AMD R9 270X on Alienware X51?

Hi!

Same as for the GeForce GTX660, the Radeon R9 270 and Radeon R9 270X are fully compatible with this system so the only thing you need to upgrade is the 330W PSU. Here are the two part numbers:

The overclocked versions of these video cards haven't been validated for this system, so we can't guarantee it will perform properly. 

Thank you Naomi, it's very reassuring to know that I can upgrade my graphics card to that much. I will probably go for the 270X in that case, as it's not too much money more than the 660 and 270. I would like to know where I can enter with these part numbers. I have to find the exact one used on factory builds, as I don't want any chance of mucking my PC up. I will probably not buy from Dell directly, as I can buy on parts on Amazon cheaper, so I will need to know the brand name and specifications please. Thank you Naomi.

The brand is AMD. Model  Radeon R9 270, 2GB and  Radeon R9 270x, 2GB. For detailed specifications go here. 

Wow thread resurrection batman

but can you get the specs for power requirements for dell's OEM card.. NOT the retail versio you see tested everywere .. *** Dell's OEM among other OEM are different the RETAIL cards

dell's 660  i see specs for are slightly lower clocks, 1.5 gig ram vs 2 or 3 gig   nvidia says and so on

LOL A GTX 660 and a R9 270 requires more than a 330watt PSU. You need at'least a 400watt PSU and even that is pushing the limit. The recommended minimum wattage for the GTX 660 is 450watts ( http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-660/specifications ) and R9 270 minimum recommended wattage is 450watt and 500watt for the 270X model. ( http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/Page362.htm ) The quality of a PSU is very important! This is something you should never skimp on or shrug your shoulders at. Also amperage is actually more important than watts! But if Dell is using only a 330watt PSU for a GPU like the R9 270 or GTX 660 then that should be your first clue to stay away from Dell! Because not only will the system fail! But if you replaced it with a quality PSU to correct the wattage for the GPU it will void the warranty. Also Dell has always used low quality PSU's in the past. And all it takes is a cheap PSU with low amperage to surge a bit because of power ripple and then that is the end of your motherboard and CPU and GPU. Also a 330watt PSU would cause a GTX 660 and a R9 270 to throttle constantly from having no power when it needs it. This could damage the GPU over time and that is if the PSU does not go first. Please research this! Do not trust Dell simply because they are a company and have a office and suites and everything LOL. It is a wonder AMD and Nvidia honers warranties with Dell if they are using underspecified power supplies that can void the warranty. Also be very careful about what PSU you buy! I would certainly not trust Dell's Hipro built units! Those are some of the worst made power supplies made! They have teapo caps and use Capxon even on the main circuits! And they have no filter system or any surge protection! I would not put one of those units even in the computer of my worst enemy! And if your GTX 645 is using a cheap Hipro built unit that is not even a 330 watt it is a wonder it has lasted this long! And I can guarantee your GTX 645 is not getting correct amps and wattage, And is not performing as it should!

Your kidding? Your response is a underpowered 330 watt PSU will work with a R9 270 simply because it is not retail? And because it is on Dell's spec sheet, LOL. So just because it is bought from Dell and not a store it will magically work with a PSU that the card was not designed to work with LOL WOW! Amazing logic there! But the fact still remains regardless of Dell's spec sheet, And regardless of the resurrection comment, The fact still remains that the R9 270's minimum power requirements are a 450watt PSU with at'least 32 amps on the 12v rail. So unless the R9 270 that is sold by Dell is a magical R9 270 it is still the same. The specs on every R9 270 is exactly the same! That is just reality no matter what the dell spec sheet says. If you run any gaming rig with a underpowered PSU it will not only fail, But it will have many problems before it does fail (mostly motherboard bios problems at first). It may work fine for a short time. But it will eventually start to fail. This is why AMD and Nvidia make it very clear on the recommended power requirements for your GPU, And why Intel and AMD do the same for all CPU chips. And also why you have power ratings for any motherboard you buy. Because you have to correctly match the amperage and watts used by all your hardware parts. This is why AMD recommends a 450watt PSU. Because electronic parts fail when they need to pull amperage that is not there. You will be lucky it lasts a year with only a 330watt PSU with less than 30 amps on the 12v rail! But that is probably conveniently around the time the warranty runs out.

Also AMD does not make a OEM R9 270, But it is offered with alienware. This does not mean it is OEM simply because it is offered by alienware. Alienware built systems offer standard retail GPU's as well as many OEM GPU's. So a link to a OEM R9 270 is impossible because it does not exist!

