Hey i know this is old video but I pretty much maxed out one of these for my son and it can still play most modern games very well I upgraded this machine with the following Cpu to... 4790K 4.00ghz and dell uprated 8940 G5 cooler Memory to... CRUCIAL 32GB (4 x 8 GB) Power Supply ...CORSAIR CX750m 750W Graphics Card ... GTX 1080 ti 11gb hdd - Kingston 1GB ssd and 4TB wd Black 3.5 on userbenchmark website highest some has benched a build with a rtx 3080 at above average UFO amazing for a Machine this old
@@avasmith7436 hi you can upgrade psu it not propiatry socket on motherboard like other Dell. I put evga 700 in my sons and know it soundlike overkill it has a 1080ti and changed processor to k series which is slightly faster only because I picked it up really cheap secondhand.
This is great, thanks for sharing. Soon as I got my XPS, rather than get stung for an extra £400, I hacked in an SSD myself. Rumour told me (Dell) that I had to upgrade to Dell only approved graphics cards. Thanks for sharing this, good to see its working smoothly so I'll be upgrading my feeble stock GPU straight away.
Hey gadgetguy, thanks for making this video, not a lot of people have dell xps videos made, and this one helps me look into the computer and know exactly where I need to put my graphics card. Thanks!
Hey, great video! I just installed a SSD myself (first PC upgrade ever) and bought a new EVGA graphics card. Your video has exactly what I needed so I can stop worrying about doing the install myself.
Very helpful. Although, you probably should not have edited out the part where you discovered the orange cable wouldn’t reach over the new card to plug back in. I had to look very closely to realize you edited out completely removing the card again to run the cable under it. Would have been helpful to mention it.
upgraded mine the other day with the slightly cheaper SuperClocker EVGA 970. No psu upgrade and works perfectly. Excellent upgrade from 650ti lol. The video helped with the process of swapping out the gpu so thanks for the upload!
I just wanted to say thanks for this video. I knew I wanted to upgrade my XPS 8700's graphics but I had no idea which video card would be feasible. Based off this video, I ordered the GTX 9700 FTW and upgraded my system yesterday. It went off without a hitch with one exception: my orange SATA cable was not long enough to make it over the card and still plug into the motherboard no matter how much I tried to finesse it. In the end, I scavenged a longer one from an old, unused computer I had. Either way, your video made this an easy upgrade so thanks for the help!
I upgraded this machine with the following 2020 (I should be good for another 10 years) Upgraded Cpu to... 4790K Upgraded Memory to... Corsair Vengeance 32GB (4 x 8 GB) Upgraded Power Supply ...EVGA, 80+ Bronze 850W Upgraded Graphics Card to ... RTX 2060 6G GDDR6 Upgraded Wifi PCI Express Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 9260 1730Mbps 2.4/5GHz Bluetooth 5.0 Upgraded to M.2 NVME SSD...Samsung 970 EVO 1TB + adapter M.2 NVME SSD to PCI Express This machine is a beast, you can throw anything at it including modern games with ultra settings with 3 x 24 inch samsung monitors
@Mark Hi, nice to see that's possible to upgrade the good old reliable XPS 8700 with really new hardware, thank you for that ;-). But I would not use an other CPU because the +18% power for over 100$ is to expensive in my view and you can't overclock the motherboard to use the extra power of the 'K' version of this CPU. cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i7-4790K-vs-Intel-Core-i7-4770/2384vs1978 Additionally I would not use the expensive M.2 NVME SSD with 3,400 MB/s seq. read because the Intel Haswell chipset which support LGA 1150 CPUs can only use PCI Express 2.0. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_chipsets#LGA_1150 The remaining PCIe slots on the motherboard are all x1 lanes which means you have a maximal throughput of 500 MB/s in combination with PCI Express 2.0 (please correct me if I'm wrong). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express#History_and_revisions In this case a cheaper standard 1TB 2.5 inch SDD with S-ATA 3.0 with about 500 MB/s throughput would be enough for me. Nevertheless, as you already wrote the new components (in my case it will be a new PSU, Graphic card and SDD) will bring back the XPS 8700 back to the (game) business :-D CU and have a nice day
Thanks for this! Super helpful, I just bought the new 8900 and am getting ready for black Friday deals on RAM, a new GPU (the 960 WindForce) and potentially a SSD so this was all extremely helpful. The 8900 stock power supply is 460w total so I won't need to upgrade that either.
Great post man. I have the same xps 8700 and am going to do the same gpu upgrade but with the m550 512gb ssd msata. It's only $30 more for double the storage. Also, you might want to change the wireless card on the motherboard for faster speeds. It brings a mini N card, therefore you'll only pick up 2.4ghz connections. I did the AC upgrade and have had the 5ghz connection now for about 2 years with no problem, and great speeds of 100mbps+. Dell built this pc with plenty of potential. I can't wait to get in my gtx970, 512gb ssd, and 32gb ram. It should be night and day.
Lol this computer is surprisingly good and easy to upgrade with all those videos about this computer thank you! I upgraded fully and not hard to upgrade this computer still. If anyone wondering
ty for this video, just bought my xps 8700 few days ago, and i was very satisfied with it. the price was alright, $799.99 CAD but it runs very game smoothing on low graphics, i want to upgrade to a 970, but i never installed any type of hardware on a computer before, will def use this video to install my 970 in the future! subscibred!
Agreed. I think the graphics card and the absence of an SSD were all that was keeping the 8700 from being a top-performing computer. I've been extremely happy with the upgrade unit's performance.
I just added GTX 970 to my XPS 8700. I was hoping Dell had put in a Delta PSU, but the PSU inside was an AcBel 460W 80+ Bronze unit I changed it out for a Seasonic 550W 80+ Bronze one, because I don't trust cheap power supply units. If it were a Delta unit, I would have just used it with 970. Nice video!
