Need lots of help with HD 4890

desktoppirate

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Aug 9, 2009
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ok, basicly i ordered this card :http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/1GB-...-850MHz-800-Cores-2x-DL-DVI-I-HDTV-HDCP-Ready

i knew the 300w power suplly i currently have wouldnt be surrficeint anyway seeing as it only has 1 pci-e connector.

i thought after buying a new psu it would just fit and everything would be dandy. but no! i had an incling last night and got up at 5AM to open up my pc to see if it would actually fit in.

turns out my mobo only has 1 pci-e slot (this is a double slot card) so it looks like ill need a new motherboar AND a case just to upgrade my gfx. this is not great news to me as im only 17 and i dont have a job yet.

i would REALLY appreciate if someone could help me find a cheap motherboard that would fit these specs:

core 2 dueo E6400 s775 passively cooled
2 gigs of DDR2 ram
2 dvd drives
320 gig SATA HDD
tv tuner

i hope i didnt ramble to much :)

 
There should be no reason to change the motherboard, the 'dual slot' means the card takes up two spaces because of the large cooler, it only requires one PCI-E slot to fit.

I'm not sure about why you would need another case: A PSU is usually a straight swap.

If the card is too long to fit the existing case there are ways around that:
Move the hard drive up or down to clear the card.
Move the hard drive into a spare 5.25" drive bay using an adaptor kit like this:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Scythe-Hard-Disk-Stabiliser-II-(Fit-35-Hard-Disk-into-525-Bay-with-noise-reduction-benefits)

Then remove the entire drive cage.
WARNING! If you remove the drive cage be very, very careful to contain any metal cuttings, either strip the case out compleatly or make sure the circuit boards and drives are fully covered and use hand tools only: No grinders or power drills!
 

desktoppirate

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Aug 9, 2009
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the thing that im REALLY confused with is that the door on on my case is on the other side to all the past computers ive got and to computers ive seen on the net. so i assume that the gfx card would have to be flipped so that the overhang actually, is above the card, which means it would clash with my cpu and not have the 2nd pci-e slot for the fan exhaust.

im not sure of my mobo, i got the pc as a package deal about 2.5 years ago because it was cheap and good.
 

meljor

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Dec 11, 2006
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did you atleast try and fit it???

it should fit in any case, you just might have to move the hd if it sits behind the graphics card as mentioned..
it should work on any core2duo board wich has an pci-e x16 slot.

if your new psu is any good, you should have no problems. setups where the cooler is above the card instead of under? they don't exist! that's why we have a standard wich every company must follow, so it should fit universally.

don't make long nights, wake up rested, take a big cup of coffee and look again :eek:)
 

gomi

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Apr 14, 2009
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I've seen cases where the psu sat on the bottom of the case as opposed to the top so maybe that's what you got on your setup?
I think the 300 watt psu is not going to be enough for the 4890 though, remember though that it's not always about how many watts they state on the box. Look at the amps on the 12v lines.