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XPS 9000 and ATI 5870 Compatibility
When purchasing the ATI 5870 (which requires a 500W PS per ATI/AMD) with a XPS Studio 9000 which of the following holds true: 1) Dell upgrades the power supply and possibly the motherboard (depending on the motherboard configuration), or; 2) Dell proprietarily modifies the card to perform at the 475W range to which the XPS9000 is OEM equipped? I know with Alienware the standard is now 875W P/S, however; with the 9000's there is no option to upgrade the P/S.
I have the XPS410 and am thinking about upgrading either by purchasing a 9000, alienware, or building my own. I cannot upgrade the XPS410 any further due to BTX case, maxed RAM for motherboard, P/S, PCIe card expansion due to motherboard limitations, etc. I plan on upgrading to Windows 7 (from Vista), the amount of RAM, etc and am weighing my options to piece build or full system purchase less the monitors (already have 2 HD widescreen Flat panels).
Thanks in advance
Mike
Davet50
14.4K Posts
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March 1st, 2010 17:00
video Card manufactures overrate their power requirements. Dell Power supplies are under rated Dell would lean towards # 2 Build your own. You'll be much happier
JMICHAEL
1.7K Posts
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March 2nd, 2010 09:00
I will have to 2nd that. Build your own. They would most likely modify the card's clock speeds to reduce power consumption. The 475W power supply would peak well over 500 watts so I would not be too concerned about it even if it was at retail specs and not modified. With high end components, I would be more concerned about case design and cooling and this is pretty much wide open if you build your own as the choices would be endless. To have a case with 3 or 4 120mm fans is a much better way to go than to be stuck with very limited cooling and no possible upgrade options for additional cooling. I think this is one reason when you start to upgrade some of these Dell systems with higher-end more heat producing components that their life expectancy is significantly reduced. You have more choices with Alienware if you have the money to afford one. I guess you will have to look at all three choices and just see what works out better for you.
Another option if you still have some decent components such as a good Core 2 Duo or Quad CPU is to buy a new case and motherboard which would run less than $150 and transfer things over. The newer 775 socket boards can take up to 16GB of DDR2 memory if you're running a 64-bit operating system of course. You would have the $100 cost of getting Windows 7 64-bit OEM though. I have seen it for only $89 after a $10 rebate. I myself, might lean towards this choice as I have a Q6600 which is still pretty decent.
fishnbanjo
261 Posts
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March 24th, 2010 18:00
I have been doing a lot of research on the various 5870 cards and from everything I have read they use as much as 40 watts less power than the 4870 I already have running in my 435T 9000 and it never draws much over 170 watts. I just purchased an XFX Radeon 5870 XXX Edition which is set at 875/1300 standard as compared to the ATi Radeon 5870 which is 850/1200 and can be overclocked and maintain excellent stability running at around 140 watts. I have all of what my system has in it in my sig line and have never experienced any power issues and feel the PSU in this system is up to the task.