Dell Studio 540 power supply question

[JWade]

can anyone tell me if the Dell Studio 540 has a pci-e video power connector?

 

[bamacre]

I've had my hands on two of these so far. Both were ordered with quad core cpu's and both had the 6pin PCI Express power connector.

This model does apparently come with either a 300W or a 350W PSU. The two I got were both 350W.

Edit: Actually, I forgot, I got another one sitting here. Let me look under its hood.

Edit2: Yup, ordered with quad core, has the 350W.

Label on the PSU.

Notice the 12V rails at 12A and 18A. I have not tested a higher-end video card with this unit yet.

One nice thing I have tested with this unit is that it supports 16GB (4x4GB) of memory. 😀

 

[Emulex]

sounds like a 530 with a newer mobo.

i've stuffed 8gb ram, 4x 1TB (raid-10 and 5) and ATI 3650HD and sound card in quad core and its solid stable.

 

[imported_prizm77]

bamacre: As someone who has experience with the Studio 540 do you know what options I have regarding a video card upgrade? I don't want to upgrade the PSU and I want to make sure that the new card has HDMI & will fit inside Dell's case.

Thanks in advance.

 

[bamacre]

Originally posted by: prizm77
bamacre: As someone who has experience with the Studio 540 do you know what options I have regarding a video card upgrade? I don't want to upgrade the PSU and I want to make sure that the new card has HDMI & will fit inside Dell's case.

Thanks in advance.

Do you already have it? Does the power supply unit have the 6pin power connector?

Will you be using the video card for gaming?

A card like a 9800 GT will physically fit in the case.

 

[imported_prizm77]

It should be arriving this week and I am told it has the 6pin power connector.

 

[Idcurrie]

I have a studio 540. It comes with the 350Watt Delta Unit which has a decent rating on the +12v rail (not opening my case to check what it is though.)

It came thusly configured:

Q9400
8GB DDR2-800
750GB Hitachi
Radeon HD3650 (yuck)
Hauppauge 1250 tuner (doesn't work with >4GB ram, idiot dell fuckers)
Wireless N card w external antenna (pci-e)
DVD burner

All of this is stock.

I ripped out that shitty videocard and added an XFX GeForce 9800GT and it's fine. runs it like a champ. Dell also has drivers for the 9800GT on their 540 driver download page which means that some configurations of the system must ship with a 9800GT so obviously the power supply is fine to run it.

 

[imported_prizm77]

Could someone explain to me the difference between having a card with a HDMI port vs. one with a "HDMI via adapter" through the DVI port?

For example, HDMI port: http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814127301

and, HDMI via adapter: http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814121268

Do you lose any quality or functionality? I purchased a 22inch 1080p LCD monitor for this computer and also hope to hook it up to my HDTV for use as a HTPC.

 

[JorJorMogBoy]

Hi, I just bought a refurbed Dell Studio 540, and was wondering if a Geforce 9800 GTX+ would work in it. I'm guessing not, due to the PSU, but I am currently using a Dual Rail 550 watt PSU on this P4 machine. So, I was wondering, if I swapped out my current PSU for the Dell one, would the 9800 GTX+ work? The card is also 9.5 inches long I heard. Will it fit in the case? (I think it's even bigger than a regular GT.)

 

[Idcurrie]

Yes, but you will lose the use of your second HDD bay. If you plan to only use one HDD, it should fit fine.

 

[Stevish]

I just bought a studio 540 dell, it has a Q9400 quad in it as well as 6GM RAM and a TB HDD. The video card is some ATI Radon 3450, I was thinking that I could swap out my old card for this. Turn out the power supply does
not have the PCI-E power connector for it (my card ATI Radon 4850). The power supply is a 350W one and I was wondering if I could swap my old power supply with it? Would I fry my board or anything doing this? The
Power supply I have in my old computer is 700 or 750W can't remember.

Thanks for taking the time to help me out

Stephen