Thanks for the video - I just bought an XPS from Dell's Outlet with the same specs for $475 and am planning on the same upgrades. Will be using this video as a guide along the way.
Good video. I'll be doing the GTX 970 4GB upgrade this weekend for my son's 8700. Trying to convince to move to Windows 10. Install the OS on 256 GB SSD and use the 2TB HDD for his data and games.
Note to my knowledge the M.2 SSD conection will only run at Sata 3.0 speeds. It actually acts as a hybrid drive would with the in conjunction with your 1st mechanical drive.
+jennifergala Yes - You should go to Dell's website and download and install the latest bios before the upgrade. The GTX 970 won't work with earlier bios versions.
Thanks for this video. I recently bought an XPS 8700 and have been considering upgrading the GPU to a GTX 970. Now that I know it works I have gone for it. Went for the ZOTAC card as it's a smaller version and would fit nicely.
Great video! Interestingly enough I have the same exact Dell model and graphics card. Even with an HDD, the setup works great for just about any game I've run on it so far. Run into a small amount of coil whine from time to time but aside from that there hasn't been any problems.
put the nvidia version of the 970 in my dell xps 8700 today. Installation was as easy as it was in the video. Kept same power supply too. I was skeptical at first thinking I would somehow mess up or get a black screen, or break something in the process. VERY easy would reccomend anybody else thinking about doing this to do so
reassuring thx GagetGuy was worried the 8700 power suppy wouldn't be up for the ~145W of a GTX 970 I had to take the CD and HD cables (orange and blue) under the GTX 970 card between the CPU and RAM to get them to fit
The dell xps case looks nice in photos but it's a poor and tight case in reality, good choice for ssd and the evga gtx 970 vcard, it is a miracle that you managed to place it in there, I would go for another power supply though, nicely done !
sights2397 it actually wasnt that hard at all to get it in there. I can see it being a problem if one of the other PCI-E slots was being used by something tho
No PCI adapter? I hear the m.2 slot isn't a good idea since it's converted from sata and not as fast - is that wrong? Another person did the pci adapter on the same computer.
Aditya Nugraha Yeah the 8300. Like Russ said in the video the 970 will run fine even with the 460w Dell PSU and I have tested this combination as well with no issues. However, I have just installed a new 650w PSU just for peace of mind and headroom etc
Hi, I have a Dell XPS 8700. How many extra monitors it can support with the existing graphics card it came with. Right now, I added two extra monitors, the latest second one, I managed to hook up with a USB display adapter. I would like to bring on the 3td extra monitor, taking my total monitors to 4. I would like to be able to add more. Can you advise?
I have 2 monitors can i still use these without getting bad tempatures while playing games (example: gta5, minecraft) cause i would like to this but i dont know what power supply to buy :/
I have the same specs as you do in this video. Didn't experience any problems with the factory PSU but I replaced it after few months with EVGA Super Nova 650W GS 80+ GOLD which I got from my other computer. I changed the PSU for future minor upgrade.
+Michael Hickey The goal of the anti-static wristband is to dissipate static by grounding yourself. As I understand it, ideally this would be accomplished by attaching yourself to something grounded, such as a power supply that is attached to a grounded electrical outlet or a case that contains such a power supply. I wasn't plugged in, but I figured that grounding myself to the case would at least partially dissipate any static to a larger conductive object, even though it isn't the ground. Frankly, I could be wrong.
I also have an xps 8700. I want to change the board to a rx 470, but I also want to change the PSU. Do you know if the corsair cx 500 fits inside this case?
+Alex Maldonado That's the solid state drive (SSD) that I installed to allow the operating system and other programs installed on it load faster. It is optional to this upgrade; it is not needed to swap out the graphics card.
I wish I have a Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 Superclocked on my Dell XPS 8700 and you got same computer as my. I glad I brought before Windows XP unsupported and I gave my old one to my mother with upgraded ram, motherboard, and GeForce GT430 with Windows 7.
I did similar operation, installed half terabyte of Samsung 850 Evo SSD, PSU XTR 750, STRIX GTX980, Added 4gb Ram, Total 16GB, and changed CPU from I5 to i7. The Only Problem I had is GTX 980 would not fit into the case and there was no space to connect fan cables so i had to get a saw and cut out some metal to create more space. At This Point my XPS is Fully loaded, 1 ssd and 2 HDD inside the case. Only thing im getting concerned is heating and cooling. During summer months its getting quite hot, so considering installing liquid cooling for cpu and better side fans. So far all these upgrades cost me around 1,270
he should be fine with the stock psu since he's not running a power hog cpu on his system if he was running a 9590 maybe just maybe he'd need a 500 watt psu butt his cpu is so low on power needs he'll be fine with a 460 watt psu since the recommended is for the worst case scenario for getting the gpu to run in a system
I have the same unit the 8700 which has a factory installed 32G SSD but I want to upgrade to a 250G ssd. Will I need to reinstall windows or will the system recognize the larger ssd and just run faster?
I have a DELL XPS 7100 (looks very similar to your case) that I am planing to rebuild with a new chipset, SSD and CPU. However I can't find any info about the chipset size. Is it a ATX or mATX form?
If anyone is planning on adding adding a gaming GPU to a PC like this with no intake fan and only a small exhaust fan it's highly recommended to look for a card with a blower style cooler. This way the rear exhaust fan and the PSU fans near the CPU can clear out warm air from that area and the graphics card can blow it's own hot air right out the back of the case.
hi there, anyone have problems with the power? I got a message to connect the PCIe power cables to the graphics card which i had, just like youtube. I have the same system. I even tried using one of the adapters and just made some weird noise and a black screen so I powered it off. any ideas?
