Made a mistake - upgrade or replace Dell?

[dr_olivenbrot]

Hi Folks,

I made a mistake about 3 years ago when I decided to go for Dell (Alienware) rather than spending some time researching proper hardware. So here I am today, with a Gaming PC that turns into a jet engine when in CS:GO main menu. Generally, the performance was very good until about 6 months ago. I'm not sure what happened, but the performance dropped a lot.

I started spending time to see if it's possible to upgrade, but I found out the board only supports PCIE Gen 3, so even upgrading the Graphics card wont make much of a difference. Attaching a picture of what I ordered back then and would appreciate if someone could recommend whether to scrap the whole thing or if it's possible to upgrade.

Main concern being the limitations that come with the board and the 550W

https://ibb.co/KDKWkmx (hardware setup)

****EDIT: I checked the inside: no dust or dirt accumulated in the fans. They're as clean as can get, so that's not the cause of the jet engine
***EDIT2: I'm a casual gamer; I just want games to run smoothly - don't have to be perfect and A1 top notch quality

Cheers
Olive

 

[Tetras]

You have a decent PC there actually, 3700X and 2060 Super are pretty capable for 1080p and can handle 1440p/60.

It says the CPU cooler is low profile, is the case still full size? It is hard to tell how big it is from the pics I can see.

I made a mistake about 3 years ago when I decided to go for Dell (Alienware) rather than spending some time researching proper hardware. So here I am today, with a Gaming PC that turns into a jet engine when in CS:GO main menu. Generally, the performance was very good until about 6 months ago. I'm not sure what happened, but the performance dropped a lot.

Would be a good idea to troubleshoot this in more detail before you plan any upgrades, like start running some benchmarks and try to see which part is underperforming and what's going wrong.

I started spending time to see if it's possible to upgrade, but I found out the board only supports PCIE Gen 3, so even upgrading the Graphics card wont make much of a difference.

Not important, PCIE 4.0 cards are backwards compatible and lose very little in a PCIE 3.0 board. Unless, you have some kind of riser between the slot and the card? That can cause issues sometimes.

Main concern being the limitations that come with the board and the 550W

They're not exactly popular cards round here, but one option would be a 4070. They require the same 8 pin as the 2060 Super and power consumption is similar too.

Do you know if the motherboard uses a standard 24 pin or is it proprietary? I suspect it is proprietary, though I think old Alienwares (pre-Dell, I guess) used to be standard.

 

[Gary*]

If it's turning into a jet engine within basic tasks it might be worth checking your temperatures with HW info, if they're high try repasting your CPU and GPU and see how you get on?

 

[Mesai]

Depending on how comfortable you are with PC building, you could transplant it to a new case with a better CPU cooler and better case airflow (as a quick win).

As what was mentioned above, you can still get away with PCIE 3.0 up to a certain point - there are some YouTube videos comparing cards on 3 and 4.

Your CPU will eventually limit you but GPU would be a worthwhile upgrade. You could also upgrade the CPU later if the bios supported it.

 

[andy o]

I'd check power settings. Maybe change to high and back to balanced. See if that makes any difference.

 

[eggbert]

If it's turning into a jet engine within basic tasks it might be worth checking your temperatures with HW info, if they're high try repasting your CPU and GPU and see how you get on?

Definitely this, see if the cpu or gps is overheating and throttling/clocking itself down.

 

[dfour]

By the look of some reviews the your pc uses standard atx motherboard and psu so can be transplanted into a decent airflow case like these:

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Kolink Observatory HF Mesh ARGB Midi Tower Case - Black (SKU: CA-07R-KK) = £49.99
• 1 x Montech X3 Glass Midi-Tower RGB Tempered Glass - Black (SKU: CA-000-MO) = £59.99
• 1 x Montech X3 Mesh Midi-Tower RGB Tempered Glass - Black (SKU: CA-003-MO) = £59.99
• 1 x Phanteks Eclipse G300A Mid-Tower High Airflow PC Case - Black (SKU: CA-0C0-PT) = £64.99
• 1 x Phanteks Eclipse P400 Air Midi Tower Case - Black (SKU: CA-09F-PT) = £72.95
• 1 x Corsair 3000D Tempered Glass Mid-Tower - Black (SKU: CA-27M-CS) = £79.99
• 1 x Lian Li Lancool 216 Mid-tower PC case - Black (SKU: CA-7BG-LL) = £89.99
• 1 x Phanteks Eclipse P400 Air Midi Tower DRGB Case - Black (SKU: CA-09G-PT) = £92.99
• 1 x Lian Li Lancool II Mesh C performance Midi-Tower Case - Black (SKU: CA-79R-LL) = £104.98

Total: £715.86 (includes delivery: £39.99)​

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For a cooler check out thermalrights lineup. They do several under £20 that are well rated and the peerless assassin is a real beast and one of the best value for money coolers atm

Heatsink – Thermalright

www.thermalright.com

 

[SqualidChimp]

Check your proprietary dell drivers and firmware to see if there are any updates. The Dell Command | Update Universal application can be downloaded from their support site and I've found that to be useful in the past. Their other software is mostly dross though

Download the above
Run the software to check for updates
Patch and restart
Restart again (because firmware).
Run software again to check for new patches that may have had prerequisites.