Dell Inspiron 3847 GTX 970 Graphics Card Upgrade

[JaredBachik42]

So I have the Dell Inspiron 3847 and my friend offered to sell me a GTX 970 graphics card. I know for a fact the my PSU isn't good enough to handle the graphics card so I was wondering what exactly I would need. Do I just need a new and more powerful PSU or would I need other stuff in order for my PC to handle the graphics card?

My Specs are:
Intel Core i5-4460
CPU 3.20 GHz
12 GB RAM

 

[Lutfij]

Can you please pass on the make and model of your current PSU as well as the motherboard? How do you have 12GB's of ram? Make sure your motherboard BIOS is up to date. If we do end up suggesting a PSU purchase, we're going to need a budget before we look around.

 

[ARICH5]

Can you please pass on the make and model of your current PSU as well as the motherboard? How do you have 12GB's of ram? Make sure your motherboard BIOS is up to date. If we do end up suggesting a PSU purchase, we're going to need a budget before we look around.

1 8gb and 1 4gb in a propietary dual channel mode.

 

[JaredBachik42]

Can you please pass on the make and model of your current PSU as well as the motherboard? How do you have 12GB's of ram? Make sure your motherboard BIOS is up to date. If we do end up suggesting a PSU purchase, we're going to need a budget before we look around.

TBH I do not know a whole lot about this kind of stuff. All I'm really looking for is a graphics card to play H1Z1, Player Unknown's Battlegrounds, and Overwatch at decent settings because right now I'm running those games at the bare minimum settings wise. I went into my system settings and it says my BIOS is A08. Can you tell my how to find what PSU and motherboard I have because I'm not sure how to find that out? For the graphics card I'm not looking to spend more than $200.

 

[Lutfij]

A system with a GTX970 in it will need at least a 500W PSU and couple the fact that prebuilt system's don't come bundled with a quality/reliable unit. The PSU is also considered to be the heart of your system, if it has a heart attack, your entire investment can and will go down the drain, which is why I'm asking what your PSU's make and model is.

Can you take the side panel off and snap a pic of the sticker on the PSU? Would also be good to see how the ram slots are populated. You seem to be on the latest BIOS available off Dell's support page.

I've also dug up some info about your motherboard:
http://www.technicke-specifikace.cz/cil/I3847.pdf
http://downloads.dell.com/manuals/all-products/esuprt_desktop/esuprt_inspiron_desktop/inspiron-3847-desktop_owner%27s%20manual_en-us.pdf
turns out you can max out your memory to 16GB. Being an H81 chipset, the effective frequency you can get out of DDR3 is 1600MHz. So in retrospect you can look forward to a DDR3-1600MHz 2x8GB 1.5v ram kit upgrade if you so wish.

That 200USD budget includes a PSU?

 

[JaredBachik42]

A system with a GTX970 in it will need at least a 500W PSU and couple the fact that prebuilt system's don't come bundled with a quality/reliable unit. The PSU is also considered to be the heart of your system, if it has a heart attack, your entire investment can and will go down the drain, which is why I'm asking what your PSU's make and model is.

Can you take the side panel off and snap a pic of the sticker on the PSU? Would also be good to see how the ram slots are populated. You seem to be on the latest BIOS available off Dell's support page.

I've also dug up some info about your motherboard:
http://www.technicke-specifikace.cz/cil/I3847.pdf
http://downloads.dell.com/manuals/all-products/esuprt_desktop/esuprt_inspiron_desktop/inspiron-3847-desktop_owner%27s%20manual_en-us.pdf
turns out you can max out your memory to 16GB. Being an H81 chipset, the effective frequency you can get out of DDR3 is 1600MHz. So in retrospect you can look forward to a DDR3-1600MHz 2x8GB 1.5v ram kit upgrade if you so wish.

That 200USD budget includes a PSU?

http://imgur.com/a/5jVkr

Those are the pictures I got. If you need anymore let me know and I will get more. I was thinking the $200USD budget would include a new PSU and a different graphics card (if necessary). The games that I would like to play are Overwatch, H1Z1, and Player Unknown's Battlegrounds. If a different graphics card would work for those games and would require me to pay less on the PSU than that might be the best option. My friend offered me the GTX 970 for $100 and I thought that was a pretty good deal. The one major problem with my PSU is that it didn't have a 6 pin PCI cable that could hook up to the GTX 970. If you could either tell me a good PSU with a 6 pin PCI cable or a PSU and a different graphics to play those games that would be amazing, also if there are other parts that you recommend I upgrade in my computer as well.

 

[JaredBachik42]

A system with a GTX970 in it will need at least a 500W PSU and couple the fact that prebuilt system's don't come bundled with a quality/reliable unit. The PSU is also considered to be the heart of your system, if it has a heart attack, your entire investment can and will go down the drain, which is why I'm asking what your PSU's make and model is.

Can you take the side panel off and snap a pic of the sticker on the PSU? Would also be good to see how the ram slots are populated. You seem to be on the latest BIOS available off Dell's support page.

I've also dug up some info about your motherboard:
http://www.technicke-specifikace.cz/cil/I3847.pdf
http://downloads.dell.com/manuals/all-products/esuprt_desktop/esuprt_inspiron_desktop/inspiron-3847-desktop_owner%27s%20manual_en-us.pdf
turns out you can max out your memory to 16GB. Being an H81 chipset, the effective frequency you can get out of DDR3 is 1600MHz. So in retrospect you can look forward to a DDR3-1600MHz 2x8GB 1.5v ram kit upgrade if you so wish.

That 200USD budget includes a PSU?

I was actually thinking that if I don't go with the GTX 970, but still get a new PSU, that my budget will be around $250 for a new PSU and graphics card. I can be really flexible with the budget though.