[almarek]

Earlier this year I purchased a Dell Studio (first and last time) with a slim case. It's a fairly powerful computer and was at steal of a price, but soon noted that it came with the shortfall of a 250 W Power supply!! I purchased a Gforce 9300 video card at the same time (top of the line then) and haven't been able to install it. I'm just looking for a way to get a more powerful power supply in that dang case to use my video card without sacrificing quality of the PSU. I'm alternately interested in gutting that worthless slim case and going for a more standard ATX case, but want to know that my motherboard will switch over. Any advice or help is greatly appreciated!

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it came with the shortfall of a 250 W Power supply!!

Many of your OEM Manufacturers only use the bare minimum power supply needed. It is quite sad really.

I'm just looking for a way to get a more powerful power supply in that dang case to use my video card without sacrificing quality of the PSU. I'm alternately interested in gutting that worthless slim case and going for a more standard ATX case

I don't know if you will be able to get one in that case, but switching to another case may proof just as difficult. Many Dell motherboards are made specifically for their cases (Proprietary). Give me the exact make and model of the case, or even a link to it would be good too. I can do some research and see what we can come up with.

Worse case scenario, have a case specially made for it, but you may be looking at some money there, just depends. I could check some places I know of that do such a thing and see what they say. Let me know,

Oh!, and you are not the first person to have this problem. It is quite common really... I know, it sucks.

[Ferrari]

it came with the shortfall of a 250 W Power supply!!

Many of your OEM Manufacturers only use the bare minimum power supply needed. It is quite sad really.

I'm just looking for a way to get a more powerful power supply in that dang case to use my video card without sacrificing quality of the PSU. I'm alternately interested in gutting that worthless slim case and going for a more standard ATX case

I don't know if you will be able to get one in that case, but switching to another case may proof just as difficult. Many Dell motherboards are made specifically for their cases (Proprietary). Give me the exact make and model of the case, or even a link to it would be good too. I can do some research and see what we can come up with.

Worse case scenario, have a case specially made for it, but you may be looking at some money there, just depends. I could check some places I know of that do such a thing and see what they say. Let me know,

Oh!, and you are not the first person to have this problem. It is quite common really... I know, it sucks.

[almarek]

http://www.dell.com/...e...s=dhs&cs=19

This is the case that I have. I've searched the computer case and couldn't find anything that defines the case in any way other than the computer, which is a dell studio slim 540 S. What other information would help?

[Ferrari]

Take a look at the back of your computer HERE

This 300Watt TFX PSU by a trusted manufacturer Seasonic should fit. And you can buy it on Newegg HERE

However, link me to your card. What watt does it say it requires? Sometimes you really need to pay attention to the amps on the rails and not necessarily the watts. The one I linked to has two 18amp rails which isn't to shabby and is 80 plus certified which is good. Can you send me a link of your card, or one very similar? Off the top of my head, I'm willing to bet that the 9300 won't require more than what the PSU has to offer. Need link to confirm and make sure.

Let me know...

[Ferrari]

Double Post...

Take a look at the specs for this 9400 GT. It requires a 300 watt PSU and/or a 18amp 12volt rail, which the PSU I linked to meets both requirements. The 9300 should be the same if not smaller requirements.

Edited by Ferrari, 10 July 2009 - 07:37 PM.

[almarek]

I have the Geforce 9300gs 512mb/64 bit card. It requires 300 Watt, so it does look like that power supply will be sufficient, I was just hoping for something higher for later upgrades. If you wouldn't mind helping me explore the computer case still, that would be great.

[Ferrari]

What other information would help?

I really need to find out what the form factor of your motherboard is, but I can't seem to find out! Which usually I can. It may be that proprietary motherboard(specific to that case) like I mentioned earlier.

I will continue to keep looking. If you are interested in having a case made or modifying your case you may want to contact mnpctech.com. They specialize in case modification, and case building. They could probably even come up with an "out of the box thinking" way of adding a regular style PSU outside of your slim desktop. Moreover, they may also know right off hand what kind of motherboard comes in those Studio Slim Desktops.

[almarek]

I measured my mobo, per some other advice and compared to this wiki. http://en.wikipedia....er_form_factors

It looks like I have a microATX mobo, measuring 244mm x 244mm. I also went on to newegg and looked at pics of a few standard atx cases and saw that the hole pattern of my board will fit into existing holes in the case.

