Dell Upgrade - GPU/CPU/PSU upgrade?

[burberryjam]

Must be a common sight for you all, sorry to be a pain!

I have an old Dell inspiron 570 with:

Dell Dimension 4800 PSU rated 350W (good 5+ years old now...)
Dell 04GJJT AM3 Motherboard (DDR3, SATAII)
Athlon II X4 630 2.8ghz Propus
4gb DDR3
600gb SATA (being demoted to storage by a 128gb Samsung 830)
XFX 9600 GSO 384mb
CD/DVD rewriter

My questions are, is it worth upgrading the processor (i think no)?, what gpu can i upgrade to and is it worth it (looking to spend max. £50)? and finally do i need to upgrade my PSU if I don't upgrade anything?

I have just been sitting on ebay looking at graphics cards in my budget and see I can upgrade within my budget but dont want to upgrade my PSU right now if I dont need to.

Really appreciate any help/advice you guys can offer!

[Samwood]

You probably wont need to upgrade the processor, it will become a bottle neck in some games, but shouldn't be too bad.

Around the £50 mark the AMD HD 6670 is a good choice. I.e. http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-a...ort-dvi-i-hdmi

PSU upgrade is up to you, 5 years old it getting on a bit, I would upgrade if I was you.
Something like an XFX Pro 450W should do the trick for your system. http://www.scan.co.uk/products/450w-...n-atx-v231-psu

[burberryjam]

Thanks for the reply Samwood

I had dismissed any XFX as the larger wattages arent standard ATX dimensions... but the XFX Pro 450W conforms and is pretty cheap - and gets a funny but OK review from JohnnyGuru. I might just get that PSU, thanks for the recommendation.

Re the 6670, I have been poring over statistics (hwcompare, toms, reviews) and came to the conclusion I should only go for an HD x7xx / x8xx GTX / GTX x60 or above to see a noticable improvement on the 9600 gso. Would you agree with this conclusion? I have yet to overclock the gso which could squeeze some more performance out of it...

[b0redom]

Make sure it will all fit first. Dell/HP etc sometimes use components which are non-standard - including PSUs etc.

[burberryjam]

Done my research, standard 150x86x140 will fit. Hence my trepidation on XFX (larger wattages are deeper units), but the 450W fits.

My PSU shortlist is (in order):
Silverstone Strider Essential 500W http://www.scan.co.uk/products/500w-...24x7-use-ready!
XFX Pro Core 450W http://www.scan.co.uk/products/450w-...n-atx-v231-psu
Corsair 430CX http://www.scan.co.uk/products/430w-...an-atx-v23-psu

as for the GPU, my budget is around £50 and will be using ebay, not new. Not sure if I will need a >500W PSU if that's my budget but hey good to plan ahead, im still using a 5yr old dell 350W psu after all!

[scaryjim]

I have been poring over statistics (hwcompare, toms, reviews) and came to the conclusion I should only go for an HD x7xx / x8xx GTX / GTX x60 or above to see a noticable improvement on the 9600 gso. Would you agree with this conclusion?

No. The HD4670 had similar performance to the 9600GSO. The 6670 will be a noticeable improvement. Sure, the 6750/6770/7750 are more powerful still, but a 6670 is a reasonable step up from the GSO

[burberryjam]

I bought the gso for about £20 and so would loathe spending £30 on something with ~10-20% improvement when I can spend £50 and get ~50% improvement. I use my 32" 1080p tv to game, any recommendations? Should I perhaps revise my minimum down from HD x7xx to x6xx? Ill always try and shoot for 1gb cards but would 512mb cut it?

also out of interest are you comparing 6670 to the old 192bit gso or the 256bit gso?

Trouble is at the end of the day I dont need all the eye candy turned on so I am really splitting hairs now as I am sure any card within a certain range will suit me just fine.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I would go for the XFX PSU as it is made by Seasonic and is 140MM long IIRC.

Ebuyer seems to sell an HD4850 GDDR5 for around £65:

http://www.ebuyer.com/320045-powerco...4850-1gbd5-hv3

It lacks DX11,but should be faster overall than an HD6670 GDDR5,although the latter consumes much less power and has better media decoding abilities. The HD6670 GDDR5 is around HD4830 GDDR3 level AFAIK.

However,this HD6750 GDDR5 is probably what I would get:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/XFX-ATI-Ra...item416acd1f8c

It appears to be a short PCB HD6750 too.

