Upgrade Dell Precision T1500

bassey

I've posted previously for advice on a build but that's been put on hold for now as the sitting room's being redecorated and a few other things came up.

I did however get a Dell Precision T1500 workstation from my brother

Here's the spec:

CPU: Intel Core i7 880
GPU: ATI FirePro V4800
HDD: 1TB Samsung HD103UJ
RAM: 16gb DDR3 2400 MHz

I've attached screengrabs from CPU-Z and GPU-Z

I'm just wondering are there any relatively cheap upgrades I can make to this to make it a decent enough gaming PC. From what I can tell the GPU is crappy so was thinking of getting this that BloodBath recommended on another thread.

Is it compatible?

Moon54

Yes, that R9 270 would be an excellent upgrade provided your PSU is up to it.
The 270 needs about 150watts, so a decent PSU that than deliver upwards of 400 watts would be needed.

What PSU make and wattage do you have?

BloodBath

Throw an ssd in there as well for the os and smaller programs and you're flying.

TerrorFirmer

You'll most likely need to upgrade the power supply as well for a 270, stock one appears to be a 350w unit. A 260X will work as is and is still a decent enough card. If you stretch to around €200 though and get a new PSU like the CX430 and a 270, you'll be laughing with that machine for quite a while, no real need to build a new one.

BloodBath

The Corsair VS450 450w is a bit cheaper and has 2 x 6 pin connections which is what the 270 takes.

bassey

Cheers for the replies, yeah looks like stock psu is 350W, reckon I'll put a decent psu and 270 into it and use it for a while.

Is it easy to migrate the os to an ssd or do you do a clean install?

BloodBath

A fresh install is recommended but you can clone it and then change some windows settings to suit the ssd afterwards.

bassey

And the OS is linked to the board right? So the activation key I used on the hdd would activate a usb installed copy of windows on the an ssd?

BloodBath

Yes.

bassey

Thanks a million, sorry for all the questions, just wanted to get me head around what's needed

bassey

Just ordered

Item|Price
Samsung SSD 840 EVO Basic 120GB SATA 6Gb/s|€74.06
Corsair VS Serie VS450, Non-Modular, 80+|€34.98
Sapphire Radeon R9 270 Dual-X Battlefield 4 Edition, 2GB GDDR5, 2x DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort, lite retail|€159.89
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€287.92

Came to €280.92 through the discount site

BloodBath

Good choices. Hopefully your dell case can take standard atx psu's.

bassey

Ah I'll make it fit either way

bassey

Bad news, so got all the gear yesterday, just went to put the PSU in and it doesn't have the 4 pin connector that I assume is for the CPU, anyone any idea what I could do? Looks like a new different power supply needed

Edit: this is the motherboard http://www.ascendtech.us/dell-xc7mm-precision-t1500-tower-board_i_mbdelxc7mmt1500.aspx

2nd edit: never mind, I'm an idiot

game4it70

bassey wrote: »

Bad news, so got all the gear yesterday, just went to put the PSU in and it doesn't have the 4 pin connector that I assume is for the CPU, anyone any idea what I could do? Looks like a new different power supply needed

It does have a four pin.Its most likely that is an 8pin that is detachable to make a 4+4pin.
Make sure you use the right section of it.Should only fit one way but double check that only one fits before you boot up.

bassey

Uh oh... System timer failure, 4 quick beeps, any ideas on a fix?

bassey

So took everything out except for original HDD, 6 beeps; Video BIOS Test Failure, okay so stuck old GPU back, 3 beeps; Possible motherboard failure. Feck

BloodBath

Have you got both motherboard power connections in.

bassey

Yup, 24 pin and 4 pin connectors are in

yawhat!

Power connectors to graphics card on correctly?

bassey

Have the old graphics card in it at the moment which is powered from the pci-e slot

yawhat!

How many beeps? Still 3?

bassey

Yup still 3, must have killed the board while I was getting the new stuff into it. Had a look to see if I could find another motherboard for sale anywhere, doesn;t look like it.

I'm on HWVS now trying to put together a case, mobo and cpu for as little as possible,

yawhat!

I'd try the old power supply and see what happens and remove/replace the battery as well.

Remove hard drive as well, try one stick of ram

three beeps is bad though

Try cards in different slots etc.

Whats your budget for the cpu motherboard case.

Theres a motherboard on adverts going

bassey

Was trying it with one stick of ram, no joy. I'll try the battery and psu tomorrow.

could probably spend about 300-350 max on a new cpu, board and case

bassey

Right so took battery out and put it back in and got 5 beeps; Real time clock failure. Possible battery failure or motherboard failure.

Is there anywhere in town I can get a CR2032 Battery?

bassey

Things are looking up, booting into windows just fine now. Gonna put the 270 in and pray

bassey

Working with the 270...

bassey

Well have everything hooked up now except the SSD, too tired to sort out the case, it's going to be a pig to get looking decent.

Just played Far Cry 3 there for a few minutes, kept to around 45 FPS on ultra settings, looks unreal and stayed at about 60' but that's with the case open.

Now I can go to bed happy

yawhat!

Nice one!

bassey

Put the SSD in and cloned the OS to it using the samsung software which was pretty handy.

Is there anything I should make sure definitely is or isn't on the ssd?

At the moment on the ssd I've got:
OS (Windows 7 ultimate 64 bit)
Steam + 3 games
Origin
Chrome
And the program files for ccleaner, gpuz and all that sorta stuff

Pretty much everything from now on will be going on the hdd

Also as the dell case is an utter pig for cable management I reckon it's going to has pretty bad airflow, what max temperatures should I be keeping an eye on for the CPU and GPU?

bassey

Just ran Unigine Valley at stock before I overclock to a 270x spec

bassey

With the core clock at 1020 MHz

bassey

Maxed out at 1050 MHz on MSI Afterburner



Temps never rose above 64'C

Not bad for €160 quid, is there any benefit to increasing the memory clock?

bassey

And finally at 1050 MHz , Ultra setting and x8 AA