Another Dell c-521 video card upgrade question.

[MrHateful]

Hello,

I've been through the webs countless questions on the dell c-521. I know this system was never designed to be a gaming pc. But I've recently come into one and am on a very tight budget right now. I know the common hot trick was to stick the galaxy 9600gt lp/lp in the c521, but if you look for that card it's either not carried or very expensive. I looked around I'm kinda sold on the MSI R5670-PD512 Radeon HD 5670. I'm a worried if it will clear everything or b if it'll work with the crap power supply that hte c521 has. If you look this card up on newegg someone siad they have it running off of a 250w power supply and states that it runs cooler and better then the 9600gt.

any help would be great and thanks in advanced.

 

[MrHateful]

It came stock with a amd athlon 64. I've just recently updated it to the windsor 5600+2.8 89 watt 90mn. it has one 250gb hard drive, and a single dvd burner. the power unit is the 280 watt.

Thank you for the reply.

 

[MrHateful]

Malmental I wanted to go with the brisbane. But I kept reading that sometimes the install worked and sometimes it didn't. I kept reading that the windsor was a garentee. I paid very little for the windsor and maybe in the future I will upgrade to brisbane. To be honest the only reason I'm messing with this install and pc is because I've been laid up for the last 6 months from a work injury. I was tinkering with the 521 for a friend of mines boss. Well when it came time to pay me for the parts I installed he told me to stick the computer up my a$$. So I figured what the hell, I'll throw a cheap dual core in it and a video card and some more ram and try to run fallout new vegas, fallout 3, fallen earth, and oblivion, and morrowind. I'm not looking for max resolution. I plan to build a better computer come tax time or when I finally get back to work.

here is the link to the msi r5670
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127523

if you read the comments two people state that they have it running off of a 250w power supply.

the power supply isn't my only concern though if you look at the card it is low profile, but it's got a wide heat sink and fan set on it. I'm also worried it won't clear the mainboard chips heatsink that is only about an inch and half away from the x16 slot.

Thanks again for all your help you've been awesome. I've spent the better part of 4 days bouncing ideas off my friends but they don't understand what I'm talking about, until I get into what it can do. Ie. it will go faster then this. or it will play that.

 

[MrHateful]

Here is a post I was getting some of my info from. But that guy was using the galaxy 9600gt lp/lp. Which is stated to use 60watts of power. the tdp of one of the r5670 is said to be 61w. I'm a bit lost on video cards as most of the stuff that comes to me just needs basic fixes and upgrades.

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/desktop/f/3514/t/19293411.aspx?PageIndex=1

 

[MrHateful]

thanks for the reply. I'm going to try out the msi card and probably grab an external power supply. You've been awesome once again. I'll see what happens.

 

[karma831]

brisbane chip for that unit AND your situation is better but that's another story, different reasons.....
it's a close call bro...
it's the 5600+ (2.8GHZ) 89watt Windsor that's making me doubt it.
the 5600+ (2.9GHZ) 65watt Brisbane would have been the better choice.
dang, I'm stuck..
you might want to think about the GT240 or even the GT430 from nVidia
you also have an nVidia chipset motherboard so it kinda makes sense - FYI.
and you need a low-profile card too.
see, I want to say try it but I have doubts.
I only see one HD5670 low-profile from MSI, I'm looking carefully at the specs.

The GT 240 is 69w which is more than the 5670 at 61w. The GT 440 is 56w and the 430 is 49w

That MSI low profile 5670 is probably the best choice from a performance to power standpoint.

 

[wty]

Yestoday I bought a ASUS GeForce GT430 for my DELL C521(1G DDR3.Money is 417 RMB(I'm in china,maybe 50-60$).
This one:http://www.asus.com.cn/product.aspx?P_ID=oFWUy4OBqyNgtdmZ&templete=2

After I get it,I'll report the test result.

 

[wty]

I've got ASUS GT430,and tested it on my DELL C521.
I want to post pics,but don't know how to attach pics.
so ,I type the scores:
-------------------------
3DMARK06 result:
scores:7101
@CPU:AMD Athlon 5200+:double cores
MEM:1.2G 533MHz
WinXP
scores:4913
@CPU:AMD Athlon 3200:single core
others same.
-------------------------
Gpu-z 0.4.8:
Bandwidth:25.6GB/s,ROPs:16,Shaders:96,DirectX11/SM5.0,Pixel Fillrate:11.2GPixel/s,Texture Fillrate:10.5G Texxel/s
GPU/MEM/Shader clocks:700/800/1400