[Samwood]

Thanks for the reply Samwood

I had dismissed any XFX as the larger wattages arent standard ATX dimensions... but the XFX Pro 450W conforms and is pretty cheap - and gets a funny but OK review from JohnnyGuru. I might just get that PSU, thanks for the recommendation.

Re the 6670, I have been poring over statistics (hwcompare, toms, reviews) and came to the conclusion I should only go for an HD x7xx / x8xx GTX / GTX x60 or above to see a noticable improvement on the 9600 gso. Would you agree with this conclusion? I have yet to overclock the gso which could squeeze some more performance out of it...

The XFX has a few minor shortfalls, i.e. the CPU power cable is slightly too short (to be ideal) for my case. But its a Seasonic OEM, extremely cheap and is the only PSU around that price point that has braided cables (which look very nice). So all in all, I'm happy with my purchase & strongly recommend it as a solid budget option.

I agree with what you are saying about the AMD x7xx & x8xx, they are great cards, good OC'ing room. I'm, personally, not a fan of nVidia.
Quick note about the AMD cards tho, the HD 5000 series used a silghtly different numbering system to the 4000 and 6000 series, so there isn't a direct linear progression from one generation to the next.

If you can push your budget a little I would recommend somthing like this HD 6850:
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-x...oogle+shopping
Given that £30 (the price difference) is the price of 1 new game, I think its worth it (around a 35% performance bump over the 6670).

[burberryjam]

The XFX has a few minor shortfalls, i.e. the CPU power cable is slightly too short (to be ideal) for my case.

Another reason for me to upgrade is that my current cables are too short to plug everything in - I have to power off and switch cables if I want access to my storage hd / dvd drive... I want to go ahead and buy that XFX but it is out of stock - anyone have an opinion on the silverstone strider essential 500W? Specs are very similar to the XFX and it is in stock. http://www.scan.co.uk/products/500w-...24x7-use-ready!

I am content to be a few years behind newest tech to hit the sweet spot in pricing. Does anyone know where the best bargains can be found in this space right now? I actually took this too far with my last pc and found upgrades to be way more expensive than the new stuff due to shortages! My guess is the HD 4xxx range and the GTX 4XX range, so am looking at that 4850 at the moment.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Another reason for me to upgrade is that my current cables are too short to plug everything in - I have to power off and switch cables if I want access to my storage hd / dvd drive... I want to go ahead and buy that XFX but it is out of stock - anyone have an opinion on the silverstone strider essential 500W? Specs are very similar to the XFX and it is in stock. http://www.scan.co.uk/products/500w-...24x7-use-ready!

I am content to be a few years behind newest tech to hit the sweet spot in pricing. Does anyone know where the best bargains can be found in this space right now? I actually took this too far with my last pc and found upgrades to be way more expensive than the new stuff due to shortages! My guess is the HD 4xxx range and the GTX 4XX range, so am looking at that 4850 at the moment.

The cables in the Dell PSUs are probably especially short though and you can always get extension cables anyway. The XFX is not only made by Seasonic but also uses mostly good quality Japanese capacitors and a a ball bearing fan. Most of the cheaper PSUs skimp and use sleeve bearing fans,which tend to wear out quicker in cases with poor ventilation.

You can get the XFX from this seller:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Xfx-Pro-45...#ht_851wt_1139

I got my current PSU from them.

I would also consider that HD6750 I linked to also. It should be around the same speed as the HD4850 I suspect,but has DX11 and consumes less power too. Games like WoW actually run quicker under DX11.

[holy god of nil]

edit. nvm

[burberryjam]

Great. Will have a think and let you know what happens! Payday on Tuesday.

What think you of a 2nd hand 4890 toxic for £50? Would the 450w xfx cover it?

[Samwood]

Yes the XFX 450W will supply enough power to the 4890 toxic. Just make sure that the molex-to-PCIE converters are included (the XFX only has 1x6-pin PCIE), quick mail to the seller should clarify this.

This shows what you should get with the GPU: http://www.overclockersclub.com/revi.../images/7a.htm

[burberryjam]

The xfx has 1x6pin and 1x6+2 pin according to scan, jonnyguru, novatech - as an owner ill trust you if you refute this?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The xfx has 1x6pin and 1x6+2 pin according to scan, jonnyguru, novatech - as an owner ill trust you if you refute this?

The second revision of the PSU came with less cables.