On that specific thread I was referring to help the customer with the no post issue, I have read some post about people upgrading the video card on the X51 with a GTX660 ti or GTX 670, I know some systems can work fine with them, but some others not, this can depend on the configuration and many other things, certainly I cannot you tell exactly why is not working as engineering haven't test this model of video cards on the X51.
GTX660 reference designs that use a blower design that blows hot air out the back of the system have better results. If you buy one that just dumps the hot air inside the chassis you can experience overheats.
GTX660 reference designs that use a blower design that blows hot air out the back of the system have better results. If you buy one that just dumps the hot air inside the chassis you can experience overheats.
Yes this is very important to check - all the successful upgrades with only minor mods e.g. removing the front fan grill, have been with cards that follow nVidia reference designs. They all take the hot air from inside and blow it out of their own grill out of the back of the X51.
Sorry but even in a larger system, pre-built or home-built, which was originally designed with all its fan pulling air in from the front and pushing hot air out the back, you'd be a monumental idiot putting any replacement component inside that then does the opposite.
The X51 controls it's fans perfectly well within the design, so you have to follow that or have big problems.
You're right, I have should have looked at it closer, but I just heard so many good things about this card working in the x51.
How can I tell if a GPU has the right type of fan for this system? Looking at the 660ti, I can barely tell it apart from the 545; single blower fan and emits heat out the back. Or is this a Dell OEM design only?
And my apologies for my previous post; I'm just a little frustrated with this computer. I've been having boot problems, drive, and GPU (GT 545) problems since I purchased this thing.
Hey no worries, I just count myself lucky *touch wood* that mine has been exemplary so far.
I'm not really sure how you can tell without using something to visualise the air flow when it's running.
Maybe a very light piece of paper, string held in front of grill out of the back to watch if it blows out or sucks air in. The latter is not what you want.
You might also want to monitor the hard drive temperature with something like Open Hardware Monitor - if you've had drive issues maybe it's faulty and also pushing out a lot of heat (constant retries will make it work harder). One of the things I did when I upgraded to the 670 was to replace the HDD with an SSD, which as well as giving off less heat, is smaller and therefore allows more airflow around it and the card above.
Alright, just an update on this issue 3 months later:
I feel pretty stupid for not figuring this out sooner, but I was finally able to fix this problem. The trick to cooling down the GPU is by messing with the fan curve settings. For my fix, I used MSI Afterburner. I'm not sure why the fan doesn't turn up high enough, probably due to the compact size of the X51 leading to poorer air flow, but the fans do not seem to match the level and run faster accordingly (at least this was the case with my PNY 660TI). As long as the GPU is a reference design (i.e. blow air out of the back of the unit, which this PNY 660TI does), and you have no cables blocking the GPU fan (which I didn't), all you have to do is increase the levels of the fan to match a similar number in relation to the temperature of the GPU (for me, I set the fan's speed to match the GPU celcius temperature past 60 degrees). So, if the temperature of the GPU is 60, the fan should run at about 60%. If the GPU heats up to 70, the fan increases to 70%. This allow the unit to stay under 80 degrees and now all my games run smoothly without lagging and overheating for the whole session!
Anyways, I hope this information helps other people with similar problems. Oh, and thanks everyone for the help/advise!
Alienware-Karen
2 Intern
•
433 Posts
0
January 29th, 2013 12:00
Hello FryerBuck,
As per engineering the X51 does not support the GTX 660ti, this because it can cause overheating and instability issues in the system.
FryerBuck
6 Posts
0
January 29th, 2013 13:00
Well it seemed to work fine in this build that you commented on Karen:
en.community.dell.com/.../20189303.aspx
Why not my X51?
Alienware-Karen
2 Intern
•
433 Posts
0
January 30th, 2013 09:00
FryerBuck,
On that specific thread I was referring to help the customer with the no post issue, I have read some post about people upgrading the video card on the X51 with a GTX660 ti or GTX 670, I know some systems can work fine with them, but some others not, this can depend on the configuration and many other things, certainly I cannot you tell exactly why is not working as engineering haven't test this model of video cards on the X51.
mav711
245 Posts
0
January 30th, 2013 13:00
GTX660 reference designs that use a blower design that blows hot air out the back of the system have better results. If you buy one that just dumps the hot air inside the chassis you can experience overheats.
Taomyn
131 Posts
0
January 31st, 2013 07:00
Yes this is very important to check - all the successful upgrades with only minor mods e.g. removing the front fan grill, have been with cards that follow nVidia reference designs. They all take the hot air from inside and blow it out of their own grill out of the back of the X51.
FryerBuck
6 Posts
0
February 1st, 2013 12:00
Well, I just took the side panel off the computer and I think I'll just leave it at that.
I don't understand this system. Why doesn't it just have fans inside to blow the hot air out of the chassis?
kameix1
191 Posts
0
February 1st, 2013 13:00
Well, adding fans inside computer would make it larger. Just get the right kind of card and you wont have problems.
Taomyn
131 Posts
0
February 2nd, 2013 10:00
Sorry but even in a larger system, pre-built or home-built, which was originally designed with all its fan pulling air in from the front and pushing hot air out the back, you'd be a monumental idiot putting any replacement component inside that then does the opposite.
The X51 controls it's fans perfectly well within the design, so you have to follow that or have big problems.
FryerBuck
6 Posts
0
February 4th, 2013 08:00
You're right, I have should have looked at it closer, but I just heard so many good things about this card working in the x51.
How can I tell if a GPU has the right type of fan for this system? Looking at the 660ti, I can barely tell it apart from the 545; single blower fan and emits heat out the back. Or is this a Dell OEM design only?
FryerBuck
6 Posts
0
February 4th, 2013 08:00
And my apologies for my previous post; I'm just a little frustrated with this computer. I've been having boot problems, drive, and GPU (GT 545) problems since I purchased this thing.
Taomyn
131 Posts
0
February 4th, 2013 09:00
Hey no worries, I just count myself lucky *touch wood* that mine has been exemplary so far.
I'm not really sure how you can tell without using something to visualise the air flow when it's running.
Maybe a very light piece of paper, string held in front of grill out of the back to watch if it blows out or sucks air in. The latter is not what you want.
You might also want to monitor the hard drive temperature with something like Open Hardware Monitor - if you've had drive issues maybe it's faulty and also pushing out a lot of heat (constant retries will make it work harder). One of the things I did when I upgraded to the 670 was to replace the HDD with an SSD, which as well as giving off less heat, is smaller and therefore allows more airflow around it and the card above.
FryerBuck
6 Posts
0
May 13th, 2013 08:00
Alright, just an update on this issue 3 months later:
I feel pretty stupid for not figuring this out sooner, but I was finally able to fix this problem. The trick to cooling down the GPU is by messing with the fan curve settings. For my fix, I used MSI Afterburner. I'm not sure why the fan doesn't turn up high enough, probably due to the compact size of the X51 leading to poorer air flow, but the fans do not seem to match the level and run faster accordingly (at least this was the case with my PNY 660TI). As long as the GPU is a reference design (i.e. blow air out of the back of the unit, which this PNY 660TI does), and you have no cables blocking the GPU fan (which I didn't), all you have to do is increase the levels of the fan to match a similar number in relation to the temperature of the GPU (for me, I set the fan's speed to match the GPU celcius temperature past 60 degrees). So, if the temperature of the GPU is 60, the fan should run at about 60%. If the GPU heats up to 70, the fan increases to 70%. This allow the unit to stay under 80 degrees and now all my games run smoothly without lagging and overheating for the whole session!
Anyways, I hope this information helps other people with similar problems. Oh, and thanks everyone for the help/advise!