Father Xmas

Dude, you got a Dell.

First you need to make sure you have the latest BIOS.

Next is pray to whatever dark gods of the tech world that it'll will still work with the latest version of the Q9550. The BIOS is up to date for the C0 and C1 processor stepping but the current Q9550 is the E0 stepping. Don't ask, I don't know the difference, I just know that sometimes a BIOS upgrade is needed to support the quirks of a particular Stepping.

Then you have to disassemble the Dell BTX motherboard to get to the current CPU. I have no idea how the current heatsink is attached but you won't be able to use the stock Intel heatsink/fan because that's for an ATX motherboard. So you will have to clean the original heatsink and apply a new coat of thermal paste. The instructions for removing/attaching the heatsink/fan shroud is here and the processor instructions a little further down on the page.

This post will self-destruct in 5 seconds and good luck.

Not as helpful but there is an article about this with links to possible help at ArsTechnica.

Posi edited his post to include

Don't forget there is a quirk with the 9.12 ATI drivers that cause strobing. There is a hotfix for them. No idea how the 10.1 drivers are.

Sure it'll run. How well? Can't really say.

Does it list the maximum wattage on the +12 volt rails or if it's a single +12 volt rail what is the amperage listed?

I/WE DON'T KNOW!

All I/we can do is point to Positron's post for an idea.

In your case the HD 4650 is lower performing card relative to the 9800GT. Right now Tom's Hardware bins the 9800GT with the HD 4830 and HD 5670.

Grab and run TweakCoH.

Uncheck Fullscreen on the Display screen.

Run the game and maximize the window.

It isn't a perfect solution but until we get more information about your setup that's the best advice I can offer.

Don't know. What I can say it the CPU is faster because of larger L2 Cache and that the nVidia 130M is faster than the nVidia 320M GPU.

Better graphics but this is better still.

Go with whatever is cheaper if you are budget sensitive. If you are fan noise sensitive go with Vapor-X model.

Generally in games, the HD 5850 is about 70% faster than the GTS 250.

The Core i5-750 is 30% faster per core than the Pentium E6300. This is before you take into consideration the the i5-750 is a quad core while the E6300 is a dual core.

You can't just transplant the video card. While it's true the HD 5850 is quite the power miser when compared to nVidia cards, it does use two 6-pin PCIe power connectors which the PSU in the $600 rig only has one. Yes it comes with one 6-pin from two 4-pin hard drive power connector converters.

It could run OK, probably will run OK but I would prefer a slightly bigger PSU that had two or more 6/8-pin PCIe connectors standard. Problem with the $600 rig is the PSU is part of the case and not just a bundle.

Another question is whether the E6300 is fast enough to keep the HD 5850 busy. If not that ~70% performance boost number will be less.

Nah, that cooler doesn't use any more power than the previous card, it's just more efficient at pulling heat away from the GPU and into the heatsink. The idea is that now you can overclock the card with less concern about cooking it. Note that overclocking will use more power. The tech used by that cooler can lower the GPU load temperature by 10-20 degrees C (18-36 degrees F). It is also quieter.

You can check out the review of that card here and there is additional information about the cooler technology here.

Ah wait. ATI 4200 is an integrated graphics core on the motherboard. While yes it will run the game, don't expect exceptional or even fair performance.

Well I figured a well informed, classy individual like yourself would get the reference. The disclaimer is for those who don't believe anything existed before cell phones and internet access became common place. (Yes Johnny, there once was a time when you couldn't time shift your television viewing unless you owned an expensive "VCR" and had the technical expertise to set it's clock. Also your Mom could pick up the phone downstairs and "accidentally" overhear your conversations with a girl she hadn't vetted yet, leading to 20 uncomfortable questions at dinner.)

I have done minor updates, switching vendors when one drops the part I listed entirely like I've done with the memory and video card recently. eVGA no longer has an inexpensive GTS 250 (at least one with the original specs of a 9800GTX+) and the A-DATA ones aren't available anymore.

