With this Dell, I'm putting together the cheapest 3D workstation that won't drive me crazy with memory crashes. The entire system has cost me only 496.10 USD.
The primary upgrade for this PC will be the graphics card. Presently, it's installed with an AMD FirePro 2270 Graphics 512 DDR3. This is not good. Since I plan to use this as a temporary 3D workstation, I'm adding a nVIDIA Quadro K2000 Graphic Card with 2GB of memory. I purchased a reconditioned unit for 141.11 USD on ebay.
Getting into the Dell is quite easy. Probably the easiest case I've opened. There is a pull latch on the side and the side panel lifts out.
The primary upgrade for this PC will be the graphics card. Presently, it's installed with an AMD FirePro 2270 Graphics 512 DDR3. This is not good. Since I plan to use this as a temporary 3D workstation, I'm adding a nVIDIA Quadro K2000 Graphic Card with 2GB of memory. I purchased a reconditioned unit for 141.11 USD on ebay.
Here is the card SPECIFICATIONS:
GPU Memory 2GB GDDR5
Memory Interface 128-bit
Memory Bandwidth 64.0GB/s
CUDA Cores 384
System Interface PCI Express 2.0 x16
Max Power Consumption 51W
Thermal Solution Ultra-quiet active
fansink
Form Factor 4.376” H x 7.97” L,
Single Slot, Full Height
Display Connectors DVI-I DL + DVI-D DL +
mini-DP1.2
Max Simultaneous Displays 3 direct, 4 DP1.2,
2 Win XP
Max DP 1.2 Resolution 3840 x 2160 at 60Hz
Max DVI-I DL Resolution 2560 × 1600 at 60Hz
Max DVI-I SL Resolution 1920 × 1200 at 60Hz
Max VGA Resolution 2048 x 1536 at 85Hz
Graphics APIs Shader Model 5.0,
OpenGL 4.4, DirectX 11
Compute APIs CUDA, DirectCompute,
OpenCL
Getting into the Dell is quite easy. Probably the easiest case I've opened. There is a pull latch on the side and the side panel lifts out.
The nVIDIA Quadro K2000 utilizes a PCI Express 2.0 x16. The furthest slot down on the left.
I would have liked to added an even better graphics card, but this Dell won't support anything better. It's PCI slot can only supply up to 75w. This card, at 51w is sufficiently rated, but any better card out there will require a higher wattage above the PCI max of 75w.
I'm also adding 8 more RAM to bring the total system RAM to 16. This unit utilizes 1066MHz DDR3-1066 PC3-8500, 240p DIMM, 1.5v. I'm using what I had in more old system. There are four slots located near the top right next to the Intel processor.
Last, I'm adding a 640 GB hard drive in the available slot below the 1TB drive that came with the unit. Unfortunately, there wasn't a cradle to hold the hard drive. I found one on eBay for 5.99 USD.
These cradles are very nice. They are flexible, holding the hard drive with 4 little pins instead of screws. It makes it a lot easier to install a drive.
The two bay slots are on the bottom right of the unit. The cradle slides easily in and locks with the cables in a comfortable position to attach.
This Dell came with a fresh install of Windows 7 Pro. My preferred OS at this time. I was easily able to use the attached serial on the Dell's outer case and register the OS with Microsoft. Any Dell Windows Pro recovery should work for a future fresh install.
Here is my new system specs:
The Windows experience index is low, but with my extra system RAM and 2GB graphics card, I'm able to get by with the heavy 3D modeling I'm working with.
