What video card for Vostro 400 Mini Tower??

[BernardP]

Still looks to me like the 8600GT is your best bet for a minimal investment. And the price has gone down since you started this thread

If I had a new Dell, still under warranty, there is no way I would replace the case or power supply.

Since you have the PCI-E power connector, you might go to a 8600GTS for about 20% higher performance than the 8600GT, if you can find one that is fairly-priced.

Or wait for the ATI HD3850 to come out, next week, (it will destroy the 8600GTS for not much more) and the prices of the 8600 series will be quickly forced down.

And I agree that a 8800GT on even a good 300W PSU is asking for trouble.

 

[Jules]

Originally posted by: BernardP
Still looks to me like the 8600GT is your best bet for a minimal investment. And the price has gone down since you started this thread

If I had a new Dell, still under warranty, there is no way I would replace the case or power supply.

Since you have the PCI-E power connector, you might go to a 8600GTS for about 20% higher performance than the 8600GT, if you can find one that is fairly-priced.

Or wait for the ATI HD3850 to come out, next week, (it will destroy the 8600GTS for not much more) and the prices of the 8600 series will be quickly forced down.

And I agree that a 8800GT on even a good 300W PSU is asking for trouble.

Great thanks for the advice. Also i won't be getting a 8800GT. When do you think the Ati HD3850 will come out and whats the price of it?

 

[BernardP]

According to Fudzilla.com and TheInquirer.net, the 3850 is coming very soon...Next week...

Price is rumored to be much lower than 8800GT and a bit more than 8600GTS.

 

[Jules]

Would getting a HD 2600XT be a good choice?

 

[BernardP]

Originally posted by: MyStupidMouth
Would getting a HD 2600XT be a good choice?

Yes it would be good, but personnaly, I would stay on the Nvidia side because you already have Nvidia video drivers on your system. The 2600XT and 8600GT have comparable performance.

There is a slight risk that uninstalling the NVidia driver and reinstalling the ATI driver, even if you use DriverSweeper, could result in system instability. If this happens, you would have to reformat and reinstall Windows. But it's not the end of the world. You can go with the 2600XT if you prefer this card to the 8600GT.

Just make sure to work in Safe Mode and use Driver Sweeper to remove as much as possible of the NVidia driver remnants before installing the ATI driver

Even if you only want to upgrade the Nvidia driver to a newer version, you have to uninstall the previous driver first. In that case, though using Driver Sweeper is less critical.

 

[maseo305]

I just ordered this dell mini tower (e6550)...
I bought a visiontek x1650 hdmi video card a couple weeks ago...
Will the dell psu be sufficent?

This will mainly be a HTPC...

 

[Jules]

Hmm i think ill pickup the 8600GT. Is it worth it to get the 8600GTS instead?

 

[BernardP]

There is an average 20% pwerformance increase going from the GT to the GTs. The GTS needs an external PCI-E power connection, but doesn't consume that much more power.

Performance comparison on Anandtech

Power draw comparison on Legit Reviews

If you can get the GTS for not too much more, the 20% performance upgrade might be worth it. However, considering your 300W PSU, it would be safer to choose the GT.

As a compromise, you could buy a GTS at a B&M store with a no-risk return policy and thoroughly stress-test your system. If it is stable, great, if not, try the GT instead. Avoiding factory-overclocked models will also reduce power requirements.

Your Vostro is a very quiet system. I have a preference for the ASUS cards with their Zalman-style coolers which are very quiet and run cool.

Asus 8600GT

Asus 8600GTS

One of many favorable opinions on Asus cooler

Just make sure that there is enough clearance on the motherboard for this larger cooler.

 

[imported_maxdad007]

I would be really surprised if you could change out the PSU even if you wanted to. The Dells a notoriously hard to upgrade, I would probably go with the 8500 because dont the 86's need a 400w PSU to run? I would definitely check first,

 

[hans007]

the dell vostro is standard micro ATX so it should be pretty easy to upgrade now. it used to be a problem and still is on say an optiplex which is btx

 

[Jules]

So a 7950GT would be pretty much outta the question?

 

[BernardP]

Originally posted by: MyStupidMouth
So a 7950GT would be pretty much outta the question?

:brokenheart: YES

As mentionned in previous posts, if you want a card more powerful than 8600GT or 2600XT, and play it safe, you would have to spring for a new PSU.

I have another possibility for you if you can wait for awhile. There is a refresh of the NVidia 8600 series down the line, but it is months away. It will be a die-shrink from the current 80nm to 65nm. From what I have seen on Fudzilla.com, the refreshed card will look like a 8600GT, but have higher clocks and about the same performance as the current 8600GTS, all this without an external power connector. It will give you GTS performance with the lower power consumption of the GT.

But you have to wait for it. It's not too bad, as the price of the 8600GT keeps going down with time and is bound to drop a lot after the release of the ATI HD3850.

If you want to play now and spend as little as possible to do so, then your best bet is to get a 8600GT right away.

 

[Jules]

Looks like ill be getting a ATI HD3850. Now i have to figure out what PSU to put in.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: s44
Amps per rail doesn't tell you squat. Look at the max total 12V output and divide by 12.

It is only single rail, so it does tell all.

 

[BernardP]

Originally posted by: MyStupidMouth
Looks like ill be getting a ATI HD3850. Now i have to figure out what PSU to put in.

Excellent choice! The HD3850 has a fantastic price/performance ratio. You can get a lot of opinions about the PSU you need in the Power Supplies Forum.

Meanwhile, you can feast your eyes on this review of the PowerColor HD 3850. The temperature and power consumption results are excellent:

http://www.hardwarezone.com/ar...php?id=2419&cid=3&pg=7

I would get one myself, but unfortunately, it doesn't fit in my case because I have a third hard drive in the way.

