HOW TO FIT 9800 GTX in DELL E521?!?!

[stuartwwillis]

Hi there,
I have sent my folks to america to buy me a new graphics card of a high spec. So they bought a 9800 GTX, a pretty hardcore card. I understand that the 305 power supply to my Dell E521 will not be enough so with the card they also bought a 'Thermaltake 430w Power supply'. A picture of what they bought is here:

After many hours of reading up on this I am pretty sure this will work nicely. However my main concern now is that PHYSICALLY there may not be room to put it into my 'towerblock' as there is a large heatsink with a large black plastic shroud over it only allowing for some small ass graphics cards.
I have read some mods on this, as one person unscrewed the plastic shroud and sawed off part of the heatsink to make a lower model card fit into his E521.
This is an image of a lower end graphics card in a dell E521, as you can see there is limited space in there and I am not sure that there is enough room to fit a 9800GTX.

If anyone has any knowledge or ideas as this card is now coming back from the states and cannot be returned! and i am dying to get this to work, even to the stage of building a new computer from it!
Please write your suggestions!

 

[Zatharus]

First the good news: You should have no problem getting the new power supply to work. You might have some fun routing wires and storing the extras, but this is relatively simple.

Now, for the 9800GTX+... You may be able to squeeze it in. But, as you have already found someone who has had to physically mod their shroud and heatsink, I would say you are in for the same. Not all 9800GTX+ cards are the same width (but they are rather close), so you may bet lucky.

The alternative to tearing apart your CPU cooling structure, would be to put a new cooler on the GPU. Just hunt for one that will fit in the space you have. The card itself (no cooling) should fit lengthwise in your case just fine.

Lastly, as you were also thinking, you could just use the card in a new build.

 

[Droogie]

What kind of card is in it right now?

 

[CardboardSword]

Well, assuming your Dell is stock barring the new GPU/PSU, I'd say you're much better off going for a new entire build. The Athlon 64 X2 3800+ isn't exactly a newer chip, so you'll most likely be bottlenecking your 9800GTX with it, which trust me, is a major downer (I get a large amount of it haha) While your processor is still serviceable, you could build a much better system that would blow that out of the water relatively cheaply. Also, you only have 1 gig of memory if I'm not mistaken? If you decide against building a new rig, at least get some more ram.

 

[ScOuT]

Ok...a couple things here that I will say.

I have a Dell XPS 400 which is the exact same case. The black shroud covers your processor cooler. The shroud creates a tunnel for air from outside your case and forces the air through the heatsink. If you modify the shroud in any way...you will loose the "tunnel" effect of sucking cool air from outside your case. The entire concept and purpose of that shroud will be lost. The fan is not that strong but the tunnel helps it with cooling. Try and avoid making any "modifications" to the black shroud at all costs.

With the graphics card... you do understand that the 430w Thermaltake power supply in the picture DOES NOT meet the minimum requirements for an eVGA 9800GTX? Here is a link for the graphics card...it states the minimum power supply is a 450w with 24 amps on the 12v rail. The Thermaltake does not meet that requirement. The power supply in the picture only has one 6 pin PCI power connector. The 9800GTX requires two of these power connectors. You can buy a cable that you can plug into two 4 pin power cables and it converts it to a 6 pin power cable.
http://www.evga.com/products/moreInfo.asp?pn=512-P3-N884-AR&family=GeForce 9 Series Family

Now...fitting it in there. I never tried wedging anything more than a 8800GTX in mine. That card fit perfect in mine, no issues. If the card does not fit you can look into cutting options

If you can...build a new computer. The Dell E512 runs a Pentium 4 processor with 400MHz RAM. That is old stuff and these new upgrades are...in my opinion...kinda a waste of money. You will be much better off and much more pleased with some new stuff

 

[stuartwwillis]

thanks for the help guys, it is much appreciated! The card that is in there at the moment, is a tiny intergrated graphics card. I have 4GB of ram and a 2.6 processor. As for the power not being enough to run the 9800-gtx. I didnt realise it required 450w and i only got 430w. I did hear somwhere that you can leave the original power supply in there and when it doesnt supply enough power the thermaltake simply kicks in to boost it up? im not sure if this is true. I think the best option for me is to wait till it gets back and try it all out. If it definatley wont work i will think about building a new computer. Can I use my current ram, harddrive, cd drives and new graphics card in the building of a new computer? a just buy a new processor and hook it all up? or is it not that simple?
I have never attempted to build or do any serious modifications to any computers before, but i know i have a bit of knowledge on the subject.

