Sorry, I posted this at the gaming forum and got little support. probably should have posted at the upgrades forum intead... oh well.

 

UPDATE: Been making this thread kind of a resource for this particular set up.

 

PLEASE NOTE; I haven't tested this set up yet, so far this is all done as research prior to upgrating. I'll update this thread once I test a succesful setup and any, if any hic ups I may encounter. Also keep in mind I do not plan to use this card to run Crysis or anything close to that level of PC gaming.  The most I look forward to is FEAR and maybe Gears of War PC. If you are considering this card for high end gaming you might want to pick something way better than this such as the 8800GT or GTX series. Not to mention a much better system than a basic E510.

 

Also, any one else reading this post who might want to make any corrections to what I've found so far please feel free to make them.

 

MODERATOR: Please move this thread to the Hardware Upgrades forum if possible.Thanks.

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Just wondering if some one could give me a hand here. I know it's been done before and since I'm probably going to be stock with this system for at least two more years I may as well try to get the most out of it.

 

Very easy, upgrade the E510 GPU and (most likely) PSU. Any up to date links to PSU hardware would be appreciated. As far as GPU, I was thinking of the Nvidia 8600 GTS.

 

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16814130084

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16814133198

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16814150228

 

Here's how these three look side by side product wise:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010380048%201305520548%201069609641%204017%201068309611%201068409614%201068509618&bop=And&CompareItemList=N82E16814130084%2CN82E16814150228%2CN82E16814133198

 

And in the case that, as many seem to have posted; my current PSU could handle the card, will I need a an extra cable to power up the card since the current PSU doesn't have one?

 

Would this cable do: ( Yes, see answer a few posts down)

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16812201004

 

I also found this post in the hardware upgrades forum relating this particular type of GPU:

 

http://www.dellcommunity.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=dim_upghw&thread.id=114003

 

Here is an article on this cards 8600GT and 8600 GTS, including PSU consumption:

 

http://www.guru3d.com/article/Videocards/426/1

 

Also any one doing this upgrade or similar ones should be aware the E510 PCI X16 doesn't support due slot cards or SLI/CROSSFIRE set ups. So any card with a big heat sink or dual slot openings such as the MSI NX8600GTS-T2D256E-OC GeForce 8600GTS 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127284

 yeah; that it's just not going to happen with this system.

Some one else in a different thread mentioned the utility from http://www.localcooling.com/ as a reference to measure how much power a PC pulls. I don't know how accurate the program is or how exactly does it measure the power.

It seems unlikely since for my PC at home it shows 154 watts for monitor, hard drive, CPU, GPU, and “others”.

My PC specs are on the bottom of this post. and I also have an IOGEAR ION USB external hard drive, a PS2 USB controller, one DVD/R RW, one DVD drive, 80GB SATA II Hard Drive (7200RPM), E176FP Flat Panel Display, and an extra audigy PCI sound card.

So once again, not sure it such application is accurate although it would help if it was.

So since the acuracy of such program is questionable here is a link to a PSU calulator:

http://web.aanet.com.au/SnooP/psucalc.php

Here is a chart of PSU units available for DELL models. Mentioned in this thread:

http://www.dellcommunity.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=dim_upghw&thread.id=113847

http://www.pcpower.com/products/power_supplies/selector/dell.htm

A bit pricey, but you should not be cheap when it comes to PSU to begin with. A NewEgg equivalent would be nice and maybe a bit cheaper.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817703011&Tpk=slincer%2b470

And from Best Buy:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8545158&st=Antec&lp=1&type=product&cp=1&id=1188560188623

A choice between the 8600GTS and the 7950GT has been mentioned. Here is an article comparing this two models. According to this article, and since I do not plan to run any games at higher than 1024 x 768, I would still get good playable FPS with the 8600GTS.

http://www.tech-hounds.com/review33/ReviewsPage1.html

This thread details a user using an E510 stock PSU to power up the 8800GT. Mhh... It just might be possible to pull this off depending on the number of devices in his PC. The manufacturer however, suggest a minimum of a 400-450 PSU for such a card (non SLI). Wish he posted more updates about his PC's performance.

http://www.dellcommunity.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=game_overclock&message.id=5119&query.id=66096#M5119

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Ok, after much research within threads in the forums and numerous positive accounts on using the 8800gt on the E510 I've decided to switch gears towards that particular card. Also, the latest 8800gt 256 version of the card seems to come very close to its 512 bigger cousin and cheaper.

The following are performance benchmarks for the XFX and EVGA models. Please note the 256 version of the 8800gt seem to be better for gaming under resolutions of 1680X1050, anything higher often results in big performance hits.

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/607/1/

http://www.gamepyre.com/hardwared.html?aid=897&p=1

With this in mind I am now leaning more towards the 8800gt 256 for my particular set up.

 

 

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Dell E510 Pentium D Processor 930 with Dual Core (3.0 GHz)

Win XP SP2

1.5 Gig DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz

Currently running Radeon X300 SE

305 PSU