Hello, I received (just today) a Dell Optiplex GX520, with the large tower chassis. This was a gift, I didn't choose this PC. It has a 3.4Ghz Pentium D (should be good for gaming). I was looking into buying a 7600GT, when i opened up the case and discovered that it lacks a PCI-E 16X slot. However, looking closely, above the PCI slots, there is a white box with lots of female pins in it where a PCI-E 16X slot would go. I looked it up on the dell website... the model up from this (the GX620) indeed does have a 16X slot, as well as 2 extra DIMM's. Looking at my mobo again, there are indeed 2 white boxes where the 2 extra DIMM's would go. So, I conclude that both 620 and 520 share the mobo.. However, would it be possible to place a PCI-E 16x slot in its place in the mobo? It seems to me that this would be simple, there is a place for it, all you need to do is get the hunk of plastic and shove it in.. But I can't find anything like this on google. Please help. Pictures attached. http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/4687/22010721030qz.jpg http://img292.imageshack.us/img292/83/22010721047qy.jpg
This is basically what car manufacturers do... they bring out a top of the range model with all the parts and then they bring out a lower one, one has electric windows the other doesnt, so instead of creating two different car door covers they have created the same one but just blocked it up on the other door... it appears your motherboard is the same motherboard as the other but they havent bothered to fit the x16 to the lower one.
Sure, it's possible, but you might have to factor in some resistors, capacitors, etc. It could be as "easy" as soldering in a PCIe x16 slot...but even then, that's a lot of contacts to hand solder.
I actually saw something like this with an old S462 motherboard. There was a VGA port without the connector, but the soldering connections were in a perfect connector pattern.
I'm going to call or pass by dell tomorrow morning, see if they can fit a slot to it. Else, I've done some soldering and I can buy capacitors. Where can I find the capacitor values or the slot itself? A mobo-less pci-e slot cant be too common, and I can't seem to find any? Thanks for your replies
The values would depend on the motherboard. Without a schematic of the traces, your guess is as good as mine. I don't know if that motherboard has the necessary caps and resistors, etc in place to start with. Probably not, but I don't know. Some of the stuff that you could be soldering are as big as a grain of rice. Foxconn is one company that comes to mind, but you may have to buy in bulk, as that's generally how they ship parts out to motherboard companies. Anymore, most motherboards without PCIe x16 slots are in OEM's, like basic Dell units.
