gtx 280 wont fit in my dell dimension?

hi fran

this is a common issue when buying high end cards,since cards like the gtx280 and also the radeon HD4870x2 are extremely large and will not fit in some cases,especially mass produced pc.s like the dell dimension,s and compaq presario,s

your best option is to buy a gaming case ,however before you start to sweat with the worry of cost you can get a pretty big gaming case for less than £30(a small outlay compared to what you have payed for the gtx280)

a good case for you needs to be large enough to house the gtx280 and one such case is the Arianet Gamer Dark Star 500w Case(http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Cases/MI... is a inexpensive case with some decent features

its more than big enough for your gtx280 and has 2 x 120mm fans,one at the front and one at the rear,this along with a 500watt psu is ideal for you

bare in mind the ideal cooling set up is air is drawn in from the front and then drawn out from the rear ,this will cool both your gtx280 and cpu

most modern psu,s come with at least 1 pci-express power connector,and if your lucky you may get 2,however if your not entirely happy with the psu that comes with this case the Xilence 600W Gaming Edition PSU(http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Power+Su... a excellent gaming power supply

it has 2 x 12v rails ,with 20A on each,giving you a maximum of 40A over the two,and considering the gtx uses around 8A this is more than enough

another case to consider is the Thermaltake Soprano - Black, Window Side Panel(http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Cases/MI... has a side panel with a 90mm fan,and 2 x 120mm fans at front and rear

personally i like this case and being from thermaltake you know its built well,and again its more than big enough to house the gtx 280

for your reference this case is 210mm wide,478mm deep and 495mm high,and considering the gtx280 is 26.7cm deep you should be fine

my advice is buy the Thermaltake Soprano and the xilence 600watt gaming psu,this will cost you around £100 inc vat however you will know you can fit your motherboard and graphic card in the case

one bit of advice,be careful when removing your dell motherboard,they may of attached it to the dimension case in a specific way,however i may be wrong but be careful

when transfering your hardware to the new case follow this method:

1) remove the psu after unconnecting power connectors from hardware

2) unattach front power connections(pwr,rst,spkr)

3)unattach ide cables and sata leads,and place next to new pc

4)remove optical drive,hard drives,floppy(optional) and other peripherlas(front card readers)

5)remove motherboard with cpu still attached(be careful),theres no need to remove the cpu when transfering the motherboard however be careful not to knock the fan/heatsink which could damage the cpu

when attaching the motherboard in the new case allways use the risers supplied with the new case and not the ones from your old case,and its also a good idea to download the dell dimension motherboard manual for instructions on how to connect the front power connectors,you can download the manual from http://support.euro.dell.com/support/topics/topic....

then after reconnecting all the hardware double check you have connected everything ok,theres no time limit and one mistake now will ruin a good change over

note: sometimes after a big modification like this windows may ask you to re-activate your copy of windows,however this is rare

another good point about the thermaltake Soprano is the amount of interior room,theres 5 x 3.5 bays and 4 x 5.25 bays so room isnt a problem,and with this many hard drive bays you can allways move your hard drive lower if the gtx280 needs a bit more room,i discovered this when i needed to fit my geforce 7900gs in my gaming case,there was a 4 cm gap between the 7900gs and my main sata drive however with the sata data and power cable and the geforce 7900gs power cable there wasnt enough room and i didnt want to bend the sata data cable so i simply moved the sata drive down one bay

anyway i hope this has helped you however any problems anytime just let me know

good luck fran !

Alas - the Dell Dimension E520 has a BTX motherboard, so that it will not fit in an ATX case.

Whilst BTX cases are available, they are disproportionately expensive, and would NOT solve your problem. A new case would not move the graphics slot away from the cpu heatsink casing. Think about it, if you put all the components loose on the kitchen table, the cpu heatsink casing is still attached to the heatsink/motherboard - still in the same position relative to the graphics slot.

I would recommend against "tailoring" the heatsink casing with a stanley knife. This would impair the cooling efficiency considerably, plus you might find that the actual heatsink is in the way, and even if it isn't, I suspect you would be further compromising both CPU and GPU cooling by putting the components much too close to each other.

Similarly I would counsel against attempting to run the PC without the heatsink casing in place.

I believe that the graphics card and the motherboard are incompatible, and unless you would be willing to compromise with a single slot graphics solution (with limitations on cooling) then the only other solution is to replace the Dell.

You have presumably already replaced the 305watt PSU, then you now need both a case and a replacement motherboard which supports your CPU (I think it's a socket 775 - but I may be wrong) and RAM.

You will need to reinstall the operating system - that could be a problem, as I suspect it came ready installed and Dell (bless them) won't have supplied an installation disk. The OS will be licenced for the original machine only - I would suggest that the least complicated solution would be to purchase an OEM copy, from the same source as the new motherboard.

If you can get a refund on the GTX280, do that, it will then give you time to think about building a new PC from scratch, leaving the Dell intact. Just a thought.

Good Luck - you must be due some!

[Edit] Sorry - the riser is not an option either.

This is intended for slimline cases, so that the graphics card "lies down" over the motherboard - at the top of the case. In a full height case, the graphics card would have to occupy space in the centre of the case - where there is even less room. Link below shows an AGP (& two PCI) risers on an ATX board - it shows the height that the graphics card would be...

[Edit]: Article on building a BTX machine with a riser... doesn't look like tailoring the thermal module is an option...

The simplest thing is to return the card and try and get a refund

Dells use a custom motherboard and some are BTX design as opposed to the more common ATX - these need special cases, PSU and heatsinks and the arrangement of ports on the back panel may be different as well so its unlikely a cheap large gaming case will work.

If you are intent on keeping your shiny new GTX280, then you can transfer the processor hard disks, DVD writer and memory to a new case and compatible motherboard, but you will also have to buy another copy of windows XP/Vista as your OEM MS license prohibit transfer from one machine to another

Unfortunately many dell machines have their own custom cooling setup with quite a large heatsink that always get's in the way as you have experienced!

It may be possible to replace the current heatsink with a more low-profile heatsink/fan which does not get in the way. You will need to find out what socket your CPU is, and then search on various PC component websites such as aria.co.uk or ebuyer.com for a heatsink/fan for that socket.

Alternatively you may benefit from a PCI-E riser card which will allow you to install your graphics card at a different angle. For example, take a look at http://accessories.euro.dell.com/sna/productdetail...

I can't say that I've seen an actual cable which will allow you to extend the PCI-E slot therefore I think a riser card is as close as you'd get.