@@TheOriginalCollectorA1303 The Q9550 did not work, or an E8600, or a Q6600. I found out that the Pentium D 945 @3.4 Ghz is the best the E510 will take. Any Pentium D is better than the Pentium 4. I've got two of these stashed around here somewhere from an old Precision 840 Workstation (It's actually running a different motherboard now, from a T3400 with a Q9750 core-2-quad with 16 gigs of ddr2-1066, a 230 Gb I/O accelerator ($28 on Fleabay) 2 gig Nvidea videocard, and Win10 Pro. That machine will be around for quite a while) The Pentium 4 has one core with two threads whereas the Pentium D has 2 cores with a single thread each. The Pentium D 945 can be picked up on eBay between $10 and $20 now. I know it's a great processor from experience. Any one of the D's above 2.5 ghz will out perform the Pentium 4 @3 ghz. It's been an experience taking that E510 from XP Media center to a fully updated Windows 7 Pro build (I didn't have another Win10 license but I DID have a Dell Win 7 Pro 32-bit disk.) without a long ethernet cable. Just to be able to get the Bios update on the Dell Support site I had to go through several Linux distros to find one that would recognize my wifi adapter. I finally grabbed an old SATA hard drive and installed the Dell Win7 to it (with no updates past SP1, it's still a bear.) and because the old internet explorer can't do diddly anymore, I had to find a 32-bit browser that would actually install, which finally ended up being an older release of Opera. Once I was able to actually communicate with the Dell Support Site and found the drivers (Auto ID did NOT work, the Service Tag was NOT recognized, and the machine is listed under "Legacy, Dimension, 5150/E510" and not just E510), things started falling into place. It was more of like going around my back to get to my elbow. Then, once I got the machine to recognise a 128 gig SSD (I picked up on eBay for $6) I cloned what I had to on the Hard Disk to it to save time (I'd already had to do plenty of updates to get it to work on modern sites) using Clonzilla on a bootable thumbdrive. Then it was finding the rest of the updates, Microsoft has a courtesy Roll-up for (almost)everything up to 2016 but there are a few updates and "Platform Stacks" that had to be hunted down in the Microsoft Update catalogue. Once they were done, the rest of the updates actually were delivered by Windows Update, with the very last one being the update saying that Windows 7 had reached the end of support (that was a sad day for me. I really like Windows 7) Anyway, it's been an experience and I'm the better for it. (I had to use MY memory a lot. I found a few brain cells that I had forgotten about and strain one or two of them.) It was actually fun, and my wife can't figure out why in the world I would spend that much time on an old computer that she picked up on the side of the road. Take care, have fun with yours and have a great weekend!

[@majackslelo827]

Thanks a lot man, I sub😁

[@TheOriginalCollectorA1303]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@juansantamaria1982g]

That is such an amazing pc. My brother and I received one as a gift, but eventually, we wanted to play Cod2 in it, but we couldn't because it didn't have an AGP port to install a more capable video card. We ended assembling a clone PC to play.

[@TheOriginalCollectorA1303]

At least upgrades are easier to obtain now for these systems, they do still have a lot of potential!

[@fatfurie]

it had a better pci-e slot in it..you could have gotten an even better gpu in it

[@mixedfuses8pack48]

found one of these left on a street today. what should I do with it? :)

[@TheOriginalCollectorA1303]

It’s a solid XP machine! You could probably make a pretty decent XP era gaming pc with it, or use it as a file server. There’s a lot of potential in these older machines, it just depends on what you want to do with it!

[@TheRogueGord]

As a person who doesn't know a lot about computers, I was actually looking for how to identify and remove the hard drive. You kind of skipped over that part but I figured out that it was at the bottom of the case, and all I had to do was unplug one little plug and push the two blue tabs together to pull it out.

[@Wheel333]

Hey thanks for this. I just got given one that needs some work.

[@TheOriginalCollectorA1303]

Nice! It’s a good older system for XP and older software.

[@mercedesadair7009]

This is a long shot but mine won’t turn on. There is a green light inside that is on but the power button just seems to be useless?

[@TheOriginalCollectorA1303]

Well it’s good that it shows power on the board, but since it’s not powering up, it’s possible that the power button itself is the problem. That or something else is preventing it to turn on but troubleshooting the button and the connections could fix it.

[@RogerSartet007]

Would you happen to know which current video cards would still match this machine, allowing a contemporary screen (standard)? Thank you!

