Studio XPS 435MT and the Dell ATI Radeon 4850

I have never fitted a new psu before but thought I would give it a go, but the pci-e cable coming from the stock psu in the 435mt seems to be clamped in place on the side of the FlexDock. How did you get it out without cutting the cable?

Just bend the clamp enough to remove the cable.

Also the 8-pin connector cable to the motherboard seems to need to go very close to the heatsink, how did u stop it from touching?

I tied mine to the grille on the PSU after everything was plugged in.

My 650 (yours might be a tad bigger) PSU was a tight fit but it did go in. You may need to bend the 2 clamps that hold the cable bunches down to get the new PSU in. I just pushed mine down a little.

Hi John Tay

I currently have my 435mt open and am in the middle of fitting my antec tp-750.

I have never fitted a new psu before but thought I would give it a go, but the pci-e cable coming from the stock psu in the 435mt seems to be clamped in place on the side of the FlexDock. How did you get it out without cutting the cable?

Also the 8-pin connector cable to the motherboard seems to need to go very close to the heatsink, how did u stop it from touching?

Any help much appreciated

Thanks

One more thing, there looks to be a lot of cabling for such a small case, how did u keep good airflow?

After I finished running my cables, I used plastic ties to tightly group them together. I stuffed the unused cables into an empty drive slot. I may cut them off in the future but they stay for now (warranty purposes).

The clamp/clip thing seems to be fixed on both sides so I dont see how to bend it.

They're open on one end (mine were anyway).

Ok just realised it is a clamp but extremely hard to bend, partly because of the HDD in the way

ah well i shall keep trying

Hah...thanks.  :)

Hi again

I have changed the power supply for a tp-750, plugged in a hd 5850 and now want to change the case fan, but I cant get the 3 pin connector out of the motherboard, I have pulled reasonably hard.

I see there may be some sort of clip but it is hard to get my fingers on it as the pci slot is in the way. Not sure how to release the connector and the manual doesnt specify how it is done.

Do you know how to? any help is much appreciated.

Thanks 

A few tips from someone who just replaced their graphics card in an XPS 420...that has a full-size case, but other than that, a very similar exercise. My daughter's computer is a Studio XPS 435MT, and I was thinking of giving her my graphics card (HD 5770) when I upgrade, so I ran into this thread.   I'm surprised to hear that the 435MT isn't compatible with Corsair power supplies, since I'm using a Corsair HX650W, but from reading this thread, looks like that's the case.  I upgraded to the HD 5770 since my original graphics card (HD 2400 PRO) wouldn't even handle streaming video at 1900X1200 very well.  The HD 5770 is great for this, and also good for some gaming.

Anyways, first off, get a "modular" power supply, if you need to upgrade your power supply.  This means that you only have the power cables in your chassis that you need, since the power cables all plug into the power supply rather than being permanently attached.  This really eases your cable management job...since you usually can't run the cables where the OEM ran the originals, it really helps to have less than the full complement of cables that a larger power supply comes with.  I'm really glad that I have a modular power supply, much less air-flow obstruction.

On the other hand, the XPS 420 comes with a 375W power supply, close to the XPS 435MT's 360W supply.  I upgraded my original video card to an HD 5770, and that ran fine with the original 375W power supply.  I put in the new power supply because I will upgrade to an HD 5850 when that card comes down in price, and I was already fiddling around in the case.  However, in my experience, I think that you'll be fine with the stock power supply and the HD 5770.  This card really doesn't use a lot of power, and I had thought that the stock power supply would be fine with it.  For the HD 5850 or HD 5870, though, I'd be upgrading the power supply in the case, as well as giving some thought to adequate cooling.  My preference between the HD 5850 and HD 5870 would be the HD 5850, since it's smaller, uses less power and therefore would generate less heat.  The HD 5850 also gets really good reviews for gaming.

Be careful with the new DX11 nVidia graphics cards, the reviews say that they generate a LOT of heat, and I don't think that the 435MT chassis will handle the cooling (even if you could fit them in physically, which I also doubt). 

-Roger

I bought the 435MT in summer 2009
It came with an HD3650 - 256Mb, 360W PSU and a noisy case fan

I replaced the case fan with Zalman F2 to reduce the noise and the graphics card with Asus HD5670

It turned out that the hd5670 uses less power than the HD3650 for a better performance. see this

It's been running 4-5 hours a day for a month now and I haven't seen any problem so far...

Stephan

The Board uses Standard Mounting.

You could buy an upgraded case/power supply from Antec or any other good vendor.