Video card size issues

R

Rabid Ewoks

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Joined
Nov 21, 2008
Messages
162
Hi everyone!


I just bought myself a Nvidia GTX 260 for my Dell Dimension 5150 and it is a total loss because of the thickness of the card :(

So I am going to RMA the card in the morning back to Newegg.


So does anyone have any suggestion on a decent well priced video card that should be able to install in a cramped BTX case? I have a free PCI-E x16 version 1 slot available. Also it has to be Nvidia because ATI sucks when it comes to drivers in Linux.


I was thinking about going with this card below. Any ideas?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814187056



[EDIT]
This link below are some loose specs on my system.
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim5150/en/sm/specs1.htm#wp1052310
 
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just take a new case it would be much cheaper and then youll get better preformance with the 260
 
Are you sure?

Most of the cases I have seen are for ATX, not BTX like what I have. Also it seems I would also have to buy a new heatsink since the one I have is proprietary. The front of the case has a fan that blows through the plastic vent that directs the airflow through the heatsink. Picture below

I mean I would love to keep the 260, but I don't want to drop alot more money either :/


Any suggestions?



7767_front209.jpg
 
Hmm, I looked it over....


Newegg has only 2 cases for BTX motherboards. One $20 cheapy and a Thermaltake for $300, so that is a no go.


Suppose I was to buy a ATX motherboard well that isn't good either because for the Pentium4 again there are 2 choices and none of them would be upgrades.


I wish I could keep the 260, but that would be a expensive "upgrade" to buy a case, motherboard, and cpu.

[EDIT] Unless there is a cheap deal I think a smaller video card would be appropriate. Any suggestions anyone?
 
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Pentium 4? You are totally CPU-limited. The 260 is a waste. Get something like an old Nvidia 8800 and save the bucks. Get more memory as well, and call it a day.
 
Yeah, I don't think a Pentium 4 is going to be able to keep up with the 260. Either get an older video card(like bigwilly suggested) or do a full upgrade.
 
yeah pentium 4 will for sure bottleneck a 260. I you want though you best bet would probably be a 9800 as it should fit in that case and it wont bottleneck. Yeah, do that.
 
if your having real problems with size you can always take out that stupid air flow thing and mod your case to allow space for another 120 mm fan. If you can get your hands on a dremel tool kit then your set. But definetly do the 9800 upgrade. Get some newer RAM too while your at it lol...oh and can you maybe pick up my 3rd GTX 285 while your there. lol
 
bigwilly said:
Pentium 4? You are totally CPU-limited. The 260 is a waste. Get something like an old Nvidia 8800 and save the bucks. Get more memory as well, and call it a day.
Click to expand...

+1, that P4 is gonna hold back ur 260(bottlenecking your GPU), so ill do like bigwilly said, get a 8800 and save some bucks.

Either way that "plastic vent" its gonna give u trouble, believe me, my cuz had one just like that, 8800GTS and Dell desktop with same CPU and everything, and he had to cut one of the corners of it to fit the card.
 
Alrighty,

Looks like I am going to have to get a decent bare bones kit from Tigerdirect. Thanks everyone for solving that question.
 
Also, the 305W power supply in that dell will not power a GTX 260. I'm not sure how well it would even do with a 8800.

Hate to say it, but it's time to build yourself a new computer. Post your budget and we'll look at what we can salvage from your last computer, and build you something nice!
 
definitely time for an upgrade. you can still keep the 260, and give us a budget for a build. and a preference for the CPU brand.
 
Ive found some cheap bare bone kits on TigerDirect for around $400 with a quad core processor and 4GB of ram, but no GPU. Tell us a budget and we could find you a good set up.
 
Thanks everyone for the advice.


I think I am going to wait about 2 more months before I buy anything else. So I don't want to waste everyone's time on helping me get a good build and then sit on it for a few months. Things change and hopefully there will be some good holiday sales (cough* Black Friday).


One thing is for sure though I that I am going to salvage everything I can off my older computer.


