Help with Upgrades to Dell XPS 8900 to make silent for HTPC / Gaming

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Mcollin6

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Aug 9, 2015
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I just got a refurbished Dell XPS 8900 with the following specs: 6700k CPU, 745 GTX GPU, 32 GB mSATA/ 2 TB HDD (Raided into hybrid with iRST), 16 GB RAM, and the rest of the stock stuff.

I am thinking of hooking it into my home theater for big screen gaming and HTPC work (1080p at the moment but want to protect for 4K). Looking for advice/comments on component upgrades that will help in that regard. Here is my current list:

GPU: have an old Gigabyte 660ti that is going in that was silent in my old 8500 XPS.
PSU: EVGA Supernova 650 GS (allows for future GPU upgrade)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-B9 PWM
CPU cooler: Artic Freezer i32
Blu Ray: LG WH16NS40
SSD: M.2 850 EVO 1 TB

Not sure if I need the CPU cooler as the stock Dell one doesn't seem to have a fan, but I don't know if it will work with the Dell OC (OC1 and OC2) that is part of the Dell BIOS. Also, not sure if the Case Fan will work since The MB doesn't have a PWM header. May keep the HDD in the system for media storage if it isn't too noisy.

Any thought, comments or suggestions on things I may have overlooked?

Thanks in advance!
 
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hang-the-9

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Mar 25, 2010
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There is no way Dell would put a i7‑6700K in a system without a CPU fan, have you looked online at your system images?

You have an M.2 hard drive there, did you check if the system has an M.2 slot? You can get a fan adapter to plug into the power supply or get a fan header to plug into, you don't need a motherboard connection.
 
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Mcollin6

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I don't know how to post pictures, but you can see the pictures of the cooler that I have. No fan on the cooler, just a case fan nearby pushing air out of the case.

You can see it shown here.... Big arrow on air flow direction, but no fan...
http://www.pasonisan.com/dell/xps8900/inner.html

There is an M.2 slot that is currently in use with the 32GB mSATA drive. Right now the mSATA is used to make a hybrid with the current drive. The slot is only a 1X slot, not a 4X, so an NVMe drive won't get its full throughput.

Good catch on the fan header adapter. I'll have to see if I can snag one with the fan.




 
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Mcollin6

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Yeah, I realize that... Right now, I'm going to use it with an 82" 1080p TV, but I want to be sure that I have a PSU that can take a 1080GTX once the price goes down (and I buy a new TV) so it might be a year or so...

 
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hang-the-9

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Mar 25, 2010
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That is not a stock cooler for that model, unless they made some different ones for overseas since you linked a non-english web site.

mSATA is not M.2, different connections you'd need an adapter board which would be silly, you may as well just get a larger mSata drive or just a regular SSD.
 
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Mcollin6

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By "stock", I mean that is what Dell ships with all their 6700k CPUs. Feel free to google 6700k Dell pictures if you want.... It is even what is shown in the manual.

Can you suggest a different fan that might be better performance, but still low noise? I am not sure that the one I picked above will fit after doing some measurements.

You're right about the mSATA. It's attached to an adapter board. I can remove the board and go with a M.2 drive. I want to use the EVO 850 because of its performance with Magician.

 
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