Studio XPS, will a dual slot graphics card fit?

Im looking at the system board and there appears to be plenty of room. What graphic card did you order the system with.

ATI 3650, single slot graphics card. Are you def looking at the Studio XPS motherboard and not the just the Studio. This is basically what mine looks like, though i seem to have an extra PICe x1 under my g card: http://www.desktopreview.com/shared/picture.asp?f=1452

You have another slot below the card that is empty, Therefore the card would fit. A dual slot card does not have two slot connectors. it is just that the physical thickness of the card will occupy the space of two slots.

Which card(s) are you looking at?

Yes because you have the slot not shown on th picture the cables will be further away from the card. However now I have a couple of concerns about  your powersupply the system ships with a 350w supply. The GTX 260  will require 2 6 pin connectors to power the card. The GTX280 will require one 6 pin and one 8 pin power connector. Unless you upgrade the powersupply you will not be able to run the GTX 280 and I am still a bit concerned about the GTX260 also.  I can't seem to find the powersupply pinout on the manuals page so i cannot say for sure that you would have the 2 PCIe power connectors. Pretty sure you would have one just not 2

Thats the trouble, although mines got a PCIe x1 under it I think all the positons are the same, i.e. those cable there are exactly the same distance away from that single slot gfx card as mine! As for the power supply (actually says 360W on it) yes I'd already decided to upgrade that to a 650/750W. When I get a moment I'll take a picture of my own machine, to give you a better view of my set up.

Aren't PCIe x 1 cards a lot smaller though, sorry it’s just I'm a little apprehensive about taking the plunge of about £300-£400, only to find it doesn’t get in there. I feel a lot more reassured now mind, so thanks.

There has to be cleance if one was to add a full size PCIe X1 card. Those are SATA connectors and the cable can be rerouted as needed.

No, it will not accept dual slot cards.  The bottom PCIe slot is rendered useless because of the front panel connectors at the bottom of the motherboard, (there are 5) the first one being just a quarter inch from the bottom PCIe slot  On mine, I have 4 of them each color coded hooked up to the front panel.  The cables running from the front panel are to short to get around the width of a dual slot card, hence you are stuck with getting a video card with a lower profile fan.  Do not get a card with a large zalman-like cooling solution (circular copper heatsink fan combo).  The top of the cooler will be right next to the bottom of the chassis (very little clearence between fan and case bottom).  The heat being blown off of the card has nowhere to go but into the metal case bottom, which just reflects the heat back onto the card causing the card to overheat.  The motherboard and case are of very poor design.  If you install a second hard drive it will literally be milimeters next to a large card creating another potential overheating issue.  I don't recommend the studio xps for gamers.  The power supply will be difficult to replace.  It is shallower than the traditional dell power supply in order to fit in the small case and have sufficent clearance between the motherboard (less than 1/2 in).  A higher rated dell dimension PS is too large to fit without touching the motherboard.  Will require an aftermarket company to create a higher rated on with the same exact dimensions, because that's the only way it will fit in the case.  The studio xps is just a cheap way to get a Core I7, but that is all you really get.  The mother board is tiny with everything crammed right next to each other,  Extremely poor design and no real expandability

Sorry does that mean no other PSU on the market will fit in the Studio XPS, if so this is terrible; I'll have to buy a whole new PC: case, mobo, PSU, GFX card!

Have to ammend my earlier post.  The Silencer 500 will fit in the case as it has the same dimensions as the stock 368W.  Had one in a XPS 410 that I managed to put into this one.  Downside is PSU has lot more wiring than stock one and will be a pain to fit in case.  Even have an 8800 Ultra in my studio xps, but it is running too hot as fan is next to case bottom.  The card also forced me to disconnect the front panel wiring and put my second hard drive outside of case as it is impossible to fit second drive in slot due to size of video card.  So no dual slot cards either.  Case could use another fan or two and 500w PS will allow for that as stock PS has connectors for 2 DVD drives, 2 hard Drived and one 6 prong for vid card.  Ended up getting a fairly stock 4850 because it has a low fan profile.  9800gt also has same types of low profile fans.  I'm just going to wait for next round of vid cards as they will prob have gtx280 performance in 9800gt size.  Current high performance vid cards wont work in studio xps case due to front panel wiring and heat issues

I only have the one 640gb drive and won't want another hdd, as for the front pannel connectors would you have to take them off if the cables were longer and if you do take them off what will it mean i.e. no card reader? You say you got a 8800 Ultra in there, thats a dual slot card, was the over heating critical or just annoying? oh and how about this, http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=360109837252&cguid=fb99d11c11c0a0aad4a72267fff1683e does it share the same dimension as the Silencer 500?

low to mid 70's on an 8800 ultra is not hot. that is normal. those cards run a lot hotter than any of the other 8800 series.

I do see the closeness to the bottom as a definate issue. I believed that there might be more room. The fan on the card blowing down with no way to blow the hot air out of the system is indeed asking for trouble.

I think you should serioulsy reconsider doing these upgrades and perhaps saving your money for a bettt upgradeable system

Yes, that means no card reader and no using the front panel usb and other ports as well.  Even if the cables were longer the front panel connector are covered by a dual slot card rendering them useless in any case.  The overheating can get bad as temps are pushed into the low-mid 70's under hard use, even with fan speed set to 100% (plus the noise factor).  The case woud work fine if it were desgined to have the access panel open from the left side of the case instead of the right side.  The cards would face up instead of down and would mitigate the overheating problem(of course the motherboard would have to be redesigned to fit this way too and have the front panel connectors placed on the front of MB not the bottom, lol).  There is not enough space for decent airflow when a dual slot card is installed, as there is about 1/2 in. of space between the fan and the case bottom. As for your choice in PS, the Silencer 500 is advertised as being Dell compatable.  I do not see that on the 610 although they may be built to same dimensions.

Im going to update this thread for future searches.

I have installed a 650w PSU and GTX 280 without issue. The part numbers and pictures of the install can be found on page 5 of this thread.

The 8800 Ultra appears to be about 4 inches longer the the GTX280.  Also, the bottom of the GTX280 is sealed and pulls air in from the top and sides and blows it out the back so there are no airflow issues.