Acer Aspire T3-710 upgrading gpu

Hi neewu

I have also recently purchased this pc and immediately upgraded the psu to a 600w evga unit to install a decent gpu. As it stands the best gpu you could go with for this prebuilt is a 750ti. The issue is not only with the psu but the length of the card itself. There is only 1 PCI slot on the motherboard and there are power connections directly behind the video card seemingly preventing a card longer than 6.5 inches or so to be installed. From what I gather it would be worth it to upgrade the psu as I have and go for a GTX 960 mini or a 970 mini. If anyone has upgraded the gpu on this pc I also would be interested to know what fits. I have ordered a 970 mini and will post the results when it arrives

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Hi neewu

I have also recently purchased this pc and immediately upgraded the psu to a 600w evga unit to install a decent gpu. As it stands the best gpu you could go with for this prebuilt is a 750ti. The issue is not only with the psu but the length of the card itself. There is only 1 PCI slot on the motherboard and there are power connections directly behind the video card seemingly preventing a card longer than 6.5 inches or so to be installed. From what I gather it would be worth it to upgrade the psu as I have and go for a GTX 960 mini or a 970 mini. If anyone has upgraded the gpu on this pc I also would be interested to know what fits. I have ordered a 970 mini and will post the results when it arrives

Hi Jeremy,

Thanks for both your replies on my posts.

Yeah I found after much more research online that the GTX 960/970 mini, or the 750ti would be a good fit. The only hesistation I had was the two cables beside the GPU (for front panel audio and USB 3.0) however, length would be the only issue with this case profile. I do think you could potentially use the backports (USB and Mic) and unplug the fron panel audio/USB if you wanted to fit a slightly larger GPU, but I use these ports frequently so I am going to opt for a Mini GPU. I actually went ahead and ordered ordered the ZOTAC ZT-7601-10M GTX 750 (non OC/SC/FTW edition, selected this one as I only really found positive reviews across the board for it). I also found that a non-overclocked 750ti would be definitely be okay with the current PSU provided in terms of wattage usage and there is only a 5TDP increase from the GTX 745 OEM to the GTX 750ti (again, non-overclocked edition) which is safe (745 - 55TDP, 750ti = 60TDP so heat dissipation should be okay and only consuming marginal more power from the PSU). So this is perfect if anyone doesn't want to upgrade their PSU.

I too will be upgrading to the GTX 960/70 mini in a few months time (I'll post up then too), but before that I am going to upgrade to the Seasonic S12-11 620w Bronze certified PSU and also install an additional case fan just to keep the temps down if I upgrade to the 970/80 (although from what I've read the cooling on those mini GPUs themselves are very good).

Thank you the reply again,

I will post up my results from upgrading the PSU/GPU soon.

Hi, I have seen this i was going to get a 970 strix and 600 watt power supply , I have been trying but unble to open the case ,any help would be appreicated.

Hi Daniel,

While looking at the back of the case remove the top and bottom screws on the right hand panel. There is a catch protruding from the rear of the case that holds the panel in place. Pull the catch slightly to the left and with your other palm pull the right side panel towards you. It will come back and then can be pulled off.

Thankyou, very helpful ,I was going to give it to someone to do it for me, saved me some money Smiley Happy

Would it not be worth getting a bigger case in order to fit a better graphics card in ?

I considered this myself and thought why stop there. Get a new motherboard as well without those pesky connectors in the way of a larger gpu. And perhaps a Mobo that takes ddr4 ram to future proof it a bit. But alas my budget was blown.

I would wait until AMD releases their new GPU line on June 29th. If the cards are as good as they are rumoured to be and as efficient then it is likely you will be able to snag one with similar performance as the 970. And they may fit this rig fine as is.

If i might be honest I would have been better making my own PC from the start ,I feel ripped off.

Hi again Daniel,

I understand and you are correct. The only reason I have this prebuilt was a trade for my ps4 so I don't have much into it. even with the Gtx 745 though it is playing fallout 4 better than an xb1. That isn't saying a lot for a machine that retails at over a grand though. It is frustrating

Completely agree, I felt the same didn't quite realise, despite some research, how lacking the GPU was in comparison to the processor etc. but I have found that many of the games I play (older ones often pre-2010, such as empire total war) I can run on high/ultra for a lot of settings and get good performance. It's not the worst card in the world dependent on what you want to play/your personal aesthetical preferences, newer games from 2014-15 I struggle with unless all settings are on low (but I have to admit they are still playable for me and I play mostly RTS games).

Also, I successfully upgraded to the Zotac graphics card I purchased above (slotted in easily), and got some decent performance increase despite it only really being an incremental upgrade, I can currently run Warhammer Total War which previously struggled on the 745 (OEM), so I may not upgrade to the one of the GTX Mini series for a while yet. Although I would definitely advise building your own instead which could definitely be done for less than £1,000 and have much better performance, I just didn't quite have the time/confidence to do so yet!

I agree it definitely still performs better than the XB1 with Fallout 4! But this GPU is nowhere near on par with other specs of the machine, did you by any chance upgrade your GPU to the GTX mini series? How did it go?

Hi again neewu

I decided to wait and see what the new rx 4 series has to offer before getting the mini. They look promising