I looked at my power supply and it has 4 wire bundles leaving the PSU. One bunch of 4 brown and black to the mobo, one bunch of 5 to the disk drive, a bunch of 5 to the hard drive, and a large bunch of 20+4 to mobo.

From what I can tell, there shouldn't be a problem with me moving the components of this slim case to another case with a more powerful power source.

Can anyone confirm this for me?

Thanks in advance!!!!

[Ferrari]

It would be easier if you just linked me to a pic of your mobo using image shack or photobucket. Try to show where the holes are from a wide angle (showing the 3 holes across horizontally) and I can compare to micro ATX cases on Newegg. Here is a micro ATX motherboard. CLICK HERE The screw holes look like somewhat of a star pattern. You can easily see one at each ends of the yellow RAM slots. Are the holes on your motherboard in the same spot as ALL the holes on that board? That is what I will be looking for. I think you get the general idea...

FYI: Micro ATX can also be said like this... uATX

As far as the 20+4 connection goes, you probably just need a 20+4 PSU which most are. The other connection going to the mobo would be the CPU power plug, just count the "pins" on the plug and that is the kind you would need from your power supply. However, there probably are adapters/plug extensions that you could use if the PSU you wanted to buy didn't have the correct CPU plug. It would look something like this... Click Here Also, just about every power supply will come with the appropriate "molex" or "sata" power plugs for your devices like a cd-rom or hard drive, etc.

As long as the holes on the motherboard match up with that motherboard, or a micro ATX compatible Cases holes for the motherboard, you should be good to go. See if you can get me a pic of your mobo, that would be great. Maybe you can figure this out for yourself, I don't know...

[almarek]

I compared my board with the one you linked from newegg. It was soooo close, but no cigar If you look at the 4th picture of the bottom of the board you linked, you see pretty much 2 rows of 3 holes. My board has all of these holes in the same places, the bottom left two lined up, the third bottom slightly higher. It has the same top row, spaced the same, but in addition, has 2 more holes in a third row above, one on the top left and one on the top right.

I guess I'm SOL, and may jimmy rig an external power supply so that I don't have to buy a slim 300W for $40.

Thanks for all your help.

p.s. Do you know if they make any affordable external power supplies?

[Ferrari]

Is it more like this by chance? I think that ASUS board left some holes out because of the design. I might of goofed up on that. I think this Intel board shows the holes better.

http://www.newegg.co...s...rd - Retail

[almarek]

My board has the same hole pattern as the boards below.

http://www.newegg.co...s...rd - Retail

http://www.newegg.co...s...rd - Retail

Is there a reason that there's such a variation within uATX boards?

[Ferrari]

Well, I believe all the boards we have linked to are the same except for that one ASUS board. They must of decided to only use the first 2 holes horizontally across or something, not sure. The other 3, two from you and one from me are the same. If yours is like that, then you have a micro ATX board. Any case that supports micro ATX would work. Many support micro and standard ATX, not just one or the other.

Like this one supports both, and even Extended ATX. Cooler Master Cosmos 1000 The holes for the micro ATX can be seen in the template, the difference between ATX and uATX is the I, J, and K. Can you see those holes? Those are for Micro ATX boards.

If your holes match all the boards except that ASUS of course, then you have a Micro ATX board.

[almarek]

I appreciate the help, and clarification. I've begun looking for cases and have been warned about the power supplies that come with cases. Do you have any advice on brands or certain models that are a good bang for the buck? I'm looking to keep it around 100 for the case and power supply, unless I can't get decent quality for that price. I'm willing to go slightly higher, but would rather not.

Thanks

[Ferrari]

This is the best bang for your buck out there. Corsair 400Watt As I believe I have touched on before, amp rating on the "rails" is more of what you want to look for, not just straight Watts. This one has a 30Amp 12 Volt Rail, which is nice for the price!

Trustful and reliable PSU Manufacturers are Corsair, Seasonic, Cooler Master, and Antec... Corsair being the best in my opinion. Don't buy anything but from that group, there are some others, but I'm not going to get into all that... Also, you always want a PSU to be 80 plus certified.

What do you think of this Cooler Master Centurion 534?

Edit: And yes, generally the power supplies that come with a case are off-brand and very very cheap. Don't do that, don't send an unstable power signal to your valuable/expensive components. Bad idea, not to mention risky...

Edited by Ferrari, 17 July 2009 - 05:53 PM.