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About my alienware from 2010
I have an alienware aurora I bought in 2010 which I wrote about a few days back where my video card died so I got a quote from Dell to get the card replaced since the guarantee had expired in 2013. It was 680 euros for a geforce 580 GTX which is ridiculous.
So I am going to buy my own video card and replace it but when I spoke to the tech at DELL he said the best card my aurora can take is 580 GTX which I cannot find here in Rome because they are no longer stocking it.
I have PCI Express X 16 2 connectors and 875 watt psu. Can I get a 660 GTX which support PCI Express 3.0 x16 bus interface or I cannot fit that into my machine and the best card I can get is indeed the GEforce 580 GTX like the tech said.
Any suggestions on what card I can get for the machine I have will be appreciated.
Comments
Your Dell rep is an idiot who is trying to sell you another refurbished GTX 580 for 680 euros.
You can put any card in that PC as long as-
- It will physically fit inside
-you have the PSU for it.
Get the dimensions of the old 580, which you should be able to google or even measure. I.e 10.5 in long, 11.0 in long, ect. Chances are the gtx 580 is at least 10.5 inches in length. If its a tight fit in the case already just look at cards with similar or smaller dimensions, if you have extra space then you may well be able to fit a card a bit longer in length.
The GTX 580 takes one 6 pin and one 8 pin connector i believe. Just look at what connectors you have, you may have two 6+2 pin connectors and can use a card with two 8 pin. You Can for sure use a gpu with one 6 pin and one 8 pin which gives you many options.
Edit:
Here is a GTX 660 which will work fine.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121660
its 10.2 in length and uses one 6 pin connectors according to the website. That will fit and work fine. You dont have to worry about PCI -E 2.0 or 3.0. It will work in both slots.
Another card that will work.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130948
The length is 10.5 in and uses one 6 pin & one 8 pin. Basically the same thing as your old gtx 580
I was thinking he was trying to fleece me so I said no thank you and hung up. Okay thank you and I think the pci 3 are backwards compatible so my limitations are physical size of the card and the psu.
I edited my 1st post with some more info and a few examples.
Oh super thank you.
Here is a comparison between a GTX 580 & 660
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/767?vs=783
Similar performance while the 660 will run cooler and use less power. After reading your other post on the subject replacing the GTX 580 with a 660 will work as good or better. As long as other hardware is not going bad. Mobo, PSU, ect
If you pop in a new GTX 660 and have similar issues then it will be time to look at what else in the system may be the problem. As the 660 will be using less power idle & load than the old 580.
yep, when dell sell their Vcard, they add in all the tech fee , shiping and invisible things.
to change a video card is as simple as nwell said.
first thing to check is your motherboard model, go on their website to make sure it support what type of video card.
second thing is your power supply, not enough power = no run
third is type of connecting, but you already know its PCI.
after checking those 3 step, just go and get a video card meet those requirement and pug it in, you PC will run just like new.
alienware only different than other PC in their PC case. ^__^
"Heavens to Murgatroyd!" as Snagglepuss would say the price difference is quite a bit from 680 euros. The Geforce GTX 660 is about 169 euro a Gigabyte card and the Gainward Geforce 760 GTX is about 230 Euro these prices include IVA which is the value added tax. There is a guarantee too. I'll go with the 660 in case the stuff I read about the motherboard bios are true and that it does not support the 7 series because Dell has not updated it so you cannot download and update it. Thanks for all the help .
Okay I feel like an idiot now. I cleaned out the computer in anticipation of getting the new card and I removed quite a bit of dust and I reran the diagnostic just to be sure and the problem is gone. So I went and played SWTOR which was causing the display driver to fail and also ESO it froze but ESO the beta is over so unable to test that will test GW 2 later.
The game is fine now. So the display driver failing was caused purely by dust. I should have done this before I went and checked the new card thing. I hope it does not happen again.
Vacuumed it out and not only did Crysis run a hell of a lot better, cooler, quieter but all my other games did too.
Anyhow, I clean it out every couple months now.