Hi GadgetGuy, so basically I have the exact same computer as you but I have no upgraded anything, so I have the older GTX645 graphics card. I was looking at upgrades and I saw the GTX960 and I thought that would work as I have enough power for it to work, however after seeing this video I am curious about the GTX970, how does it run with only the stock 460 watt power supply. Thanks!
+roygrem No problems so far. The GTX 970 is quite powerful and games perform quite well on the upgraded rig. Check out the benchmarking video for details.
Thank you for putting this video on here I just bought an xps8700 and was wondering if I would have to replace the psu and how hard it would be to put in a new gpu you clearly answered both
+Allan CHAN I believe any brand of GTX 970 will work, but you should check to make sure it is not significantly longer than the one in the video, as it may not fit.
GadgetGuy, your video was very helpful to me and I appreciate you taking the time to make and post it. Did you end up running the orange wire under the GTX 970. I am throwing a GTX 950 in my XPS 8700 .. but now that I watched this think I am also going to pick up an SSD in the morning and do both at once.
+Kyle DeBoer I did also connect the orange wire. It was a bit of a stretch, but it fit under and around the GPU. The SSD install couldn't be easier once you have the video card out.
Hi to the uploader or anyone who has had success upgrading. I just installed the video card. The problem is I cannot connect the oragne cable back because the video card is in the way and the cable is too short.. I believe it's the CD-R drive? Not that I use that anyway. I also think I bent one of the pins on the motherboard trying to put back the longer blue cable to the motherboard which I belive is the front USB. Are the bent pins unfixable? I don't use the front USB anyway but what about the CDR? How did you put the orange pin back in it's too short?
I got a Dell xps 8300 and its pretty much the same on the inside so i can fit it in there. Its got the same 460 power supply too. I reckon i can upgrade it with the same GPU?
+metalmagic1984 This computer came with a lot of different configuration. Mine came with a NVidia 635, but I've seen some that came with a gt 660, 750 and some even have an AMD R9 270, so it depends on where you buy and what options/model was available to you.
I have the same PC and i try a week ago to upgrade my graphic card with a gtx 960 asus strix and it didnt work the screen wont show up why ?I change my power supply still no image.
TheMajorQC Did you update your BIOS to A10? You are at least the second person that has had problems with the GTX 960 (verses the 970 I installed). Please keep us posted, as the 960 may have its own challenges.
seeing how the EVGA GTX 970 fit into the 8700 case, do you think a Sapphire Radeon R9 290 (Tri-X, OC, X16) will fit into this case as well??? I know the Tri-X is a little longer and thicker than the EVGA GTX, but seeing how you were just able to fit this in there, is it possible that the Tri-X will since there seems to be enough space in the back for the third portion of the fans
I plan on getting the same computer and plan on upgrading the video card to the same gtx 970. My question is do I need to up grade the power supply to 730. I was also wanted to add the 256gb sold state drive for my operating system. Do I need to flash the bio installing the card or the sold state?
Hello. I have the same computer as you, an Xps 8700, and I want to upgrade to an MSI R9 Radeon 390. However, I am afraid that it will overheat. Should I not worry about this card overheating?
I want to upgrade my XPS 8500 to a GTX 970, but I'm not sure if it is compatible. Can someone help? Has someone done this before? I read on a forum that you'd have to upgrade the PSU.
I have an XPS 8300 Windows 7 Core i7. If I upgrade like you did, do I need install Windows 7 again? All I have is a Dell Drivers And Utilities disk includes device drivers and diagnostics and utilities. That's the only disk that came with the computer.
+AlexSky7700 You only need to re-install Windows if you install a new hard drive or SSD, as I did in the video. A new video card doesn't require a new Windows install. If you install a new SSD, you need to get a copy of Windows to re-install, possibly from Dell.
i have a xps 8700, with a stock gtx 645. i have upgraded the psu to 650w. i have bought and tried to install a gtx 960. everytime i put the 960 in, i get 5 post beeps, dell and my research have told me 5 beeps means CMOS battery fail. so why does it do it onthe 960 and not the 645? i have downloaded the drivers for the 960 on to said pc. please help.
yes. a large section of the boot seq had to be rebuilt. was really odd. then had to force the pc and the card to see and work together. once drivers are in, its normal.
+BOBULUS MAXIMUS Was "typing out a piece of seq" something you had to do in the BIOS? How did you force the PC and card to see and work together? Can you be more specific please? I'm baffled right now as my computer is beeping at me five times :-)
Hello, just wondering if there were any power supply issues after installing this card. Was thinking about getting it and I wanted to know if replacing the PSU was something i have to do and if so, can the motherboard handle the wattage from the new PSU?
Hi, I have the exact same pc as you except my psu is max 300w I'm looking at the same gpu as you but does how does the gpu fair against the games u play thanks
GadgetGuy thanks and btw I bought this same card but no ssd and I'm getting a beeping noise coming from the computer and the monitors is on black screen
SuperCraft MC The Dell XPS 8700 was incompatible with the GTX 970 card until a BIOS update around the start of 2015. But I have had no problems with the 970 installed in my Dell in January.
I don't recall. But I also don't recall it being a problem, so they were either included with the mSATA drive or were already screwed into the sockets on the motherboard.
I know this is an older video -- I upgraded my XPS 8500 to the GTX1080 - I upgraded the PSU also -- I would like to put an SSD in it and transfer my OS and Steam games to it -- but my concern is the proximity of the back of the Video card running right over the top of the SSD slot -- have you had any heat issues with the SSD? Or do you know how heat sensitive they are if my monster video card is running over the top of it?
Ivan Lee I don't know for sure, but I'd be concerned that it wouldn't. The G1 is listed as 70mm longer than the FTW I installed (according to some sources), and I didn't have much room to work with. I might look into the 970 minis others have recommended in the comments.
