Upgrading a Dell XPS 720

[Cyraxe]

Intel Core2 Q6600 @ 2.4ghz
4gb DDR2
GeForce 8800 GTX (768mb)
750w PSU

Resolution: 1280x1050
Games wanting to be able to play at average settings: Smite, D3, Swtor

My first upgrade for it is the gpu as I cannot run any current higher end games without overheating & of course crashing. I'm not looking to spend much more than $300 and have been looking at this. There is also this made by a new manufacturer.

Would I be bottlenecked upgrading to this card thus having to upgrade the psu/cpu? I want to upgrade my memory to perhaps around 8gb with a $100 budget, I'm open to suggestions on this.

[Deleted]

No keep the PSU it'll be strong for anything new.

You can get an i3-2120 + an H77 motherboard for around $170 which would be a nice upgrade. You would need new RAM as well, you can get a decent kit for around $40-45.

Forget those GPU's you linked, you can get much better deals and newer tech, less power needed, less heat etc.

Sapphire Radeon HD 7850 - $250
MSI Radeon HD 7850 OC Twin Frozr III - $260

CPU + Motherboard:

MSI H77MA-G43
Intel Core i3 2120

Not sure if an mATX board fits in your case or not, BTX is what's in the Dell?

ASRock Z75 Pro3 is an option as well if ATX fits in the case but it's obviously more expensive.

[Cyraxe]

I haven't bothered looking into radeon cards but I suppose I could give those a look.

I may be giving you wrong info since Dell doesn't list this kind of stuff in your product info but, the case is a full tower BTX (form factor)? and the mobo is also a btx?

If I don't have to upgrade the cpu + mobo with getting any of these cards then I'll hold off on doing so for now.

[Deleted]

For that resolution this card will destroy any of those games maxed out =p

The CPU will hold you back some but you can always add the GPU and then decide later on of you want to replace the CPU+Motherboard once you see how it performs.

I honestly don't know which formfactors the cases supports other than the BTX which is close to the size of ATX, maybe someone else know more about this.

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

I have no experience of BTX motherboards, but wikipedia (yeah I know) says the following about the form factor:

The BTX form factor motherboards are incompatible with most of the ATX form factor cases and vice-versa. In particular, BTX motherboards are 'flipped' compared to ATX and mount on the opposite side of the case. Some cases such as the Cooler Master Series (Stackers) support a varying range of motherboard types such as ATX, BTX, Mini-ATX and so forth. However, all connectors are compatible, including power supplies, PCI cards, processors, RAM, hard drives, etc.

They are also a different size (325mm × 266mm as opposed to the ATX standard 305mm × 244mm). So you would probably (caveat word there) need a new case if you were to buy an ATX or mATX motherboard to go with a new CPU.

[n0cturnal]

http://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1162055 BTX to ATX conversion of a XPS 720 case, have fun :P

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

http://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1162055 BTX to ATX conversion of a XPS 720 case, have fun :P

I wonder if we can get somebody to just straight to full-on case modder (including cutting, drilling and welding) from buying a Dell prebuilt without the intermediate step of building a computer in the "normal" manner?

[n0cturnal]

I wonder if we can get somebody to just straight to full-on case modder (including cutting, drilling and welding) from buying a Dell prebuilt without the intermediate step of building a computer in the "normal" manner?

I'm sorry but what? Can you take that sentence one more time in a manner that my 3am non-native english speaking brain can understand?

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

ok

OP is currently at the "buys a Dell prebuilt" stage of computer ownership. Your link demonstrates how this guy completely ripped his case apart and turned it into an ATX case from a BTX case, using pretty much every trick in the book, from cutting with a dremel to welding the steel back together. I was suggesting that we could maybe get the OP to go straight from the "buys Dell" to "customizes his case from the ground up, and then builds his computer inside his rebuilt case" without first learning how to build the computer in a standard case. Sorry, my English isn't too good at 3 am either

[n0cturnal]

ok

OP is currently at the "buys a Dell prebuilt" stage of computer ownership. Your link demonstrates how this guy completely ripped his case apart and turned it into an ATX case from a BTX case, using pretty much every trick in the book, from cutting with a dremel to welding the steel back together. I was suggesting that we could maybe get the OP to go straight from the "buys Dell" to "customizes his case from the ground up, and then builds his computer inside his rebuilt case" without first learning how to build the computer in a standard case. Sorry, my English isn't too good at 3 am either

That would be pretty cool but perhaps not so realistic :P