8800gts in an HP a6120a? **EDITED**

Lazy8s

Golden Member
Jun 23, 2004
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Ok, so my home built system started having some problems and it turns out the mobo and PSU were going bad. Long story short I would up damaging alot of my system components and I start grad school thursday so I had to have a system now. I went to best buy and got an HP a6120n tax free (woohoo!). I have built every system I have ever owned so this was new to me. I insisted on cracking open all the cases to look inside to make certain all my extra components were going to fit. About $600 later I am running:

2.0ghz C2D E4400
320gig sata HDD
Win vista home premium
2gig DDR2

It's not bad. I know I could have built better but for my GTAship I am absolutely required to have a working comp and I just don't have the time to build everything myself.

Anywho the board has 1 PCI-E slot and 2x PCI slots. I will not ever run SLI. The extent of my gaming now is WoW every few days with my dad, bro and close college friends to keep in touch more than anything. I play some other stuff here and there to fill the gap (CS:S, BF2, BF2142) as well.

Anyways I am looking at a new card and I was thinking 8600GTS cause of DX10 and the price (about $150) but then I read the reviews and it looks like I'll be tossing money away! I can afford the extra $100 for the baseline 8800GTS but I am concerned it might not fit in my machine....

I was hoping to get my X-Fi and my PVR150 in the two PCI slots. The PCI-E connector is in front of 2 openings so maybe the 8800GTS will fit? Any ideas?

Here are the obligitory :camera:s

http://www.valdosta.edu/~wrconkli/wow/IMG_2973.JPG
http://www.valdosta.edu/~wrconkli/wow/IMG_2974.JPG
http://www.valdosta.edu/~wrconkli/wow/IMG_2975.JPG
http://www.valdosta.edu/~wrconkli/wow/IMG_2977.JPG
http://www.valdosta.edu/~wrconkli/wow/IMG_2981.JPG
http://www.valdosta.edu/~wrconkli/wow/IMG_2982.JPG

If you need any other pics/angles/measurements say. I am wanting to order this sunday so I can get overnight and have it in tuesday (the day before I move in).

EDIT: Haha I some of you must be thinking "that comp comes with a 250watt PSU idiot" yeah it does. I have a 550wattAntec True Power I will be replacing the stock PSU with and it has SLI capability.


EDIT2 help!:
I got the sucker in now my case runs SOOOO hot!!! I have a 5.25" bay open that is in front of the card about 4"up. Do you guys have any suggestions on keeping this thing cool?? More pics inc when I can get them.
 

n7

Elite Member
Jan 4, 2004
21,281
4
81
A father away pic would help for determining if length is adequate in there, but IIRC there is enough.

You have one of the newer inverted or as i like to call them, upsidedown motherboard HPs :p

The dual slot cards like the 8800 GTS will take up the space of PCI-e 16x slot & the PCI-e 1x/4x slot just above, so you'd still have enough space to add your two PCI cards if you remove the dial-up/fax modem that's presently residing there.

The one thing you need to know though is that there's no way in hell the PSU in there will handle an 8800 GTS.

That model either uses a Bestec 300W w/ 19A on the +12V rail, or worse yet, only 15A on the +12V rail (i forget which one it is exactly).
Check the specs on the PSU for yourself, but simply put, you're also gonna need a better PSU.

The 8600 GT level of card might possibly work, but you'd be pushing your luck. (I personally wouldn't recommend adding any video card w/o a PSU upgrade)
Anything better will require a better PSU.
 

myocardia

Diamond Member
Jun 21, 2003
9,291
30
91
An 8800GTS will fit, width-wise, but your problem is going to be whether it will fit lengh-wise. They're 10½" long, not including the bracket.
 

Lazy8s

Golden Member
Jun 23, 2004
1,503
0
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Jebus 10.5"? Alright I'll measure and I'll take a further pic. Yeah sorry it took so long for the update I'm going to swap out the PSU for a 550watt, will that be enough?

EDIT:
Here are some more pics

http://www.valdosta.edu/~wrconkli/wow/IMG_2977.JPG
http://www.valdosta.edu/~wrconkli/wow/IMG_2981.JPG
http://www.valdosta.edu/~wrconkli/wow/IMG_2982.JPG

It looks like I may have problems if I decide to go with more than 320gig of HDD space but I highly doubt that will happen anytime soon seeing as I had 240gig before and never needed to upgrade so the single drive will probably be fine.

And of course the dial-up card will be removed. :p I just wanted to boot the system and run it today and tomorrow with everything in it just to make sure I didn't get a lemon.
 

n7

Elite Member
Jan 4, 2004
21,281
4
81
Originally posted by: myocardia
An 8800GTS will fit, width-wise, but your problem is going to be whether it will fit lengh-wise. They're 10½" long, not including the bracket.

10.5" is the GTX
The GTS (either 640 or 320 MB version) is 9".


IOW Lazy8s, it'll fit fine, not to mention you'll be able to add another HDD even ;)

550W PSU (assuming a good one) is more than adequate for a single card.

The new Corsair 450W would do the job well even.
 

lopri

Elite Member
Jul 27, 2002
13,310
687
126
Yeah. Unless you have a specific need where 8600 is needed, it's really a waste of money. Especially when X1900 and 7900 series cards can give you better performance and stability for the same money. I have a 8600 GT overclocked to 700/900 and tried to like it as much as I can, but I couldn't. (lol) It's only good at 3DMarks compared to last gen cards.
 

n7

Elite Member
Jan 4, 2004
21,281
4
81
I wanna see pics of the new card in that little case :p

Run case side open...i'd say that's about the only way you'll get decent temps w/o doing some modifications on the HP case.