What other options are there for GPU upgrade? I want to play Doom on my XPS 8700 but I am not sure if it would run it well without changing the video card.
Due to the large size of the graphics and card and the rather small size of the xps 8700 case- did you have any issues with the wiring? I saw the part were you were putting things back into place but had some hard time with the cables... I am considering buying a new gpu and I am inclined on buying the gtx 1060 mini but maybe the standard 1060 version will go in just as well? Thank you in advance for your answer =]
I did need to stretch the stock wires taut to connect them to the GPU. I got it to work by going around the base of the card (i.e., closest to the mobo).
Did you have any major issues with putting it in? I'm thinking of putting a gtx 1060 in mine but I'm not sure how worried I should be putting it in as far as space wise.
I recently upgrade the PSU to an EVGA supernova 750W bronze and the GPU to an MSI GTX 960 4GB, it's working perfectly and I found no problems installing it into the dell xps8500. However I would like to go futher, am I able to buy a new mobo and CPU? Or will I then have to buy a new OS as I hear it's stored onto the motherboard. I dont understand what are the limitations of upgrading an OEM PC
+TheJadedex The license key for Windows is embedded in the Dell motherboard. If you want to do additional upgrades, you might want to just build one from scratch. There aren't that many pieces left of the Dell once you replace the mobo.
+Bilal Zakaria To clarify, I did reconnect the blue plug. I needed to stretch it and work it around the new larger GPU, but I did reconnect it. I can try to answer any questions if you're still confused.
Andy Patel I haven't had any problems using the stock 460W PSU. As you can read in the comments, others are skeptical and feel that one should upgrade the PSU. I don't think it's necessary for this upgrade.
I have the same tower with the same specs, altough mine came with a GeForce GTX 745? Can I do the same thing as you do, and have my games run 2x better?
Hey i know this is old video but I pretty much maxed out one of these for my son and it can still play most modern games very well
I upgraded this machine with the following
Cpu to... 4790K 4.00ghz and dell uprated 8940 G5 cooler
Memory to... CRUCIAL 32GB (4 x 8 GB)
Power Supply ...CORSAIR CX750m 750W
Graphics Card ... GTX 1080 ti 11gb
hdd - Kingston 1GB ssd and 4TB wd Black 3.5
on userbenchmark website highest some has benched a build with a rtx 3080 at above average UFO amazing for a Machine this old
does it have space & 24 pin to support this corsair psu?
@@avasmith7436 hi you can upgrade psu it not propiatry socket on motherboard like other Dell. I put evga 700 in my sons and know it soundlike overkill it has a 1080ti and changed processor to k series which is slightly faster only because I picked it up really cheap secondhand.
This is great, thanks for sharing.
Soon as I got my XPS, rather than get stung for an extra £400, I hacked in an SSD myself. Rumour told me (Dell) that I had to upgrade to Dell only approved graphics cards. Thanks for sharing this, good to see its working smoothly so I'll be upgrading my feeble stock GPU straight away.
Thank you, you have no idea how helpful this is
You're welcome. I'm glad you found it helpful.
Hey gadgetguy, thanks for making this video, not a lot of people have dell xps videos made, and this one helps me look into the computer and know exactly where I need to put my graphics card. Thanks!
Hey, great video! I just installed a SSD myself (first PC upgrade ever) and bought a new EVGA graphics card. Your video has exactly what I needed so I can stop worrying about doing the install myself.
Swapped the HD for the SSD or put it in an empty slot? Thank You
Very helpful. Although, you probably should not have edited out the part where you discovered the orange cable wouldn’t reach over the new card to plug back in. I had to look very closely to realize you edited out completely removing the card again to run the cable under it. Would have been helpful to mention it.
upgraded mine the other day with the slightly cheaper SuperClocker EVGA 970. No psu upgrade and works perfectly. Excellent upgrade from 650ti lol. The video helped with the process of swapping out the gpu so thanks for the upload!
I just wanted to say thanks for this video. I knew I wanted to upgrade my XPS 8700's graphics but I had no idea which video card would be feasible. Based off this video, I ordered the GTX 9700 FTW and upgraded my system yesterday. It went off without a hitch with one exception: my orange SATA cable was not long enough to make it over the card and still plug into the motherboard no matter how much I tried to finesse it. In the end, I scavenged a longer one from an old, unused computer I had. Either way, your video made this an easy upgrade so thanks for the help!
I upgraded this machine with the following 2020 (I should be good for another 10 years)
Upgraded Cpu to... 4790K
Upgraded Memory to... Corsair Vengeance 32GB (4 x 8 GB)
Upgraded Power Supply ...EVGA, 80+ Bronze 850W
Upgraded Graphics Card to ... RTX 2060 6G GDDR6
Upgraded Wifi PCI Express Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 9260 1730Mbps 2.4/5GHz Bluetooth 5.0
Upgraded to M.2 NVME SSD...Samsung 970 EVO 1TB + adapter M.2 NVME SSD to PCI Express
This machine is a beast, you can throw anything at it including modern games with ultra settings with 3 x 24 inch samsung monitors
@Mark
Hi,
nice to see that's possible to upgrade the good old reliable XPS 8700 with really new hardware, thank you for that ;-).
But I would not use an other CPU because the +18% power for over 100$ is to expensive in my view and you can't overclock the motherboard to use the extra power of the 'K' version of this CPU.
cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i7-4790K-vs-Intel-Core-i7-4770/2384vs1978
Additionally I would not use the expensive M.2 NVME SSD with 3,400 MB/s seq. read because the Intel Haswell chipset which support LGA 1150 CPUs can only use PCI Express 2.0.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_chipsets#LGA_1150
The remaining PCIe slots on the motherboard are all x1 lanes which means you have a maximal throughput of 500 MB/s in combination with PCI Express 2.0 (please correct me if I'm wrong).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express#History_and_revisions
In this case a cheaper standard 1TB 2.5 inch SDD with S-ATA 3.0 with about 500 MB/s throughput would be enough for me.
