MSI has told me their Radeon HD 6570 card should run with the 280 watt power supply. Has anyone used that card with this machine, or a card with similar or greater power?

Anybody?

6570 might burn out the power supply.  Asus SILENT Radeon HD5450 will work.  ANY card with a fan or too High heatsink WILL NOT FIT because its 1 slot wide fit no more.

Asus EAH5450 SILENT/DI/1GD3(LP) Radeon 5450 Graphic Card

Asus EAH5450 SILENT/DI/1GD3(LP) Radeon 5450 Graphic Card - 650 MHz Co…

Space is not an issue. This machine has the PCIe riser. I couldn't put in a 2-slot card of course but most others should fit. The wimpy power supply is the big problem.

The 5450 looks OK, and it is better than the X1300 I have now, but I doubt it's a big enough jump to make it worthwhile.

What about a GT 620 based card? I've heard they have fairly low power requirements.

I used a 6570 in an Optiplex 960 SFF for four months this last year as a development workstation. It had dual monitors attached.

There are reports of people using 7750 cards with 220-watt power supplies ... for gaming, too! Read the feedback: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202002

What happened to it after that 4 months?

The 7750 card is a PCIe 3.0. are they backwards compatible all the way back to 1.0a?

After four months, my contract ended and as the card belonged to me, I removed it and took it home.

The 7750 card is backwardly compatible.

The power supply calculator on Newegg just came up with this:

226 watt PS needed to run this machine with a Radeon HD 5450 video card

245 watt PS needed to run this machine with a Radeon X1300 video card     (the existing, stock card)

257 watt PS needed to run this machine with a Radeon HD 6570 video card

263 watt PS needed to run this machine with n nVidia GT 620 video card

271 watt PS needed to run this machine with a Radeon HD 7750 video card

At face value, the 6570  may be the best value, if the machine can run it safely. The manufacturers recommend between 300-400 watts for the above cards (varies by card).

Currently I could get the Sapphire HD 6570 for $40. after rebate and it triples the horsepower of the old X1300. The 7750 doubles the 6570 horse power but doubles the price as well.

Again, users are reporting success with the 7750 even with 220-watt power supplies. Newegg's calculator isn't infallible.

However, if a 6570 will suit your purposes, by all means buy one over a 7750. The 7750 is a gaming card and if you don't plan on gaming, you don't need it.

Thanks for the feedback, I appreciate it. If it was for myself, with this machine, I would definitely prefer the 7750. But this machine will most likely be for my lady friend who is primarily a Web surfer who watches a fair amount of online videos and uses a video chat program. There is little fear that she will be pushing even the 6570 to its upper performance limits so for now, saving 50 bucks looks a little better.

In that case, even a 6450 would suffice.

That 6450 does look like it has lower power needs, and it is cheaper, but I am looking for a slightly bigger jump up. I will try the Sapphire 6570 card for this project and hope the power supply can keep up with that card and my friends moderate usage. At 40 bucks after rebate (Sapphire rebates are really slow) it looks like a good deal.

We also have a 745 Mini-Tower in use with the same X-1300 card in it. If this project goes well I would like to upgrade that machine too and I will probably give that 7750 card a try in that project.

Thanks again.

The higher you go the higher the risk to your power supply. If you want reliability you should use a tower and upgrade the power supply accordingly.  Adding a riser to shoehorn a card in DOES NOT UPGRADE your power supply.  Also keep in mind that ALL cards must be 1 slot wide.

DELL™ 2400XT™ 755

Radeon HD 2400 Pro  020w

Radeon HD 2400 XT   025w

Radeon HD 2600 Pro  036w

Radeon HD 2900 GT   150w

Radeon HD 3450        025w

Radeon HD 3650        065w

Radeon HD 3870        106w

Radeon HD 4350        020w

Radeon HD 4550        055w

Radeon HD 4670        059w

Radeon HD 4830        095w

Radeon HD 4890        190w

Radeon HD 5450        020w

Radeon HD 5570        040w

Radeon HD 5670        064w

Radeon HD 5970        294w

Radeon HD 6320        020w

Radeon HD 6450        029w

Radeon HD 6570        060w

Radeon HD 6670        066w

Radeon HD 6990        300w

Radeon HD 7450        020w

Radeon HD 7750        075w

Radeon HD 7770        085w

Radeon HD 7970        332w

Thanks for the extra info, and the picture. Though the mini-tower upgrade won't happen for some time, I had not yet considered the impact of the CPU cooling cowl on the choice of video card. It looks like even a single-slot card with a hefty cooler might not fit it it's too long. I'll keep that in mind when the time comes.

BTW, does a standard-sized power supply fit into the Optiplex Mini-Tower?