Upgrading Vostro 460

mythril · Apr 29, 2015

Hi, just wanting some advice on upgrading my current computer (Dell Vostro 460).

Current specs are:
CPU: i7-2600 3.4GHz
Memory: 8gb RAM
GPU: AMD Radeon HD 6670
Motherboard: Stock Vostro 460 motherboard, Model 0Y2MRG
PSU: Stock Dell 350W psu

I'm looking to upgrade to a GTX 960 (currently looking at Gainward GW-GTX960-2G (3392) 2G GTX 960 OC PCI-E VGA Card), or similar of that level and price, as well as PSU to accommodate for it (currently considering Antec HCG-520M 520W).

However I'm still new to all this, and I'm not sure about the compatibility of the components - I researched around and there have been a few mentions of possible issues with the BIOS for Vostro 460 upon installing certain GPUs, but nothing concrete.

So I was just hoping someone could have a look over and tell me if there's anything I should know, if the GPU and PSU are suitable and compatible with the motherboard, if they should all fit in the case, etc.

Thanks!

Maarsch · Apr 29, 2015

Looks like that motherboard only comes with PCI express 1.0 slot.
I know the GTX 960, a PCIe 3.0 card will be compatible with a 2.0 slot, but a 1.0 one?
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/391608-33-will-graphics-card-work says it will work
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-2187776/pcie-graphic-card-fit-pcie-slot-motherboard.html as well.
Guess that's not an issue.
The PSU will power it just fine.

That leaves physical size, that card you are looking at has L=247mm W=112mm, which just opening the case up and looking will be easiest.
http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=1158943 this guy installs a 210mm card in it, so 247mm looks like it would be tight. Nothing a hack saw (to remove the metal) and some tie rips (to attach that hdd somewhere else) wouldn't cure though.
The power cables in the link above go in the rear of his card, whereas it would go in the side of yours so when measuring you don't have to take that into consideration.

And the BIOS issue. Dell (and others) sometimes have hardware specific BIOSes, which makes upgrades like this a pain. You should check Dell specific forums for that. The guy I linked in the size paragraph doesn't have that problem though.

mythril · Apr 30, 2015

Maarsch :

Thanks for the advice, I had a look inside the case and it should fit (with a little room to spare). I've asked on Dell forums and they warned me of potential incompatibilities, but there weren't many cards which were definitely compatible, a lot of the newer cards appear to have the potential to not work properly.

I'll go ahead and try it out, if it doesn't work then I suppose I'll have to look for a new motherboard as well.

Thanks again!

Lolo_62 · Oct 14, 2015

mythril :

Maarsch :

Thanks for the advice, I had a look inside the case and it should fit (with a little room to spare). I've asked on Dell forums and they warned me of potential incompatibilities, but there weren't many cards which were definitely compatible, a lot of the newer cards appear to have the potential to not work properly.

I'll go ahead and try it out, if it doesn't work then I suppose I'll have to look for a new motherboard as well.

Thanks again!

Hi mythril,

I'm currently in the same situation as you are and I'm looking to upgrade the graphics card of my vostro to a GTX-960 4gb.
Have you upgraded your vostro machine already? Did it work out? Any feedback on the process?

Thanks
Laurent

mythril · Oct 15, 2015

Lolo_62 :

Hi Laurent,

Yup, I upgraded to the GTX 960 and new PSU a good few months ago, haven't had any issues with it. The process itself was fairly straightforward and simple, just a matter of detaching the old card and power supply and reattaching the wires to the new components. One thing to note is that due to the GTX960 fitting almost perfectly into the stock Vostro case, there may be difficulties, depending on the stiffness of your wires, to closing the lid panel - it's a matter of a few mm, but there may be issues there.

Regarding compatibility with BIOs, I didn't encounter any problems at all, which was a relief. The card itself is great for what I needed it for, and so far hasn't had any issues with my recent upgrade to Windows 10 either, besides the re-installation of a couple drivers.

If you have any other questions, I'll be glad to help.

