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?
Remember, this is a very cramped Minitower. Everything changes with that.
Then you can run a 1 tb sata drive (7200 rpm) for storage and other extraneous programs (your computer will not be confused... it will read it as a non-booting drive). This should be plenty for all uses.
Get a good Cosair 850W power supply - the computer will only draw what it needs.
I also suggest windows 7 pro 64bit so it will read plenty of memory: 16 gig is plenty and win 7 pro 64bit will be a better operating system with less spyware and other issues than win 10.
The memory, 970 graphics and processor you mentioned are good.
I have been building computers since we were able to build them.... so, sorry for my ramble. Please feel free to ask more questions. I have an older 770 with an overclocked 2.4 @ 3.0 intel and run all games smoothly through my Samsung 55 inch high def tv. I don't need the super resolution beyond 1680 x 1050 @ 60 hz.
Bottom line. Return the rig. Bad combo and never buy refurbished electronics.
That looks like a lil tank.
Ok. I’m backing out. I hope they don’t care if I soldered a new hard drive to the motherboard, because I didn’t have the right cable.
KIDDING lol I did nothing but remove the crap video card which will go right back in.
I concur.
Buy one or two components per paycheck.
Hurts less doing it that way.
It also gives you more time to read the review on the parts so you get the best ones.
Dell used to be the king, too.
That being said- you will likely need 500 watts to run the 970. You can get 4 pin to 8 pin molex adapters to plug into the 970's extra voltage connectors. I think most Dell minitowers are like 240-290 watts so I think you won't have enough power.
You can do a dirty hack by buying an aftermarket power supply 500+ watts and then get the required adapter to connect to the Dell motherboard, and unfortunately it will have to sit outside the case since it won't fit. See the picture below- 
Hmmm... after looking at that thing, I would return it. The power supply is proprietary and standard off the shelf parts aren’t going to fit so you won’t be able to use your 970 in it.
I am NOT running an open case. I have experience with coffee and those.
Yup. I’m hearing return from just about everyone who’s got knowledge. Back it goes.
Damn.
You are thinking too hard.
You should be able to check compatibility between the physical machine and the video card.
What is the exact the model of the Dell Minitower.
Woot sells some decently priced, refurbished business systems, i5’s, I7s. The only thing missing is a decent video card. Then again, Woot IS Amazon, so..
The cooling system is prolly because he is overclocking. There are fine systems already out there sufficient to game w/o spending big bucks, and w/o overclocking.
I think you should get something different then. I wouldn’t compromise especially when running a nice card like the 970.
1) Ask nVidia support how big the PS should be for the card you have.
2) Buy a 500G SSD as the primary drive and move the 2TB to secondary data drive.
3) Ask Dell about upgrading the PS for your current case/model; otherwise, ask Dell about a possible trade-up to a larger case with more slots, more in the PS.
4) 16 GB RAM should be fine.
5) Sorry for this Laz, but as a gamer, I am a bit surprised you didn’t seriously check out the unit before you bought it. :-)
Open case???
Hell naw.
I’ve killed things with coffee before.
Or should I say covfefe?
I suck.
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