Will I see a differnce?

[ArchAngelAlien]

Hey guys I purchased some upgrades today from newegg for Cataclysm and I wanted feedback from somebody who is good with computers. First of all I will begin with my specs I am running right now while my package is being shipped.

Dell Inspiron 546 ST
Amd Phenom X3 Tri Core Processor 2.1 Ghz
8 Gigs of DDR2 1066 Ram
Geforce 210 512 mb 64 bit video card.

Here is the link to the video card I am using now.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121348

Here is a link to my new video card.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814261078&cm_re=gts_450-_-14-261-078-_-Product


To power it I have bought a:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817104054&cm_re=deticated_power-_-17-104-054-_-Product


I use a slim case, thats why I am going low profile. And I have a air conditioner and the option to run the case with no side pannel and the ac pointed at it for cooling.

There is some benchmarks of the card here
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTS_450_SLI/18.html

Will I see a big improvement in Cataclysm? At the moment I am running Cataclysm on 1440 screen rez on ultra with low liquid details fair shadows and low ground density and everything else ultra at 30 fps.

 

[wa1]

Yes, you will see HUGE performance increase from Geforce 210 to GTS 450.
OC your CPU a little bit and you're good to go.

 

[jyjjy]

Well, the bad news is that processor is going to limit the card from achieving it's full potential so your gaming experience, especially on something like WoW still won't be the best. The good news is that even with the above taken into account it will still be a large upgrade and help a lot. Your current card is simply terrible for gaming.
I have two questions though. Are you sure that PSU is going to fit into your case? Does it have an free 5.25" expansion slots? Second is there room for the card? The GTS 450 isn't all that big but it is longer and the cooler covers two slots.

 

[jyjjy]

OC your CPU a little bit and you're good to go.

On a Dell?

 

[ArchAngelAlien]

I am going for the best slim case gaming machine I can while I am doing my new build. Saving for an I7 build. I have 2 drive bays, a dvd blue ray drive, and a media carder. Ima just yank that out and set it in there to power the card. I have 3 pci slots free under the card and the length will not be a problem as I took the liberty of already measuring it. My next step is a micro atx mobo with a phenom 2 3.4 ghz quad core. This is strickly just a WoW computer.

 

[wa1]

On a Dell?

^
Can't we OC CPU on dell's PC? Not even a little bit?

 

[ArchAngelAlien]

If you can tell me how I would send you cookies TBH. AMD overdrive won't auto clock it and the bios is locked so no options are available to tune anything according to memory or cpu.

 

[jyjjy]

^
Can't we OC CPU on dell's PC? Not even a little bit?

Not even a tiny lil smidgen
There are programs which will attempt to raise the front side bus from within Windows but they are a sketchy affair and can simply destroy the motherboard if it can't handle it.

 

[wa1]

Okay, great input there, jyjjy, thanks...

 

[jyjjy]

I am going for the best slim case gaming machine I can while I am doing my new build. Saving for an I7 build. I have 2 drive bays, a dvd blue ray drive, and a media carder. Ima just yank that out and set it in there to power the card. I have 3 pci slots free under the card and the length will not be a problem as I took the liberty of already measuring it. My next step is a micro atx mobo with a phenom 2 3.4 ghz quad core. This is strickly just a WoW computer.

Have you considered just ditching the case? You can get something serviceable for as low as $20;
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811154095
Then you could use a real PSU, ATX motherboard, full height video card, not worry so much about heat, ect.

 

[ArchAngelAlien]

I am going with a new case later for my i7 build. I need to find an external enclosure for that 5.25 bay deticated power supply, it looks like that other 5.25 spot in the case won't allow the full length of the 5.25 bay, so it would have to stick out 3 inches or so to clear the mobo, and I will have to pull the entire board cpu and all to put it in from the back, inless I can just slide it in from the front. Can I use that in an external enclosure type deal?

 

[jyjjy]

You can use one for the Bluray drive instead if that slot will fit the PSU. Otherwise no.

 

[ArchAngelAlien]

yah that would work, I can't find an enclosure though.

 

[jyjjy]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007705%20600006253&IsNodeId=1&name=5.25%22

 

[ArchAngelAlien]

Hrm, instead of shelling out the extra money for the enclosure, I may just run the rig without a cd drive for a bit. I honestly don't need to watch any movies or use any cds for a while.

 

[jyjjy]

That'll work I guess. Personally I still would have just opted for a cheap and blessedly normal case from the beginning to remove all the headaches you have to deal with from a small form factor.

 

[Shadow703793]

Yes, you will see HUGE performance increase from Geforce 210 to GTS 450.
OC your CPU a little bit and you're good to go.

On a Dell?

^
Can't we OC CPU on dell's PC? Not even a little bit?

Not exactly. You can OC on the Dell XPS line.

@OP:
I think you overpaid for that aux PSU. I think you would have been better off with a true PSU like a Corsair 650TX or XFX 650. XFX 650: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207007
Same price after MIR.

You would also be better off with a cheap and good case like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147153&cm_re=rosewill_case-_-11-147-153-_-Product
This is assuming, you don't have some unusual formfactor motherboard. IIRC, all Dell boards are now ATX or ,ATX.

 

[jyjjy]

Not exactly. You can OC on the Dell XPS line.

Interesting, I hadn't heard that. Is a special BIOS necessary?

 

[ArchAngelAlien]

This mobo is a micro atx and would work in a new case but meh, for the time being this setup should be fine till I pick up a case/ power supply combo a new mobo and either a core i7 or a black edition x4 quad 965