Radeon upgrade for Vostro 430

[kennykerr]

Hi there,

I have a Dell Vostro 430 i7 computer and am hoping to purchase a (Sapphire) ATI Radeon 5750 to replace the graphics card that shipped with the box. I just wanted to check whether the Vostro would be able to handle the card in terms of its dimensions, power and performance requirements.

Here’s a link to the Vostro’s motherboard layout:

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/vos430/en/sm/tech_sysbd_diagram.htm

It uses the Intel P55 Express chipset and includes a 350W power supply. According to the Sapphire website I need a 450W power supply but the review of the card on this website appears to indicate that I won’t need that much power. ATI's website also rates the card as using PCI Express 2.1 but the motherboard only indicates support for 2.0.

Any ideas?

Cheers,
Kenny

 

[flyinfinni]

you can run a PCI-e 2.1 card in any PCI-e slot even back to the PCI-e 1.0 slots- they're backwards compatible. Also- with a Dell 350W PSU, you should be fine. The 5750 only BARELY needs the power connector (you probably have to run Furmark to even pull more than 75W with it). You may need to use a 4pin Molex to 6pin PCI-e adapter to plug it into the PSU, but it should still be fine.

 

[kennykerr]

Thanks for the reply!

 

[flyinfinni]

no problem. Enjoy the upgrade

 

[kennykerr]

Will do

 

[kennykerr]

Best answer selected by kennykerr.