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Dell Precision - Which Graphics Card?

DevilBoy916

DevilBoy916

DevilBoy916

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8 Jan 2007
Posts
169
Hiya All

I have been given a Dell precision 670 Workstation by my old company, and i'm looking to upgrade the bog standard graphics card it has in it.

I know its got a PCI express slot (unfortionately not 2, as I could have got a crossfire card). I am a little bit lost as to which card will fit in it though.

The technical specs for it can be found at : http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/precn_670

Dell says it can accept PCI Express bus graphics cards up to 150 watts. So what options does that leave me? Looking to spend about £150 - £200 ish, so I can play new games coming out...

Cheers for any help!
Evol
 
Radeon x1950Pro. Has 60w less power consumption than other cards and is a great card for the price too. It is also PCI-E.

Those PSUs they supply with Dells are terrible. The Dell I bought back in 2004 [never again] had a 250W PSU. Not only that but there was no exhaust fan - the airflow inside the case was abysmal. There was a fan at the back which blew air IN, which was then funnelled down via a plastic hood over the CPU heatsink. Insane. There was no other form of cooling. No wonder when I was playing Painkiller that summer the graphics card fan sounded like it was going to spin off.

Dunno I'm allowed to say that since this is about Dell thingies...
 
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Having trouble finding the actual spec. What spec is it?

In that price bracket I would go for a X1950 Pro or XT (512MB) if it's single card!
 
It only has one PCIe slot. Its a 16x one with maximum 150watts of power avaliable for the card!

I'm not 100% convinced that I wanna keep the PC, or sell it on ebay and build a cooler, more suited to gaming PC of my own!
The spec is as follows :

Dual core Xenon processor (not sure what Ghz)
3GB DDR2 400MHz Ram
One PCI Express x8 card slot wired as x4
PCIe 16x Graphics card with 150Watts of avaliable power
300GB HDD RAID
650Watt power supply

Think thats all you need?
 
Can't understand why it rates the available power for the PCI-E as 150 watts?

I believe it may just be identifying the fact that the standard pci-e power delivery of the actual slot is 150 watts and that an extra pci-e power connector (or two in the case of an 8800gtx) from the psu will be required!

That 650 watt psu should be more than capable of running that system along with an 8800! I use a 580 watt tagan for the system below and it never ever misses a beat - even fully overclocked! :)

By all means wait for someone to confirm this but i can't believe that the rest of your pc (minus graphics) would draw anywhere near 500 watts!

gt
 
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Well, Its got a dual CPU MB, which currently only has one CPU, so i'm guessing quite a lot of power is avaliable.
Although, it does have, I think, 4 HDD in a raid configuration... And 2 DVD writers.... hmm.

I'm thinking the only way I can tell what will fit, is to make the best guess I can, and buy a card and try it. I suppose that Overclockers.co.uk will refund me if it don't fit?

On a slightly seperate note. Does anyone have an opinion on whether i should keep this PC or sell it on? I want a good gaming PC really. And it does have a Xenon, with space for another one along the line. But only 1 PCIe slot.
Allso, i've noticed that the RAM is quite expensive for this rig for some reason.

Any opinions?
 
Although I haven't used that model the company I work for has a contract for all it Pcs from Dell. Based on the fact I have to repair these things on a daily basis, I would suggest selling your one and building one from scratch.

My two pence worth :)

Alf
 
Alf4 said:
Although I haven't used that model the company I work for has a contract for all it Pcs from Dell. Based on the fact I have to repair these things on a daily basis, I would suggest selling your one and building one from scratch.

My two pence worth :)

Alf
Click to expand...


what he said - dell = budget parts and prices - end of. You should build your own mate - the dell will restrict you heavily i believe.
 
I'd agree! Sell it and have fun building a new toy! You'll feel a lot better having your perfect machine built to your personal specs! :D

gt
 
gt_junkie said:
I'd agree! Sell it and have fun building a new toy! You'll feel a lot better having your perfect machine built to your personal specs! :D

gt
Click to expand...

Makes sense, or stick something cheap (relatively) in there if you're only going to be a casual gamer. A 7600 GT would do nicely at around a ton.
 
Hmmm. There's an option.

The only thing that worries me at the moment is reliability. I mean, I don't want it dying on me in a few weeks! The old rig i built myself has lasted me 3 years with not a single worry.

However, the case and cooling seem really good on this PC to me. I mean, its not an overclocking machine by any means. And all the bits are dell's own cheap stuff.
but its still got a 3GHz Dual core Xenon processor, and space for up to 14GB of Ram!!!!

So I am torn. Sell or keep, sell or keep. hmmm.
 
DevilBoy916 said:
...So I am torn. Sell or keep, sell or keep. hmmm.
Click to expand...

Flip a coin? Heads sell, Tails keep.

Do you have the money for a new build? If you do, I'd do that, and keep the xeon machine for backup/server duties...
 
Well thats the thing. I've seen these workstations going on ebay for upwards of £600! one went for £900!

Its relatively unused, so i reckon i could get at least £500 for it. That'd get me on my way to a new build easy!
 
DevilBoy916 said:
Well thats the thing. I've seen these workstations going on ebay for upwards of £600! one went for £900!

Its relatively unused, so i reckon i could get at least £500 for it. That'd get me on my way to a new build easy!
Click to expand...

Hmm...

SELL!!!

That was easy..
 
DevilBoy916 said:
Well thats the thing. I've seen these workstations going on ebay for upwards of £600! one went for £900!

Its relatively unused, so i reckon i could get at least £500 for it. That'd get me on my way to a new build easy!
Click to expand...
No brainer, sell it for as much as you can get. £600 would easily cover a pretty damn fine PC!
 
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