Need to upgrade Dell Studio XPS 9000 components

[nightrain5150]

Please bear with me as I know some of what I'm about to ask has been asked ad nauseum on these boards in the past few years...

So my current main comp is a Dell Studio XPS 9000 (aka the 435t) that I bought in 2010 - the one with the X501H motherboard in the dumb nonstandard BTX tower chassis, 1366 socket with an i7-920 2.7 GHz that still gets the job done. I upgraded the RAM to 24GB, installed a SSD as the boot drive, and generally can't complain about its day-to-day performance. But I know I'm missing out when it comes to high-powered gaming and so I'd like to upgrade the stock video card (Radeon HD 5870, which apparently necessitates a PSU upgrade (I believe the stock is 475).

So my question has two parts: what's the best single card GPU out now, preferably from nVidia, that can be bought for $500 or less and will be compatible with this computer, taking the place of the Radeon HD 5870 in the mobo's single PCI-E x16 slot?

Secondly, what would be a reliable higher-output PSU replacement that will adequately support the ideal GPU from previous paragraph that can be had relatively inexpensive from newegg.com and is easily mountable in this crazy contraption chassis? I've seen threads here a couple years old recommending some Corsair models but the model of PSUs named are completely out of stock when I look them up (again, I've read up on these questions from a few years ago). I understand that the "BTX" chassis may create difficulties for installing a run-of-the-mill ATX but it's really inconsequential - i.e., won't be able to install one out of the entire set of mounting screws or some such.

Thanks for any recommendations on the above questions. It's much appreciated.

 

[manofchalk]

The GTX780, get whichever brand you like/trust, I tend to lean toward Gigabyte myself.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125488&cm_re=GTX780-_-14-125-488-_-Product

Far as I can tell, BTX is compatible with newer ATX PSU's so you should be fine there. I would go for an XFX 550W.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207013&cm_re=XFX_550w-_-17-207-013-_-Product

 

[i7Baby]

For $500 you can get a GTX 780

But you need to have the room in your case and you need to have a good quality 600W min power supply.

 

[nightrain5150]

Thanks guys for following up so quickly and diligently. It sounds like a GTX 780 is in my future. I don't imagine there would be problems with it being too big given the size of my present AMD Radeon HD 5870, no? I noticed some GTX makes include size measurements on the specs page but I can't find an equivalent for the 5870 so I could always pull out the measuring tape when it comes down to it. Also, I see now that the GTX is designed to support PCI 3.0; do GPUs like this lose a lot of their performance when they're plugged into backward-compatible slots, like the PCI-E x16 slot in my case?

I'm hearing conflicting advice from you both about whether to get a 550W or 600W power supply. Should I go for 600W just to be safe about it?

 

[i7Baby]

Yep - get a good one - per tiers 1, 2a or 2b of http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1804779/power-supply-unit-tier-list.html eg Seasonic 620, XFX 650 or Antec HCG 620M

 

[nightrain5150]

Yep - get a good one - per tiers 1, 2a or 2b of http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1804779/power-supply-unit-tier-list.html eg Seasonic 620, XFX 650 or Antec HCG 620M

So this is what I ended up ordering:

For the PSU, XFX XTR 650W 80+ Gold Modular PSU ATX 650 Energy Star Certified Power Supply P1-650B-BEFX

For the GPU, EVGA GeForce GTX780 SuperClocked w/EVGA ACX Cooler 3GB GDDR5 384bit, DVI-I, DVI-D, HDMI,DP, SLI Ready (03G-P4-2784-KR)

Hopefully good choices that will install without a hitch. Will the Gpu's performance suffer because it'll be plugged into a PCI Express x16 slot? Also, since I can't get another for SLI due to the motherboard, does that mean that I can't have a cool multimonitor setup?

So I maxed out the RAM, put in an SSD for the boot drive... any other obvious ways to extend this comp's useful life for a few more years? Is it worth trying to upgrade the stock CPU, an i7-920 2.67 GHz? I think I read somewhere that the top-of-the-line CPUs (I think 960 or 970s) have a cache that makes them incompatible with this particular mobo.

 

[i7Baby]

As long as its in a pcie 2.0 or 3.0 x16 slot, you'll be fine.

You'd need to upgrade cpu and mobo eg i5 4690k and z97 mobo. Your 920 should power along OK to start with.

 

[nightrain5150]

As long as its in a pcie 2.0 or 3.0 x16 slot, you'll be fine.

You'd need to upgrade cpu and mobo eg i5 4690k and z97 mobo. Your 920 should power along OK to start with.

Right, but would my existing RAM be compatible? I've got six 4GB DDR3 modules clocked at 533 MHz. And the BTX case apparently doesn't accommodate other motherboards too well, so I'd basically be buying a new computer. BTW: this power supply is shorter, height-wise, than the stock PSU, and therefore there's an exposed gap in the back where the old PSU used to take up space. Is this bad for the comp and should I cover it somehow?

Both the power supply and GPU are working really well, unfortunately Watch Dogs is still choppy which I gather is the case for everyone with supercharged Gpus. Also, when I'm using Windows Photo Viewer to browse through my photos in a directory, there's a significant lag in loadnig the next picture that wasn't there before - wonder what that's about.

Also, I think I almost set the computer on fire the first time I powered it up after installing the components. I was playing it by ear as far as picking the cables to go where (luckily they're labeled on the PSU and on either end of its power cables), but at first I connected these two pairs of cables that came with the Gpu and PSU - they were wide four-pin male/female and the other ends correctly matched with their respective source. First time I turn on the computer, nothing, no powrer light or anything. Then I notice there's a faint, staticky tick coming from the power supply when I put my ear up to the computer. I took off the case siding and those wires I used to connect GPU and FPU were extremely hot to the touch -only after a minute or so after I tried to turn the computer on. Well, I unplugged them from the PSU and all off a sudden its fan roared into action, which was reassuring. Then I found the right cablse to connect both and haven't had problems since.

Anyone have an idea as to what the hell I ddi??

 

[i7Baby]

You'd have to look at ram specs and mobo specs to see if they're compatible.

Leave the psu gap. It win't do any harm.

Watch Dogs still needs a lot of work eg sli/xfire doesn't work.

Lag could be due to slow memory, full memory, slow cpu.

You better check your power supply voltages. Hopefully you haven't damaged anything. Depends on what connectors you put where.

 

[nightrain5150]

You'd have to look at ram specs and mobo specs to see if they're compatible.

Leave the psu gap. It win't do any harm.

Watch Dogs still needs a lot of work eg sli/xfire doesn't work.

Lag could be due to slow memory, full memory, slow cpu.

You better check your power supply voltages. Hopefully you haven't damaged anything. Depends on what connectors you put where.

Thank you kindly for answering all of my questions. I notice that Speccy has a voltages section in its motherboarsd report, would this be a good way to check?

I'm going to power down and doublecheck the connections, clean out dust, bind the cables together, etc. I feel like there's not as much fan action going on as there was before.

 

[i7Baby]

A better way of checking voltages is to use bios or your mobo UEFI.