On upgrading an Acer Aspire TC-605-UB12

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I want to know if this type of PC can support a graphics card. I have already upgraded the power supply, but nothing else yet, as I once bought a graphics card for this system, only for it to be too large for the case. The drive cage was in the way.
I have also heard such rumors as "this motherboard is very poor and will not support a graphics card" even though it has a PCI-e slot.
I will only be accepting answers from those that have either owned or worked on Acer Aspire TC-605 models, as I cannot afford to make another mistake again.
This PC is five years old and already out of warranty.
Tech support was no help, so I was directed here.
Thanks in advance.

billsey

That machine originally came with Windows 7, but late enough that it also shipped with W8 or W8.1, so it has a UEFI BIOS. That means none of the modern GPUs will have a problem with the system, as long as they physically fit. As you found, the limitation is the HDD, which tends to stick down right where a full sized card wants to be. There are two workarounds can think of. One you can move the drive to the other bay (though not officially a drive bay, I believe they put mounting holes in that match what's needed for a HDD/SSD). If you do that then there's more vertical area available and most cards will fit. The other is to just restrict your search to half height or shorty cards. Pretty much all the GPU designs have versions that fit that form factor. Which card you choose is pretty much dependent on your wallet.

Now, having said that if you are still running on an HDD you are going to get your biggest performance improvement by switching to a SSD. Your machine is old enough (4th gen Intel vs. the current 10th gen) that the CPU and memory are going to be a bottleneck too, but not as much as the seek time on the drive.

billsey

That machine originally came with Windows 7, but late enough that it also shipped with W8 or W8.1, so it has a UEFI BIOS. That means none of the modern GPUs will have a problem with the system, as long as they physically fit. As you found, the limitation is the HDD, which tends to stick down right where a full sized card wants to be. There are two workarounds can think of. One you can move the drive to the other bay (though not officially a drive bay, I believe they put mounting holes in that match what's needed for a HDD/SSD). If you do that then there's more vertical area available and most cards will fit. The other is to just restrict your search to half height or shorty cards. Pretty much all the GPU designs have versions that fit that form factor. Which card you choose is pretty much dependent on your wallet.

Now, having said that if you are still running on an HDD you are going to get your biggest performance improvement by switching to a SSD. Your machine is old enough (4th gen Intel vs. the current 10th gen) that the CPU and memory are going to be a bottleneck too, but not as much as the seek time on the drive.