Power Supply Upgrade Help

[cellophane]

I'm helping a friend update their computer and in order to upgrade the video card he needs a new PSU. Should be easy, but his PC is an older Dell Optiplex, has a wonky power supply, and it has been ages since I've gone down that rabbit hole. Power supply in question is this guy: https://www.newegg.com/p/2AN-001Y-00028 The issue where I'm stuck is on the cables that come out of it. It only has an 8-pin ATX and a 12v 4-pin connector, and apparently everything else piggybacks off of the board.

Will newer PSU's work in this instance, or are we up a creek? Any pointers on which ones to look at? Need about a 500W supply to run the new card (GTX 16xx series) and the remaining bits.

thanks!

[Tracker]

as long as the power connectors to the parts that need them are the same as whats on the power supply, you should be fine

most DELL PSU's tend to have some kind of proprietary mounting mechanism, you need to make sure you can mount a standard PSU in the case in the first place

i dont see anything specfic jumping out at me from the one you linked though, it looks pretty normal, so thats good

[Seajay]

Need some more info. What OptiPlex model?

Does the motherboard have a PCIe slot? With an 8pin ATX connection it might not be able to run a graphics card. Generally there is 75W from the PCIe slot and the rest of the power supplied by the PSU 4/6/8 pin.

These systems were built as simple workstations, so the ability to use a Graphics card for games might be poor overall.

There are 24in to 8pin ATX adapters so that isn't an issue really. If it is a small form factor case there are PSU's in the 550 range for ITX cases that would work. For a GTX1660? a 450w would probably work too. A regular 450/550 PSU should fit just fine if the PSU is normal sizing. I'd get anything with a bronze rating and up, but you don't need the best, just a quality one from any of the major brands (although avoid CX models they are crap).

[Pumpytrilly1]

Is the motherboard power connection standard?

is the power supply dimensions standard?

They usually sell adaptors on ebay if its not a standard connector.

[cellophane]

I was off a little- it is a Dell Precision T1700, not an OptiPlex. Currently has dual Nvidia NVS 310 cards and was built as a Revit/CAD workstation. Photo of the insides attached- it was sent via text, so apologies on the potato quality. I tried to lighten up the area below the video cards and added a couple notes.

Thanks 🍻

[Seajay]

So server boards are unique. The Spec sheet for that model shows it can run a 150w card in the Gen3 PCIe slot. So technically it could power a GTX1660ti which is a 120w card just from the slot.
No additional cables needed.

https://i.dell.com/sites/csdocuments/Shared-Content_data-Sheets_Documents/en/us/Dell-Precision-T1700-Spec-Sheet-tab.pdf

I could be wrong but that's why there is a 6 pin going from the motherboard.

On standard motherboards the PCIe slot is limited to 75w, but like I said server/workstation boards are very different.

If it has the xeon e3-1200 as stated in the spec sheet I'm not sure how well it will game. Xeon can be quality CPU's for gaming but they are geared toward accuracy and not so much speed.

I'd grab only the GPU and see if it works. The PSU is a 255W Gold rated unit. It should power a Xeon, SSD, and a GTX 1660ti just fine.

[cellophane]

I'd grab only the GPU and see if it works. The PSU is a 255W Gold rated unit. It should power a Xeon, SSD, and a GTX 1660ti just fine.

He has tried installing the new card and it didn't boot- i'm presuming because there wasn't enough power.

This is just a work from home system- no gaming being done. All of his gaming takes place on a table top so not too worried on that end. The upgrades are just trying to squeeze some extra performance for Revit without resorting to a new PC.

Graphics card is an MSI GeForce GTX 1650GTX 1650.

[Seajay]

If we do that and the PSU isn't big enough, it will just not boot or default to onboard graphics correct? Not going to blow anything up? I've tried to run systems with dead graphics cards, but never without enough power. The system specs on the side of the box listed a 390W PSU which is why we are looking into it.

This is just a work from home system- no gaming being done. All of his gaming takes place on a table top so not too worried on that end. The upgrades are just trying to squeeze some extra performance for Revit without resorting to a new PC.

I'm double checking on the card and will update this post once I have more info; shouldn't be more than about 30 minutes

It won't blow up. It should boot just fine. When you run a program that requires power from the GPU and there is not enough either the GPU driver will crash and you will get black screens which may recover back to windows, or the system will shut down. No risk of damage or anything like that. It will work or it won't.

[cellophane]

Thanks. I was apparently editing the post when you replied =/ additional info above.

[punkncat]

There are various sets of adapters that you can (attempt) to use in order to bring a "normal" PSU over to (some of) the Dell units. There are also adapters for (some of) the Dell units that you can use to power on and utilize a standard motherboard, which is what I recommend in this case if even worthwhile to find one for the CPU.

TBH, keep the (presumably working) Dell in place for sale and start working to budget a standard configuration system.

I would say that if you insist on staying this course do a search specific to your model and adding GPU. A lot of other stubborn and/or budget bound people are sure to have done it.

[the_matrix_guy]

+1 Good input here. My thoughts exactly.