Nevertheless, as you already wrote the new components (in my case it will be a new PSU, Graphic card and SDD) will bring back the XPS 8700 back to the (game) business :-D
CU and have a nice day
Thanks for this! Super helpful, I just bought the new 8900 and am getting ready for black Friday deals on RAM, a new GPU (the 960 WindForce) and potentially a SSD so this was all extremely helpful. The 8900 stock power supply is 460w total so I won't need to upgrade that either.
Great post man. I have the same xps 8700 and am going to do the same gpu upgrade but with the m550 512gb ssd msata. It's only $30 more for double the storage. Also, you might want to change the wireless card on the motherboard for faster speeds. It brings a mini N card, therefore you'll only pick up 2.4ghz connections. I did the AC upgrade and have had the 5ghz connection now for about 2 years with no problem, and great speeds of 100mbps+. Dell built this pc with plenty of potential. I can't wait to get in my gtx970, 512gb ssd, and 32gb ram. It should be night and day.
Lol this computer is surprisingly good and easy to upgrade with all those videos about this computer thank you! I upgraded fully and not hard to upgrade this computer still. If anyone wondering
ty for this video, just bought my xps 8700 few days ago, and i was very satisfied with it.
the price was alright, $799.99 CAD but it runs very game smoothing on low graphics, i want to upgrade to a 970, but i never installed any type of hardware on a computer before, will def use this video to install my 970 in the future! subscibred!
very helpful - i'm using this case and installing a card of similar size, so it was great to see you wedging it in diagonally
Your heavy breathing combined with stuffed up nose whistling were music to my ears. Enjoyed x 1000.
Hey thanks a bunch for uploading this man. Helped me so much. Idk anything about computers, but this got me through it :)
Thanks for the video, I was cautious about ordering this GPU fearing that it wouldn't fit.
I'm in the same boat man. I need to upgrade my graphics card. The XPS 8700 isn't that bad for what it's worth. The graphics card is what makes it meh.
Agreed. I think the graphics card and the absence of an SSD were all that was keeping the 8700 from being a top-performing computer. I've been extremely happy with the upgrade unit's performance.
GadgetGuy Any issues since the upgrade? I'm considering do this as well.
BoxingFan89 No issues thus far. I'm very happy with the upgrade.
BrandonIsWeird Not bad? My XPS happens to be i7 4th gen. There isn't much that's better.
Alan Henderson If you read carefully, I was talking about the graphics card. There is no problem with the processor.
I just added GTX 970 to my XPS 8700.
I was hoping Dell had put in a Delta PSU, but the PSU inside was an AcBel 460W 80+ Bronze unit
I changed it out for a Seasonic 550W 80+ Bronze one, because I don't trust cheap power supply units. If it were a Delta unit, I would have just used it with 970.
Nice video!
M0T49 that PSU you have looks awfully big for a small XPS case...
M0T49 any chance you could link the psu you got?
www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207013
Thanks for the video - I just bought an XPS from Dell's Outlet with the same specs for $475 and am planning on the same upgrades. Will be using this video as a guide along the way.
Good video. I'll be doing the GTX 970 4GB upgrade this weekend for my son's 8700. Trying to convince to move to Windows 10. Install the OS on 256 GB SSD and use the 2TB HDD for his data and games.
Note to my knowledge the M.2 SSD conection will only run at Sata 3.0 speeds. It actually acts as a hybrid drive would with the in conjunction with your 1st mechanical drive.
13:15 why didn't you go in with the card under the bays then pull it back??
Hi I was wondering if I need to update the bios to A10 before I install the videocard. Thank you for your video it taught me a lot.
+jennifergala Yes - You should go to Dell's website and download and install the latest bios before the upgrade. The GTX 970 won't work with earlier bios versions.
Thx a lot!!!!! Great video.
+GadgetGuy And before SSD?
+Jan Musil Nah, it is not necessary for the SSD.
+jennifergala BIOS Update A11 is already out.
Thanks for this video. I recently bought an XPS 8700 and have been considering upgrading the GPU to a GTX 970. Now that I know it works I have gone for it. Went for the ZOTAC card as it's a smaller version and would fit nicely.
+RockBandAddict666 hows it working out for you? Would you recommend the Zotac? I have the same computer.
+Brooke Burdette It's working very well. Getting 70+ FPS in Witcher 3 with Hairworks off.
Great video! Interestingly enough I have the same exact Dell model and graphics card. Even with an HDD, the setup works great for just about any game I've run on it so far. Run into a small amount of coil whine from time to time but aside from that there hasn't been any problems.
put the nvidia version of the 970 in my dell xps 8700 today. Installation was as easy as it was in the video. Kept same power supply too. I was skeptical at first thinking I would somehow mess up or get a black screen, or break something in the process. VERY easy would reccomend anybody else thinking about doing this to do so
yeah call of duty black ops 3 on the highest settings possible with no problems whatsoever
reassuring thx GagetGuy was worried the 8700 power suppy wouldn't be up for the ~145W of a GTX 970 I had to take the CD and HD cables (orange and blue) under the GTX 970 card between the CPU and RAM to get them to fit
The dell xps case looks nice in photos but it's a poor and tight case in reality, good choice for ssd and the evga gtx 970 vcard, it is a miracle that you managed to place it in there, I would go for another power supply though, nicely done !
sights2397 it actually wasnt that hard at all to get it in there. I can see it being a problem if one of the other PCI-E slots was being used by something tho
No PCI adapter? I hear the m.2 slot isn't a good idea since it's converted from sata and not as fast - is that wrong? Another person did the pci adapter on the same computer.
