looking for low profile video card advice on a Dell optiplex 390 smallish case

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bradyapba

Senior member
Nov 29, 2004
240
0
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yes I have the SFF case. Great card for the price. Its still running all the games he wants. Wont last forever, but its been a great purchase for what I needed it for. Low power, fits in my case, and a great budget card to run games that my 11 year old plays.
 

Cerb

Elite Member
Aug 26, 2000
17,484
33
86
I want to get this card too? Which 390 do you have? The sff (smallest) one?
The 390 did not come in USFF. The smallest was the SFF, a MicroATX, with 4 low profile slots, was the smallest one.

If you can afford it, going to a 740 from a 730 is a big jump, as is 750 from 740 (750 Ti from 750 is a much smaller improvement, but still substantial). But, a low profile of any of them up to the 750 Ti will just drop in and work, and should be OK for most single player games at low details and/or lower than 1080P res.
 

Pro4tlzz

Junior Member
Aug 8, 2015
8
0
66
The 390 did not come in USFF. The smallest was the SFF, a MicroATX, with 4 low profile slots, was the smallest one.

If you can afford it, going to a 740 from a 730 is a big jump, as is 750 from 740 (750 Ti from 750 is a much smaller improvement, but still substantial). But, a low profile of any of them up to the 750 Ti will just drop in and work, and should be OK for most single player games at low details and/or lower than 1080P res.

I just had to send back a gt 704 sc 2gb which was too big.
Can this work one? Is it the right size http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/EVGA-GeFo...phics-Cards-/171787429503?hash=item27ff54267f
or this one http://www.amazon.co.uk/EVGA-Nvidia...01736&sr=8-1&keywords=evga+730+gt+low+profile
or this one http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Zotac-GeF...-Video-Card-/161766826864?hash=item25aa0de370
I mainly plan to play to minecraft and f1 2015. Occasionally fifa and bf4
 
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bradyapba

Senior member
Nov 29, 2004
240
0
76
The 390 did not come in USFF. The smallest was the SFF, a MicroATX, with 4 low profile slots, was the smallest one.

If you can afford it, going to a 740 from a 730 is a big jump, as is 750 from 740 (750 Ti from 750 is a much smaller improvement, but still substantial). But, a low profile of any of them up to the 750 Ti will just drop in and work, and should be OK for most single player games at low details and/or lower than 1080P res.

No one said, it came in a USFF. Prot4lzz was correct it saying did I have the smallest 390, I do, the SFF version, just as he stated.

And as u can see, not every 740, and 750 will fit. But even more concerning is the PSU. It is only 240 watts in the 390. A 730 GT only uses 25W. The 740 uses 64W, and the 750Ti use 60 watts. That is testing the limits of the PSU in these machines.
 

Pro4tlzz

Junior Member
Aug 8, 2015
8
0
66
No one said, it came in a USFF. Prot4lzz was correct it saying did I have the smallest 390, I do, the SFF version, just as he stated.

And as u can see, not every 740, and 750 will fit. But even more concerning is the PSU. It is only 240 watts in the 390. A 730 GT only uses 25W. The 740 uses 64W, and the 750Ti use 60 watts. That is testing the limits of the PSU in these machines.
I would prefer the 740. I had the normal gt 740 2gb gddr5 sc standard. I have seen a smaller one though labelled as low profile.
 

bradyapba

Senior member
Nov 29, 2004
240
0
76
I just had to send back a gt 704 sc 2gb which was too big.
Can this work one? Is it the right size http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/EVGA-GeFo...phics-Cards-/171787429503?hash=item27ff54267f
or this one http://www.amazon.co.uk/EVGA-Nvidia...01736&sr=8-1&keywords=evga+730+gt+low+profile
or this one http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Zotac-GeF...-Video-Card-/161766826864?hash=item25aa0de370
I mainly plan to play to minecraft and f1 2015. Occasionally fifa and bf4

The 1st card you linked is close to being too long... there is a little less then 7 inches clearance...this says its 6.9 inches long....tight.

2nd card you listed is the evga. That's the card ive put into 4 of these 390s now. Runs great and has been able to mincraft with ease along with a bunch of other games.

3rd card - will fit, but is ddr3. I wouldn't buy it.

I would still stick with card 2.
 

bradyapba

Senior member
Nov 29, 2004
240
0
76
I would prefer the 740. I had the normal gt 740 2gb gddr5 sc standard. I have seen a smaller one though labelled as low profile.

You understand what im saying though right? I had over 40 of these 390s running in my stores. I am well versed in them. When they had and issue it was ALWAYS the crappy PSU in these machines failing on me. The 740s put a lot more strain on the PSU than the 730 models do.

They being said "low profile" only means how "tall" the card is. Every "low profile" card will fit in your machine "height" wise, but not every low profile card is going to fit into your machine "length" wise. There is a little less than 7 inches.
 

