PSU Replacement

Fishy, I also asked about using a corsair psu ages ago. Narry a response, so they probably wont work on dells.

Maybe you'll get lucky and a Dell musician will answer your post.

Good luck.

This video just might help.  Though it's a 3010 MT, MT's and DT's in many of the Optiplex's, including the 3010, share the same MB.  https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_q8DaxWe1LM 

It's not said what GPU you plan on powering.  A worthwhile lesson from Rockstar speedstep:  It's not just total watts, make sure you have more than enough power on the 12v rail for your GPU.

As for a PSU upgrade that would fit in the DT, the PSU from an Optiplex XE2 SFF (315w) has proprietary mounting and only works in some of the other SFF's.  There's no DT for the XE2.

By the way, you do have a DT since you have the full size 5.25".optical drive bay.

The card I'm using is a gt 740. The paperwork recommended a 400w power supply. The system is stable as is though. No crashes, no black screens, no graphical glitches. The gaming I do is pretty low end stuff, nothing that's really going to push the card. The main thing holding me back from biting the bullet is the the 5vsb being 4A. Yet every newer power supply I look at has 2.5A or 3A at a max. Why is it so high and can I go lower? 

The corsair has more power on the 12v rail than the original power supply so should be good there.

I've seen a few dell psu upgrades and they use corsairs with a lower 5vsb but I don't know what the original psu spec was on their machines. 

first off if you use a power meter you learn the PC uses very  little power at all just doing windows only things.

desktop , browsers,  10 to 20 watts,  and will never tax your old PSU let alone any NEW PSU .

in fact the power will be the same (80%grade same) The PC only uses what it needs , never more.

Power is a DEMAND THING. (Gaming tops this list) this is no gaming PC at all on any DT this sized.

The card  will then use lots of power if you AAA+ game, do you?> or other high powered 3D apps, or video renders, or cad/cam/cae or engineering or scientific modeling and more, 100,000 of apps there are. endlesss.

what you do on PC is your business and IDK that. but  some  things will make the card use 64watts. all by its lonesome (gaming sure)  (12vdc is most important)

If I had your PC id sell it for 3020 full MT case so any card fits. (I do that for FUTURE applications) a wise thing to do. $50 my 3020 cost me...

but I digressed there sorry, back to DT 3010 pain/.

the pain is non standard PSU.  (dell has 3 pains that, and some have non standard power plug and with those non standard standby power, 12vsb not 5vsb. (non ATX end to end it can be ) your at least has  24pin power plug.(seen others mount real PSU  outside the case, and Id never do that but my lab PC sure does.(air PC)

Seems your  PSU is just  frankencased. non ATX sized, long and skinny.

the paper work shows 400w this is the card makers wild guess, not knowing at ALL what PC you have.

They  make that claim from folks with real gaming PCs with 130 watt CPU, 200+watt GPU and banks of HDD, huge rust spinning drives, with 100s of games loaded . (they only want to not BSOD you, a win-win)

what matters is all things inside, or even outside, charging 4 , USB battery packs at 2amps each?

and 2+ large huge hDD inside all using and needing 24watts to spin motors.

That GT640 is using only 64watts full tilt full load full 3d max load, it does that but 10w in windows. This is no Gaming card by any means. that is for sure, unless playing solitaire card game?

SEE?

in fact it might only use same watts as the stock IGPU in the PC now. (id have to test it to prove that.(ammeters)

the size of our pCs is fully covered in the dell service manual, etc.....dell.com

DT is a size, uses non ATX PSU, it is DELL SIZE (odd ball so call proprietary) seems 250watts is MAX. PSU by dell sold.

watch out if you buy things on fleabay many sellers lie (dont know) the correct names and tell it wrong.

some call DT SFF and are totally wrong. LOOK carefully at all photos for sure the PSU TAG  !

in fact it came in 5 sizes,  for a fact, 3 below are common.

MT, DT, SFF, USFF, All-in-one

the 250 limit,  and the 17amp 12vdc limit is important to GPU cards, more is better, but If you are not gaming or the like you may never see a BSOD, GPU cards can BSOD you or do GRAPHIC artifacts when bad POWER.

Warning some Motherboards are again non ATX spec and the x16 slots labeled 25w or 35watt limited.

your 1 manual shows no such limit, the mobo to is not marked as such. $16 sold used.

The tell my my 790 is limited but runs any card I test , using nasty FURMARK 3d card killer...... love it.

It runs even 250watt GPU card old power hogging beast all day long ,and any game. (790/380/3020 here)

ID say you have DT,

answer #2 to you PC is not ATX why look at that CX430 PSU that is?

the ATX is this sized, yours is not even close to that spec, ATX size.

seen here (actual ATX spec. phy.

only the DEEP varies from 140 out.  700watts can be short as 150mm long.  I run these ! here.

not sure if crossover PSU fit, dell does not spec,. out any PSU, besides label words. for sure SIZE.

Okay, maybe I wasn't clear, I've given up looking for something that would fit inside the case. The closest I've found is something around tfx size but seems to be around 9mm wider than the dell unit.

My plan is to have an psu that will do the job and leave it outside the case with dust filters fitted.

I realise the gt 740 is not a beast of a card and like I said it's going to be used for very very low end gaming. I just needed something beefier than the integrated graphics. Again I realise that the 12v rail is important but the burning question. I have is the 5vsb rail is 4A. The majority of alternative psu's are beefier on the 12v rail etc BUT are only 2A or 3A on the 5vsb rail? Will this case me issues such as the pc not booting etc?

I'm not looking to turn it into a gaming rig it's really just a htpc which I use occasionally for low end gaming for the kids. 

I used an online power checker listing the cpu, hdd, optical drive and graphics card and it rated it as needing a 260w psu. As I say its stable, I've had no issues at all and the most "demanding" title I've tried is probably csgo through steam. I'm using Linux by the way. It ran fine, I checked the temps etc and card handled it fine. It's just that 4A rail that's causing me a concern. 

I'll have to let one of our other experts answer about the 5v rail.  If I remember right, 5v goes to the USB's and a floppy drive if you have one.

Something I think worth considering is the GT 1030.  It takes only 30w, has 2GB memory, and higher resolution.  I couldn't screengrab, but I used "GT 1030 watts" for a search term in Google and a link to the specs came up, and so on for the GT 740.  The GT 1030 comes regularly recommended for Optiplex's by one of our Rockstars.

The card I've got is adequate for what I need. No plans to upgrade. Just another thought.... Does my mobo have a standard 24 pin connector or a dell specific? Will an aftermarket psu be plug and play? 

3010 has 24 pin whereas 3020 has proprietary 8 pin.

EVGA 700BR works fine in mini tower.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/evga-700w-atx12v-eps12v-80-plus-bronze-power-supply-dc-dc-technology-black/6346160.p?skuId=6346160

B2 BQ G2 W1 N1 versions from the SAME VENDOR do not work because they only have 130W combined on the 3.3v/5v rails vs 150W .