NextGenLifeHD · Oct 25, 2015

mythril :

Lolo_62 :

Hi Laurent,

Yup, I upgraded to the GTX 960 and new PSU a good few months ago, haven't had any issues with it. The process itself was fairly straightforward and simple, just a matter of detaching the old card and power supply and reattaching the wires to the new components. One thing to note is that due to the GTX960 fitting almost perfectly into the stock Vostro case, there may be difficulties, depending on the stiffness of your wires, to closing the lid panel - it's a matter of a few mm, but there may be issues there.

Regarding compatibility with BIOs, I didn't encounter any problems at all, which was a relief. The card itself is great for what I needed it for, and so far hasn't had any issues with my recent upgrade to Windows 10 either, besides the re-installation of a couple drivers.

If you have any other questions, I'll be glad to help.

I have a dell Vostro 460 and am looking to upgrading my case, power supply, and gpu. In your dell case, have you added any extra fans? If so, how did you power them (what connectors?). Did you upgrade your power supply in your Vostro 460 or is it the stock one?

mythril · Oct 25, 2015

NextGenLifeHD :

mythril :

Lolo_62 :

Hi Laurent,

Yup, I upgraded to the GTX 960 and new PSU a good few months ago, haven't had any issues with it. The process itself was fairly straightforward and simple, just a matter of detaching the old card and power supply and reattaching the wires to the new components. One thing to note is that due to the GTX960 fitting almost perfectly into the stock Vostro case, there may be difficulties, depending on the stiffness of your wires, to closing the lid panel - it's a matter of a few mm, but there may be issues there.

Regarding compatibility with BIOs, I didn't encounter any problems at all, which was a relief. The card itself is great for what I needed it for, and so far hasn't had any issues with my recent upgrade to Windows 10 either, besides the re-installation of a couple drivers.

If you have any other questions, I'll be glad to help.

I have a dell Vostro 460 and am looking to upgrading my case, power supply, and gpu. In your dell case, have you added any extra fans? If so, how did you power them (what connectors?). Did you upgrade your power supply in your Vostro 460 or is it the stock one?

Hey, I haven't added any extra fans but I've upgraded the PSU as the stock one probably couldn't handle upgrading to the GTX 960 - from memory I'm currently using an Antec 550W which fits just fine.

NextGenLifeHD · Oct 25, 2015

mythril :

NextGenLifeHD :

mythril :

I have a dell Vostro 460 and am looking to upgrading my case, power supply, and gpu. In your dell case, have you added any extra fans? If so, how did you power them (what connectors?). Did you upgrade your power supply in your Vostro 460 or is it the stock one?

Hey, I haven't added any extra fans but I've upgraded the PSU as the stock one probably couldn't handle upgrading to the GTX 960 - from memory I'm currently using an Antec 550W which fits just fine.

Thanks for that. I was just wondering and wanted some solid customer experience

. How are you managing airflow with your GTX 960? What are the temperatures and noise like, as the stock dell case isn't the best....... By airflow I mean how do you get sufficient air going to the Graphics card's coolers to cool the card?

mythril · Oct 27, 2015

NextGenLifeHD :

mythril :

NextGenLifeHD :

Hey, I haven't added any extra fans but I've upgraded the PSU as the stock one probably couldn't handle upgrading to the GTX 960 - from memory I'm currently using an Antec 550W which fits just fine.

Thanks for that. I was just wondering and wanted some solid customer experience

. How are you managing airflow with your GTX 960? What are the temperatures and noise like, as the stock dell case isn't the best....... By airflow I mean how do you get sufficient air going to the Graphics card's coolers to cool the card?

Yeah, admittedly the stock case isn't great but it seems okay for now - temperature tends to hover around 50-55 idle, up to around 65 with load. It's actually pretty quiet for the most part due to the silent cooling function, when the fans aren't on it doesn't make any noticeable noise at all. On a hot day, or if I'm running a very graphically intensive game, when the fans kick in it is definitely perceivable, but not too loud as to be unbearable.

