XC 605 graphic card change?

Greetings,

I'll start this conversation by saying that I always liked ACER products, my last computer was an ACER aspire laptop 7738 series that lasted me for over 4 years! I played WoW, fallout new vegas and many games with this little fella.

I have bought an ACER XC-605 with windows 8.1 a few days ago and I'm generally satisfied, OS runs fine, so does web surfing, multitasking and such.

My main problem comes from the graphic card, it was (in my local shop, not by ACER itself) advertized as a powerful yet compact computer. I knew the Nvidia GEForce GT705 was average for a gaming card, but I mainly play games such as WoW, so I figured it would do the trick for a medium-setting experience.

Well it is not the case at all. Even on lowest settings, the game struggles to have a stable 30FPS, Even heartstone sutters in medium graphics (A card game!).

Having invested so much of my student savings to be not able to play the game with some average efficiency... I feel a little down... I tried running with DirectX9 instead of 11, updated my drivers, looked around in the graphics options, there's no end : The card just doesn't make it!

I could be disposed to upgrade the card, since christmas is around the corner, but I would like to know first :

-What card should I pick if I wanted to upgrade, I heard there is a lot of compatibility stuff to check between the graphic card and the voltage, and with the motherboard also. but as you propbably guessed from the beginning of my post, I am not very tech sawy with computer hardware
-What if I can't upgrade it? =(

I thank you with the force of a thousand suns in advance.

Best regards,

Tomberrox.

PS : Since there are a few versions of the ASPIRE XC-605, here are the specs :
Intel core i5 4460
12GB DDR3 RAM

HDD 1TB

NVidia GEforce GT705 1GB dedicated

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JordanB

I don't have an XC 605, but I have two TC 605 computers. Both of mine have 300W power supplies. I'm pretty sure the card below will fit in the TC case but I don't know if it will fit in your XC case. You didn't say what power supply you have? The card below requires a 300W minimum power supply. Sometimes Acer puts 220W or 300W in various models.

Anyway, I'm going to try the card below on one of my PC's. It's got good reviews and is #1 best seller on Amazon. I'm not a heavy gamer so if it doesn't work, I'll just send it back and I'll be fine with intel HD4600 on the i5 4440.

http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-Superclock-Dual-Link-Graphics-02G-P4-3753-KR/dp/B00IDG3IDO

Here's an article on the non-EVGA-SC version of the card. If you only have 220W power supply, I wouldn't try it. Needs 300W minimum. Again, I'm not sure if it will fit in your case. You'll have to do some research.

http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphics-Cards/Upgrade-Story-Can-GTX-750-Ti-Convert-OEMs-PCs-Gaming-PCs

Tomberrox

Hello Jordan,

I kindly thank you for your answer and your dedication to my issue.

I think I found the model I bought here : http://fr.acer.ch/ac/fr/CH/content/model/DT.STEEZ.005

As specified, it only has a 220W power supply, as you thought it might...

So I guess this card is off limits for me.

Best regards,

Tomberrox.

Crogge

The "kfa2 geforce 750 ti" (Low profile version of the Nvidia 750 Ti) should fit in an Acer 605 and doesn't needs any power connector. It might work with the 220W supply because its not very power hungry, simply needs a test.

legacy7955

I'm interested in Graphics Cards for this small desktop as well, it requires a low profile card as well, correct?

And of course the 220W Power supply is a big limitation as well, I doubt there are many upgrades for this odd size.

I have the Core i3 4160 CPU and only 4GB of ram.

Anyone have experience upgrading the RAM on these models yet? What brand of memory have you used?

Crogge

Just ensure that the memory speed is matching, if in doubt use an identical module to your existing one so it will run properly in dual-channel mode. Pretty much any kind of DDR3 module should work, just don't use unusual ones like "low power" editions. 8GB are no problem.

I personally sold / modified a dozen of XC-605 now and can say that it is a real good PC, considering the low price. Most of the time I replace the HDD with a SSD like the Crucial M550.

jimmyclarke01

I just purchased an XC 605 and am looking to add an SSD for booting purposes. With your experience modifying them, what do you think the best way of going about this is?

I was hoping there would be there spare SATA III (6 gb/s) ports, but there doesn't seem to be a great deal of information on this (and I haven't got the PC yet).

Crogge

I installed Crucial MX100 SSDs and various Sandisk SSDs without any issues, by replacing the internal HDD. You may need a 2,5" -> 3,5" bracket adapter.

The H81 based XC 605 has 3 SATA ports, 1x SATA3 (Black) and 2x SATA2 (White). It is in theory possible to add the SSD additionally to the HDD+ODD (3 drives in total), but you would have to find some free space in the case or mount it on a slot adapter where the GPU is supposed to be. The SSD won't care cause its not temperature sensitive, just ensure it won't touch anything / cause a short circuit.

Apart of that you may need an Y SATA power adapter to get a third SATA power plug (Costs just 5-10$~).

JordanB

Crogge,

I have TC-605, but it has the H81 chipset too. I'm assuming you have two white sata ports and 1 black sata port? That's what my version of the board has. When I use CrystalDiskInfo, it shows that I have my WD Blue connected to a SATA 3 port. It's connected to a white port...which implies that the white ports are the SATA 3 ports and the black port is the SATA 2 port.

Can you confirm with CrystalDiskInfo? I downloaded the 64 bit "ad free" version.

Maybe Acer used a different version of the H81 express board?

http://www.sevenforums.com/hardware-devices/222273-checking-sata-drive-speed.html

http://crystalmark.info/software/CrystalDiskInfo/manual-en/GeneralInfo.html

Crogge

Sorry I probably swapped the colours, for HDD and ODD SATA2 is fast enough. I recommend to connect the SSD to SATA3 (Which seems to be the black ports).

JordanB

Right. There's two white SATA 3 ports and one black SATA 2 port. I think most of the H81 chipset computers come wore-configured with the HDD plugged in to a SATA 3 port and a DVD plugged in to a SATA 3 port. So to install a SSD drive, you just slide the DVD SATA cable in to the black SATA 2 port.

Sorry for getting off topic, but I just wanted to clear that up since it has two SATA 3 ports.

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