Question Installing new PSU in Dell 7050 T

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doug_c

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Oct 26, 2018
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Had plans to do a PC homebuild but my hot water heater had other ideas eating up most of my PC build budget.

Now I'm looking at upgrading my current PC a Dell 7050 Tower with an i7 6700 CPU and 240 watt PSU with the biggest PSU I can fit in it. Think I read somewhere that you can install a 540 watt PSU into a Dell 7050 T, but no details.

So my current system is Dell 7050 T with;
CPU- i7 6700
GPU- GTX 1030
RAM- 16 GB
Storage- 512 SATA SSD
PSU- 240 watt

And my goal is to get my AMD Radeon 6600 into the system which requires 100 watts power.

Is there any way to do this?
 
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What is the exact model of the current PSU, because most of those prebuilt Dell and HP systems had proprietary power supplies that cannot just be replaced with a standard ATX power supply due to proprietary physical dimensions and proprietary connections to the motherboard. Also, most of them have proprietary cases and motherboards, and if this is one of those models then you can't just swap the motherboard out for a standard form factor board either because the mounting holes and the back I/O will not place nice together.
 
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Not for nothing, but even if you have a few hundred dollars to squeeze into a budget and already own the card listed...consider building something off a 12100 or such level of i3. As a "for instance", the i3 listed is around 30% stronger than the i7 you have on hand. Even if you choose some $25 budget turkey pan of a case, you are then on a standard system with standard parts and a world of good upgrades available even with a mid range to high budget range motherboard.

edit- and consider that if you sold this existing system that money could be put towards making the above even better
 
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I did find this page on the Dell Community site where they mention the PSUs that can be installed in the 7050 T.

www.dell.com

Optiplex 7050 mt psu upgrade | DELL Technologies

Hey. I was wondering if I could possibly upgrade the 240w psu to a 300w psu in my computer? If I can go higher than that (400 - 500w ) that's nice. I personally don't mind a giant box with a fan st...
www.dell.com www.dell.com

And Amazon does have a Dell 460 watt PSU that is listed for the 7050.


I don't know enough about this to know what issues I may run into and if it is worth it to spend the $200 for the new PSU. It's my first Dell in decades and there seem to be some specific issues that complicate upgrading them.

Maybe doing a less ambitious current i3 build will be a better choice.

Thanks for the input, it helps.
 
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The only one of those that's actually worth buying would be the Delta, and I'm only seeing them used and at ridiculous prices. Honestly, you would be MUCH better off to simply wait, save some money and go ahead with your original plan. This, is EXACTLY why I always try to steer people away from any of the OEM prebuilt systems if they have ANY intention to potentially want to do upgrades later down the road. Because more often than not, you simply can't.

And you sure as HELL don't want to buy that LXun unit. Pure garbage. In reality, even just going off it's labeled output it only has 18amps on each of the 12v rails, so with 36 x 12 you're really looking at a maximum of 432w and I'd almost 100% guarantee that unit cannot sustain even half of that continuously. Avoid it.

This would be a much better use of your money when you are able, and then add whatever graphics card you want to it as this power supply is very good quality and has plenty of capacity for the majority of entry and mid tier level cards out there. And of course, with your current system being Skylake based, you may simply be able to use your existing memory kit with this hardware which would reduce the cost of the upgrade by almost 40 bucks.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i3-12100F 3.3 GHz Quad-Core Processor ($92.98 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock Z690 Phantom Gaming 4 ATX LGA1700 Motherboard ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory ($38.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Fractal Design Focus G ATX Mid Tower Case ($59.98 @ B&H)
Power Supply: Thermaltake Toughpower Grand RGB 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Case Fan: ARCTIC P12 56.3 CFM 120 mm Fan ($9.19 @ Amazon)
Total: $381.12
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-12-14 00:50 EST-0500
 
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That decides it then. If the available PSU are either not up to the job or too expensive then I'll just wait a bit and do it right.

This is one of the main reasons I'm ready to do a homebuild, I can install what I want and leave lots of room for expansion.
 
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Yes, it is a much better idea than wasting 60-90 dollars for a USED or very cheap quality power supply that you will NOT be able to turn around and use in your build whenever you do upgrade, because it will be a 1U server form factor instead of a standard ATX form factor. Waste of money.

