danielsdian

Hi everyone! Im Daniel, a new user from Brazil! I've been away from building computers for 10 years since I moved from my "gaming" pc to a notebook+playstation combo. In the meanwhile, I got married and got for my wife a Dell Vostro 270s, that is now showing signs of old age. OEM: Intel i5-3470s (6M cache, 2.9Ghz base clock, up to 3.6Ghz with Intel HD Graphics 2500, 65W TDP) with stock cooler 6Gb Teikon DDR3 1600Mhz RAM (two sticks, one 4gb and the other 2gb) Nvidia GeForce GT 620 (Low profile, single slot) 1Tb SATA3 HDD from Seagate (ST1000DM010) DVD Writer SATA3 from a generic brand (PLDSDH-16AES) Dell Wireless 1506 WiFi PCIe Half MiniCard (Wireless N) Dell branded motherboard with a single x16 PCIe slot on the edge of the board and a x1 PCIe next to it 220W (or 300W, cant find that info anywhere) generic SFF PSU And finally, a weird SFF Low Profile Dell Case. UPGRADE: Intel i5-3570k (6M cache, 3.4Ghz base clock, up to 3.9Ghz with Intel HD Graphics 4000, 77W TDP, 12W more than the old CPU) 8Gb Teikon DDR3 1600Mhz RAM (got another 4gb stick) Gigabyte NVIDIA GeForce GT 1030 2G, GDDR5 - GV-N1030D5-2GL (It was the best single slot, low profile card that I could find. The PSU doesnt provide any PCIe power cables, so the card has to draw all power from the PCIe Slot... As a bonus, draws the same 30W from the old graphics card) FireCuda 2 TB SSHD ST2000LX001 (took it from a notebook that got a cracked screen) LG BH10LS30 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer (had laying around from my old gaming pc) Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 PCIe Half MiniCard (also salvaged from my cracked notebook) SOME CONSIDERATIONS: The CPU is still in the mail from Aliexpress, I expect it to arrive in September. The memory sticks will arrive this week and the graphics card will arrive today (hopefully). Im really considering upgrading the stock cooler due to the new CPU, but Im having a hard time finding one that fits. it cant be bigger than the Intel LGA1155 socket keep-out zone, because the memory sticks are right nearby, and cant be taller than 8cm from the socket because of the case low-profile. Im really considering the Noctua NH-l9x65, but it costs almost the same as the graphics card... Also, Dell says in their forums that their motherboard is tested up to my actual processor and they cant guarantee any better processor will work, thats why I didnt dare go to the i7's and stuck with an i5. They also say the RAM will work in either 8gb@1600Mhz or 16Gb@1333Mhz. I tried putting in 16Gb@1600Mhz (two 8gb sticks from kingston I borrowed) and it went right down to 1333Mhz, so Im sticking with Teikon brand, the same that it came with from Dell. Any suggestions? I'd really like some input on this upgrade since its been a while I've built a computer and this is my first small form factor PC. Being limitated by part sizes and power requirements really adds another degree of difficulty to it...