Again thank you everyone for the advice and tips. I will defiantly post again when I ready to purchase everything :)
 
Unfortunately, the Dell motherboard doesn't have 775 (or any for that matter) mounting holes for an after market HS/F. You'd be hard pressed to try to rig one in too, with the amount of pressure thats needed. I modded my wife's e510 (same setup as yours), by throwing a second 120 of the motherboard side of the duct you showed us. Just an FYI for the 120 in there now, with a stupid Dell proprietary PWM 4pin connector, starts to make noise.

As you have found out for yourself, I too was limited to a single slot GPU. The highest I went for her in that system was a 4670. You can find some nice 88xx/98xx series GPU's in single slot format, to put in there. Be warned though, I don't recall her Dell PSU having a 6/8 pin GPU 12 volt connector though (hence I upgraded the PSU too). On that P4 system there may not me enough juice on the 12 volt rails to use a molex - 6 pin convector either.

You mentioned that you use Linux. The only reason I held off on upgrading her system to a new board/cpu/case was because of the new OS cost. Find a good combo deal on a system and add on.

cg
 
netmare said:
Unfortunately, the Dell motherboard doesn't have 775 (or any for that matter) mounting holes for an after market HS/F. You'd be hard pressed to try to rig one in too, with the amount of pressure thats needed. I modded my wife's e510 (same setup as yours), by throwing a second 120 of the motherboard side of the duct you showed us. Just an FYI for the 120 in there now, with a stupid Dell proprietary PWM 4pin connector, starts to make noise.

As you have found out for yourself, I too was limited to a single slot GPU. The highest I went for her in that system was a 4670. You can find some nice 88xx/98xx series GPU's in single slot format, to put in there. Be warned though, I don't recall her Dell PSU having a 6/8 pin GPU 12 volt connector though (hence I upgraded the PSU too). On that P4 system there may not me enough juice on the 12 volt rails to use a molex - 6 pin convector either.

You mentioned that you use Linux. The only reason I held off on upgrading her system to a new board/cpu/case was because of the new OS cost. Find a good combo deal on a system and add on.

cg
Click to expand...

Thanks,

ATI has HORRIBLE support for Linux. At most your able to do 2d stuff, but when you start doing 3d performance is horrible. With Linux I am able to modify the kernel and remove all the fluff and have a custom built OS for my gaming needs. I am not limited to Linux it's just that I have the best performance using it.

Anyone know of the highest version of Nvidia cards that use a single slot spec?
 
What do you guys think about this card?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814162022


Most importantly it is a single slot card. Also I think it is the the last of the PCI-E v1 x16. Am I right thinking that having a video card supporting PCI-E v2 would be a waste of money with the current setup I have now.

EDIT: Answered my own question the 9800 GTX is the beginning of the dual slot cards. But anything after the 9500 GT starts using version two of PCIe. (Not that it matters because of cross compatibility but your not able to take advantage of the extra bandwidth?)

EDIT2: Hey thanks for the all the advice up to now but I have another question and it's about LCD monitors. What do you look for when you are buying a monitor? Is it contrast, response time, size (widescreen?), or brightness?
 
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Rabid Ewoks said:
What do you guys think about this card?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814162022


Most importantly it is a single slot card. Also I think it is the the last of the PCI-E v1 x16. Am I right thinking that having a video card supporting PCI-E v2 would be a waste of money with the current setup I have now.

EDIT: Answered my own question the 9800 GTX is the beginning of the dual slot cards. But anything after the 9500 GT starts using version two of PCIe. (Not that it matters because of cross compatibility but your not able to take advantage of the extra bandwidth?)

EDIT2: Hey thanks for the all the advice up to now but I have another question and it's about LCD monitors. What do you look for when you are buying a monitor? Is it contrast, response time, size (widescreen?), or brightness?
Click to expand...

in a monitor, you look for all of those things. but size and resolution are one of the "bigger" things to look for.
but for contrast ratios, dont look at the dynamic ratio. it lies. and 5ms and below is good. brightness is up to personal preference.
 
Have you ever thought of just buying a new case??? might solve all your problems... My two cents any way...
 
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