What you have now isn't terrible. I have a secondary system, well, one of several, but this particular one has a 6700k in it and to be honest it does about everything you could ask it to do. Sure, it would not have the same gaming performance as something newer, but for general use, browsing, running office apps, photoshop, etc.., it does just fine. And honestly, you'll be a heck of a lot happier in the end.
 
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Darkbreeze said:
The i3-12100F has more like a 51% increase in single core performance and a 75% increase in multithreaded performance over the i7-6700. So yeah, for 92 dollars it's a pretty good upgrade.
Click to expand...
Except that the 12th gen i3 uses a different socket, so he will have to also replace the motherboard. Add that in, and it may no longer be a cost effective upgrade.

I don't think trying to upgrade office PC's for gaming is worth it anymore. You can get something like a complete Ryzen 5 3600 system, with a graphics card, used on ebay for like $500, and it will be a lot faster than what you would get after spending an equivalent amount of money upgrading an older office PC.

4 core i7's aren't even as fast as a new i3. Their day is done. I have a Asus i7 6700 system here, that I haven't used very much since I got my i5 10400 machine, and it's a massive difference, going from high end 6th gen, to mid range 10th gen.
 
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With the holidays sales I was able to pick up the components for a much better option than upgrading the Dell 7050.
CPU- i5 124000
RAM- 32GB DDR4 3200
PSU- Corsair 850w
mobo- ASRock B660M Pro Micro ATX
case- Corsair 4000D airflow
plus some components I already have
SSD- 1TB M.2
GPU- Radeon 6600

Now I'm in the middle of figuring out how it all pieces together.

I've got the CPU, RAM and SSD installed I'm now working on installing the stock CPU cooler then the GPU then onto powering it up outside the case to make sure it all works.
 
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Joseph_138 said:
Except that the 12th gen i3 uses a different socket, so he will have to also replace the motherboard. Add that in, and it may no longer be a cost effective upgrade.

I don't think trying to upgrade office PC's for gaming is worth it anymore. You can get something like a complete Ryzen 5 3600 system, with a graphics card, used on ebay for like $500, and it will be a lot faster than what you would get after spending an equivalent amount of money upgrading an older office PC.

4 core i7's aren't even as fast as a new i3. Their day is done. I have a Asus i7 6700 system here, that I haven't used very much since I got my i5 10400 machine, and it's a massive difference, going from high end 6th gen, to mid range 10th gen.
Click to expand...
Nobody ever suggested they would be able to use a 12th Gen CPU in a 6th Gen socket.
 
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doug_c said:
With the holidays sales I was able to pick up the components for a much better option than upgrading the Dell 7050.
CPU- i5 124000
RAM- 32GB DDR4 3200
PSU- Corsair 850w
mobo- ASRock B660M Pro Micro ATX
case- Corsair 4000D airflow
plus some components I already have
SSD- 1TB M.2
GPU- Radeon 6600

Now I'm in the middle of figuring out how it all pieces together.

I've got the CPU, RAM and SSD installed I'm now working on installing the stock CPU cooler then the GPU then onto powering it up outside the case to make sure it all works.
Click to expand...
Lot's of very helpful guides on Youtube. In fact, Newegg has a three part "How to build a PC" video tutorial that's actually pretty helpful.
 
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Darkbreeze said:
Lot's of very helpful guides on Youtube. In fact, Newegg has a three part "How to build a PC" video tutorial that's actually pretty helpful.
Click to expand...
I found several but didn't check the Newegg channel yet, I'll do that today.

I think everything is installed right on the mobo and I'm ready to try a power up, but I want to do a little more research to make sure I haven't missed anything. Then onto how to set up the case standoffs and the wiring of that. I've also got a Windows 10 Pro license on the HDD from my dead HP Z800, I think I can put the HDD in my Dell and read the License key that way and transfer it to the new PC.

Little bit like juggling trying to keep track of all these things. But very satisfying.
 
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For the very basic things you totally need to make SURE of in regard to connections from the power supply etc., this is a very good checklist.

"No POST", "system won't boot", and "no video output" troubleshooting checklist

"No POST", "system won't boot", and "no video output" troubleshooting checklist This checklist is a compilation of troubleshooting ideas from many forum members. It's very important to actually perform every step in the checklist if you want to effectively troubleshoot your problem. 1.Did you...
forums.tomshardware.com forums.tomshardware.com
 
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Darkbreeze said:
For the very basic things you totally need to make SURE of in regard to connections from the power supply etc., this is a very good checklist.

