Firstly, the best bet is to go with a 'blower' style GPU as these blow the hot air out the back of the case. There is precious little room inside the X51 for internal airflow. These are very different from the standard open fan style cards that you see these days. if you Google 'blower style GPU' you will see what I mean.
The 1060 is a popular upgrade and I believe the 1070 will also fit but you may have to remove the small intake fan for the HDD at the front of the case. I've seen some people have success with some RTX 2060/2070's but you're really starting to push the power limits. There was a long thread on this on the old Alienowners forum but that site was shut down a few years ago. There is an archive of it floating around somewhere though.
You will need the 330W power adapter for pretty much any GPU upgrade.
The x51 series is forever limited by it's physical-size and laptop-like power-supply architecture . GPU's and everything else needs lots of power. Additionally, it's not good to be running these Power-Supplies into 90%+ utilization for long periods of time.
x51 is mainly designed to be small, so not only is the physical-space (to install larger graphics-cards) missing, cooling and ventilation space is very limited.
Vanadiel
6 Professor
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7.1K Posts
0
June 30th, 2023 08:00
What are the rest of the specifications?
mattyb3
5 Practitioner
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1.7K Posts
0
July 2nd, 2023 22:00
Firstly, the best bet is to go with a 'blower' style GPU as these blow the hot air out the back of the case. There is precious little room inside the X51 for internal airflow. These are very different from the standard open fan style cards that you see these days. if you Google 'blower style GPU' you will see what I mean.
The 1060 is a popular upgrade and I believe the 1070 will also fit but you may have to remove the small intake fan for the HDD at the front of the case. I've seen some people have success with some RTX 2060/2070's but you're really starting to push the power limits. There was a long thread on this on the old Alienowners forum but that site was shut down a few years ago. There is an archive of it floating around somewhere though.
You will need the 330W power adapter for pretty much any GPU upgrade.
grouperdouble
4 Posts
0
July 13th, 2023 08:00
I have the 330 power block would a 1660 work? I'm pretty sure it is the best one I can get for it its not a blower though.
Tesla1856
8 Wizard
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17.4K Posts
0
July 13th, 2023 08:00
I run my GTX-1660 in an old XPS-8300 desktop, but it has a Corsair-650w PS these days. My systems with GTX-1070's have 850 watters.
Tesla1856
8 Wizard
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17.4K Posts
0
July 13th, 2023 09:00
The x51 series is forever limited by it's physical-size and laptop-like power-supply architecture . GPU's and everything else needs lots of power. Additionally, it's not good to be running these Power-Supplies into 90%+ utilization for long periods of time.
x51 is mainly designed to be small, so not only is the physical-space (to install larger graphics-cards) missing, cooling and ventilation space is very limited.
https://www.dell.com/community/Alienware-Desktops/X51-R3-Upgrade/td-p/6057352
May I ask if you are using the x51 from a desk in an office/bedroom, or are you using it in the Living-Room with a controller from the couch?
grouperdouble
4 Posts
0
July 14th, 2023 18:00
Wo9uld a 1660 Ti fit?
grouperdouble
4 Posts
0
July 14th, 2023 18:00
Bedroom with keyboard and mouse.