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GT1030 in a Dell Optiplex 3020

maj

maj

Soldato
Joined
19 Jul 2010
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Durham
Been asked to try and spec up a gaming pc for an 8 year old family member to play Fornite and other games kids that age play. With budget being quite tight I did some research and found a popular option is to use ex-office computers and put a GPU in it. I know Fortnite could run off igpu with reduced graphics but I was hoping to get him something that would last a good couple of years and have decent FPS in games. If he really gets into PC gaming then I could look to get him a proper gaming pc later on.

So I found a pretty good deal on a dell optiplex bundle and not knowing what Dell I would get, it turned up today and all was going well until I went to fit the 1030. The pci-e slot is too close to the psu so the gpu won't fit due to the heat sink (it is the MSI 2GB DDR5 version).

You can see how much space I have here:

lIQZC6e.jpg

What's my options? Been looking at pci-e to pci adapters but would still need some way to mount the gpu in place. I could return this gpu for a different model and Palit do a 1030 with smaller heat sink but it doesn't seem to come with low profile bracket and even then it might be a tight fit. I could even go down route of returning the bundle if it isn't suitable for intended purpose.

Looking online it seems other models have different motherboards with the pci slot in a different place making it easier to fit a gpu.
 
Soldato
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The TARDIS, Wakefield, UK
I think you are out of luck there, ideally you should have checked the version of Dell you were getting before it arrived. I would return it and try and get one with a mini tower and avoid SFF PC's unless you can get one with at least one slot free in front of the PCIE. I used a low profile 750ti in a Lenovo SFF but that was because I had the Lenovo in the first place. Ideally with a Dell you need at least a 3040 or later to get a decent CPU.
 

maj

maj

Soldato
OP
Joined
19 Jul 2010
Posts
2,584
Location
Durham
I think you are out of luck there, ideally you should have checked the version of Dell you were getting before it arrived. I would return it and try and get one with a mini tower and avoid SFF PC's unless you can get one with at least one slot free in front of the PCIE. I used a low profile 750ti in a Lenovo SFF but that was because I had the Lenovo in the first place. Ideally with a Dell you need at least a 3040 or later to get a decent CPU.

Yeah will know for next time. Was last one in stock and took a gamble and hasn't paid off. Could have sent seller a message but they probably just use whatever stock they have at the time ready to go. Only option was to pick the gen of the cpu, the hard drive size and how much ram. This has came with an i5 4590 which I didn't think was too bad for the purpose. Ideally I should have waited for the dell to arrive before ordering the gpu.

You could open up the end of that top PCI-E 1x slot and put the GPU in there. Being a low end card it may well work.
Sorry can you explain what you mean please? I may just be being dumb :p

Couldn't you take a run down to the skip and look in the reusable electronics bit. You often find old pcs in there. You could take one for a bigger case.
Yeah that could be an option thanks.
 
Soldato
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13 Dec 2002
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Newcastle upon Tyne
Whats the rest of the spec on PC out of interest, is the ram ddr3?

Sorry saw the post a bit futher down was going to say i had a couple of old x2 amd systems at work which would fit the card but a lot weaker than i5, they need ram and hdd's
 
Soldato
Joined
31 Dec 2007
Posts
13,616
Location
The TARDIS, Wakefield, UK
Couldn't you take a run down to the skip and look in the reusable electronics bit. You often find old pcs in there. You could take one for a bigger case.

Problem is Dell's like HP's etc use proprietary motherboards that often dont conform to ATX profile and dont have ATX PSU connectors etc so you might need to mod a normal case a bit to get it to fit. The on/off button for instance is different too.
 
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