I've been trying to put together a new guide that covers all the current CPUs as well as links to assembly guides and other build lists. Just can't find the time to organize my thoughts.

Buy the card and try it out. 28A combined is very good. Actually that's better than the Cooler Master Memphis_Bill suggested.

This is an interesting article about actual system power requirements. Page 6 has a gaming system running a 3.33GHz E8600 dual core and an HD 4850 and at worse case, running Prime95 to fry the CPU and FurMark to fry the GPU. The system, which included a hard drive, dvd burner, card reader, 4GB of memory and case fans, a real system, used no more than 20W at 5 volts, 15 watts at 3.3 volts and 160 watts at 12 volts. It basically confirms this article from a few years back which shows (page 4) the same thing but without the breakdown for each voltage. And here is a third article about the same thing but measuring AC wattage at the outlet so the actual DC wattage used is 15-20% less.

So again, buy the card (HD 5750), try it out with your current PSU.

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The only important thing I might change about Memphis_Bill's parts list is swapping the 2.6GHz Athlon II X4 620 quad core for the 3.0GHz Athlon II X3 440 tri core. It seems to perform better in games.

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And as for "FatherXmas' $600 model, but that's six months old"; sticking on arrow through head prop; Well EXCUUSSSE MEEEE! (That's a Steve Martin reference for the young'uns in the audience.)

First, there really haven't been much movement in price at the GTS 250 performance point, if anything the GTS 250 went up by $10 since early summer and I don't want to backtrack to a 9800GT. Second, DDR2 prices doubled since then which more than wiped out my 5% price cushion to handle price fluctuations (I use the list price at NewEgg before "sale" or rebate, this makes the $600 rig already $13 over instead of at least $30 under). Third, Intel only dropped prices their low end CPUs a few weeks ago. I've honestly been considering a move back to an AMD system, the $600 build was one originally, but the price of DDR3 for a true socket AM3 system keeps breaking the budget. The obvious expensive part in the case/PSU/extra fans that list for $132. But that PSU alone, and now without a power cord (thank you green meanies), lists for $70. And I also prefer using old fashion brass standoffs to mount my motherboard to the case and not Rosewill's drilled out dents on the motherboard tray that looks like something from "See, I Fixed It".

Ah, no. The PSU is plain horrible. I have no problem with the video card.

CPU and video cards feed at +12 volts. The amps/watts available at +12V is more important than overall wattage.

Problem is the Dell 8400 isn't a standard case from the POV that the PSU area isn't punched out of the rear panel, just some fan holes and a hole for a power cable. This means that a PSU must be designed without an on/off switch and the power cable connector must be at a specific spot.

Because of that PSU upgrades for those Dell models aren't cheap since there aren't that many alternatives.

What you are looking for is a PC Power and Cooling Silencer 470 for Dell. Problem is it is out of stock pretty much everywhere I looked and it's not all that cheap, $60-70.

That leaves this at NewEgg. Beggars can't be choosers.

Yea, this goes back to the 11/12/09 Patch.

I'm not a fan of multiple graphic cards even though my current $1200 build is designed to for someone to upgrade with a second card as well as limited overclocking of the CPU.

The problem stems from cheaper, higher resolution monitors and game engines that are designed for hardware requirements that run on the high side. Add in gamers who believe the only way to enjoy a game is with all the quality knobs turned to 11 but then complain about the poor performance.

I'm seeing this already with tons of PMs and threads about Going Rogue's Ultra-Mode graphics. The game will be the same game with or without those new effects but there is a almost bizarre impression that if you can't run it then the game won't play right. Frankly we don't know. Positron says that the 9800GT could run all the new ultra options on the lowest setting. Higher settings will require higher end cards and possibly SLi and Crossfire in extreme cases but we just don't know.

Once the Open Beta starts then we can all find out about how each of the new settings impact current performance.