XPS 420 Graphics Card help please

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Michael_163

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Jan 8, 2016
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Hello Everyone and thank you in advance for reading and possibly helping me out,

I have a dell XPS 420 that I built myself several years ago and my BFG NVIDIA GeFORCE 8800 GT OC 512MB Graphics card seems to be failing, i.e.: green dots on black screen during start up, and the ! symbol next to it in device manager and X-plane flight sim quits during start up. I've tried updating software, removing and reinserting graphics card and little round battery and nothing fixes it. I installed the 8600 GT from my other pc and it works fine so I believe the 8800 is just no good anymore.

I would like an upgrade from the 8800 with a budget of about $100.00, I think it's worth fixing as it is a very fast and barely used system that I spent upwards of $1500 when building about 7 years ago, what do you guys think? It will only be used for flight sims and general internet browsing.

Current PC specs..
XPS 420
Power Supply= DYNEX MODEL: DX-400WPS (400 WATT OUTPUT)
intel core 2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40Ghz
vista ultimate 32bit (can upgrade to 64 on either vista, XP or windows 7)
4 sticks of Corsair 2GB ddr2 ram for total 8GB (only reads 3GB on 32 bit)
 
Solution
DSzymborski
While my soul is weeping a little at the thought of an originally $1500 build using such a junk power supply, you ought to be able to put in a 750ti without supplementary connectors and play your flight sims just fine.
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DSzymborski

DSzymborski

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Nov 19, 2010
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While my soul is weeping a little at the thought of an originally $1500 build using such a junk power supply, you ought to be able to put in a 750ti without supplementary connectors and play your flight sims just fine.
 
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Michael_163

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Jan 8, 2016
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"soul is weeping" lmao, This was my first and only build strictly for flight sims and at the time I honestly didn't realize the importance of power supply. Do you think it would be worth spending a little more in order to keep this system running for a few more years? I could possibly spend $200 total for power supply and graphics card if that's doable, I just don't want to throw money away if the system is too out dated
 
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DSzymborski

DSzymborski

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Nov 19, 2010
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You don't really need to. The nice thing about the 750ti is that it tends to work on some pretty "interesting" PSUs, though make sure that it's not one with supplementary power connectors (most don't have them but some ask for slightly more oomph). Now, if you're going to do larger upgrades down the road, a good power supply is always something you can take from PC to PC, but it's not necessary though.

I winced because I remember this review of a Dynex 450 (it was the same Huntkey PSU with a different name slapped on):

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/huntkey-green-star-450-w-lw-6450sg-power-supply-review/9/
 
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Michael_163

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Jan 8, 2016
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You don't really need to. The nice thing about the 750ti is that it tends to work on some pretty "interesting" PSUs, though make sure that it's not one with supplementary power connectors (most don't have them but some ask for slightly more oomph). Now, if you're going to do larger upgrades down the road, a good power supply is always something you can take from PC to PC, but it's not necessary though.

I winced because I remember this review of a Dynex 450 (it was the same Huntkey PSU with a different name slapped on):

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/huntkey-green-star-450-w-lw-6450sg-power-supply-review/9/[/quotemsg]

Very interesting article, thanks for the heads up!! I will upgrade my power supply "not worth the risk of keeping the current one" and the 750ti seems to be a great choice, thank you much for your help :)
 
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Stoli89

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Jun 8, 2014
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I own an XPS 420 with Q6600 plus 8MB RAM with Windows 8.1 (64 Bit) on a 120 GB SSD. The biggest performance increase was when I shifted to 64 bit (from 32 bit Vista) on a new SSD. I also increased RAM at that time from the 4GB that came with the original build from DELL (667 MHz). Note, you need a 64 Bit OS for the PC to utilize more than 3.6 GB of RAM.

I also had to replace my video card (8800GT), which cooked, as this particular card runs really HOT. Like...stove top hot. I switched to the ASUS GTX 550Ti. It's a good card and easily serviced by the stock power supply (425W DELL). Note, the Dell PS is understated...it's NOT the peak output figure so the PS has proven more than enough for my needs.

Today, I would go with the GTX 750Ti..unless I upgraded the PS.
 
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