Video Card upgrade for Dell machine

[jinglingxl]

I'm looking to upgrade my video card from the crappy 7300LE that came with my Dell E520. What would be a good mid-range PCI-E card that would work well with factory PS? I have Intel E6300 with 2GB RAM.

 

[BernardP]

My parents have an E521, basically the same but with AMD processor. You have not only the PS to consider but the physical space available on the board. You can only install a short-ish card. Look at the 7300LE installation and measure remaining available lenght.

Considering PS and space, I would suggest NVidia 7600GT or more recent 8600GT. To be on the safe side, power-wise, you should avoid any card that requires an external power connector. I think the PS is only 305 watts.

 

[aka1nas]

That model was on sale in the hot deals forum a few months ago and several posters reported back that the PSU was fine for up to a 7900GS or an X1950 Pro.

 

[BernardP]

I think I also remember a thread where someone was not able to physically fit a 7900GS in a E521 because of CPU cooler clearance. These are BTX motherboards, not the ATX form factor builders are used to. Simply check available clearances before getting a videocard.

 

[doggyworld]

I have an E520 and recently put a 7900GS in it. The powersupply should be fine for it, but you'll need to get a Y molex power splitter to power the 6-pin power adapter it needs because there is only one molex connector on the PSU. Overall, I'm pretty impressed with the 305 watt PSU since I have 3 hard drives, DVDRW, 7900gs, MCE TV Tuner, and SB Audigy all inside the thing and it hasn't given me any problems at all.

One thing to note on the higher end video cards is that they may have loud fans in order to cool them down.

 

[jinglingxl]

Originally posted by: doggyworld
I have an E520 and recently put a 7900GS in it. The powersupply should be fine for it, but you'll need to get a Y molex power splitter to power the 6-pin power adapter it needs because there is only one molex connector on the PSU. Overall, I'm pretty impressed with the 305 watt PSU since I have 3 hard drives, DVDRW, 7900gs, MCE TV Tuner, and SB Audigy all inside the thing and it hasn't given me any problems at all.

One thing to note on the higher end video cards is that they may have loud fans in order to cool them down.

Which 7900GS card did you get? There are so many ones out there, I need to narrow down to one that that will actually fit since we have the same system.

I was also considering 8600GT, how would this card stack up against 7900GS?

Thanks !

 

[doggyworld]

I actually bought a used one from someone on the FS forums here (syndicate). It was originally from an XPS system he upgraded, but I believe most 7900GS's should work as they are not usually that long. I think the 7900GS is a better deal than a 8600GT since it's still a while before DX10 games are going to be popular and I think I remember seeing something like the 8600 performs like a 7600 with DX10 support so I think a 7900GS is more powerful for today's games.

Before my upgrade to a 7900gs I had an ATI x800 Pro in there which worked very well also. In fact, I don't really notice any difference between the two for the games I play other than the 7900gs fan is much louder. I only upgraded because the fan on my x800 Pro was making a clicking noise like one of the wires was hitting the fan. If you can get a good deal on an x800 Pro, I'd recommend that card also.

Also, the games I've played on the 7900gs are C&C3, Supreme Commander, Company of Heroes, Call of Duty 2, and Heroes of Might and Magic 5. All of them are set on the highest resolutions my monitor can handle (1680x1050) and on high graphics settings. All of the games run very smooth.