Non-Alienware/Dell parts in an Alienware desktop?

Question

Hello all. I bought an Alienware Area 51 a year ago and was planning to replace my stock GTX 295 with one of the new Kepler cards or a 580 (dependent on price) in the near future. However one of my friends who used to own a Dell computer 2-3 years ago has been insisting that he was told by a Dell representative that non-Dell video cards will not function in Dell computers, because the BIOS will not recognize them or somesuch. Is there any truth to this? I've looked around on the web and saw no evidence of it. I know Dell used to be somewhat notorious for using proprietary parts (and I do have an Alienware motherboard, obviously... the 0J560M) but I was under the impression they had stopped doing that several years ago.

Long story short: Can I buy and install a video card of my own choosing in my Alienware desktop, or do I have to buy the GPU through Dell for it to work? Any clarification would be much appreciated, as I really don't want to spend $500+ and end up with an expensive paperweight!

Shawnm74 · Answer

Yes you can buy any video card that you want to put in your system as long you have a power supply to provide it with the power it needs.

No truth in what your friend told you at all, if a Dell rep told him that he is just trying to make a sale. (my 2 cents on that)

Maderas · Answer

Thank you for your reply. Yeah, I thought that about the Dell rep too, especially when he mentioned the guy was trying to sell him a GPU for $800 that was going for about $250 on Newegg at the time...

On the note of GPU upgrades, I had one other question I forgot to ask last night. I noticed that I have a wire harness inside my computer with one large plug connecting to the PSU, rather than a normal PSU with several plug-ins. Not that big of a deal to me except that said wire harness only has one 6-pin and one 6+2-pin for PCI-e connections... I was wondering if it's possible to buy a new wire harness from Dell? Say if I were to buy a newer video card that required two 8-pin connections a la the 590?

Shawnm74 · Answer

The 590 should come with the wire harness that you would need to power it, no need to buy one from Dell. http://www.evga.com/PRODUCTS/enlarge.asp?PN=03G-P3-1598-AR&I=3

Maderas · Answer

Well, the issue is that I don't think the wiring that comes with the 590 will work with my PSU.

The plug on it is just a big block, with no way to connect the two 8-pins unless I get a new wire harness. Unless I'm missing something, which is entirely possible, but I don't see any way to separate the wires or fit anything else onto it.

MaDMaX68 · Answer

you may need to have a look around, there should be one or two 6-8 pin pcie plugs!!! they are normally tucked away close to the psu!, dell are not very big on massive labels saying "" im here for your video card"" they kinda like you to guess!! lol

or what they would prefer is you book an engineer to come out for which you would obviously pay a fortune for,

the very thing about the alienware desktops is their upgradability, , which was why i brought my R3,

Maderas · Answer

Well, the harness does actually have another 6-8 plug, but the wires are black and blue instead of black and yellow so I assumed it' snot a PCI-E plug. Besides that the harness only has one black/yellow 6-8 plug.

Maderas · Answer

Hmm... after doing some more research, it seems that it is actually another 6-8 pin. I'm still curious if it's safe to power an 8-8 video card with two 6-8 pins (only using the 8 pin plugs) instead of one single 8-8. Wouldn't using two connectors instead of one provide too much juice to the card?

inVinnieVeritas · Answer

I have the same exact question wanting to upgrade my 5870 to a 5990. Has anyone tried it ? I was wondering if the harness is supplied with two 150W 8-pin & two 75W 6-pin or just 4x 75W 6-pin?

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Non-Alienware/Dell parts in an Alienware desktop?

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