 

[Jules]

Crap Ordered the HD 3850 off newegg on friday and ended up Picking up the 8800GT OC at BB for 250. It runs great on my 300 watt psu. been playing Unreal 3 for an hour or so.

 

[Jules]

Originally posted by: MyStupidMouth
Crap Ordered the HD 3850 off newegg on friday and ended up Picking up the 8800GT OC at BB for 250. It runs great on my 300 watt psu. been playing Unreal 3 for an hour or so.

If anyone wants to pick up the HD3850 off me on wensday for $170 shipped contact me.

 

[whistleclient]

MyStupidMouth,
Did the HD3850 work with the stock CPU in the Vostro, or did you figure it wouldn't work and not even bother trying?

 

[Rawplug]

Ok I've just bought a Vostro 200 Mini Tower off Dell, Can't find any info on the motherboard so am unsure whats going to fit in it...
I went with the onboard graphics so i could upgrade was looking at getting the new 8800 512 GTS but i have a feeling that definetly wont fit so was looking at the 8800GT single slot. What needs upgrading to make it work? How easy is it and where is the cheapest place i can find it...
From what i've heard the Vostro doesnt have a PCI-e power? does it have the molex plugs cause some cards come with power adaptors...

Thanks for your help

 

[caliche]

Just wanted to add details, since I did not see an answer before I bought and I can answer the question about a 3850.

I have a Vostro 400, C2D 6550, 2GB, 2 x DVD Drive and 2 x Hard Drive non-RAID. I ordered it with the NVidia 8600GT card, but noticed they added the 8600GTS which needs separate power after my order which got me thinking. Yes, the power supply is a 300W Delta DPS-300AB with the separate 6 pin connector. After looking at the cooling layout in the case, the two slot coolers looked very attractive since the newer cards are so big it would block airflow with it running so far up to the front of the case. But there were no dual slot 8800GT cards out there, and they are still running 250+.

After checking the power usage (thanks for the writeup Anandtech) I went with a HIS 3850 512MB with the dual slot IceQ 3 cooler. I figured the extra memory and overclock would probably add a little power draw, but nowhere near an 8800GT. It's factory overclocked to 720 core. I had to take out the second (lower) hard drive to get the card in but once installed the drive went right back in place. I ran the ATI Catalyst overclock test and it got up to 810MHz before the system locked up and I had to power cycle. So I am leaving it at 720MHz for now, that should be good enough for my needs (Bioshock mostly). Cranked almost everything except Anti Aliasing in Team Fortress and played for a few hours, no problem. Seems to be running very cool, the ATI tool tells me around 55 after gaming. Now I can give the 8600GT to the wife for the Sims 2, big step up from her Radeon x600.

I can't say what power supply is in the Vostro 200, but the 400 should be good for a 3850 install if you want to go that way. Adding anything else to the system would be pushing it, but onboard audio is good enough for me and I don't need a wireless adapter.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: caliche
I have a Vostro 400... the power supply is a 300W Delta DPS-300AB with the separate 6 pin connector.
...
I can't say what power supply is in the Vostro 200, but the 400 should be good for a 3850 install if you want to go that way.

I don't know about the slimline Vostro 200, but the regular mini tower Vostro 200 sitting in my garage has a Bestec 300W PSU that does NOT have a 6 pin PEG connector.

Here's my theory on these things. If your PSU does not have the connector, then don't use an adaptor as IMO you should limit yourself to any video card that does not require the extra power. The best cards available today like this would be the 8600GT or 2600XT. In the near future that might mean the Radeon 3600 series (except the potential 3680/3690) or the Nvidia 9600 series (assuming they don't need it).

Since the Delta 300W PSU has the 6 pin PEG connector, then I figure any video card that only needs one connector should be fair game.

 

[Creig]

Originally posted by: Zap
Here's my theory on these things. If your PSU does not have the connector, then don't use an adaptor as IMO you should limit yourself to any video card that does not require the extra power. The best cards available today like this would be the 8600GT or 2600XT. In the near future that might mean the Radeon 3600 series (except the potential 3680/3690) or the Nvidia 9600 series (assuming they don't need it).

Since the Delta 300W PSU has the 6 pin PEG connector, then I figure any video card that only needs one connector should be fair game.

I would have to say that you need to look more at the power supply output and total system draw rather than the fact that a system does or doesn't come with a 6-pin PEG connector. Both the Vostro 200 and Vostro 400 come with 300W power supplies, so I would imagine that the outputs on both are very similiar.

The ATI HD3870 I installed in my friend's Vostro 200 mini tower is 100% stable and working fine. But I also made sure that he kept his system to as few components as possible (Core2Duo, single HD, single DVD writer, single case fan, single CPU fan). By adding up the peak draw I concluded that an HD3870 would not push overall power consumption past 300w. In fact, I believe an 8800GT would have been acceptable as well, but they were impossible to come by at what I considered to be a decent price at the time.

I wasn't entirely enthused about having to use two adapters to get power to the video card (two SATA=>Molex and one dual Molex=>PCIe) but the end results speak for themselves. He now enjoys high FPS gaming with no stability issues whatsoever. I would have been happier if there had been a dual SATA=>PCIe adapter available, but his current arrangement has been working fine for a month now without any hint of a problem.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: Creig
I would have to say that you need to look more at the power supply output and total system draw rather than the fact that a system does or doesn't come with a 6-pin PEG connector. Both the Vostro 200 and Vostro 400 come with 300W power supplies, so I would imagine that the outputs on both are very similiar.

Two "300W" PSUs can have very different characteristics. These are made by completely different OEMs and the Delta in the Vostro 400 may have a stronger +12v.

In any case, you are right about total system power usage, but it is "easier" to just assume that Dell knows the Delta can put out an extra 75W on the +12v.