If this doesn't work, instead of the "FTW" its going to be "WTF!"
+Cameron Putt
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
+Cameron Putt exactly what i was thinking
For the win.
google translate使った？（笑笑）「あなた」と呼んでるのがちょっと失礼でしょ。普通の日本語じゃないみたい
Lmao
thanks a lot for the video. i am planning to upgrade my XPS 8300 from the current HD7750 to GTX970. Hope it works!
Aditya Nugraha I've just done it and it is a gaming powerhouse now!
You mean upgrading xps8300? Is the stock PSU sufficient for gtx 970? Thx
Aditya Nugraha Yeah the 8300. Like Russ said in the video the 970 will run fine even with the 460w Dell PSU and I have tested this combination as well with no issues. However, I have just installed a new 650w PSU just for peace of mind and headroom etc
Hi, I have a Dell XPS 8700. How many extra monitors it can support with the existing graphics card it came with. Right now, I added two extra monitors, the latest second one, I managed to hook up with a USB display adapter. I would like to bring on the 3td extra monitor, taking my total monitors to 4. I would like to be able to add more. Can you advise?
Just did this thanks for the video because it really helped.
how do you do the clip part for the graphics card
Great Video!! This is going to help me alot when i install my 960
My Dell XPS 8700 doesnt have those two plugs... I ordered a new card that needs those plugs and i cannt find them
I have 2 monitors can i still use these without getting bad tempatures while playing games (example: gta5, minecraft) cause i would like to this but i dont know what power supply to buy :/
I have the same specs as you do in this video. Didn't experience any problems with the factory PSU but I replaced it after few months with EVGA Super Nova 650W GS 80+ GOLD which I got from my other computer. I changed the PSU for future minor upgrade.
Did you remove the wireless mini internet adapter that comes with the pc from factory in order to put in the 256gb msata ssd?
thanks for the BIOS link, dell's website can be a pain for no reason sometimes
+GadgetGuy will this work with an Intel 4790K Dell motherboard? is a 980 small enough to fit inside a tower like this one?
Hi Russ,
I'm a novice. I don't understand how the anti-static wrist band grounds you whilst clipped on the case if the case itself isn't grounded.
+Michael Hickey The goal of the anti-static wristband is to dissipate static by grounding yourself. As I understand it, ideally this would be accomplished by attaching yourself to something grounded, such as a power supply that is attached to a grounded electrical outlet or a case that contains such a power supply. I wasn't plugged in, but I figured that grounding myself to the case would at least partially dissipate any static to a larger conductive object, even though it isn't the ground. Frankly, I could be wrong.
I need help! It's saying
"Please power down and connect the pcie power cables..." I have the same computer don't know why I'm having this issue
I have the cable connected to the graphics card
Oh I had the same trouble actually. Make sure the connectors are plugged into the graphics card. Make sure you hear a click when plugging it in.
I also have an xps 8700. I want to change the board to a rx 470, but I also want to change the PSU. Do you know if the corsair cx 500 fits inside this case?
Sir u forgot to remove the black rubber on the graphics card connection. Surely you realized that on the first power up time. Great video btw.
Hi, what is yhe small board you install before the video card? please
+Alex Maldonado That's the solid state drive (SSD) that I installed to allow the operating system and other programs installed on it load faster. It is optional to this upgrade; it is not needed to swap out the graphics card.
I wish I have a Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 Superclocked on my Dell XPS 8700 and you got same computer as my. I glad I brought before Windows XP unsupported and I gave my old one to my mother with upgraded ram, motherboard, and GeForce GT430 with Windows 7.
I did similar operation, installed half terabyte of Samsung 850 Evo SSD, PSU XTR 750, STRIX GTX980, Added 4gb Ram, Total 16GB, and changed CPU from I5 to i7. The Only Problem I had is GTX 980 would not fit into the case and there was no space to connect fan cables so i had to get a saw and cut out some metal to create more space. At This Point my XPS is Fully loaded, 1 ssd and 2 HDD inside the case. Only thing im getting concerned is heating and cooling. During summer months its getting quite hot, so considering installing liquid cooling for cpu and better side fans. So far all these upgrades cost me around 1,270
Does you PC still get hot?
Not to be a negative nancy, but you could've easily purchased a Cooler Master HAF 912... Waaaay more spacious than the OEM Dell Pc Case..
How's this computer working now? Still runs smooth no problems whatsoever?
+evadesc I was wondering this too. Still using the stock PSU?
+evadesc +Kyo Yes, I am still using the stock PSU and everything still runs smoothly for me with no problems.
he should be fine with the stock psu since he's not running a power hog cpu on his system if he was running a 9590 maybe just maybe he'd need a 500 watt psu butt his cpu is so low on power needs he'll be fine with a 460 watt psu since the recommended is for the worst case scenario for getting the gpu to run in a system
interesting. thanks for the reply raven.
I have the same unit the 8700 which has a factory installed 32G SSD but I want to upgrade to a 250G ssd. Will I need to reinstall windows or will the system recognize the larger ssd and just run faster?
I have a DELL XPS 7100 (looks very similar to your case) that I am planing to rebuild with a new chipset, SSD and CPU. However I can't find any info about the chipset size. Is it a ATX or mATX form?
If anyone is planning on adding adding a gaming GPU to a PC like this with no intake fan and only a small exhaust fan it's highly recommended to look for a card with a blower style cooler. This way the rear exhaust fan and the PSU fans near the CPU can clear out warm air from that area and the graphics card can blow it's own hot air right out the back of the case.
hi there, anyone have problems with the power? I got a message to connect the PCIe power cables to the graphics card which i had, just like youtube. I have the same system. I even tried using one of the adapters and just made some weird noise and a black screen so I powered it off. any ideas?
