Upgrading pre-built desktop PC -need help

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Korc

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Nov 26, 2014
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So basically I got a new PC from dell awhile back that came with a GTX 745, (model of this PC I believe is the Dell XPS 8900 Supreme Edition) and I was wondering if it has the capability to be upgraded. I had my eyes on a GTX 1060 for the card that I want to upgrade to, but I wasn't sure if it would 1: work with my computer, 2: would fit into the case. I'm a real big PC noob so I was wondering if you guys could help me out a little. Thanks!
 
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Joonyenglish

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Jan 17, 2017
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Also with a stock psu of 460w supporting to i think 225w for the GPU
I have the dell xps 8900 standard edition and i bought the Evga 1060 ssc 6gb (cheap on Amazon) comes with 2 6pin to 8pin connector
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LYN9KK6/ref=ya_st_dp_summary
On the official evga website it states your psu should be 400w at min
Haven't got mine yet still waiting for it to arrive but when it does i will get back to you to see if it works
i will take the bullet for you if it doesn't work
 
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weberdarren97

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Aug 10, 2015
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Although many PSU manufacturers make their cables thick enough to safely deliver about 100W on a PCIe 6-pin connector, the PCIe 6-pin connector is officially rated to deliver up to 75W. Therefore, I'm going to use 75W as my baseline for power delivery from this connector. I couldn't find part numbers for the layout of the 8-pin connector in comparison to the Molex standard, so I don't know how much it truly can deliver. However, I do know that the PCIe 8-pin connector is officially rated to deliver up to 150W. That turns out to be exactly twice the rated power delivery of one PCIe 6-pin connector. As long as the wires from your power supplies aren't made from the remains of actual potatoes, you should be fine.

Potential issues you may face (I can't guarantee you that any of these will actually happen):
1) Power supply fan will speed up from increased power draw, making the system slightly louder
2) Voltage delivery may become unstable because of increased amperage draw
3) The system may exhibit unpredictable behavior caused by a possible issue with your power supply not being able to continuously output that much and remain stable (I call this a ghost in the machine)
4) The machine may simply shut down at unexpected times because the power supply is inadequate

Because I don't have any concrete information on the power supply in your system, I just gave you a generic list of what could happen. It is very rare that adding a graphics card will actually damage a power supply, so removing the graphics card should solve any problems that arise after installing said graphics card.

Assuming your power supply isn't an actual potato, you shouldn't run into any major issues by doing this.
 
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Joonyenglish

Commendable
Jan 17, 2017
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http://d2ydh70d4b5xgv.cloudfront.net/images/4/0/dell-xps-desktop-8500-power-supply-460w-6gpr9-hu460ad-01-826bb8e9a4a683ff5b52717eb447bd6b.jpg
This should be the stock psu for the dell xps 8900
I don't have any idea how to determine if these specs are good but could you help if this is a good psu instead of a potato like you said??
 
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weberdarren97

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Aug 10, 2015
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Looks like it's allocated 18 Amps to the board and all components directly connected (CPU, RAM, the 75 watts a card can draw from the slot, etc). It also looks to be allocating 16 Amps directly to the connectors for expansion cards. The remaining connectors (Molex, SATA, Floppy, etc) get 8A.

----------A narrated log of my calculations follows in case you're curios how I got my answer----------

Let's do a little math. 18*12=216. 16*12=192. 8*12=96. 216+192+96=504. If you were to max out every connector, you'd be at 504W, which is 54W above its rating of 450W.

Your CPU, RAM and other onboard functions are not going to draw more than 130W. We can shave 86W off of the 216W max we had for onboard functions. 504-86=418. We're already well under the 450W rating. But now we have to worry about the 75W your GPU can draw from the PCIe slot. Now we're at 205W. We're under the 216W max for the board, but above the 450W max for the unit as a whole. Don't freak out, we're not done yet. Also, I used a worse case scenario here. Your total power draw from the board will likely be under 180W.

Now the graphics card. A maximum of 150W can be pulled from the 8-pin connector. From the 192W available, we're only going to use a max of 150W for the graphics card. Now we're back under the 450W max with plenty of headroom.

And then we have the 96W max for all the miscellaneous connectors. Assuming you don't have more than one SSD, one HDD, and one optical drive, you're not going to pull more than 30W when all drives are active. Much less than that when the HDD and/or ODD are not active.

Let's add together our worst case scenario wattages: 205+150+30=385. You're under the max output for each connector and under the 450W max for the unit as a whole. Now if we subtract the 25W I threw into the motherboard calculations because worst case scenario, we're at 360W. Even then, that's with the PCIe connector completely maxed out, which I don't think the 1060 is going to pull off.

----------End of log----------

You're not going to exceed 400W. You'll be fine.
 
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