Upgrading from an Alienware X51 R3

[Spotnick]

Hello,

Once I installed the beta of Battle for Azeroth and tried in DirectX 12, I was getting pretty certain my good old GTX960 was outdated and needed an upgrade, then I went into a big pile of trouble.

I bought a new computer at the end of 2016 and I wanted to try a "real" gaming PC for a change and bought an Alienware. I bought a GTX 1080 and proceed to install it to get to 2 surprises, it only had 6 pins connectors instead of 8, and that I have a crappy 330w power supply unit that will most likely not support the card.

After cursing at Dell, I found on forums probably the best idea to move the computer to a new case with a new power supply unit. I had a case, I bought a 500W PSU, and then I noticed the motherboard is a mini-ITX, which of course would require a case that supports it.

So I was not expecting this to be complex, but at this point I decided to read and most videos and messages I've read all suggested to get a new motherboard and move the parts on it. It's a LGA1151 socket, I have the PSU, I have the video card...

At this point I'm about to bite the bullet and just build a new one, and try to sell the old one, but just in case anyone has a genius idea.

Processor is PROCESSOR, SKL, I7-6700K, 4.0, 95W, 8M
Ram is DUAL IN-LINE MEMORY MODULE, 8GB, 2133, 2RX8, 4G, DDR4, NU

Will any LGA1151 motherboard work with those? I haven't build a PC in ages. I am guessing it doesn't need to be mini-itx (the video card was fitting in the x51 casing though).

Any advice is welcomed.

[chazus]

Would need to know the exact board you got, first off.

You'll need to find a mid-tower case that supports ITX. There are lots of em though. That ought to get you up and running with the CPU you have, the card, and ... The 400w PSU makes me very nervous. The 1080s range anywhere from 250-300w... And with your board and ram and other stuff, you could possibly push into the 400w area.

I'd... honestly recommend replacing the PSU, too.

[Spotnick]

Would need to know the exact board you got, first off.

You'll need to find a mid-tower case that supports ITX. There are lots of em though. That ought to get you up and running with the CPU you have, the card, and ... The 400w PSU makes me very nervous. The 1080s range anywhere from 250-300w... And with your board and ram and other stuff, you could possibly push into the 400w area.

I'd... honestly recommend replacing the PSU, too.

It's a 500W PSU, my mistake.

Apparently the motherboard is a MSI MS-7985, it's not very documented but that's what the internet says.

That seems to be it

[ronw1309]

nice post very helpful