Hi GadgetGuy, so basically I have the exact same computer as you but I have no upgraded anything, so I have the older GTX645 graphics card. I was looking at upgrades and I saw the GTX960 and I thought that would work as I have enough power for it to work, however after seeing this video I am curious about the GTX970, how does it run with only the stock 460 watt power supply. Thanks!
+roygrem No problems so far. The GTX 970 is quite powerful and games perform quite well on the upgraded rig. Check out the benchmarking video for details.
+GadgetGuy Thanks i'll check out that video. So even though I am not upgrading my Operating system I have to upgrade the bios?
+GadgetGuy I am currently running windows 10
+roygrem Yes. The BIOS update is to make the Dell's motherboard work with the GTX 970.
Thank you for putting this video on here I just bought an xps8700 and was wondering if I would have to replace the psu and how hard it would be to put in a new gpu you clearly answered both
i have this same computer should i buy what he has for gaming or is there something else i can use to play games
Hey i recently put a 960 into my dell xps 8700 but it just beeps once and the monitor doesnt turn on do you know whats wrong? thanks
Did you update the BIOS for the motherboard?
+GadgetGuy Yeah now the screen turns on but it says no boot device available
hi I from hong kong
Does the brand evga available only display cards, others such as asus gigabyte can not be spent xps 8700
+Allan CHAN I believe any brand of GTX 970 will work, but you should check to make sure it is not significantly longer than the one in the video, as it may not fit.
thank!!
GadgetGuy, your video was very helpful to me and I appreciate you taking the time to make and post it. Did you end up running the orange wire under the GTX 970. I am throwing a GTX 950 in my XPS 8700 .. but now that I watched this think I am also going to pick up an SSD in the morning and do both at once.
+Kyle DeBoer I did also connect the orange wire. It was a bit of a stretch, but it fit under and around the GPU. The SSD install couldn't be easier once you have the video card out.
Hi to the uploader or anyone who has had success upgrading. I just installed the video card. The problem is I cannot connect the oragne cable back because the video card is in the way and the cable is too short.. I believe it's the CD-R drive? Not that I use that anyway. I also think I bent one of the pins on the motherboard trying to put back the longer blue cable to the motherboard which I belive is the front USB.
Are the bent pins unfixable? I don't use the front USB anyway but what about the CDR? How did you put the orange pin back in it's too short?
also if i install just the 970 graphics card, will i have to reinstall windows?
no
I got a Dell xps 8300 and its pretty much the same on the inside so i can fit it in there. Its got the same 460 power supply too. I reckon i can upgrade it with the same GPU?
what was the original graphics card that was replaced? im just wondering as i have recently ordered an xps myself.
+metalmagic1984
This computer came with a lot of different configuration. Mine came with a NVidia 635, but I've seen some that came with a gt 660, 750 and some even have an AMD R9 270, so it depends on where you buy and what options/model was available to you.
I have the same PC and i try a week ago to upgrade my graphic card with a gtx 960 asus strix and it didnt work the screen wont show up why ?I change my power supply still no image.
TheMajorQC Did you update your BIOS to A10? You are at least the second person that has had problems with the GTX 960 (verses the 970 I installed). Please keep us posted, as the 960 may have its own challenges.
Could the seidon 120v water cooler fit in here ??
i just got my gtx 970 strix its a little bit bigger than yours and the wires dont fit over the graphic card any ideas?
I was able to fit a wire underneath the 970, around the front base of the card. if that doesn't work, you may need to get a longer wire.
+Russ Young thanks so much for the idea it worked subbed :D
the temperature of gpu is stable in this case? I have the same set-up in im waiting a pny gtx970.
+Alexandre Gendron I haven't had any temperature issues. I confess that I don't game for particularly long periods at a time.
What did you need that blue thing for
what bios do i need for windows 10? that one is good only up to 8.1
what should I upgrade to from this
Very nice video! Have you needed to upgrade the power supply?
Gerard I have not. No problems thus far.
Nice! Thanks you!
12:40 This reminds me of the time I barely got my Nvidia GT 630 to fit in my Optiplex 745. Seriously, it took me an hour to get it in the PCI-E slot.
seeing how the EVGA GTX 970 fit into the 8700 case, do you think a Sapphire Radeon R9 290 (Tri-X, OC, X16) will fit into this case as well???
I know the Tri-X is a little longer and thicker than the EVGA GTX, but seeing how you were just able to fit this in there, is it possible that the Tri-X will since there seems to be enough space in the back for the third portion of the fans
I plan on getting the same computer and plan on upgrading the video card to the same gtx 970. My question is do I need to up grade the power supply to 730. I was also wanted to add the 256gb sold state drive for my operating system. Do I need to flash the bio installing the card or the sold state?
Kai Schroeder You need to update the BIOS of the Dell motherboard before installing the new video card.
how is the gaming now that you upgraded?? ho much was the total bill?
would an asus gtx 760 work with the power supply and also fit in the case?
do you know the max amount of memory you can put in the non se 2014 editions?
The XPS 8700 has 4 RAM slots that can accommodate 32GB (8x4) total.
thanks!
Hello. I have the same computer as you, an Xps 8700, and I want to upgrade to an MSI R9 Radeon 390. However, I am afraid that it will overheat. Should I not worry about this card overheating?
+Any751157 Yes you should. You'll definitely need to upgrade the power supply, as 460w isn't enough juice for a R9 390.
I want to upgrade my XPS 8500 to a GTX 970, but I'm not sure if it is compatible. Can someone help? Has someone done this before? I read on a forum that you'd have to upgrade the PSU.
I have an XPS 8300 Windows 7 Core i7.
If I upgrade like you did, do I need install Windows 7 again? All I have is a Dell Drivers And Utilities disk includes device drivers and diagnostics and utilities. That's the only disk that came with the computer.