NextGenLifeHD · Oct 27, 2015

mythril :

NextGenLifeHD :

mythril :

Thanks for that. I was just wondering and wanted some solid customer experience

. How are you managing airflow with your GTX 960? What are the temperatures and noise like, as the stock dell case isn't the best....... By airflow I mean how do you get sufficient air going to the Graphics card's coolers to cool the card?

Yeah, admittedly the stock case isn't great but it seems okay for now - temperature tends to hover around 50-55 idle, up to around 65 with load. It's actually pretty quiet for the most part due to the silent cooling function, when the fans aren't on it doesn't make any noticeable noise at all. On a hot day, or if I'm running a very graphically intensive game, when the fans kick in it is definitely perceivable, but not too loud as to be unbearable.

Ok cool. Yeah I am going to upgrade my Dell Vostro 460's case as it doesn't have any intake fans. I thought the temperatures would be a lot worse than that but that is good to know. Thanks

Ash Aggarwal · Nov 2, 2015

for the main question skip to the end

My experience:
i bought the vostro 460 when it first came out in april 2011 (it was my first PC) :ange:

my original specs were-i-5-2400 with 4GB ram and same mobo and psu, no GPU though.
since then i have upgraded the following one at a time(Baby Steps

):
1) added corsair vengeance 4GB ram to the extra slot (in mine 3 were filled, seems odd i know :??:

)
2) replaced with corsair vs650 PSU (for the GPU upgrade)
3) added nvidia GTX 650 AMP GPU from zotac (yeah i know ancient but still works great and was a hell-of-an improvement at the time

)
4) added HDDs and a corsair force GT 120GB SSD(i know appears very low capacity now but back then......)
5) Finally gave up on the damn case and a got new one and moved everything over recently

well, i think its been an enlightening 4 year journey but now its time finally assemble a new PC!
ah nah fck it, i'll just wait for couple more intel generations and in the meantime, get 16GB dual channel DDR3 memory as it is now available cheap...

So my question is:
=>what would be the right slots to fill??LooooooL
i'm providing a link to the image of the mobo as its the only thing i could find online: click me :3
Seriously, if anyone knows the right config or tips plz do reply as the vostro didnt come with any manuals or anything

NextGenLifeHD · Dec 1, 2015

Hey mythril, if you see this I just have a question regarding the power supply. So after some extensive research apparently the minimum recommended power supply is a CS750M or equivalent. You said you got a 550W from Antec. Is the power supply fine, and if it is are you able to tell me the model? Thanks a lot. I assume the bios is working well? Thanks

qasem_ · Mar 1, 2016

ey bro thanks for starting up this thread and im sorry im continuing it after some time but basically im getting a GTX 960 SSC and im not sure if itll fit since i have the exact same case and MOBO as you,so i would just like to know which brand of GTX 960 you used and thanks
also i upgraded the psu to 500w so thats not a problem

NextGenLifeHD · Mar 2, 2016

qasem_ :

Well I'll start from the top to avoid any confusion. I went budget and bought a 950 despite it being a bad price-value when the 960 can be had for $20 more. I did this because of the stock 350w power supply and the 950 uses ~30w less power. Temperatures in the Vostro Mini Case were not the best, but they stayed underneath 69°, with fans at 35% and 1349mhz core clock, which is the stock clock speed for this card. The card I got was Asus Strix GTX 950, and was 22 centimetres long, fitting perfectly in the case. It was just short enough to not interfere with the HDD SATA cable, and therefore I think ~22cm is about the longest card that will fit appropriately. The GTX 950 works fine with the BIOS on the Dell Vostro 460, as does any other 900 Series Card. If I could give you any advice, it would be that make sure you pick one that you know you will be happy with.

qasem_ · Mar 2, 2016

I've already ordered a 960 and i think the length should be just perfect,guess I'll find out when its here.Thanks

NextGenLifeHD · Mar 2, 2016

qasem_ :

Okay good luck

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