My Q6600 Dell 530 still running well...what video card recommended?

stuman74

Senior member
Oct 26, 1999
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I passed to my son my old Dell 530 that has a quad-core Q6600 processor. Fine for his needs, even gaming. I used to have a nVidia 8600 GTS video card in it, but it started having errors and I had to pull it.

What video card would be recommended for this old machine? I'm hoping I can get another year out of it. As for gaming, he plays Minecraft and all the Lego games on it. Thanks!
 

NTMBK

Lifer
Nov 14, 2011
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Anything up to and including a Radeon HD7850 would be a good match for that processor, to be honest. You'll probably need to upgrade your power supply, as it seems that it only has a 300W one. How much are you looking to spend?

Also, it's a shame that Dell BIOSes are locked to prevent overclocking. The Q6600 is a notoriously good overclocker, and you could easily get more than another year out of it if you could crank up the clocks. I wonder if there are any BIOS hacks to let you OC it?
 

lagokc

Senior member
Mar 27, 2013
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I'd probably go with a Radeon 7750. It's more than powerful enough for his needs, under $100, and low power/heat which means high reliability.
 

stuman74

Senior member
Oct 26, 1999
874
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Anything up to and including a Radeon HD7850 would be a good match for that processor, to be honest. You'll probably need to upgrade your power supply, as it seems that it only has a 300W one. How much are you looking to spend?

Also, it's a shame that Dell BIOSes are locked to prevent overclocking. The Q6600 is a notoriously good overclocker, and you could easily get more than another year out of it if you could crank up the clocks. I wonder if there are any BIOS hacks to let you OC it?

Thanks for the feedback. Honestly, I'm looking to only spend $50-$80 on the video card upgrade. I don't want to invest much more into this machine, but that amount would be ok for me if it got another year out of it. Then I can pass him a different computer in the house.

The 8600 GTS card ran fine with the stock power supply, but a couple weeks ago the computer had an issue where it would try to start up 3 times before booting into Windows. Per searches, may posts indicated it was the video card. I pulled the card, and it has been fine ever since. Just hoping to replace it with something at least as good.
 

NTMBK

Lifer
Nov 14, 2011
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Thanks for the feedback. Honestly, I'm looking to only spend $50-$80 on the video card upgrade. I don't want to invest much more into this machine, but that amount would be ok for me if it got another year out of it. Then I can pass him a different computer in the house.

The 8600 GTS card ran fine with the stock power supply, but a couple weeks ago the computer had an issue where it would try to start up 3 times before booting into Windows. Per searches, may posts indicated it was the video card. I pulled the card, and it has been fine ever since. Just hoping to replace it with something at least as good.

If you could stretch that budget to $100 I would recommend the HD7750 like the user above. Otherwise, a HD6670 would probably be your best bet- make sure you get one with GDDR5 memory, not DDR3!
 

stuman74

Senior member
Oct 26, 1999
874
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PCIe 3.0 is backward compatible with 1.0 and the reduced bandwidth won't make any difference to a low end card like that.

7750 $88 after rebate and shipping:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102969

6670 $70 after rebate and shipping

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150577

I'd lean toward the 7750 though, and like he said avoid any DDR3 cards.

Thanks! Ha, I was just on the Newegg site as well looking at this fanless 6670 ($75 after rebate):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102950

Somewhere, I need to find out the power draw though of the cards. I really don't want to invest in upgrading the PS as well. The PS that is in there is a LiteON PS-6351-2 350W.
 
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stuman74

Senior member
Oct 26, 1999
874
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The HD7750 actually has lower power draw than the 6670- it is more modern and uses smaller transistors. 7750 is about 55W, 6670 is about 65W.

By the way, Dell actually list the 7750 as a supported upgrade for the 530 on their support website:

http://accessories.dell.com/sna/Pfy...y_id=4000&c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&mfgpid=223429

So you can rely on their PCIe forwards compatibility working properly. :)

Thanks! I wasn't aware that 7750 drew less power.

I just got a Newegg email a few minutes ago. They list this other card on sale, but it says it needs a 400W PS:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-14202011-L05C

The more I look at these cards, the more I look like I'm gonna spend. I might just get the boy an Xbox. ;)
 

NTMBK

Lifer
Nov 14, 2011
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The more I look at these cards, the more I look like I'm gonna spend. I might just get the boy an Xbox. ;)

Not a bad choice, although Minecraft on the XBox is a lot worse than the PC (it has a lot less features). And you'll probably wind up having to pay a yearly fee for XBox Live for him to play online!
 

f1sherman

Platinum Member
Apr 5, 2011
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Thanks! I wasn't aware that 7750 drew less power.

I just got a Newegg email a few minutes ago. They list this other card on sale, but it says it needs a 400W PS:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-14202011-L05C

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...CE&PageSize=20

faster, cheaper and comes with $75 in-game coupon
runawaypdyqn.gif
 

flexy

Diamond Member
Sep 28, 2001
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My PC is about 900 years old, I still have my old, trusty Q6600 at 3.6Ghz. I am playing ANY new game out there (660 TI) with no problems whatsoever. TR, Crysis 3, Far Cry 3, etc...I see no reason to upgrade my CPU (YET).
 

Sheep

Golden Member
Jun 13, 2006
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I just added a 7950 to my non-overclocked Q6600 PC thinking I'd upgrade the CPU a little further down the line. The improvement in gaming performance from my old 6670 is absolutely mind-blowing even with the old CPU. Just flipping the settings to their highest level without further tweaks, I can run Tomb Raider, BioShock Infinite and Sleeping Dogs on high/ultra/max settings at 45+ fps in 1080p; I'm almost certain I can increase the framerate further by turning off stuff I personally can't see (like uber levels of AA or anisotropic filtering).

This might be a bit overkill for your son's gaming needs, though. :)
 

stuman74

Senior member
Oct 26, 1999
874
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I know...if I was a gamer and it was for me, I'd be probably spending double or triple on the video card. But really for his Minecraft and Lego games, he'll just have to "make do" with a good-enough card.

I wound up getting that Galaxy GT 640 from my local Best Buy. $75 and I can mail in that $20 rebate (plus get a couple bucks in RZ certs). Worst-case, if the card sucks or I have a problem, I can return the card to BB within 60 days because I have RZ Silver status. The kid should be pretty darn happy with having what he has.

Old video card:
http://www3.pny.com/font-color9999998600-GTS-256MB-PCIefont-P2348C396.aspx

New video card:
http://www.galaxytechus.com/usa/productview.aspx?id=188
 

Sheep

Golden Member
Jun 13, 2006
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Absolutely. Kids today don't know how good they have it with video games. In my day, we played our lousy 64 color games featuring low-resolution sprites with far too few frames of animation AND WE LIKED IT. </grumpy old man>

Just pointing out that should the need arise, the Q6600 can function more than adequately with even higher-end GPUs (much to my shock).
 

stuman74

Senior member
Oct 26, 1999
874
1
81
Absolutely. Kids today don't know how good they have it with video games. In my day, we played our lousy 64 color games featuring low-resolution sprites with far too few frames of animation AND WE LIKED IT. </grumpy old man>

Just pointing out that should the need arise, the Q6600 can function more than adequately with even higher-end GPUs (much to my shock).

Did the games even have 64 colors? :) I was born in '74 so I was glad to have an Atari 2600 and then Intellivision as a kid. But even today with our Wii, I downloaded some of the classics from the 80's and the kids love them (Super Mario Bros., Tecmo Bowl, Donkey Kong, Excitebike, etc.). Even though the graphics are crap by today's standards, they are still fun.

And I still destroy them every time in Tecmo Bowl ;)