Upgrading Graphics and Power - Please Advise

[HooblaDan]

Howdy guys,

Recently bought a decent system for 800.

It's a DELL with:

Intel Core2 Duo E7500 @ 2.93 GHz 2.94 GHz
8.00 GB RAM
Some ****** integrated graphics card

There's more, let me know if for some reason you need to know more of it to answer the following.

I'm looking into upgrading the graphics card (and power supply because the 300W that came with will be insufficient).

These are my ideas for each:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150351

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139005

I know the card is big, I'm going to look into the box today and make sure that it should fit. The power supply should fit fine.

But should these work with my system assuming a physical fit?

I'm not sure of what yall need to know to tell me this, so please let me know!

[Wrench97]

What model Dell they make a lot of different size cases?

[HooblaDan]

Inspiron 560. Now I've read online that most of these have a slim case, but this one has a normal-sized hefty case. Let me measure the outside for you.

6.5in X 14in X 16.5in

[Wrench97]

That's still a pretty tight case, the power supply is standard ATX size, but you may have to trim a little bit of the case to fit the new supply depending on where the power cord and switch are located on the back of the new supply.

Measure the graphics card slot from the inside of the back of the case to the front inside, as well as the height clearance from the motherboard to the bottom of the hard drive if it is over top of the card.

[HooblaDan]

Inside space is 15 in

Space from motherboard to drive is 4.5 in, depending on how thick the card is it may or may not collide (I read that this is a big card, but don't really know the dimensions).

If those two dont work, is there something from newegg you'd recommend more?

PS. I'm looking to hopefully have this thing running games well for 3-4 years and I want it upgradeable to keep up if it needs to. I can absolutely return it without reason whenever I want to. Since I don't know how to build and probably don't have the time to learn and execute, I was hoping to buy an 800-1k range consumer computer that had good processor, memory, and drive, and upgrade its card and supply (they're almost universally ****** on those types of computers). If you'd recommend I return this one and try to get one with a larger case, I can do that. I could also try to build one, but I'm not sure of how much of a clusterfrak that would be. They don't seem TOO complicated, but the way parts mesh seems funky sometimes.

[HooblaDan]

Looked up dimensions, says the card is 1.5 inches thick.

If this is the case, and with its length as well (9 in), I worry that it will collide with the sticks of ram and some little metal knobs sticking out of the motherboard.

[Wrench97]

15" is plenty the cards are 10.5"-11.5", the width of the card will start at the slot and go away from the drive.

Both of those will work, but with DX11 out you may want to consider a HD5770 or HD5850 card.

[HooblaDan]

Oh, if it points away from the drive it should fit!

I'll look into those cards, thanks.

[guitarzann]

Tack the HD5830 on that list to look into: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-878-_-Product

[HooblaDan]

I'm looking to stay in the 100-200 range for the graphics card.

I'm reading newegg's policy and I guess I can only return VGA cards for replacements, not a refund.

I'm still slightly worried about that first, bigger card hitting little knobs or connections so I think I'm going to try something smaller.

How would this do:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102869

Or should I find one with 256-bit?

Like

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814261062

[Wrench97]

The GTS250 is the same size as the 4850, 5770, 5830. the HD5670 is about .5"-.75" shorter.

[HooblaDan]

out of curiosity, what are the connectors on top of these cards for?

[Wrench97]

Crossfire(ATI) and SLI(Nvidia) bridges to connect 2 cards together on dual PCIe x16 slot motherboards.