well with a lot of dells mat hing on there bios and what series of cards you can use ? the latest cards may not work at all and some find the best you can do is a 600 series card or below .
as old as that thing is you may be using the best as it is in it now ??
some models of store bought computers [dell.hp,acer,ect..] may come with a ''locked or fixed'' / legacy or uefi bios and may not allow you to change certain hardware as a video card.. this is done to protect them from undue warranty claims and refunds .this is not done to hurt you but to protect them. you really need to see if that upgrade has been proven to work in your model first before you invest money in it .. there are a lot of these threads here at toms to look at some models will allow upgrades and some dont.. and a lot of guys here say ya ya ya when is really no no no...it would be sad you spent $200 on a card that won't post after you installed it as most find out. then get told its your psu and you spend more and end up right back where you are now, but its up to you good luck..
you got to know the boards in these computers are not like the ones we use to do custom builds witch are open to upgrading with in the boards compatibly . the bios is custom made for there design and just for the parts they authorize to be used on there computers there only guaranteed to work as is out of the box as you bought it ,..
also these boards do not have to meet atx standards and there pci-e slot power may not do the required 75w needed for most higher end cards and can be limited to say 45 or 60w that is all thats needed with the low end factory oem cards that it may of shipped with
[example]
http://en.community.dell.com/cfs-file/__key/communityserver-discussions-components-files/3514/1030.DESKTOP.jpg
in the end any upgrade you do is all your own risk . the prebuilt manufactures only guarantees there computers work as sold to you as is out of the box from there factory with what they put on it , not a drop more
there in business to sell you whole ready to go computers , and dont worry about you upgrading them or giving you support to do so . thats not how they make there money they prefer you run to wal-mart and buy there ''better'' latest models
in the end should have nothing to do with the Linux os it dells proprietary motherboards and proprietary bios/s used
like im say you do this all at your own risk and cost and like I say the prebuilt manufactures only guarantees there computers work as sold to you as is out of the box from there factory with what they put on it , not a drop more
this site test hardware under Linux
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=1080p-b-value&num=1
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