I can help you there. All you need is a small software adjustment. Open up the back of your computer, then slide one of these in. The Radio Shack ones work best.
Posted on 12/23/2017 11:19:23 AM PST by Lazamataz
My old home computer died outright sometime mid-December. I use it for some fairly intensive gaming (Fallout 4, (actually all the Fallout installments), Total War: Rome 2 (which required an upgrade to a Nividia GeForce GTX 970 video card) and personal computer-development efforts in Visual Studio 2014 and SQL Server 2012. The computer was bought new from MicroCenter in late 2013.
So I went on Amazon, and a Refurbished Dell caught my eye. Here are the specs:
Processor: Intel Core 7th Generation i7-7700 Processor (Quad Core, up to 4.20 GHz, 8MB Cache, 65W) 16GB 2400MHz DDR4 | Dell Wireless 1707 Card (802.11BGN + Bluetooth 4.0, 2.4 GHz) 2TB 7200 rpm SATA 6Gb/s Hard Drive | NVIDIA GeForce GT 730 2GB GDDR3
I assumed it was a full-sized tower, when I got it last night, I discovered it was a minitower. Ok, no worries.
This morning when I began working on it I discovered it has a small-form, anemic power supply (230 watts!) and only one fullsized card slot. The PSU wattage concerned me, but at least I could take out the Nividia GTX 730 and pop in my GTX 970.
Wait, I thought: what about wattage.
So here is my question to those who know all about hardware:
1) Can I find a small form PSU that can get me the wattage I need (400-500) and not cook the insides? Do most small-form PSU's vent directly outside the case, preventing that cooking?
2) Can I find a video card for gaming that will have some horsepower, say 4 gig of onboard RAM, that will either have lower power needs or that will be okay with the higher wattage small-form PSU? And do I have to worry about the higher power video card cooking the insides?
3) Will I be able to run a second hard drive? I will. 2TB is not nearly enough, and I still have to migrate all my stuff from the other drives (if I can, of course, if one, the other, or both, still work)? I understand drives are relatively low-wattage so I am probably okay on power.
or
4) Do I need to return this mini-tower as unsuitable to my needs?
Better than a model number, I can give you the link to what I got.
I can help you there. All you need is a small software adjustment. Open up the back of your computer, then slide one of these in. The Radio Shack ones work best.
Just throw it out and buy a new one.
Remember, this is all minitower. The website will work within that constraint?
Good luck with your upgrade(s).
Check out pcpartpicker.com it should help you a great deal
Return the minitower - if you can pick a video card you have the skills to build your own PC.
You’ve already got the video card
- pick a processor (intel or AMD)
- pick a motherboard that supports the processor. I prefer ASUS myself s
- pick memory that the motherboard supports and in size and as fast as you want to pay for (8gb is really enough for most cases)
-pick a power supply to power it all (supports your processor, video card and motherboard plus any other drives) 450w should be enough for most cases.
- pick an ATX case full size or mid tower.
- get a CPU cooler (intel doesn’t come with them anymore)
The tricky part will be installing the CPU into the motherboard (intel uses a “tool” now to simplify it)and then getting the cooler on it but it’s not really hard - that’s just the area you have to be careful with.
It’s all snap on plug in stuff though. Easy.
It will be more expensive up front depending on how you go - but future updates will be much cheaper as you can upgrade/replace only the needed parts.
Check Newegg for parts prices.
That’s actually a decent looking system. Fullsized? Power supply with some guts? Minimum 500 watts.
Short answer. Small form PSU’s are trouble. You need to know about amps you have.
Just Do It!
So just lose this system, is what I am hearing implied?
In your case, I'm not sure what PWS the 970 needs and whether you can upgrade your power supply, but I would look at a couple options.
You could look at upgrading the case to a mid tower along with a new power supply. A local shop should allow that for about $140-$160. Then, you can just throw the 970 in there and you should be good to go.
Well, (As per FR tradition) I didn’t read your entire post, nor the replies before I replied.
But I’d agree with the above posters advising you to return what you have and start over.
I have to upgrade, too for when Far Cry 5 comes out next February.
Can you give me more info about small-forms and amp considerations or should I just back outta this system?
Crap. I hate hearing that. But maybe it will be my way.
I could also keep this system as a backup, but at 737$ I don’t know if I am feelin’ that.
I use www.pricewatch.com - start with the “barebones” link, each of the vendors will display their offerings. On selection they’ll go to their “build your machine” page where you can select options. They’ll inform you if you make combinations that aren’t compatible or questionable. Then they build it, test it, ship it.
That said...putting in a higher wattage PS shouldn’t really cause you trouble. You could put in additional cooling components but my guess is that the venting and existing fans are probably ok. The i7-7700 (not K version) only consumes 65W. Modern systems will throttle the CPU if it is getting too hot and there’s free temperature monitoring SW out there.
https://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html
http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/
I’d probably just try dropping in the GFX card of choice and see if it is ok. In my experience if I there’s a power supply problem (lack of Watts) you’ll experience problems (resets) but it shouldn’t harm the components. I would have thought a 400W PS would be fine, and wouldn’t mean the system would generate so much more heat to be problematic. The main part that “cooks” is the CPU, so long as it has appropriate thermal paste between it and a good sized heat sink/fan, it’ll be fine. As mentioned, use the heat monitoring programs, all that’ll happen is the CPU clock speed will get throttled down if it is getting too warm.
I thought you built your system.
It’s extremely easy. The hardest thing is making sure everything is compatible with each other. Which is what that site is for. If anything gets difficult, get a YouTube education like I did.
YouTube also taught me how to build my first AR-15.
Also, stick with air cooling for your CPU. Liquid coolers really don’t make much of a difference, and the water blocks can break and ruin your system. The risk outweighs the benefits, IMHO.
I’m excited for ya, Laz!
I configured and built my own systems for 20-25 years starting with my original IBM-PC system in 1982, that I upgraded out of the box.
Lately though, I’ve just been doing laptops, as I don’t do any PC gaming. I’m finding the thread interesting, though.
I would back out. I would avoid Dells altogether. Find a computer shop and find out how much they charge to build you one.
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