XPS 8500, video card, power supply, upgrades

H77 is plenty good for gaming.  It supports PCI-E 16x 3.0 I believe, but even a GTX 680 cannot fully saturate a 2.0 link.

Exactly.

I think you would have to be running more than one monitor, Dual-DVI on 30" LCD at high-res ... that kind of thing.

I realised that H77 is a PCI-E 2.0 mobo, and GTX680 is supposed to be a PCI-E 3.0 card. So would GTX680 be working on the original XPS8500 mobo at all?

The level of PCI-E H77 supports depends on the processor in use.  A second gen I series (lets say the I7-2600) is only capable of running PCI-E 2.0, while a third gen I series (like what's in the 8500) is capable of running full speed PCI-E 3.0.  I unfortunately am having a hard time locating the exact motherboard specifications for the 8500, to show you that this board is running at full 3.0 speeds, but I can say that running GPU-Z does indeed show it running at full speed.  Take a look at Bus Interface in the screenshot I included.  It clearly shows that the GTX 760 in my 8500 is running at full speed PCI-E 16x 3.0.

while a third gen I series (like what's in the 8500) is capable of running full speed PCI-E 3.0. I unfortunately am having a hard time locating the exact motherboard specifications for the 8500, to show you that this board is running at full 3.0 speeds, but I can say that running GPU-Z does indeed show it running at full speed.

Thanks for posting ... good info.

See what CPUz says about chipset and find chipset whitepaper-specs at Intel.com

[quote user="oozhu"] I realised that H77 is a PCI-E 2.0 mobo, and GTX680 is supposed to be a PCI-E 3.0 card. So would GTX680 be working on the original XPS8500 mobo at all?

The level of PCI-E H77 supports depends on the processor in use.  A second gen I series (lets say the I7-2600) is only capable of running PCI-E 2.0, while a third gen I series (like what's in the 8500) is capable of running full speed PCI-E 3.0.  I unfortunately am having a hard time locating the exact motherboard specifications for the 8500, to show you that this board is running at full 3.0 speeds, but I can say that running GPU-Z does indeed show it running at full speed.  Take a look at Bus Interface in the screenshot I included.  It clearly shows that the GTX 760 in my 8500 is running at full speed PCI-E 16x 3.0.

[/quote]

Thanks dude, that's really helpful, what brand and model of GTX760 are you using in your XPS8500? I thought the 7xx were not supported.

You can find my original post on page 7 for specifics, but it's a MSI GTX 760 Gaming Edition card.  I upgraded the power supply as well, though, so I cannot say if it will work with the OEM included PSU.  It's a shame the R9 280x isn't confirmed working, as it would be a better buy at the moment (~$40 more expensive, but it's closer to the GTX 770 in performance).

Link to card I'm using: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127745

The card runs like a champ at 1920x1080.  All issues I had in the past (as per my old post) have been resolved through driver updates.

I read somewhere that H77 is a pci 2.0 chipset. I have a feeling that no Ivy Bridge CPUs except Sandy Bridge-E and Ivy Bridge-E can fully utilise pci-e 3.0. It's not a big deal though, it seems that it's much more important to get a pci-e 3.0 card, which is everything Geforce 600 series or later or Radeon HD7000 or later.

How's the size on the Gaming cooler? I read that most of the Gaming twin frozrs are beyond 10" which has me a bit concerned...otherwise they look fantastic and sound fantastic given the positive reviews.

H77 is a nice chipset that does everything except for OC.

Long drawn out info incoming, just a heads up.  Skip to the lines if you don't want to read about PCI-E lanes, Sandy-E, Ivy-E, and various chipsets.  That said, if this is your kinda thing like it is mine, you should enjoy reading it, as I enjoyed writing it.

What Sandy/Ivy-E have going for them over the non-E lines (as far as PCI-E is concerned) would be the amount of available PCI lanes.

