Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT, 512Mb into Dell Dimensions E520?

R

Rock

New Member
I've been using my stock computer for a while now. Some times it have been going slow, sometimes fast. And what i know from the computer when i bought it, the graphic card isn't the best for playing games which i do. So i decided, perhaps it's time to get a new graphic card. A friend on MSN recomended the Nvidia GeForce 8600 GT. So now i'm asking. How well does a Pny geforce 8600 GT 512 Mb GDDR2 PCI-E 16x fit into my stock Dell Dimensions E520 and what software things do i need to do? I really don't want this to not work because i have kind of a low temper when it comes to things kind of things. Thanks in advance. :)
 
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Do you mean to get the 8600GT or the 8800GT? Either card will fit but the 8800GT tends to be around 11" long. If you can get it to fit in your case it will be a much better card. If you have the extra money for an 8800GT, go for it. The increase in performance over the 8600GT is huge compared to the increase in price. But either way you go, you may have to get a new PSU.
 
Take advice from me, a dell owner of both an e510 and e520.

The stock dell PSU isnt that bad, but its only ~300-350w. I doubt it would run an 8800 properly. Also it has none of the extra power comnnectors that powerful graphics cards need.

Good news is any standard ATX PSU will fit, sort of. It will be a very tight fit and it may help to cut away some of the mesh stuff at the back where the PSU goes in, but it will work (running an 550w icute and an 8600 i my e510/5150 just fine)

Also bear in mind that fat/long cards will NOT fit. Due to the way the case is, cards which are dual slot (e.g one for the fan) will NOT fit, neither will very long cards.
 
Thank you all for your advice. About the missing power connectors. How can i fix that?
And i ment the 8600, sorry. *Editing*
 
new power supply, basically, the dell one doesnt have the 6 pin pci express power connector - however installing a new psu brings with it the problems i described.
 
I would take a look at a HD4670. it doesn't have any external power connectors, so can get away without power supply upgrade(i recommend you upgrade, just to be on the safe side) also it is short like an 8600gt, much better performance and cost about $80. the down side is this was just released, so if there are any bugs they haven't been iron out. i doubt there will be any bugs because the HD4850 and HD4870 have been out for a couple of months now, which this card is derivative of.
 
the 4670 wont run on the stock dell psu i dont think - its only 300/350w

an 8600 runs just about, but i wouldnt push it.
 
the stock Dell Dimensions E520 is a 305 watt power supply with 22 amps, which meets the recommended power supply for an 8600gt.

the HD4670 uses same or less power than 9500gt, which use the same or less power than 8600gt. so the power supply has enough power for HD4670.
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=3405&p=9
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/1590/17/sapphire_radeon_hd_4670_in_crossfire/index.html

let's look at this another way. pentium d 805 uses a max of 95 watts(highest power comsumption cpu put into dell 520), HD4670 uses max of 75 watts because that is the max power the PCIe slot can give, single hdd use 15 watts, two optical drives and card reader uses max of 50 watts, two RAM sticks uses 10 watts, a single case fan use 5 watts. 95+75+15+50+10+5=250 watts but you need to add in the motherboard and power supply lost due to aging. lets knock off 10% from the power supply so we are at 275. therefore if the motherboard use less than 25 watts(which it probably will) and the power supply has the ablitity to distribute the power correctly, then the power supply can power everything at absolute peak power consumption(which is impossible to hit). so the question now is can power supply distribute the power correctly? given the power of the various rails, it can but barely.

the stock dell power supply in a stock Dell Dimensions E520 will power any video card that doesn't require a 6pin or 8pin power connector. it doesn't have much head room, which is why i said you can get away without upgrading the power supply but recommended that you upgrade anyways so that you have some head room.
 
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