Upgrading my Inspiron 531, graphic card and PSU.

The psu is not ideal. Poor 12v rail ampage and as I heard Roswell's quality isn't the best.

Consider spending a bit more for this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Well, I'm still looking for a PSU. I just want to know if there are any adapters I'll need when hooking my 8800GT to my mobo, to the PSU. I ahve heard that the stock PSU the came with my comp doesn't even have a connector for PCI-E cards just SATA.

save some money no need for 600w or more. this one has 1pcie 6pin connector.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

stay away from rosewill. i would suggest this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

it's very quiet, and will provide more than enough power for you. and don't worry about the connectors, that particular model (as most others out there) has the pci-e connectors and SATA connectors, and the usual molex and 24 pin connectors.

There's always the 2nd expansion psu.  
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

i think thats just overkill for the situation. especially seeing how that one costs more than twice as much as the psu i listed before.

Ok, thanks a lot. I've just heard a few horror stories about Dells PSU's and wanted to be sure I wasn't wasting my money lol. And thanks also for the Rosewill warning, first time buying a new PSU.

Also, if anyone has any experiance or knowledge of the Dell Inspiron 531. Is the 8800GT a good fit, not too big. Will it actually fit the case, as I've heard it's a larger card. And ,stupid question, how many connectors does the 8800GT need on it.

Sorry for resurrecting a long dead post but I've installed an 8800GT in a 531 and it's a tight, but sure fit. You'll need 1 PCI-E 6-pin connector for it and if it comes out the side of the card, forget about adding a second harddrive. Also make sure your new power supply has 4 SATA connectors (2 will be on the same line and unless that line is LONG (like the Gigabyte Odin GT 550w) you'll end up placing your harddrive up against something like the side panel (I wouldnt trust it like that)

I run the following on my 531 so e-mail me at OLP-fanatic@hotmail.com if you have ANY questions regarding upgrading the 531. I'll be running 8GB PC-6400 DDR2 in the summer as well as (hopefully) A Phenom X4 9650 and GeForce GTX 295

Inspiron 531 case, no mods
Gigabyte Odin GT 550w modular PSU (tight fit!!)
3GB (2x1GB 2x512MB) Dual Channel PC-5300 DDR2 RAM
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ (shipped with 3800+)
160GB SATA Harddrive (had to move this many times)
MSI GeForce GTX 260 Core-216 (what an adventure that was...)
factory DVD burner (LG brand, removal is necessary to install power connectors on the power supply).

The 8800GT is about a half inch shorter than the space between the harddrive rack and the back of the case, the lip on the back will prevent you from just sliding it in like the shorter 8600GT or 8400GS, but a bit of wiggling and maneuvering it around will have it in there fairly easy, being a single slot card... as for the GTX 260... it's a full inch and a half LONGER than the space between the back and the harddrives, and to add to the mess, dual slot. As mentioned before, quite an adventure.

I am considering upgrading my Inspiron 531 with the GTX260. Am I correct in assuming it will fit in the case albeit with some juggling.

Bob

This is exactly what I have been doing. I am trying to run Windows 7 Ultimate on the Dell 531, but am having trouble with drivers. Sound Driver are what is giving me the problem now, as the XP/Vista Audio Driver do not want run on Win7. The Win 7 O.S. is running very well itself. It is a download copy, then I bought a universal installation disk (Goggle Shopping). If one searches for chipset driver Geforce 6150SE NForce 430, one will get better results.
daniel

Dell has Win 7 drivers on their site, AFAIK they've had them since Feb or March. It's just a realtek chip. I've got a Auzentech X-raider in mine now, it's not hardware accelerated like the X-fi, but it helps. Sound channels are reversed though, I need to figure out how to switch them to normal (left is right basically).

I got an email but I dont see the reply here, so I'll reply to it anyway: No, I havent gotten ahold of a GTX 295, but because my 550w PSU lacks 8-pin PCI-e connectors, I cant use it. I have no doubts that it'd only (lol) be 20A per rail, well within spec of my PSU.

As for the Phenom, I havent done that either. I had someone check the CPU compatability in the BIOS, the most recent processor the 531 board will accept is the Athlon X2 6400+, albeit it runs very hot. Going to swap the mobo for an Inspiron 546, it's a direct swapout (I already recommended another person try it for futureproofing, he replied saying it went in without a problem) and will give you processor support up to the Phenom II X4's and Athlon II X4's.

Also, running 2x2GB RAM works very well, I highly recommend it as an upgrade if you want slots left over for more later.

Take that, Dell!

Hi, I just wanted to find out if your Nvidia 8800GT graphics card worked okay with the Inspiron 531 PC? The card is a PCIe x16 ver 2.0, but the motherboard is ver1.0a. Have you noticed any performance issues?

What PSU have you got as well please?

Cheers!