The R9 270 is a Pitcairn chip All pitcarin chips need at'least 150 watts and around 30 amps. There is a OEM version of the R9 270/ 7870 and it is the 8860 http://www.techpowerup.com/gpudb/2390/radeon-hd-8860-oem.html

But it requires a 500 watt PSU because like the 7870 and R9 270X it has a 175watt TDP

wow little on defensive side and targeting the ati card now :O

the DELL OEM 270 and 270X draws roughly 100 watts ~ 15 watts  so assumign you get a delta 330 watt like i got its a good PSU which by standards of 80% continuous(delta is actually higher)  give me roughly 255 watts total continuous power from PSU an i7 4770 draws about 85 watts full DRAW which is rare unless cpu benching, board and ram a few more watts ect..  it has the ability to power it, so why so defensive?

OEM cards for the most part are crippled versions of original cards and are designed for power restrictions  remove ram remove speed  and you get your power requirements, now in a small form factor like a X51 it will have less power draw then a full desktop...

even scouring  around  review  forums etc... average system draw with a retail card full system is around 280 watts , so whats the issue?

You will be lucky it lasts a year with only a 330watt PSU with less than 30 amps on the 12v rail! But that is probably conveniently around the time the warranty runs out.

that is an interesting theory...but certainly many owners have reported success with running GTX 970 and GTX 980 without the  recommended 500w PSU

even if they suggest 500w...the fact remains that they can't draw more than 225W if you are using 2x6 pin connectors...and NVIDIA's max power spec is actually 165W and this is only achieved in FurMark testing scenarios.

Load system power in Furmark with GTX980 have not reached 300W even on a system i7 4960X CPU which uses 50W more power under load than X51 CPUs. So this is consistent with the reported Wall-o-meter measurements that X51 maxes out at around 250W under intense gaming loads with 2x6pin GPUs

even with a maxed out GPU, you have 165W of spare capacity remaining on the PSU to power the rest of the system.

Hey Jonas,

I have an x51 R2 (i3) from 2013 and I want to upgrade it to an i7 CPU. Eventually I want to also upgrade the GPU...

So you think the 330W PSU will be enough to make this upgrade safely?

What i7 CPU do you recommend?

I'm a hardware noob, so your input (or anyone's) is greatly appreciated!

Thanks

Hi

I've got an x51 r2  i7 , 660 gtx with 16gb ram.

I've removed the gtx card and using the stock card as I'm looking to sell and get a new card.

Now, without the gtx I ran some cpu stress tests and at 100% 8 core utilisation I could see that it consumed a Max of 116 w from the wall.

From 330w IT would still give 200 w max to a graphics card.

So if you used a card that consumed a max of 180 w it would safely work.

I believe the reason we can get away with a 330w is because of the low consumption of other components in it.

If we started adding more components in, it would eat into what would be avail ale for the graphics card

Maybe that's why they suggest 450w for custom built PCs at a minimum.

Cheers

From 330w IT would still give 200 w max to a graphics card.   So if you used a card that consumed a max of 180 w it would safely work.

no...you shouldn't do that, there have been experiments involving people trying to put the GTX 680 into the R2 with 330W PSU and it can't boot properly.

The GTX 680 has been shown to consume about 170W..so you should stick to the official Dell guideline which suggests no more than 150W and the GTX 970 reference cards meet this criteria.

People with overclocked versions of GTX 970 which use more than 160W have posted reports about system lockups and glitches in some video intensive games

The GTX 680 has been shown to consume about 170W..so you should stick to the official Dell guideline which suggests no more than 150W and the GTX 970 reference cards meet this criteria.

Have to call you out on this. Dell never stated this, and even if they did, then they would be breaking their own guideline. The GTX 670/760 ti, a validated GPU for th e X51 R2, consumes 170w and runs fine with the 330w PSU. Now, if the guideline is for the X51 R1, then it would make sense. The R9 270 consumes 150w, a vailidated GPU for the computer and meets the guideline. 

However, and I remember this from AWA, when someone put a GTX 670 in the X51 R1, before the R2 came out, he said he was, "scratching the power limit." That might have been due to the R1's powerboard, but it shouldn't differ too much with the R2's. The R9 270X consumes about 180w, and it had some troubles in the X51. Usually it was heat related, but their were power problems.

The GTX 680 has a TPD of 195w. So if one expects it to consume around 190w, it will not work because it's consuming too much power. 

The GTX 980 has been shown to work in the X51 as long as you have the R2's power board and do a bit of front fan swapping. This is something you know, but it is worth restating, 

I decided to do a little checking on my own claims. 

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/nXhMdC -- close enough to the R2's specs

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/WkbvkL -- upgraded top build with an SSD and low volt RAM

Yeah... a GTX 680 is cutting it close, and I would presume the R9 270x would as well, but it would fareslightly better. The R1 has the benefit of having a CPU that consumes 4 less watts than the R2. I'm also not including what power consumption the lights would consume, but it should be at most 3 watts (probably, I wouldn't know).

In other words, the X51 with a stock processor won't like the GTX 680 most likely.