  Sandy-E (lets say... This one, the i7-3820, linked here http://ark.intel.com/products/63698/Intel-Core-i7-3820-Processor-10M-Cache-up-to-3_80-GHz) has 40+8 (chipset) PCI-E 2.0 lanes (you heard that correctly, 2.0.  The X79 chipset, and Sandy-E DO NOT contain PCI-E 3.0 http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/chipsets/performance-chipsets/x79-express-chipset.html) that you can spread across the mobo, where the Ivy-E (lets say.. The i7-4820K linked here http://ark.intel.com/products/77781/Intel-Core-i7-4820K-Processor-10M-Cache-up-to-3_90-GHz) has the same 40 lanes, but at 3.0 speeds (effectively double the bandwidth of the previous gen Sandy-E).  Extra tidbit of info:  Sandy-E was supposed to support 3.0, but was released before the controller was validated, thus most cards do not recognize it as 3.0 compatible, even though it is.  It is possible to force 3.0, but it's not fully supported, and people have had issues attempting to do so.

  Now you're likely going "But, but, but!  I've seen X79 motherboards that are 3.0 compatible!"  Well, yes and no.  The controller that takes care of business is actually on the processor in the later Intel lines.  The X79 chipset is still used for these newer Ivy-E processors, and can tap into the available 3.0 lanes the processor provides, but the chipset itself still provides the same 8 PCI-E 2.0 lanes on top of the 40 PCI-E 3.0 lanes that Ivy brings to the table.  Toss a Sandy-E into a brand-spankin'-new X79 PCI-E 3.0 mobo, and prepare to be amazed, as it will run at 2.0 speeds.

Now lets look at the standard (Non-E/K/X) processors.

Lets go with the i7-2600 http://ark.intel.com/products/52213/Intel-Core-i7-2600-Processor-8M-Cache-up-to-3_80-GHz.  It has a whopping 16 PCI-E 2.0 lanes to work with.  Remember that the motherboard and chipset tend to provide a small number in addition to the processor, and in this case, the H67 provided 8 2.0 lanes as well.  That's a grand total of 24 lanes to work with, but the motherboard could only provide 1x, 2x, and 4x slots for it's share.  http://ark.intel.com/products/52807/Intel-BD82H67-PCH  Now the good news is that H67 basically took care of the "extra" lanes that you'd tend to use for things like a sound card, or wireless card.  That leaves all 16 for your GPU.  Now here's the not so great news.  What if you wanted to run SLI?  Well, you split the bandwidth.  Now you have 2 PCI-E x16 2.0 slots running at 8x speeds.  :(      It's really not as bad as it sounds, but it's not ideal.

Now it's time for Ivy to hit the market, YAY!  Problems will be solved!  Our voices will be heard!  WE WILL GET MORE LANES!!!  Well.  Kinda.  Same number of lanes, but now they're twice as fast.  PCI-E 3.0 Was unleashed on the masses with Ivy.  H77 still only provides 2.0 speeds for it's 8 included lanes, but now the processor itself was sporting fancy pants PCI-E 3.0 awesomeness.  This means that on the motherboards that decide to split your bandwidth for SLI, it wasn't really a big deal.  Now your PCI-E x16 3.0 slots running at 8x speeds are actually running at the same speed as the previous gen PCI-E x16 2.0 slots running full tilt 16x speeds.  Pretty slick!

But some people wanted even more.  And thus came along the Sandy-E and later Ivy-E we talked about earlier.  Now you can run both PCI-E x16 slots in full speed (either 2.0 or 3.0, depending on the processor), AND have a third slot running at half speed, for those truly insane folks (basically the people that would sink $1200 on a processor + motherboard, haha).  Extra tidbit of info:  Even the latest chipsets for enthusiasts (the Z87 and X79, depending on just how "enthusiast" you are) only add 8 PCI-E 2.0 lanes.

Now for the chipsets.  H77 will NOT allow you to split its lanes.  You take your 16x slot and you better be happy with it.  And no overclocking either!!

Z77 will let you split the lanes into the following: 1 x16 or 2 x8 or 1 x8 + 2 x4  (yes, you can run 3 GPUs in a 8x 4x 4x setup, if you feel the need).  Yay! You can overclock on this one!

