This post is more than 5 years old
5 Posts
0
6944
Vostro 420 Power Supply and Graphics Upgrade
I have a question about upgrading the graphics card on my Dell Vostro 420. I currently have an AMD Radeon HD 3450 that came with the desktop. I want to upgrade to an EVGA GTX 1050 SC, which on their website, says it uses 75w of power and the recommended power supply is 300w. I don't know if this card will work on my desktop. It has a Delta DPS-350VB B Power supply that came with the desktop and states it has a total of 300w on the sticker. This should be enough, right? But I have the computer running with 3 hard drives 7.2 K RPM, 2 DVD/CD drives, an Intel Core Quad Q6600 2.4 GHz processor, 4 x 1GB of ddr2 800mhz ram, and a media card reader that came with the system all running at the same time. Plus a USB 1TB hard drive with a bunch of other USB devices plugged in. Would the graphics card power on with all this hardware plugged in at the same time? Would the card even be compatible with my computer at all? (I know the PC has a PCI-E x16 slot). If it looks like it wouldn't work with my power supply, what is the recommended wattage a graphics card should have to run on my power supply with all my hardware plugged in? Below is a picture of my power supply.
Thanks
Tesla1856
8 Wizard
8 Wizard
•
17K Posts
0
April 19th, 2018 15:00
If you would have follow the link in my first post, you will see I recommended the ATI Radeon 5770. I know it runs World-of-Warcraft and other games of that vintage and complexity. I would not call the GT-710 a "gaming card".
http://gpuboss.com/gpus/Radeon-HD-5770-vs-GeForce-GT-710
.
http://gpuboss.com/gpus/Radeon-HD-3450-PCI-vs-Nvidia-GeForce-GTX-1070
The only recent Nvidia card I own in the GTX-1070 (MSI Gaming-X). Actually, now that I think about it ... it works fine on my (non-UEFI) Aurora-R1. So, get you one of those and a better power-supply and you should be all set.
Tesla1856
8 Wizard
8 Wizard
•
17K Posts
1
April 18th, 2018 19:00
So, you want to upgrade your 10-year-old computer huh?
Since it's a true Intel QUAD-CORE, I suppose it's still a relevant machine (but just barely).
Sounds like a "smaller" Dell PS. If it has a 6-pin PCIe Power-Cable (for the video card) ... supposedly ... you can use it and it will be OK.
Thing is, these old Power-Supplies like to blow-up eventually ... especially if you start driving them hard. For this reason, and because we want some power in reserve ... we usually replace the power-supply also (Corsairs are good).
https://www.dell.com/community/Vostro/Vostro-460-XPS-8300-Upgrade-Adventures/m-p/6054983#M1213
I think your biggest hurdle will be finding a new video card that will still allow this old non-UEFI motherboard to boot. Good you are looking at Nvidia cards because reportedly, they are more forgiving on this. You might want to search the XPS and OptiPlex forums for recommendations because this question is asked at least once a week. All these old machines are very similar. I think a Vostro-420 is much like an XPS-410 or XPS-420.
If you are going to keep this machine, a SSD would be a nice speed upgrade. I'm thinking a 2.5inch 128gb-256gb SATA SSD for Windows-boot and main programs. Hopefully your disk-controller is a least SATA-2/300 speed.
Finally, if you have 4gb RAM, you really should upgrade your Windows-7 to Windows-10 64-bit.
mathewstar100
5 Posts
0
April 19th, 2018 07:00
Would a MSI GT 710 (low profile) work on a legacy bios, I did a lot of research on the GTX 1050 and it seems lots of people are having a problem trying to make it work on a non-UEFI bios. Also, it seems to take only 19w of power, which should be fine for my power supply since my Radeon HD 3450 take 25w (compared to the 75w on the GTX 1050).
speedstep
9 Legend
9 Legend
•
47K Posts
1
April 19th, 2018 09:00
75W GT 730 or 750TI at $45 to $49 they are Fake.
The main problem with problematic 750/950/1050 TI cards is not UEFI its counterfeit cards.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=kq6BYRW2tBI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ved84d_6occ
Tesla1856
8 Wizard
8 Wizard
•
17K Posts
0
April 19th, 2018 09:00
I looked in my notes and found this. I just added it to my Vostro-460/XPS-8300 rebuild-thread.
Maybe it will help you.
Before I removed the stock Dell 350-watt power-supply:
- Model No: L350PD-00 ~ P/N: PS-6351-4DF-RoHS ~ Dell PN: 9J0VD ~ Circa-2011
- Two dedicated +12volt Rails . One with 16Amps max. and the other with 18Amps max
- Vostro-460 sales brochure said "up to 150-watts of power for video card".
- It has all the usual cables and a single 6-pin PCIe-Power.
I tested the following old video-cards and they worked fine:
- GeForce-7300 (2-DVI, Passive-HeatSink and no PCIe-Power-cable required)
- GeForce-8600 (Fanned and required the 6-pin PCIe-Power-cable)
Remember, the Vostro-460/XPS-8300 is Legacy-BIOS (aka non-UEFI )
As you can see, power-requirements of those old cards is minimal. Sometimes you can find a list of cards that Dell shipped in machines back then. You know those will work (Power-wise on stock PS and BIOS too).
Tesla1856
8 Wizard
8 Wizard
•
17K Posts
0
April 19th, 2018 09:00
1. Maybe. Not sure when Nvidia 700-series cards were released (or even if it matters).
I think ... Vostro-460 / XPS-8300 / Alienware Aurora R3 / (and whatever similar-year OptiPlexes) were Dell's last non-UEFI machines. Any video cards that shipped then ( or older) should work in a non-UEFI machine.
2. Right. That's what I'm talking about.
- AMD cards really had a problem with it. Some AMD cards released during the transitional-period had Legacy-BIOS/UEFI switches on the video-card itself.
- Reportedly, some Nvidia cards worked both ways automatically.
mathewstar100
5 Posts
0
April 19th, 2018 15:00
Do you have any suggestions on what graphics cards would be suitable for my Dell Vostro 420 with the non-UEFI bios. At least something better than my weak Radeon 3450. Most of the graphics card from OEM dell desktops like the Vostro 460 are too weak and outdated for anything. I'd just like a graphic card like the GT 710 that is just enough for some light 3D gaming.
Tesla1856
8 Wizard
8 Wizard
•
17K Posts
0
April 19th, 2018 16:00
Fake counterfeit Chinese video cards. Now I've seen everything. I guess they wanted-in on the mining-craze too . :TongueTied:
Maybe he should just buy a real GTX-1030 or GTX-1050 and try it? I bet eVGA would know if they run on non-UEFI or not.
mathewstar100
5 Posts
0
April 19th, 2018 16:00
speedstep
9 Legend
9 Legend
•
47K Posts
1
April 23rd, 2018 12:00
Lets Get this out of the way once and for all.
THERE IS NO ISSUE with ANCIENT 2006 Dells with NON UEFI Bios with ANY of the 1030 1050 1060 1080 cards.
There is a power issue but thats something entirely different.
If a pascal card doesnt work there is a power supply issue or its a fake card End of story.
In the video below a user has 2006 XPS 400 with PENTIUM D processor.
$6 cpu DXP051 Bios A02
Pentium D915 to 960 runs Windows 10 64 bit just fine.
Dimension 9150 / XPS 400 and GEFORCE GTX 1080
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qa9b0TkTsLM