[@TheOriginalCollectorA1303]

For Windows XP specifically, I think the newest you can use is the AMD 200 series or the Nvidia 900 series. You may need some additional drivers for some of them. There are older graphics cards available that have HDMI, they would probably work well if you intend to use it as a multimedia machine. Also make sure that your power supply can handle whatever card you choose.

[@RogerSartet007]

@@TheOriginalCollectorA1303 When I mentioned multimedia, I wasn't talking video, rather any audio source in my living room (AUX/Phono in brief). So it doesn't need to be state of the art, just good enough to feed any current 23 inch flat screen

[@TheOriginalCollectorA1303]

Then try to find a decent card from the time, since it’s mainly audio you could use an older Nvidia or even ATI card. As for a specific one, there’s a lot so I’m not sure which one would be the best. The vram on the card would not be as important in this case since it’s for audio, that is as long as it can provide a decent user experience. You could also get a dedicated sound card like something from Creative, they would also provide more audio inputs/outputs.

[@fabioz7392]

Nice! I'll do the same tomorrow.

[@TheOriginalCollectorA1303]

That’s fun! Dell made their towers really easy to work on.

[@KlingonCaptain]

This looks identical to one that was just given to me, including the differences from the manual and the copious amounts of dust.

[@TheOriginalCollectorA1303]

They are pretty decent XP era machines.

[@julians3danimations]

How about upgrading the CPU & the Hard Drive?

[@TheOriginalCollectorA1303]

It’s something I’d like to do eventually, as of right now it still needs to be benchmarked and tested with different apps and games. Upgrades are definitely something that would be fun to do.

[@JohnSmith-bw8xv]

Any idea how to replace the front Usb assembly? Seems I must remove the other side panel as well ? (by first removing the fan , then unclipping the front panel )

[@TheOriginalCollectorA1303]

For the USB assembly, I believe it just has the one screw so you shouldn’t need to remove the other side panel. You might need to take off the fan assembly for more room.

[@RogerSartet007]

THANK YOU so much for this! I just got one, a similar model, the 9100. Want to make it my living room multimedia sampler (in combination with an old Hammerfall RME Multiface as DSP unit). Hence the following question: Would you happen to know if its motherboard would fit a HTPC case like the SilverStone SST-GD09B Grandia HTPC ATX?

[@TheOriginalCollectorA1303]

Glad it helped! As for a case like that, I’m not entirely sure. Dell often made a lot of their motherboards to be proprietary to the case or some accessories. In that case, I’d recommend you look at the motherboard and measure it.

[@RogerSartet007]

@@TheOriginalCollectorA1303 I'm reading this while doin' exactly that :-)

[@zahirallen8883]

InstaBlaster...

[@djpainkiller3326]

Thank you I took mine apart now I’m trying to put it back together mine has a power issue where the power button just sits and blinks and does not turn on it is not in sleep mode i’m giving it to a friend they are going to fix the issue I just need to put it back together

[@TheOriginalCollectorA1303]

They are pretty solid machines, hopefully it will work again!

[@dougcollins8907]

Vacuum cleaners are your friend ☺ That motherboard has at least 4 bad caps, examine down by the pci slots. See how they are "Domed"? They have failed. During the time that pc was constructed dell had an astonishing 12% failure rate on the electrolytics.

[@TheOriginalCollectorA1303]

I would only use a vacuum cleaner on something like the case by itself/anything without electronics to prevent static buildup. Otherwise I would have also used an air duster/blower (ones made for electronics) if I had one. I know that this desktop was made when the capacitor plague was still a common issue but I’ve never noticed that this specific machine had some! (It’s possible I forgot about them but I think I would have remembered this) I thought this was one of the more reliable older desktops I had, and to be fair it does still work extremely well, but I’ll have to do some maintenance when I’m able to do it. I haven’t used it in a while but the last time I did, it showed no problems at all. I don’t plan to use it for now though.

[@tinkerscorner54]

The Dell cases of this period WERE Vacuum Cleaners. Low to the floor, they worked more like an air cleaner and would do a good job IF it had filters installed. I take them out to the garage about every 6 months or so, turn my air compressor down to 25 psi (USAF says no more than 32 psi on circuit boards. I'm conservative) and blow all that stuff out. I get any remnants in the corners loosened with a nylon art/paint brush and blow again. Vacuum cleaners cause too much static, especially if you use the attachment that is really needed (the dust brush). A crevice tool can only do so much. I've also never seen capacitor problems on these Dell Boards. I'm sure it happens. (ASUS boards on the other hand . . .)