Pro4tlzz

Junior Member
Aug 8, 2015
8
0
66
You understand what im saying though right? I had over 40 of these 390s running in my stores. I am well versed in them. When they had and issue it was ALWAYS the crappy PSU in these machines failing on me. The 740s put a lot more strain on the PSU than the 730 models do.

They being said "low profile" only means how "tall" the card is. Every "low profile" card will fit in your machine "height" wise, but not every low profile card is going to fit into your machine "length" wise. There is a little less than 7 inches.
OK . what about this http://www.amazon.co.uk/computers/d...id=1439190115&sr=1-1&keywords=amd+low+profile
 

bradyapba

Senior member
Nov 29, 2004
240
0
76
This is the one you own? http://www.amazon.co.uk/Asus-VGA-GT730-2GD5-BRK-Graphics-Card/dp/B00Q46V738
Its on offer so iI need to knwo if this the right one thanks

no that's not it. I have the 2nd one from your post #28.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/EVGA-Nvidia...01736&sr=8-1&keywords=evga+730+gt+low+profile


if you look at the American amazon version you can see it has 269 reviews.. most very happy with it.

http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-GeForce-...=UTF8&qid=1439193822&sr=8-1&keywords=evga+730
 

Pro4tlzz

Junior Member
Aug 8, 2015
8
0
66
no that's not it. I have the 2nd one from your post #28.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/EVGA-Nvidia...01736&sr=8-1&keywords=evga+730+gt+low+profile


if you look at the American amazon version you can see it has 269 reviews.. most very happy with it.

http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-GeForce-...=UTF8&qid=1439193822&sr=8-1&keywords=evga+730
Oh yes I see now however it does not state which memory it has. But the customer review says 'Good value graphics card, although its 64bit bus it has better processing power than many 128bit cards and has GDDR5 RAM, not GDDR3' so it should be alright
 

Cerb

Elite Member
Aug 26, 2000
17,484
33
86
No one said, it came in a USFF.
Other Optiplexes did, though.

And as u can see, not every 740, and 750 will fit.
Low profile ones should, though there may be a couple that might not quite make it even so (even full size towers usually have length limits). I don't see any GT 740 SC that's low profile, only full-height. I never said all of them, only low profile.

But even more concerning is the PSU. It is only 240 watts in the 390. A 730 GT only uses 25W. The 740 uses 64W, and the 750Ti use 60 watts. That is testing the limits of the PSU in these machines.
Unless you have some other power hog in there, the PSU will have plenty of headroom. It's not like it's an FX-8150 in there for the CPU. I still haven't seen one of them fail, except for HDD or fan, myself.
 
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bradyapba

Senior member
Nov 29, 2004
240
0
76
Other Optiplexes did, though.

Low profile ones should, though there may be a couple that might not quite make it even so (even full size towers usually have length limits). I don't see any GT 740 SC that's low profile, only full-height. I never said all of them, only low profile.

Unless you have some other power hog in there, the PSU will have plenty of headroom. It's not like it's an FX-8150 in there for the CPU. I still haven't seen one of them fail, except for HDD or fan, myself.

1. What do other optiplexs have to do with anything? We were talking 390s.
2. Plenty of low profiles wont fit in the SFF 390s. You said "all low profiles will fit". Just isn't true. There is only 6.9 inches in clearance. There are low profile cards that are longer than that, as the other poster will attest too.
3. I have 4 390s on my work bench right now with failed PSUs. Granted that's a less than 10% fail rate (we have over 40 in the company), but still concerning to me.
4. Also with 8 gigs of ram, 1 blue ray drive, 2 1 TB drives, and a i3, combined with my 730 GT, my 11 year olds 390 is pulling 195 watts when hes gaming, give or take. So adding and additional 40w plus for a 740 or 750ti, puts it at the cap, and with no active cooling on those PSUs, just not something I personally wanted to push. Plus the 730 has handled everything he wanted to play so far.

Just my experience with them. Yours may be different.
 

sm625

Diamond Member
May 6, 2011
8,172
137
106
What are you hitting that is preventing you from having more than 7" clearance?
 

bradyapba

Senior member
Nov 29, 2004
240
0
76
What are you hitting that is preventing you from having more than 7" clearance?


img_2012.jpg


As you can see here, the HD cage, clips in, on the blue clip, onto a post stuck into the motherboard. From the blue clip to the back of the case, is about 6.9 inches.
 

Cerb

Elite Member
Aug 26, 2000
17,484
33
86
2. Plenty of low profiles wont fit in the SFF 390s. You said "all low profiles will fit".
No, "a," not, "all." No full-height will fit. Length is almost always a consideration, even with white box/DIY. Should I have considered that in writing, rather than not thinking about it because it's a normal thing to look for? Maybe. But I didn't say all low profiles will fit.