GTX 960 on a Lenovo ThinkCentre M81

[TheScientistR]

Hey guys, I need some help with graphics card i just got.

I've always been a console player, never really got into PC gaming other than WoW. Yesterday, a tech shop was closing and started liqudation. I picked a GTX 960 4GB DDR5 for 100 dollars so why not to try it? Now I only got my 4 years old LenovoThinkCentre M81 so my question is if i can mount the card on it. I know I need several upgrades and better cooling, but can I do it? I was planing to swap the RAM to 8GB and add a new PSU. Also I think my Board just support PCIe 1.0,). Any help pls?

Tower (4x5) form factor

Intel® Core i5-2400 Processor (6MB Cache, 3.10 GHz)

Intel Q65 Chipset

Integrated Audio

Intel 82579 Ethernet Controller56kbps Soft Modem V.90/V.44 - ATXPCIE 1 USB3.0 Adapter Card - FH

Slots

Two full-height PCI
One full-height PCI Express x1
One full-height PCI Express x16

Power management

Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) support

Power supply

320W, 90plus, auto-sensing

 

[Chayan4400]

I assume this is the PC you have?

As long as it fits, you can. You'll need to replace the PSU though. A 320W OEM PSU and a GTX 960 is never a good idea. Fortunately your motherboard has no proprietary power connectors so you can swap in a new PSU. Your PSU seems to be ATX so there shouldn't be a problem there.

This is a very good PSU:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($55.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $55.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-14 13:01 EST-0500

 

[TheScientistR]

Thank you for the answer, it really help, just two more questions, should i add the 8gb of ramwith heat spreaders? Will i get any bottleneck with this changes? (Ram and Gtx

 

[Chayan4400]

Thank you for the answer, it really help, just two more questions, should i add the 8gb of ramwith heat spreaders? Will i get any bottleneck with this changes? (Ram and Gtx

No bottlenecks with your current setup. Heatspreaders are just a gimmick, they offer no functionality on standard RAM. Keep your current RAM; you'll see no difference with a different set of 8GB.

 

[PeterCook]

I don't have a solution but I'd like to know if the gtx 960 worked in your M81. My son has the same PC and we got an ASUS Radeon R7 360 and a new power supply. Unfortunately the card doesn't work in his M81.
Did you have success with the Nvidia card?
Thanks.

 

[Chayan4400]

I don't have a solution but I'd like to know if the gtx 960 worked in your M81. My son has the same PC and we got an ASUS Radeon R7 360 and a new power supply. Unfortunately the card doesn't work in his M81.
Did you have success with the Nvidia card?
Thanks.

What problems are you having? And what's the exact model and manufacturer of the PSU you bought?

 

[TheScientistR]

I don't have a solution but I'd like to know if the gtx 960 worked in your M81. My son has the same PC and we got an ASUS Radeon R7 360 and a new power supply. Unfortunately the card doesn't work in his M81.
Did you have success with the Nvidia card?
Thanks.

It worked just fine, first I swapped the power supply for the one suggested above (I felt it was expensive lol) and made sure all was correctly connected. I started up the PC to test only the PSU and everything was fine. Then the GPU (GTX) and booted. Went to my drivers and disabled the HD Graphics 2000 drivers(integrated) and installed the new ones. Updated all the other drivers and the reboot. All was working just fine. I also heard on some M81 models, the PCIe port varies on volatage and cant power the Card but this is strange case. I also swapped the 4 GB of ram for 8GB but i doubt this would affect the GPU.

 

[PeterCook]

I don't have a solution but I'd like to know if the gtx 960 worked in your M81. My son has the same PC and we got an ASUS Radeon R7 360 and a new power supply. Unfortunately the card doesn't work in his M81.
Did you have success with the Nvidia card?
Thanks.

What problems are you having? And what's the exact model and manufacturer of the PSU you bought?

The new PSU is a CoolerMaster B2 600W. I installed it first and it runs the PC no problems.
With the card installed the PC doesn't get far at all. All the fans are running on the psu, cpu and graphics card but that is as far as it gets. The monitor goes to power saving mode. No life in the keyboard, that is you can not toggle caps or num lock.

Also I have found that the PC runs OK with the card installed if the PCIe aux power is not connected. Unfortunately the card is not detected by Windows so this is not the solution, and any way I understand the card will need the extra power. Interestingly the fans are operating on the card.

Any ideas?

 

[Chayan4400]

The new PSU is a CoolerMaster B2 600W. I installed it first and it runs the PC no problems.
With the card installed the PC doesn't get far at all. All the fans are running on the psu, cpu and graphics card but that is as far as it gets. The monitor goes to power saving mode. No life in the keyboard, that is you can not toggle caps or num lock.

Also I have found that the PC runs OK with the card installed if the PCIe aux power is not connected. Unfortunately the card is not detected by Windows so this is not the solution, and any way I understand the card will need the extra power. Interestingly the fans are operating on the card.

Any ideas?

PSU isn't the best, but it should be more than enough for the 360. Have you uninstalled the previous GPU drivers (The integrated graphics drivers) and installed the latest AMD drivers?

 

[PeterCook]

The new PSU is a CoolerMaster B2 600W. I installed it first and it runs the PC no problems.
With the card installed the PC doesn't get far at all. All the fans are running on the psu, cpu and graphics card but that is as far as it gets. The monitor goes to power saving mode. No life in the keyboard, that is you can not toggle caps or num lock.

Also I have found that the PC runs OK with the card installed if the PCIe aux power is not connected. Unfortunately the card is not detected by Windows so this is not the solution, and any way I understand the card will need the extra power. Interestingly the fans are operating on the card.

Any ideas?

PSU isn't the best, but it should be more than enough for the 360. Have you uninstalled the previous GPU drivers (The integrated graphics drivers) and installed the latest AMD drivers?

I'm going to find another machine to test the card in and go from there. Thanks for your help.