 

[Zatharus]

thanks for the help guys, it is much appreciated! The card that is in there at the moment, is a tiny intergrated graphics card.

Integrated graphics? In the PCI-E slot?? From the picture you posted, it does not look like an IGP.

As for the power not being enough to run the 9800-gtx. I didnt realise it required 450w and i only got 430w. I did hear somwhere that you can leave the original power supply in there and when it doesnt supply enough power the thermaltake simply kicks in to boost it up? im not sure if this is true. I think the best option for me is to wait till it gets back and try it all out. If it definatley wont work i will think about building a new computer.

Well, yes, technically you could use one PSU for your system and the other for just the GPU. I would still recommend purchasing a larger PSU though. Much less hassle...aside from the whole purchasing yet another PSU thing.

Can I use my current ram, harddrive, cd drives and new graphics card in the building of a new computer? a just buy a new processor and hook it all up? or is it not that simple?

You could easily use your current disk drives, the new GPU and possibly even the power supply in a new computer. The RAM on the other hand wouldn't be worth limitin your motherboard choices to. I wouldn't bother with trying to upgrade the CPU in your current computer.

Also, do heed ScOuT's warnings about modifying the CPU's heat sink and shrowd. You WILL drastically reduce the efficiency of the CPU's cooling system if you modify it in such a matter. Very good advice.

 

[bebopin64]

the 430w psu wouuld power it fine. and that looks like an x1900 in there or x850. but thats not his computer just a pic of one like his.

 

[Zatharus]

the 430w psu wouuld power it fine. and that looks like an x1900 in there or x850. but thats not his computer just a pic of one like his.

I would agree mostly. It should, provided it has enough juice on the 12v+ rail.

With power systems, it is always better to have some overhead. You do not want to run it at max output constantly on any rail (one reason I prefer power supplies with a single high-powered 12v rail). The difference in wattage is paltry, but there is a reason why the manufacturer suggests a 450w or great unit for powering the card. They over-estimate as well.

 

[dubesinhower]

looks like your trying to fit 10 pounds of shit in a 5 pound bag. those cards can be BIG.

 

[stuartwwillis]

Thanks for the info guys.
I've taken mine apart and checked it all out to see what ive got. It looks like I can get a 430w PSU to power the 9800gtx graphics card. The limited space however would require me to remove the black tunnel shroud and the fat ass heatsink ontop of the cpu and replace it with a smaller fan. The only trouble is, i have no idea what kind of fan to go for. There are lots of mini ones out there on the market such as this...
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Xilence-CPU-C...14&_trkparms=72:1690|66:2|65:12|39:1|240:1318

However I'm not sure if this is up to the task of cooling the cpu, or have dell WAY over estimated the heat of this thing by sticking in a fat heatsink? Also I have an AMD processor and motherboard. Do these require different fans to that of an INTEL? send me any links you can find for the smallest fan i can get in that thing that will adequatly cool it.
Here are some pics of my pc so you can actually see the size im dealing with:

I will get that card in there is its the last thing i do!

 

[dubesinhower]

well. i would not recommend taking off that shroud. but if you really want that card...
what type of amd cpu does it have?

 

[stuartwwillis]

its got an AMD AthlonTM 64 X2 CPU in it, what kind of fan/heatsink can I get thats pretty small?

 

[bebopin64]

If you remove the shroud and put a fan on the heatsink it will cool fine. The shroud doesn't bring cool air in from the outside, it's there so the fan on the back can be used to cool the processor it blows out. It was just a cost cutting thing by dell.

 

[dubesinhower]

one of these should do nicely. perhaps the first cooler master one since its parallel to the motherboard.

newegg cpu fans with slot am2

 

[bomberboysk]

nvmd, bebopin64 beat what i was gonna say

 

[stuartwwillis]

Brilliant! I will send some pics when i get it in there!

 

[stuartwwillis]

IT HAS BEEN DONE! MWAHAHAHA....
Note to self in future..."this is alot harder than it looks...Just start a new build."

 

[ScOuT]

IT HAS BEEN DONE! MWAHAHAHA....Note to self in future..."this is alot harder than it looks...Just start a new build."

Wow...I am impressed How is everything running so far?

 

[stuartwwillis]

its running alot better than i thought it would. I'm getting 40-50 fps on microsoft flight simulator with the settings up very high. That will do me just fine. I think i will have to upgrade my processor somtime though, as i feel it is bottlenecking the card a bit.
Cheers for the help guys!