Upgrading video card for slim PC

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petes117

371 posts

Ultimate Geek

#75686 21-Jan-2011 16:24

I bought a Dell Inspiron 580s late last year and found that I'm now using it for gaming as much as anything else (the other primary use is for 3Ds Max).

I got the cheaper Geforce 310 with it so that I could spend my budget on more RAM, but now I'm thinking I want to upgrade the card too.

It is a slim machine, dimensions: 14.9 x 4.2 x 17.01 inches (HxWxD) and only has a 250w PSU so I realise my options are very limited!

I'd also prefer to stick with Nvidia since they have a reputation for playing nice with 3Ds Max.

I found this card, a Geforce GT 430:
http://www.techworld.co.nz/palit-gddr3-p-33612.html
http://www.nvidia.com/object/product-geforce-gt-430-us.html

Anyone had any experience with it? Any good for gaming and/or 3DsMax? And will it fit it the slim machine and work on a small psu?

Any suggestions for other cards are welcome too!

Cheers :)

petes117

371 posts

Ultimate Geek

#431211 25-Jan-2011 22:01

Well I've got the Gigabyte Geforce GT 430 on order now... will post my results here if anyone is interested. I do hope it doesn't fry my PC! haha

gzt

17134 posts

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#431228 25-Jan-2011 23:18

Gaming is about the most intensive thing you can do with a pc, how close will you go the limit of the psu?

What is the cpu type and speed and the rated power of the card?

petes117

371 posts

Ultimate Geek

#431230 25-Jan-2011 23:33

gzt: Gaming is about the most intensive thing you can do with a pc, how close will you go the limit of the psu?

What is the cpu type and speed and the rated power of the card?

I have i3-550 @ 3.2ghz and also 4x2gb ddr3 ram. I believe the geforce gt430 power rating is 49w, I've no idea how close it will get me to the limit of the psu...

gzt

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#431242 26-Jan-2011 00:08

Well, the TDP for that processor is 73W - on a motherboard with everything else, using this as a reference I'll take a wild stab in the dark and say total system consumption might be 150W maximum under stress. + your 50W card that gets us to 200W. You always want a bit of headroom so that will be close with your 250W power supply. Might be a good idea to disconnect all peripherals when you are gaming ; )

If you can find a manufacturer name and model on the motherboard (some are made by asus etc) you might be able to research a more accurate figure for the system.

Also, the gaming forum might be the best place to talk to the experts on this ; )

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gzt

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#431258 26-Jan-2011 07:34

Alternatively - your existing gforce 310 is rated at 31W. So your system load will increase by approx 19W with the new card.

jbard

1377 posts

Uber Geek

#431287 26-Jan-2011 09:18

I found after upgrading the graphics card in my slim PC it just became far to hot and although it never fully overheated all the fans were going on fulll even doing simple things like watching a youtube video. And because it was a slim PC their was no room to add in extra fans.

gzt

17134 posts

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#431291 26-Jan-2011 09:24

Sounds bad. Did it have a specific case exhaust fan? or just cpu and gpu fans?

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jbard

1377 posts

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#431293 26-Jan-2011 09:28

No their was simply no room for case fans which was more than likely my problem, but the few slim PC's i have come accross all seem to lack a decent case fan - some have none and others have tiny things that do next to nothing.

gzt

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#431299 26-Jan-2011 09:43

Adding another source of heat + a gpu fan most likely completely changes the airflow the enclosure designer had in mind.

A solution to the problem might be a nice clean hole in the case panel and mounting an extraction fan on the outside.

petes117

371 posts

Ultimate Geek

#431323 26-Jan-2011 10:38

I'm hoping the twin fans that come with the gigabyte version of the geforce gt430 will help with cooling too

gzt

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#431324 26-Jan-2011 10:50

Exactly which model are you getting?

petes117

371 posts

Ultimate Geek

#431329 26-Jan-2011 10:59

gzt: Exactly which model are you getting?

Gigabyte nVidia Geforce GT430 OC 1GB GDDR3 PCI-E

gzt

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#431336 26-Jan-2011 11:34

My guess is the the OC version uses more power than standard. GB don't supply a specific power figure on their website for some reason.

This psu calculator is interesting: http://www.antec.outervision.com/PSUEngine

Also, the wattage rating on a psu is a total wattage rating and in itself does not tell you how many watts it will supply on the 12v rail - this powers the card. Have close look at your psu. Might have a sticker saying exactly how many watts it is rated for each output. It would be a good idea to get the model number of your psu and find the detailed specs on it.

petes117

371 posts

Ultimate Geek

#432377 28-Jan-2011 19:29

Thanks GZT, I tried that psu calculator and it came to 226w so I guess that should be alright. Though to be fair some of the info I input were guesses.

Anyway the card arrived today and after a quick trip to teh Warehouse for a pair of pliers so I could switch out the bracket for the low-profile one I chucked it in the pc, installed the drivers and ran a few games.

First thing I noticed was some excessive heat and noise coming from the pc, even before I got to the gaming. Luckily I remembered that was because I had moved a cable in the pc to access the video card and it was blocking one of the fans.
Since putting it back the pc seems to be running at a similar heat and noise level as before so that is a huge relief!

I fired up Dirt 2 and could run it at medium settings with 4xAA at 1280x768 and keep a nice 60FPS.

Crysis managed to run nicely on High settings with no AA, quite playable.

Other games like Batman: Arkham Asylum, Dead Space and Mass Effect I managed to max out the settings at 1920x1200 and still get very playable FPS.

Overall I'm very happy, its a huge improvement over my barely 2 months old Geforce 310 (which couldn't even run Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse at max settings, how sad is that). I probably won't be able to add anything else to my system without a new psu but I don't really need to anyway.

I might also mention that on the back of the box it says the minimum power supply requirements are a 400w psu with a minimum 12V current rating of22A.
This was higher than the other brands of Geforce GT430 (which required only 300w).

Interesting that it still works on a 250w :P