"No POST", "system won't boot", and "no video output" troubleshooting checklist

"No POST", "system won't boot", and "no video output" troubleshooting checklist This checklist is a compilation of troubleshooting ideas from many forum members. It's very important to actually perform every step in the checklist if you want to effectively troubleshoot your problem. 1.Did you...
forums.tomshardware.com forums.tomshardware.com
Click to expand...
Thanks.

I didn't have my CPU power plugged in and I don't think my RAM is seated fully. I'm a little nervous about pushing harder as it seems to take a lot of force. I think the clips need to go back to the fully close position and they aren't and I can see a little of the connector surface on the RAM bottom.
 
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I got it to post, everything seems good except for one stick of RAM that seems to be dead. I tried switching DIMM slots but it didn't work on either.

Guess I'm RMAing it back to Newegg.

Can I run on just the one 16GB stick and if so which DIMM slot, A2 or B2?
 
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That took a while but finally got my new system up and running, it is blazing fast compared to what I had.

This is one of the coolest things I've ever done. I've been computing since 1983 with the C64 and modified many computers, it was lots of fun with various Amiga models from 500 to 3000.

But this is the first system I've built from the board up. I doubt I'll buy another prebuilt after this.
 
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doug_c said:
Had plans to do a PC homebuild but my hot water heater had other ideas eating up most of my PC build budget.

Now I'm looking at upgrading my current PC a Dell 7050 Tower with an i7 6700 CPU and 240 watt PSU with the biggest PSU I can fit in it. Think I read somewhere that you can install a 540 watt PSU into a Dell 7050 T, but no details.

So my current system is Dell 7050 T with;
CPU- i7 6700
GPU- GTX 1030
RAM- 16 GB
Storage- 512 SATA SSD
PSU- 240 watt

And my goal is to get my AMD Radeon 6600 into the system which requires 100 watts power.

Is there any way to do this?
Click to expand...
You might have resolved this already but maybe it will help someone else:

I was able to run a 750 Watt SFX modular power suppy in my Optiplex 7050 MT:

MONTECH Century Mini 750 Watt 80 Plus Gold Certified Fully Modular Power Supply, Compact SFX Size, Full Japanese ...
Sold and Shipped by Newegg

I also had no issue with a Dell 460 Watt PSU and a 500 Watt Apevia SFX power supply from Amazon.

I struggled with it until I unplugged the power supply power and pulled the CMOS battery for about 15-20 mins. Put the CMOS battery back in and then plug in the PSU. The system will go through some power-up / power-down cycles a couple of times and then in a bit will fully power up just fine. After that I had no issues.

One thing to watch out for, on your 4+4 pin cable make sure you look closely at the two 4 pin connectors for your 4 pin CPU power. One of the connectors is keyed correctly and one is not. It will only work with the correct keyed connector.

Good luck
 
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rsheffie said:
You might have resolved this already but maybe it will help someone else:

I was able to run a 750 Watt SFX modular power suppy in my Optiplex 7050 MT:

MONTECH Century Mini 750 Watt 80 Plus Gold Certified Fully Modular Power Supply, Compact SFX Size, Full Japanese ...
Sold and Shipped by Newegg

I also had no issue with a Dell 460 Watt PSU and a 500 Watt Apevia SFX power supply from Amazon.

I struggled with it until I unplugged the power supply power and pulled the CMOS battery for about 15-20 mins. Put the CMOS battery back in and then plug in the PSU. The system will go through some power-up / power-down cycles a couple of times and then in a bit will fully power up just fine. After that I had no issues.

One thing to watch out for, on your 4+4 pin cable make sure you look closely at the two 4 pin connectors for your 4 pin CPU power. One of the connectors is keyed correctly and one is not. It will only work with the correct keyed connector.

Good luck
Click to expand...
I did a home build based on an i5 12400 with an 850 Watt PSU, so the 7050 is now my backup. But it's good to know I could put a 750 Watt PSU in the 7050 if I wanted.

It has a GTX 1030 for the GPU now and the power meter on PCPartPicker indicates it already takes the power consumption of the 7050 to 250 Watts and the PSU is only rated for 240. So if I want to keep using it I'll probably upgrade the PSU. Then I can put in a more powerful GPU as well.
 
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