Looking to Perform a Couple Upgrades

#1

Recently I bought a Dell Optiplex 740, because it was pretty cheap ($75) and much better than the computer I owned (Optiplex GX260). As of right now though, I’m stuck with the shitty integrated chip it came with, but I’m looking to change that. But first I want to clear something up that I don’t know much about.

The only reason I’m a little iffy on upgrading is because the motherboard’s best expansion slot is a PCI-E x16, and pretty much every card worth buying is either 2.0 or 2.1 (Excluding 3.0). I’ve read they’re backwards compatible, but the performance will be just a tiny bit worse since not very many cards actually demand the increase in throughput or power. Now here’s where I’m unsure of things - what if the card does need the power the PCI-E 2.0 slot provides? Will it just run slower, or not run at all? And if it does run, would it be better to just buy a 1.0 card (although they’re pretty hard to find at a reasonable price)?

The card I’m looking to buy is this one (or really any card on this page) and this PSU. I won’t really be doing much gaming, but I’d like to be able to watch 1080p videos fullscreen and play at least Minecraft at solid framerate. Feedback on my choices would be nice.

TL;DR - What would happen if I used a PCI-Express x16 2.0/2.1 that demanded too much power in a PCI-Express x16 slot?

Thanks,

~Lin

#2

pcie 2.1 will NOT work unless you are extremely lucky and have a decent motherboard (and from such an old dell I seriously doubt that)

2.1 is different from 2.0 in only one aspect, 2.1 is designed to draw more power than previous slots were designed for, and while bios upgrades allow motherboards with pcie 1.1 slots to use 2.1 cards, these upgrades did not always work

tl;dr get a 2.0 card if you want it to work

#3

Thank you very much. You saved me a horrible day, and with that said, I’ll probably end up getting this one.

#4

Good choice, seems like it should run minecraft fine