+AlexSky7700 You only need to re-install Windows if you install a new hard drive or SSD, as I did in the video. A new video card doesn't require a new Windows install. If you install a new SSD, you need to get a copy of Windows to re-install, possibly from Dell.
oh ok thanks!!
i have a xps 8700, with a stock gtx 645. i have upgraded the psu to 650w. i have bought and tried to install a gtx 960. everytime i put the 960 in, i get 5 post beeps, dell and my research have told me 5 beeps means CMOS battery fail. so why does it do it onthe 960 and not the 645? i have downloaded the drivers for the 960 on to said pc. please help.
yes. a large section of the boot seq had to be rebuilt. was really odd. then had to force the pc and the card to see and work together. once drivers are in, its normal.
Had to type out a piece of seq that randomly disappeared. Was the oddest thing ever.
+BOBULUS MAXIMUS Was "typing out a piece of seq" something you had to do in the BIOS? How did you force the PC and card to see and work together? Can you be more specific please? I'm baffled right now as my computer is beeping at me five times :-)
If I were to replace just the graphics card, would it boot like normal if I updated the BIOS beforehand?
+Toxic Atom Yes
Hello, just wondering if there were any power supply issues after installing this card. Was thinking about getting it and I wanted to know if replacing the PSU was something i have to do and if so, can the motherboard handle the wattage from the new PSU?
+AaronReyesMusic I have not had any problems using the card with the stock 460W PSU.
Hi, I have the exact same pc as you except my psu is max 300w I'm looking at the same gpu as you but does how does the gpu fair against the games u play thanks
Please do a vid of gaming performance on this pc
Here's a quick video of the PC's performance in a couple of gaming benchmark tests (RE6 and Tomb Raider): th-cam.com/video/hximqfwicQo/w-d-xo.html
GadgetGuy thanks and btw I bought this same card but no ssd and I'm getting a beeping noise coming from the computer and the monitors is on black screen
I was just watching a video on someone saying that the computer will not show picture if you upgrade the graphics card is that true?
SuperCraft MC The Dell XPS 8700 was incompatible with the GTX 970 card until a BIOS update around the start of 2015. But I have had no problems with the 970 installed in my Dell in January.
ok Thank you once again
GadgetGuy weird, my Dell XPS 8300 never had any compatibility issues with my 970
Maybe I missed this bit of info but where did you get the mounting screws for the msata drive?
I don't recall. But I also don't recall it being a problem, so they were either included with the mSATA drive or were already screwed into the sockets on the motherboard.
I know this is an older video -- I upgraded my XPS 8500 to the GTX1080 - I upgraded the PSU also -- I would like to put an SSD in it and transfer my OS and Steam games to it -- but my concern is the proximity of the back of the Video card running right over the top of the SSD slot -- have you had any heat issues with the SSD? Or do you know how heat sensitive they are if my monster video card is running over the top of it?
Would this work with my Dell XPS 8500? It's the gen before the 8700 but I'm not 100% sure the PSU and internal space is the same
Are all dell xps 8700 have the same motherboards
Will this work on the i5 -4440 and get 635 upgrading to Gtx 960?
does the GTX 970 G1 of Gigabyte fit in the dell xps defualt case?
Ivan Lee I don't know for sure, but I'd be concerned that it wouldn't. The G1 is listed as 70mm longer than the FTW I installed (according to some sources), and I didn't have much room to work with. I might look into the 970 minis others have recommended in the comments.
ok ty
What other options are there for GPU upgrade? I want to play Doom on my XPS 8700 but I am not sure if it would run it well without changing the video card.
Good Choice of Graphics card the FTW+ is soo much nicer than other models.
Due to the large size of the graphics and card and the rather small size of the xps 8700 case- did you have any issues with the wiring? I saw the part were you were putting things back into place but had some hard time with the cables... I am considering buying a new gpu and I am inclined on buying the gtx 1060 mini but maybe the standard 1060 version will go in just as well?
Thank you in advance for your answer =]
I did need to stretch the stock wires taut to connect them to the GPU. I got it to work by going around the base of the card (i.e., closest to the mobo).
Yeah; I got the gtx 1060 6gb eventually and did exactly the same :)
Did you have any major issues with putting it in? I'm thinking of putting a gtx 1060 in mine but I'm not sure how worried I should be putting it in as far as space wise.
I recently upgrade the PSU to an EVGA supernova 750W bronze and the GPU to an MSI GTX 960 4GB, it's working perfectly and I found no problems installing it into the dell xps8500. However I would like to go futher, am I able to buy a new mobo and CPU? Or will I then have to buy a new OS as I hear it's stored onto the motherboard. I dont understand what are the limitations of upgrading an OEM PC
+TheJadedex The license key for Windows is embedded in the Dell motherboard. If you want to do additional upgrades, you might want to just build one from scratch. There aren't that many pieces left of the Dell once you replace the mobo.
+GadgetGuy Can i use the wifi card from this PC inside another PC?
Really lost when you didn't put. the blue plug back in. I understand how you added an SSD but i'm really lost
+Bilal Zakaria To clarify, I did reconnect the blue plug. I needed to stretch it and work it around the new larger GPU, but I did reconnect it. I can try to answer any questions if you're still confused.
Hey I'm looking at the i7 model. Does the included PSU have an extra six pin for a GTX 960? I would really appreciate the help.
Andy Patel Mine did. At 15:45 in the video, I found the extra 6-pin power connector.
Oh thank you so much. Do you have any power draw problems from the PSU?
Nvidia says you need at least 500w
Andy Patel I haven't had any problems using the stock 460W PSU. As you can read in the comments, others are skeptical and feel that one should upgrade the PSU. I don't think it's necessary for this upgrade.
I have the same tower with the same specs, altough mine came with a GeForce GTX 745? Can I do the same thing as you do, and have my games run 2x better?