[@idrkginaf4204]

Found one of these, thinking about turning it into a sleeper pc

[@TheOriginalCollectorA1303]

It’s a good case to do something like that if you don’t plan on using the actual dell pc inside.

[@unusedaccount95304]

I got something similar, the Dimension 5150. It uses the same case and is almost identical to the E510. I replaced the power supply with a better one, upgraded the RAM to 2GB and HDD to a 500GB Seagate HDD. I use it as a Windows XP PC because it's much better than a VM.

[@TheOriginalCollectorA1303]

Nice! These systems are good with upgrades and having a dedicated system for XP is easier and more fun to use than a VM. VMs can be easier to use temporarily but a proper system is always better.

[@unusedaccount95304]

@@TheOriginalCollectorA1303 :) I may try install Windows 2000 because all the drivers except the graphics card work with 2000. I'm trying to find a driver for the ATI Radeon X600 256MB Hypermemory card.

[@TheOriginalCollectorA1303]

If you manage to find the proper drivers, that system will definitely be even faster with Windows 2000! Dual booting would also be nice to have.

[@tabletgonz7566]

I remember when we ordered this one back in the day you could build your own PC you could pick your graphics cards and sound and memory speakers it came with.. etc on the Dell website we still have it ran gta San Andreas pretty good but we didn't have a good graphics card so it would crash within 45min or 1hr while playing it maybe it was for overheating idk haven't turn it on since 2011-2013 I think

[@TheOriginalCollectorA1303]

It’s still a fun older computer to use, it’ll probably still work but a fresh Windows install could help. It’ll be a nice older gaming system if you ever decide to try and use it again. There’s still a lot these older systems can do!

[@avamaria8447]

My heat sink assembly just won't budge. Anyone knows the trick to removing this thing?

[@TheOriginalCollectorA1303]

Seems like the thermal paste has hardened over time, try using isopropyl alcohol to get in between the cpu and the heat sink to loosen it up.

[@japanesemickeymouse6694]

i bought one at goodwill for 15.00 lol mountains of dust i cleaned it out side

[@TheOriginalCollectorA1303]

Nice! It’s insane how much dust some of these systems can have.

[@ScruffyNurfHerder]

Anyone know what’s wrong with my E510? I upgraded the HDD’s to 500gb from 160 and upgraded the graphics card to a 2gb and now it has an orange light on the power button and won’t turn to green like it used to. Did I mess up the power supply?

[@TheOriginalCollectorA1303]

So it doesn’t power on? It could be the graphics card since the power supplies on these systems aren’t exactly big. If the graphics card is drawing more power than supplied that might be an issue. You could always try powering it up without the card to see. Having no OS on the new drive might cause issues also but that seems unlikely.

[@ScruffyNurfHerder]

The Original Collector it turns on but I tried removing the gpu and it still won’t output any data to the monitor from the integrated vga input. The light on the power button stays orange and doesn’t turn green. Everything seems to be running though.

[@TheOriginalCollectorA1303]

Aaron Ciupka That reminds me, I believe that Dell turned off the integrated VGA port despite it being there, mine has those covers on it. There might be a way to reactivate but I’m not sure how. Try it with the factory gpu if you are able to.

[@mixedfuses8pack48]

try unplugging the power lead. hold the power button down for 30+ seconds. then plug the power cable back in and try to boot it again.

[@tonschk]

I have the Dell E520 and the same happen, the integrated graphics don't work, is not the first occasion I notice somebody mention this problem, also in another youtube video the guy making such video have the same integrated video problem with his dell E520

[@GTDgolfer]

This was my first PC and believe it or not, but I ran Windows 10 on that thing xD. Just replaced the GPU with a 30€ GeForce 210 to be able to play Minecraft on :-P

[@TheOriginalCollectorA1303]

Haha, nice! Probably not the fastest, but upgrades for these older machines are at least easier to obtain!

[@lucasbusca5511]

I am getting a dell dimension 5150.but not gonna lie it's the same thing

[@TheOriginalCollectorA1303]

Nice! I believe that the E510 and 5150 are very similar and are just interchangeable model numbers. Planning on having an XP machine?

[@kjmullinz]

This isn't technically a tear down. You forgot to take off the front faceplate. Js

[@TheOriginalCollectorA1303]

Well other than that, everything else was taken out and cleaned.

[@fatfurie]

e510s came with GPUs. i had an e310 and got a e510 mobo so i could put a gpu in mine. dells terrible now.

[@TheOriginalCollectorA1303]

Power supply is a limiting factor, but I do plan to eventually add some upgrades to the system.