Dell Studio XPS 435MT Case Problem

Hi Radon0,

Putting a Dell motherboard and other parts in a different case is usually an exercise in futility. There are just to many things that will end up not working right.

Does your video card have a cooling fan? Because 90°C for a GPU is getting into dangerous territory. Your video card sounds to me like it's not cooling properly.

That's a lot of video card for that size case. It sounds like this particular HD 6870 exhausts into the case rather than pushing the hot air from the video hardware directly out the back?

I have the exact same problem with my studio xps. I updated the radeon to a GTX550. To do so, I also had to update the power source to a 550W and now my core temperature is at 60 deg C when idling but when I take the case off it's 45 deg C. So it's clearly a cooling problem. Any advice on what to do? As srdickson said, the video card fan exhausts directly into the bottom of the case.

Under load, you've sort of done the equivalent of putting a 100W light bulb inside the case. You'll need to arrange to move the generated heat out of the case, either by using a card that exhausts out the back or by adding airflow to the case.

p.s. wondering if you have any thoughts on my idea of getting a new case. The MB seems to be standard mATX size but am worried about the flexdock at the front and the I/O panel at the back.

Another issue is that since I did do the change, I've noticed a lot more fan noise. It probably detects high temperatures and kicks in full gear. Taking the side panelling helps and I don't get BSODs but there's moments when it really seems like the computer is choking and I bet it's the temperature issue.

Unfortunately, I think the problem is the case. It seems poorly designed for the power of the system, and has poor airflow; I didn't realize just how much extra heat the new video card would add. Another case issue I'm having is, I have a 2.5" SSD with a 3.5" bracket and I can't seem to physically put it inside. There's two HDD bays on the 435MT. The current HDD is in the HDD0 bay, and I'd like to put the SSD in the HDD1 bay. I just don't see how to insert the bracket in the bay.

So these two problems are making me think I should transfer the system to a case with better airflow, easier HDD management, and also a better cabling system (installing the new PSU was not trivial because of lack of space inside). I'm not going to be able to get my video card refunded and I do want a better video card than the stock Radeon, so it seems getting a good case is also the cheaper investment here. I also thought about getting an exhaust PCI-e fan, but the MB just doesn't have that much expansion space (I'm down to one PCI-e slot) and wouldn't really help with the video card blasting onto the case.

Have you tried to update the BIOS? I a 435mt with 550 ti 2gb. Idle temps are in the 40-45c and under full load I have never seen them above 83c. I know when I updated the BIOS the erratic fan noise stopped. It may be worth a try.

I've got the 435mt and I upgraded my graphics card to a 6950, which meant I also had to upgrade my PSU. My temps rose quite a lot so I bought myself a new case. I've had no problems with temperatures since, and a much better air flow.

The motherboard is standard ATX, the only thing I didn't have was an IO panel for the motherboard as it's build into the studio XPS case but that's not too much of an issue, you could make one if you wanted.

What case did you put it in. Very interested in doing this as well. Just upgraded to XFX 7850 BE and a 700w PSU

I was headed in the same direction a few years back. I had upgraded the ps to a 500w Antec and the Radeon HD 4850 to a HD 6750. I hoped the upgrade would cool things off and improve the XPS 435's performance but it didn't. The Antec strained and the fan turned up. It kacked. I got a 750w Xfx but the fan speed and the heat never changed. Even got the hardware drivers updated with no improvement. I was told by the senior engineer where I work to upgrade the bios and found Dell had no new bios updates after 12/09. I tried to find a mobo number but I all I found was a thing called LABEL DM455. So in my opinion, unless Dell releases a bios update for the XPS 435mt, no one will be able to upgrade, and a hot, miserable little orphan it will remain. I'm somewhat pessimistic, yes. I've seen manufacturing companies do this before. Ford Motor Company did from the 60s, into the 90's. A former executive explained it this way. "We're not in the business of making better car parts or fixing cars. We're in the business of selling cars."  

Col_Forbin, did you have any issues moving up from PCIe 2.0 to PCIe 3.0? I've been warned by some techs I wouldn't be able run a Radeon HD 7850 card or better because the xps 435 wouldn't support PCIe 3.0. Some say I wouldn't have any issues. Some say it's a Dell bios thing. I'd got my heart set to buy the 7850 for all the good things said about it. Thanks for posting your upgrade.

I have been running my  XFX 7850 BE for around 3 months with no issues. One thing you may want to consider is moving the mobo to a new case. I moved my dell mobo into a Rosewill Ranger mid tower with no issues. Let me know if you have any other questions.

col-Forbin,

I got my HD 7850 last Friday. This is a God send! The Pcie 3 card really works well. Runs high graphics fast. I don't think I dropped below 30 fps. I test ran this card in the 435mt for 6 hours straight in BF3. I bought the XFx HD 7850 Ghost Thermal because I couldn't find a BE card.

I'm not regretting not having the extra fan. I did have to remove the rather large fan shroud on the 7850 and install a 3" intake fan at the front, bottom of the case. It's just a temporary fan configuration to run the graphics card. I'm sure the setup can't be a permanent fix. Next week, I'll be disassembling the Dell XPS435mt and install everything in the larger case.

I think the fan ramped up a couple of times during the most intense play. Not sure, the psu and an experimental case fans are loud. It has become cooler than it once was. Checking the temps on the mobo, cpu and 7850 are unusually cool. As I write, everythings' 29*c/30*c. Course, living in the state of Washington helps. The 7850 runs BF3 in the low 50*c. Unbelievable. Truely unbelievable.

Once again, thank you for your answering my Pcie3 question and case advice. This, is far better than I expected.

Wreks

What's up,

 Great to read that we aren't restricted to the Dell case.  I would like to follow the same upgrade route as col-forbin and Wreks but I am totally new to working with computer internals so I wanted to ask how tough it was to switch the internals to the ranger case.  I've read some people who've switched into antec cases have to customize the case to get everything to line up right... is that what you guys had to do with this case or was it really as easy as pulling out the mobo, video card, etc. and mounting them into the new one?

 Another question I had was if that was the best video card possible for this upgrade.  I see that there is a HD7870 and HD7950 available... are those cards not compatible with our mobos (I have a 1st gen i7-920 with the hd4850 card)?  I just want to get the best I can now so I don't have to upgrade again for awhile!

  Thanks,

     Jay