Consider purchasing a brand new 8-pin PCIe cable or converting your two current 6-pin cables into one 8-pin connection.
Consider purchasing a brand new 8-pin PCIe cable or converting your two current 6-pin cables into one 8-pin connection.
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I have no idea what the connector on the Dell does, but the way it functions is that there are only three pins with 12 volts, while the rest are always ground, regardless of whether it's 6 or 8. Both the two added pins are connected to ground on the power supply. I’m confused about why this is done. I understand that the center pin on the 6-pin and one of the two extra pins on the 8-pin are called sense, and it seems the video card uses these to gauge how much power it can draw. This only makes sense if the thicker 12-volt wires are used on the 8-pin instead of the 6. This is something I should leave you to investigate on the wiki. I remember when I was experimenting with homemade power cables a long time ago—I built one and it worked, but now I’m not so confident about why it did.
That explanation fits well with the image of the 825 Watt PSU, where many pins appear as solid copper sections rather than individual pins. I noticed some mentions of more costly adapters using thicker wires. It might also relate to the plug itself—when systems were overloaded, the 8-pin PSU connector on the daughterboard often failed or melted.
I don’t have much background in electronics to safely design custom cables like this. I won’t try it and risk a fire from making mistakes.
I would prefer to upgrade to an RTX 2060 instead of spending that amount on this outdated Dell model.
I understand it's not exceptional, but the CPU remains functional enough for games from 2019 and older, as well as most non-AAA titles currently available. As mentioned before, it serves as a backup since my primary system is still incomplete, and I expect it to take some time before it's fully operational. I aim to have a reliable backup ready in case I need to temporarily disable my main system again in the future.
there is not a large difference from the majority of 2019 games vs 2022.
i don't really get how that would be a factor.
maybe
games from 2017 or earlier but even then there isn't that huge of a difference between a large portion of them.
i really wouldn't call this system even "viable" if your intended use would be gaming from ~2019.
putting the effort into a modern system, even if it is low budget, would still be a much better option in this scenario.
having a cheap/generic "corporate" workstation that may be able to run a couple very old games at decent settings isn't much of a backup unless you are really just intending this to be a slower web browser in case of emergencies.
suggesting that you ditch this idea and build a decent, more modern system is proper advice here vs wasting time, money & effort on a decade+ old lower class system.
if this just a hobbyist project then make that part of your original post and/or thread title and instead of offering you better advice on how to proceed for the future you can probably get some others that enjoy working on older out-of-date systems such as these to help you continue.
Man there is a HEAVY push for you to get a new PC in this thread. While that may be the true best option, you can make what you have work, IMO. Plus a new GPU installed in this computer would also be good in any other system, so its not like you are wasting money buying and installing it, if you can use it later somewhere else.
I have an roughly equally old Dell Precision Workstation, currently running 2x Xeon E5-2667 V2s, 128GB RAM, and SSD for running servers. It had a GPU until I stole it for another PC. While Dell did lots of odd stuff with the PC, for example I had to use a Dell specific cooler for the second CPU when I upgraded, it is still capable. I would not trust its 850W PSU with a 3080 by any means, but it performs well.
That being said, my PC also has a similar daughterboard with connectors, and the GPU only has 2x 6 pins available. I have not had to mess with this, but my best guess for the safest route would be to get the adapter for 2x 6 pin to 1x 8 pin. You know the 6 pin connectors are pinned out normally, since they plug into the standard GPU. The 8pin plug on the daughterboard is unknown.
It is not recommended, but as long as the adapter you get has quality cables, and has the wiring actually run properly between the plugs, it should be fine IMO. 6 pins are rated for 75W, 8pin for 150W. If the adapter makes proper use of the 6 pins, the two of them should be providing enough power without overloading anything.
It is still a risk to take, but that is your risk. Out of the options, I believe that is the least risky, but it will depend a lot on the adapter you buy. I would not recommend it, but it is the best of the poor options you are looking at.