My desktop PC which I use for important stuff is out of date in as much as the CPU doesn’t support the W11 update. The PC is a Dell inspiron 24-5475 (all in one) and has an AMD A10-9700E processor.
What I’m wondering is if it’s possible to change the processor to something that will run W11, and if it is what should I get, is it easy to do (physically and electronically) and how much should I expect to pay?
I really don’t want to buy another PC.
TIA, Mark
I managed to update my oldish HP laptop to W11 by installing the Enterprise version (if I remember correctly).
I think there was a thread on here on the topic. Just search for “mushroom risotto” - that’ll probably find it 
This one Windows 11 maybe
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It’s a socket AM4 so rather old and, as you note, not “officially” supported and although I see reports of W11 being installed it does not seem to be a great platform for Microsoft’s current offering.
I don’t think you would have much luck updating the motherboard either - technically it appears to be a Mini-ITX format but being an AIO a standard motherboard is not going to have a hope of fitting.
Officially the CPU could only be upgraded to the A12-9800E which is still 4 cores/4 threads but with a very slightly higher clock speed. Searching the 'net there are hints of people installing Ryzen 5 CPUs - but it’s probably not a night and day performance upgrade and it may well run hot as the system is only designed for a 35W TDP processor. In any case I’m not sure if any AM4 CPU is officially supported for W11 - I will check.
Replacing the CPU in these is probably not a job for someone whop has done no previous hardware swaps or upgrades.
The RAM can be upgraded to 32GB and the other worthwhile/fairly simple upgrade on these PCs would be to replace the HDD to an SSD (and I believe that there is an M.2 slot in them - which is SATA though not NVME).
So, you could leave things as they are and stick with W10 for now - I’ve discussed the fact that with a 3rd party browser (soch as Firefox or Brave) and 3rd party anti-virus both of which will continue to get updates there is much less need to move to W11 than M$ would have you think.
Or you could sign up to M$ extended maintenance plan.
Or you could upgrade the HDD and RAM and try a W11 upgrade - there are plenty of guides online as to how to bypass the hardware requirements. I would do a clean install onto a fresh SSD. That way if it does not work you won’t have lost anything, just put your old disk drive back in.
Or you could up grade the hardware (or not, but I think this system is old enough to really benefit from more RAM and an SSD) and install Linux.
Or - and TBH this is what I would recommend - get a new (second hand) system.
Or don’t spend any money and just try W11. I have it running on a 5th generation i5 with 4GB of ram and I’m happy with it.
And a hard drive?
Since I am a numpty we called in a local IT nerd who uses CESU. The machine was ill and corrupted so he fixed that plus hard disc and upgraded to w11. It cost €196 and now have a machine that is fully functional.
- DELL Inspiron 3543 : (PC portable long a s’allumé)
L’ordinateur ne présente aucun défaut matériel, le système d’exploitation a juste des fichiers corrompus et il demande à être réinstallé au propre (Windows 10, voir Windows 11).
Votre ordinateur possède 8 Go de RAM de mémoire, ce qui est bon pour son fonctionnement, mais par contre votre disque dur est un disque HDD, il serait préférable de le passer en SSD afin de le rendre plus rapide.
Le cout de cette intervention serait :
- Remplacement du disque HDD vers un SDD 50 Go : 73€00
- Main d’œuvre : 4 heures à 40€00 HT, soit 160€00 HT. Mais pour cette prestation je devrais pouvoir vous faire bénéficier du crédit d’impôt ce qui redirais la main d’œuvre à 96€00 TTC.
- Soit un Total de 169€00 avec le crédit d’impôt.P
What’s that? Oh, no, but I changed to an SSD before I went to W11. Hard drives should be illegal.
Also have a Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro with a 5th gen i7 and 8 gb ram running on W11- ssd also.
Thanks @billybutcher . I only ever use Firefox and I’ve got mcafee virus protection (which expires in 2 weeks so waiting for the price to come down a but more)… I think I’ll just stick with what I’ve got for now and just renew the anti virus stuff.
The last SSD I bought (used but working fine) I got on LBC for less than 10 euros. That may be all you need to do to get your system working better.
It appears quite a few are.
So: this is the list of CPUs I think you could physically plug into your machine and would be the right TDP - however that is not the same as “will work” as the BIOS has to recognise the CPU - so probably not anything released after late 2018 (the latest BIOS update on Dell’s site is Nov 2018). The chipset (B350) has to be compatible as well but this should be much less of an issue as all AM4 CPUs should be supported.
Cross reference the CPU list with the list of AMD CPUs which support W11 to see what upgrade might be possible in theory.
But, as noted above, I don’t think a CPU upgrade would be something I’d recommend on this platform.
But if Mark is happy with W10 and doesn’t wish to spend anything on the hardware why go for the pain of an “upgrade” to W11?
A bit extreme but I know what you mean. They have their places though - they are still the best price per TB for datacentres, for instance.
However if the system still has a hard drive swapping to an SSD is the best bang for buck upgrade that you can do - plus a fresh install to a new drive is almost always the best course of action with Windows. Admittedly W10 and W11 are so close I’d generally be comfortable with an upgrade, but I’d still want a complete backup and that’s easiest with a fresh drive - just keep the old one as the backup. It’s not as if they are expensive.
Firefox 
McAfee - did that come with the system? Ditch it and either use Windows Defender if on a system which will get updates of Avast/AVG/maybe Bitdefender otherwise.
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50 gigs ?!?
I hope that’s a typo and you meant 500.
Don’t know what people charge - that seems on the low side per hour TBH.
Arguably the best decision in the short term. But I would stop paying for McAfee as above and if it is a hard drive get an SSD installed instead.
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Yes, Mcafee came with it (as it does on Dell machines). Im more than happy to ditch it for Windows defender
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Haven’t used it myself, but Rufus was recommended to me as a way around Microsoft’s TPM 2.0 shenanigans.
Also, never, ever pay full price for an MS product.
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Defender will be OK until Oct - after that get the free version of AVG or Avast if you’re sticking with W10 and haven’t gone for Microsoft’s extended support.
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I guess you need the USB drive permanently plugged in? I’ve only got one spare and thats where all my stuff is stored
Is that because Windows defender wont work with W10?
No, it’s because it will stop getting updates when W10 goes EoL
Defender is Microsoft’s built in anti-virus. Way back when it was introduced it was a bit of a joke but these days it is perfectly serviceable.
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No it’s the French measure.
Why pay more if he can do the job?
I remember Minitel, and the French need to be different.
I’d understood Go and GB were interchangeable. They’re not (another school day for me): 50GB is about 6.25 Go.