GPU upgrade for Core 2 Quad Q8200 @2.33 ghz

Nice, I'm still running the Q8300(It's at 2.5ghz compared to your 2.33).
Anyways, just about any of today's cheap graphics card will work in your system without having to upgrade your power supply.

Yea I would saying something in the GTX610/GTX620 would work. What motherboard are you currently using.

^No. Start with a 7750 or 650 at the bare minimum.

Using a old 350 W power supply I don't know. Perhaps you are right I just was thinking in terms of what can I suggest for his system that wouldn't tax his power supply in any way shape or form.

As long as the GPU can get all its power from the PCI-E slot (which I think it true for the 7750/650) then he should be ok assuming he has room for the card in his case.

I would also recommend the 7750.

They have very similar power consumption numbers the 650 and the 7750. I guess its really a flip of the coin.

ok thankyou for your time, I have been leaning towards the 650ti and I was wondering about bottleneck with this processor.
May find that I have to upgrade power supply as long as cpu can handle it.

Any other comments welcome as far as bottleneck.

Hmm well you may have one I would say chances are fairly small with a 650Ti that it would bottlenck. The main thing holding your cpu back is that its clock speed is pretty low to where I think it would need to be with most current video cards but I'm wondering what others have to say as well.

my thoughts:

you do have a very slow processor and its highly unlikely you will be able to overclock since dell "locks" the bios.

and aside from any possible bottleneck:
getting a card like the 650ti or 7770 would really need a psu upgrade for being able to have a 6 pin pci power connection that you know will be supported by the psu.

i would suggest a lower end/cheaper card like the 7750. that way you avoid any potential bottleneck AND do not have to spend money on a PSU. your current computer is old and hopefully serve you well.

save your money and at least consider a newer cpu, mobo and ram.

am pretty sure there would be no bottleneck with the 7750 or 650 with your cpu even at stock speeds. however i think you may lose upto 20% performance with the 650 ti . so you will have to overclock your cpu to remove that bottleneck for which you may need a cpu cooler. also you will need a psu as 650ti may be too much for your psu.
so i suggest just get a 7750 and no need to get new psu or cpu cooler

Disadvantages of branded system: Branded systems only give 1year warenty,Assembled system give 3years warenty (2year extra warenty compare to branded).
branded systems give limits for users examples: 1:limited sata ports ,2:low space for extra hdds ,3:upgrade processor also not supported (many processors) because of branded system bios. 4:upgrading gpu also not supported (many gpus )because of branded systems psu and bios limitations. 5:if u r linux user don't spend money for ms os and softwares. etc.....
So consult Dell customer care to know that bios can support that gpu.
because Dell want some $ to unlock bios .

if it were a q9xxx i would recommend that you OC until you break the 3ghz.

but as far as i know Q8xxx is bad in OC'ing, a 650Ti would be nice or a 7770, not sure how each compares though.
my q9400 reached 3.4ghz, it wasn't the max since i targeted 3.4 only, never tried to get more out of it

Consult Dell service center .

I didn't know dell did that. I know that retail companies in general do and I shouldn't be shocked. And I also think that if going forward he wants to get more into games in general he will need more horse power then a CPU that was made in 2007. So you are right there which would require a motherboard and a memory upgrade from the old ddr2 standard as well as the power supply. On the cheap though yea the 7750 should do fine as it goes off the slot's power and not a aux pci-e power connection.

No brainer. 7750. Most bang without requiring additional power, period.

Ok thanks to everyone, all points taken into consideration

Not a problem glad to be here to help