My son wants to upgrade his computer to more of a gaming computer...

raini_dae · Dec 5, 2013

I am hoping that someone can help me so I can get him everything that he needs to do that for Christmas.

Here's what he currently has:

Inspiron 580

Operating System: Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium, 64 Bit, English

Processors: Intel Core i3-550 processor (4MB Cache, 3.20GHz)

Memory: 6GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz- 3 DIMMs

Video Card: 1TB - 7200RPM, SATA 3.0Gb/s, 16MB Cache

Network Card: Integrated 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet

Optical Drives: 16X DVD+/- RW Drive

Any information you can give me, would be EXTREMELY helpful! I have no idea what any of the things that I just typed even mean...

Thank you so much!
Raini F.

derekullo · Dec 5, 2013

Press the "windows key" and "R" at the same time.
In the box that comes up type "explorer.exe" without quotations.
In the white area on the screen, not on an icon, right click and goto properties.
On the left side click Device manager.
In the huge list it gives you look for an item called Display adapters.
Expand that item.
Can you tell us what it says under that?

rolli59 · Dec 5, 2013

He would need a new PSU and GPU.
Good budget PSU http://pcpartpicker.com/part/evga-power-supply-100b10500kr
Suitable GPU http://pcpartpicker.com/part/msi-video-card-r78702gd5toc
That would be the max card I would match to his system.

derekullo · Dec 5, 2013

He can't buy any PSU because of the proprietary nature of Dell PSU.

rolli59 · Dec 5, 2013

derekullo :

That stupid thing stopped many years ago!

raini_dae · Dec 5, 2013

derekullo :

After typing in explorer.exe, it takes me to the Library folder. No properties to click on...

derekullo · Dec 5, 2013

Sorry i guess i made it overly complicated.

Press the "windows key" and "R" at the same time.

In the box that comes up type "devmgmt.msc" without quotations.

In the huge list it gives you look for an item called Display adapters.

Expand that item.

Can you tell us what it says under that?

This is important because we need to know what graphics card you have so that we will know what you can replace it with.

My last dell was a 2004 xps and it did indeed had a proprietary power supply. A lot could have changed since then. Without being able to see a picture of it i'm unsure if you could tell the difference.

derekullo · Dec 5, 2013

If the power supply has any writing on the back it would be helpful if you posted it here.
You may have to open the case to see more writing on the sides.

raini_dae · Dec 5, 2013

derekullo :

Sorry i guess i made it overly complicated.

Press the "windows key" and "R" at the same time.

In the box that comes up type "devmgmt.msc" without quotations.

In the huge list it gives you look for an item called Display adapters.

Expand that item.

Can you tell us what it says under that?

This is important because we need to know what graphics card you have so that we will know what you can replace it with.

My last dell was a 2004 xps and it did indeed had a proprietary power supply. A lot could have changed since then. Without being able to see a picture of it i'm unsure if you could tell the difference.

NVIDIA GeForce GT 420

derekullo · Dec 5, 2013

Ok so looking that up it on

http://www.nvidia.com/object/product-geforce-gt-420-oem-us.html

it says it consumes 50 watts of power, meaning without knowing what power supply you have you could safely change it out for another graphics card that is also 50 watts.

derekullo · Dec 5, 2013

The best i compatible graphics card i could find within that 50 watt limit was

http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gt640/specifications

Geforce gt 640, 2 versions, one ranked at 65 watts and the other at 49 watts. 15 watts over shouldn't matter.

Edit: Newegg link
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130796

lmaonade200 · Dec 5, 2013

that doesn't leave a lot of choices, if the OP can indeed replace his PSU he should

otherwise the best he can do is maybe something like
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130969

a Geforce GT 640 with GDDR5, is rated for a maximum of around 50W also, but I don't know how much current is required to power it as that isn't a particularly used statistic with these retailers

derekullo · Dec 5, 2013

Agreed being able to change their psu would be optimal but we need more information about which psu they have.

Look for some writing on the power supply see if you can find a serial number or something that would identify it.

derekullo · Dec 5, 2013

Even without upgrading the PSU

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=GeForce+GT+640 1284
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=GeForce+GT+420 432

The upgrade looks to be about 3 times more powerful with their synthetic benchmark.
It should be noticeable. lol

rolli59 · Dec 5, 2013

The best card without changing power supply is HD7750 http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zotac/GeForce_GT_640/28.html 1.5 x the power and consumes only 43 watts at peak vs the 640 46watts.
The Dell PSU's changed around 2005-2007 and their special thing only exists in older systems, many a Dell user has come here and upgraded their PSU's without problems.

Correction 2008 http://www.maximumpc.com/article/dell_drop_kicks_proprietary_parts

raini_dae · Dec 5, 2013

Hey (this is the owner of the computer her son) I previously bought a EVGA GeForce GTX 660 SUPERCLOCKED 2048MB GDDR5 DVI HDMI DP Graphics Card 02G-P4-2662-KR

but it wasn't really working giving me really weird computer crashes and graphic errors, I assumed it was the power supply. So i bought a CX600 ATX power supply from Corsair but it still gave me the same issues. After trying a few other mediocre fixes the graphics card was just crashing more and more. So i sent it back, now I've been hesitating to buy another because it's either this weird dell motherboard or the graphics card was just faulty. But whatever it is im honestly not sure what i should try and replace first. If you need any more specs i'll be checking back in a bit. Thanks for the help.

rolli59 · Dec 5, 2013

Well most likely you had a faulty card.

raini_dae · Dec 5, 2013

rolli59 :

Do you think i would need a better processor before upgrading the graphic's card?

rolli59 · Dec 5, 2013

It depends on how high you go on your card selection GTX660 or HD7870 you may be fine in most but really could need a quad for going any higher.

raini_dae · Dec 5, 2013

rolli59 :

Well at the moment my Processor is i5-2310 Quad core. But im not sure if that makes a difference. Also what card would you lean me towards?

derekullo · Dec 5, 2013

If you can save for a while it would be best to just get a whole new computer instead of replacing the one you have part by part.
On top of graphics and PSU there is only so much an i3 can do.

rolli59 · Dec 5, 2013

raini_dae :

Well if you already have an I5 then GPU is straight forward Depending on budget R9 270X or GTX760 and up. The Corsair CX600 can handle those fine.

My son wants to upgrade his computer to more of a gaming computer...

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