deffers,

I took my 9800 GT out of my 630i and put it into my 420.  I purchased the nVidia GeForce 280 OC to put into the 630i.  The 420 needed to have driver updates, but the 9800 works great without any problems, and it does have the 425w power supply.  I also put an Aegia PhysX card into the 420 with the 9800, may be over kill, but it runs great and is a real workhorse machine that never gives me any problems.

Darrell WV

XPS 420, my office workhorse
Q6600 2.4 GHz Vista Home Premium
3 GB Corsair
nVidia 9800 GT
Office 2007 professional

XPS 630i, game box for fun, solo gaming
Q 9650 3.0 GHz, Vista Ultimate 64 bit
8 GB Dominator, DDR2
nVidia 260 OC
SB XFi Titanium
air cooled with Noctua fans

XPS 730 H2C, online game box, it is a beast
Blue with X panel
QX 9650 3.7 GHz, dual boot Vista Ult & XP Prof, 64 bit
8 GB Dominator, DDR3 1800
dual nVidia 260 OC
SB XFi Titanium

Darrell, many thanks for you reply.. I have had a look at tom's hardware charts and the frame rate increase is not all that imprressive upgrading to the 9800 GT but then again, nothing short of the latest top spec cards does have a massive difference on Crysis to my 8800GT. Even the 8800 ultra only gives a modest 4.3 extra frame rates.

So, all this really puts me in a dilemma...... I have £3k set aside for a newer car and to get the sort of system i would like will mean, no car...lol.

Thanks again..

Steve.

Hi,

what is with the 8800GTX??

I got this card running in my system and i am really impressed about the quality and performence.

cu

dschieses

I have an EVGA GTX 260 Core 216 Superclocked Edition in my XPS 420 and it runs perfectly with the 425W PSU and stock cooling.

Wow, that's what i'm after.... I was worried about the size of the card???? And would a 280 fit???

I see you have your Q6600 overclocked as well. I thought that was impossible with the 420.. Would you please let me know how you have managed all of this...

Ta

Steve.

Dell xps 420 , Q6600 , 8800gt ,  SB X-Fi , 4G OCZ Reaper 800 MHz......... Any advice on anything else to sup up my pc would be very gratefully received...

You will not get a GTX 280 working in a 420 without upgrading the PSU.  The EVGA GTX 260 Core 216 Superclocked Edition or the BFG GTX 260 Core 216 Maxcore offer GTX 280-like performance anyway with their factory applied (and safe) over clocks.

Dual slot cards video cards fit perfectly inside the 420. See the picture below:

 The 420s mainboard does not allow overclocking of CPUs _but_ where there's a will there's a way. :)

To overclock the Q6600 you will require the following tools.  A tiny piece of electrical tape.

If you cover a single pin on the Q6600 you will be able to run the processor at 1333 MHz FSB.  This means the machine will idle at 2 GHz and ramp up to 3 GHz.  I've noticed no real temperature increases.  The processor maxes out at 50'C under full load.  Once again no extra cooling is required for this to work.

If you wish to apply this mod all you need to do is cover the pin shown in the picture below.  No changes will be required in the BIOS, this will work automatically.

I found out about this mod at ocforums.com and had to try it for myself.

HTH

GMH.. Many many thanks for your very indepth reply.. I have heard about the tape mod before but i never had the balls to have a go at it as replacing memory and adding a sound card is about as technical as it gets for me i'm afraid..lol.

I am going to have a go at this and i will post to let you know how i get on.. As for the 280 or 260 question, i have read a review of the two cards on Tom's Hardware and the 260 gets the thumbs up for value for money and it uses less power which can only help, i think..? It actually states that there is only a 18% increase in performance from the 280 to the 260 and as you have said should i find a good OC model then that should further narrow the difference and there is also the money that i will save..

I am off to London today to see Oasis at Wembly so i can't see me doing much this weekend but i'll have a go sometime next week, while the cover is off for the mod i'll fit the 260 at the same time. In saying that i have to buy one first... lol.. Could you recomend somewhere to get the card you mention?

One final question... Did you notice a fps increase after carrying out the mod and fitting the 260?

Again, many thanks for all your help..

Steve..

I've got no idea where to pick up a card since I'm in Australia.  The brands to look out for though are the BFG GTX 260 Core 216 Maxcore, EVGA GTX 260 Core 216 Superclocked edition, or the Zotac GTX 260 AMP^2.  All of which are pre-overclocked and will offer performance close to the reference GTX 280.  So check your local resellers and pick any 1 of those cards up and you'll be very happy.

I upgraded from a 9800GT to the GTX 260 and the performance increase was insane.  I had some games that just wouldn't run at 1920x1200, now all of my games do (including Crysis).  More importantly though I can now pretty much max out the stuff like AA/AF and not notice any decrease in performance (other than Crysis, I'm playing it at 1920x1200 with everything on High and get around 35-55 FPS).  Your 8800GT is pretty much exactly the same card I was using, so you can expect to see some great performance increases.  To give you an idea of the performance increases you can expect with a 9800GT and processor running at 2.4 GHz I'd get around 40-50 FPS on The Witcher EE at 1680x1050 and settings on a mix of Medium/High, with the GTX 260 I'd get around 60 FPS with everything maxed at 1920x1200, and finally with the CPU clocked at 3.0 GHz the frame rate hit 75-85 FPS.  Obviously YMMV depending on the game.