Dell XPS 710 Upgrade

T-b0n3

Hi, I'm just looking for a bit of upgrading advice.

I have a Dell XPS 710 I got from the dell ebay outlet a while back. I found it from boards and think a good few others got one.

Anyway it's gotten to the stage where I think a little upgrade would be good. I'd be mainly upgrading it with the intention of playing some newer games. I hate playing games with low frames per second hence why I'm still playing team fortress classic and counter strike 1.6.

Spec:
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU @2.66GHz
Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB
4GB RAM
Windows 7 Ultimate x64
Razer Deathadder mouse and Trantula keyboard.
5.1 Inspire T5400 (but it's a bit dodgy)

I have two monitors and a TV ideally I'd like to be able to hook up all 3 at once. Currently I can only use 2 at one time.

So I'm thinking maybe upgrading to HD 6870
which seems to be a decent step up from my 8800GTX, stats
and the power consumption is less so I assume I won't need to upgrade the PSU?

And maybe new speakers. Thinking Logitech X-530 5.1

Any recommendations or anything I glossed over??

Much thanks.

Monotype

Best thing is to find out if your power supply unit is enough. Even if there's already the 8800GTX in there, it's better to be sure. I suggest that you open up the case and take a photograph of the table on the side of the PSU.

ShadowHearth had a Dell a while ago that he put a 6870 that managed OK. I think his CPU was a Q6600 though while yours looks like Q6700 so consumption would be a bit higher. If it was sold by Dell with the 8800GTX, I'd expect them to put in a better PSU.

Also just count the power connectors going from the PSU to the 8800GTX. A 6870 requires two and I think the 8800GTX was two as well.

ShadowHearth

well you got gtx 8800, so it should be 425w psu. dells psu are really nice for low wattage.

my old rig is prety much same system - xps420. it had 8800GT, so i bought 6870, which improved performance dramaticly.


its a great card for very reasonable money.

cyburger

I've a 710 H2C, which came with a 1KW PSU (becasue of the TECs i suppose) but I think from the manual that the normal, non H2Cs came with a 750W supply. If you take the cover off there should be a black sticker on the PSU (at the very top of the case) which will have the details.

The case is BTX, so it's quite a lot of work to change over to ATX (I know because it took me a long time and a lot of dremmel cutting discs...) so upgrading the graphics card is probably the limit - a normal PSU won't work with that motherboard without modifications either. Unless you get a mobo from a 720 and a QX6580 CPU or something.

ShadowHearth

Why on earth would you want to change psu if you got 750w in there?!?!

If the 710 came with 750w psu, then it's the last thing he need to worry about.

On the other hand I don't know if there is point putting anything higher then 6870 in there. It won't be cost efficient and might be bottlenecked.

If op wants to squizze more life out of that pc for a year or two then 6870 will do the job. anything more then that is a waste of money.

cyburger

Sorry, that was the point I had tried to make - I thought I had a line in there saying that the only value for money upgrade was the GPU, but I must have chopped it out accidentally before posting.

I'm not sure about the PSU being 750W, I was just highlighting that the Dell PSU is not an ATX standard unit in case he decided he wanted to change it.

The rest was also to highlight the limited options to the OP in case he thought about getting a different motherboard etc... not everyone knows the 710 is a BTX.

T-b0n3

Yea thanks for all the help lads. I'll open her up tomorrow and get back with the PSU details.

Yea I had kind of figured a GPU upgrade would be about the only thing worth doing.

Would it make a big difference playing newer FPS games yea?

And I assume I could run three monitors off a 6870?

Thanks again.

ShadowHearth

T-b0n3 wrote: »

Yea thanks for all the help lads. I'll open her up tomorrow and get back with the PSU details.

Yea I had kind of figured a GPU upgrade would be about the only thing worth doing.

Would it make a big difference playing newer FPS games yea?

And I assume I could run three monitors off a 6870?

Thanks again.

the reason i upgraded from 8800gt to 6870 - witcher 2.

it went from low settings unplayable to maxed (ish) out with 5million fps.

what resolution you plan to play on? that card can do nice at 1650x1050 and 1080p.

you can forget eyefinity though. even 1x6970 wount cut it on higher settings.

T-b0n3

ShadowHearth wrote: »

the reason i upgraded from 8800gt to 6870 - witcher 2.

it went from low settings unplayable to maxed (ish) out with 5million fps.

what resolution you plan to play on? that card can do nice at 1650x1050 and 1080p.

you can forget eyefinity though. even 1x6970 wount cut it on higher settings.

I use 1680x1050 on my monitor. Its a Samsung Syncmaster 226BW.

Yea sounds exactly what I need really.

Thanks again.

ShadowHearth

Let us know how you get on m8.

Monotype

You'd struggle in a lot of games running 3 monitors at that resolution, but it is possible to use three monitors as long as one of the monitors has a displayport connection or an active displayport adapter (don't get the cheap 'passive' ones, they won't work).

T-b0n3

Monotype wrote: »

You'd struggle in a lot of games running 3 monitors at that resolution, but it is possible to use three monitors as long as one of the monitors has a displayport connection or an active displayport adapter (don't get the cheap 'passive' ones, they won't work).

I just use one whilst playing a game but it's very handy to be able to have the internet on my main one, with my TV playing some avi and maybe IRC or something on my older dell monitor.

Would it make a difference having them active while playing games even if the game is just on my main on? Sure it's easy to deactivate them if needs be during gaming.

ShadowHearth

Oh. You wanted 2 monitor setup?

I though you wanted eyefinity gaming.

On that pc with 6870 I used 1650x1050 as main monitor and 1080p one as extension. Played games on main and had south park/father ted/American dad/family guy on loop

There is no major performance hit when you got 2xmonitors. If there is something simple on second monitor, then there won't be difference at all. 6870 will be plenty.

T-b0n3

ShadowHearth wrote: »

Oh. You wanted 2 monitor setup?

I though you wanted eyefinity gaming.

On that pc with 6870 I used 1650x1050 as main monitor and 1080p one as extension. Played games on main and had south park/father ted/American dad/family guy on loop

There is no major performance hit when you got 2xmonitors. If there is something simple on second monitor, then there won't be difference at all. 6870 will be plenty.

Sorry I don't know what eyefinity is. But I have my TV and monitor both working at the moment, but ideally I'd like to be able to have both of the above along with my older dell monitor to make it a total of 3. Assume it could handle that too?

Thanks, and sorry for the confusion.

ShadowHearth

Would you even need all 3 though? I barely manage to fill in two with information I need. Ofc I can fill in with bull****, but why waste memory and performance etc?

If you will want to use all 3 then you will have to get adapter mentioned before.