As you can see, the chipset actually has very little impact on us "Normies" and our "wimpy" GPU setups.  The high end stuff is for exactly that, the high end enthusiast segment.  The people that want to run 3 or 4 GPUs in tandem, driving a 4K monitor, or triple 2560x1600/1440 displays.  And for them, they're better off building their dream machine and saving a few thousand.  We're not as bottle-necked as most people on here seem to assume.  We're like the high end of the mainstream market, the people that have a 24 inch 1920x1080 monitor, or even a single 2560x1600/1440 27" panel, and want our games to run at high settings with decent fps.

Hopefully someone got a bit of enjoyment, and possibly some knowledge out of that.  :)  If anyone was wondering anything more, just drop a post, and I'll be glad to discuss things further (assuming I have any knowledge on the subject).

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Alrighty, now onto the size of the cooler on the videocard.  It fits fine.  I personally had to go out and buy a longer Sata cable to go to my dvd drive from the motherboard, but aside from that, there are no clearance issues.  I'd take a picture for you, but unfortunately I'm unable to get a hold of a camera :(

EDIT:  And for anyone who cares, Left 4 Dead 2 is available on steam for free at the moment.  Pop on and search for it to add it to your account.  Do it before the 26th at 10am, or you'll miss out.  Happy holidays :)

Thank you for the info. I've never been much of a CPU kind of guy; I just know that an Ivy i5/7 will do the job but not why it's better than Sandy.

If there'd be the need for an additional sata cable, I'd probably not buy it; I use that drive literally once in a million years anyway. It's nice to hear that the twin frozr works though; TF Gaming and DCII are probably the best coolers out there.

Do you think I'd be OK with the stock 460w with a R9 270? Judging from the breakdown on techpowerup the Asus one has some really high idles (~16W) but as for peak and max it's only about ~1 or 2W higher than the GTX 660 in contrast to the consumption that the 270X manages to hit (around reference 670/680 level). From what you said I might be looking at the MSI one in the next little while now that I know it probably fits (doesn't mean it'll work with the mobo :/).

I don't think power would be an issue.  If I remember correctly, Dell gave the option of a 7870 / 7770 to use with the OEM power supply.  The R9 270 uses less power then the 7870 (and only needs 1 6 pin connector).  As you said though, whether it works with the motherboard is anyone's guess.  Take a quick scan of the thread to see if anyone else has attempted the 270 before.  Good luck, and report back what you decide to run with :)

Graphic card manufacturer and model number: 

PNY Technologies 2 GB - GDDR5 Graphics card – XLR8 GeForce GTX 770 - Enthusiast
Edition Triple Fan        http://www.amazon.com/PNY-GeForce-DisplayPort-PCI-Express-VCGGTX7702XPB/dp/B00CZ7Q028

Bios: 12

Operating System: Windows 8.1

Power supply manufacturer if not Dell 460w PSU : Corsair CX600M

Compatible:  Yes or No: YES!!!!

Original card with system that worked: 7570

Graphic card manufacturer and model number:  PNY Technologies 2 GB - GDDR5 Graphics card – XLR8 GeForce GTX 770 - Enthusiast Edition Triple Fan        http://www.amazon.com/PNY-GeForce-DisplayPort-PCI-Express-VCGGTX7702XPB/dp/B00CZ7Q028 Bios: 12 Operating System: Windows 8.1 Power supply manufacturer if not Dell 460w PSU : Corsair CX600M Compatible:  Yes or No: YES!!!! Original card with system that worked: 7570

Great news. Sounds like the GTX 770 is the way to go!

EVGA gtx 770 4gb works great in my xps. 750w psu, original card: 7570

That's great! I wish I went with that one as I had originally wanted a 770. But good to know the EVGA works. 

EVGA gtx 770 4gb works great in my xps. 750w psu, original card: 7570

Nice. If I wanted to install an nVidia gaming card, that's what I would choose.

770 is almost a 780 without the price.

4gb to use now and future-proof

EVGA has good rep. and lifetime warranty (on proper models).

Now, you just need a SSD on primary/boot  :emotion-1:  That should give you 7.7.

Props on installing a nice power supply. Should run cool and not at 100% when PC is maxed-out gaming.