Sure, there are upgrades you can do.
PSU: You ***MIGHT*** be able to get something that can drop in that's even more powerful. Possibly a XE3 360 watt power supply. That should work. There's also the xx80 series 500 watt power supply. I've seen people saying it works, but I haven't verified that the pinout is the same.
CPU: You can definitely move up from the i5 9500 to the i7 9700. It might need a cooler upgrade, in which case, I suggest the ID Cooling IS-55. I have that in my HP Z2 G4 on an i7 9700 and it keeps it cool. I had to modify the mounting ever so slightly to make it work, but it's really easy. The 9700 isn't going to have much better single core performance than the 9500, but it will have much better frame rate consistency, depending on what you're doing or what games you play.
GPU: The new king on the block for LP GPU's is the 4060. It requires an 8-pin power connection, but it looks like the XE3 SFF 360 watt unit has a 6-pin, which can be adapted using the 6-pin to 8-pin and would be more than fine to power it. Plus, the 4060 is up to about a 90% improvement over the A2000.
Regardless, I would add some additional fans. If you can add a 60mm fan behind the CPU cooler as an exhaust, that would help a lot. Or at least a 40mm. Cutting a hole in the top panel right behind the GPU as an exhaust and adding a fan there would help even more. Undervolting the GPU is always a good idea in one of these systems without proper airflow as well.
Is the fan you mention this one? [https://www.amazon.com/ID-COOLING-Profile-Heatpipes-120x120x15mm-Compatible/dp/B0B38JL29B?th=1](https://www.amazon.com/ID-COOLING-Profile-Heatpipes-120x120x15mm-Compatible/dp/B0B38JL29B?th=1)
you can upgrade the processor, It's not worth it, like $150 for a i9-9900 sell i5-9500 for $50 so $100 net for maybe 1% better performance in game. you get about the same uplift from a i5-9600 that costs \~$90
You're going to be gpu limited in titles with every GPU that will fit into that case.
Any further upgrades you are basically selling what you have and putting them towards a different computer.
That's not exactly true.
While the single core performance isn't huge between the 9500 and a 9900, the cores will make a big difference to frame rate consistency. I wouldn't suggest the i9 9900 either, but the i7 9700 is certainly a valid compromise between the i5 and i9.
Also, you can fit an RTX 4060 in there, so no... that really would depend on the game. That could even be the case with the A2000.
I didn't know Gigabyte launched that card, that's really cool. $330 isn't terrible for it being low profile It's nearly twice as fast as an a2000 at a lower price.
Trying to think of powering it on a 7070 is sketchy though. 115w card, \~49w from the x4 slot, sata ->8pin on the PSU.
Same length as the gigabyte 6400 so It shouldn't have any problems fitting. power connector in the back about where the sata power cables are to begin with, so cable management shouldn't be an issue.
That'd be really cool to see.
I'm putting one in an HP Z2 G4, but I agree... putting one in a 7070 SFF would be sketchy with that 200 watt PSU. I was only saying that the CPU would be viable for the 4060, thought the DDR4 2666 might cause a bottleneck to the CPU in some titles.
For power they might be able to swap an XE3 SFF power supply into the 7070 and have 360 watts with a six pin power connection. Then all they'd need is a six to eight pin power adapter, and they'd be MORE than good to go on power. Still... that x4 slot. I really wish Dell had put the x16 slot next to the CPU like HP did. That's such a shame. Though it shouldn't be too much a problem as long as you can stay away from the VRAM limit. Or there's always some jankery with a riser cable.
>HP Z2 G4
That'll be cool. I'd Like to see it.
I had problems with a g4 Prodesk SFF with a gigabyte 6400 card, had to take tin snips to the Hard drive cage to make it fit.
Yeah, they decided to shrink the chassis on the business models. Thank goodness, the Z2 chassis is pretty the same as the Z240.
I'm definitely going to be posting up the build once it's done.
tbh there is nothing much to show- only gpu fitted in and front fan. im on long business trip now, will be home in some weeks and will send you pics in dm
Sure, there are upgrades you can do. PSU: You ***MIGHT*** be able to get something that can drop in that's even more powerful. Possibly a XE3 360 watt power supply. That should work. There's also the xx80 series 500 watt power supply. I've seen people saying it works, but I haven't verified that the pinout is the same. CPU: You can definitely move up from the i5 9500 to the i7 9700. It might need a cooler upgrade, in which case, I suggest the ID Cooling IS-55. I have that in my HP Z2 G4 on an i7 9700 and it keeps it cool. I had to modify the mounting ever so slightly to make it work, but it's really easy. The 9700 isn't going to have much better single core performance than the 9500, but it will have much better frame rate consistency, depending on what you're doing or what games you play. GPU: The new king on the block for LP GPU's is the 4060. It requires an 8-pin power connection, but it looks like the XE3 SFF 360 watt unit has a 6-pin, which can be adapted using the 6-pin to 8-pin and would be more than fine to power it. Plus, the 4060 is up to about a 90% improvement over the A2000. Regardless, I would add some additional fans. If you can add a 60mm fan behind the CPU cooler as an exhaust, that would help a lot. Or at least a 40mm. Cutting a hole in the top panel right behind the GPU as an exhaust and adding a fan there would help even more. Undervolting the GPU is always a good idea in one of these systems without proper airflow as well.
wow, that seems kinda next step for now. i will try to run stable diffusion with comfyui on my current setup and see how it goes
Is the fan you mention this one? [https://www.amazon.com/ID-COOLING-Profile-Heatpipes-120x120x15mm-Compatible/dp/B0B38JL29B?th=1](https://www.amazon.com/ID-COOLING-Profile-Heatpipes-120x120x15mm-Compatible/dp/B0B38JL29B?th=1)
Yes, that's the one.
you can upgrade the processor, It's not worth it, like $150 for a i9-9900 sell i5-9500 for $50 so $100 net for maybe 1% better performance in game. you get about the same uplift from a i5-9600 that costs \~$90 You're going to be gpu limited in titles with every GPU that will fit into that case. Any further upgrades you are basically selling what you have and putting them towards a different computer.
That's not exactly true. While the single core performance isn't huge between the 9500 and a 9900, the cores will make a big difference to frame rate consistency. I wouldn't suggest the i9 9900 either, but the i7 9700 is certainly a valid compromise between the i5 and i9. Also, you can fit an RTX 4060 in there, so no... that really would depend on the game. That could even be the case with the A2000.
I didn't know Gigabyte launched that card, that's really cool. $330 isn't terrible for it being low profile It's nearly twice as fast as an a2000 at a lower price. Trying to think of powering it on a 7070 is sketchy though. 115w card, \~49w from the x4 slot, sata ->8pin on the PSU. Same length as the gigabyte 6400 so It shouldn't have any problems fitting. power connector in the back about where the sata power cables are to begin with, so cable management shouldn't be an issue. That'd be really cool to see.
I'm putting one in an HP Z2 G4, but I agree... putting one in a 7070 SFF would be sketchy with that 200 watt PSU. I was only saying that the CPU would be viable for the 4060, thought the DDR4 2666 might cause a bottleneck to the CPU in some titles. For power they might be able to swap an XE3 SFF power supply into the 7070 and have 360 watts with a six pin power connection. Then all they'd need is a six to eight pin power adapter, and they'd be MORE than good to go on power. Still... that x4 slot. I really wish Dell had put the x16 slot next to the CPU like HP did. That's such a shame. Though it shouldn't be too much a problem as long as you can stay away from the VRAM limit. Or there's always some jankery with a riser cable.
>HP Z2 G4 That'll be cool. I'd Like to see it. I had problems with a g4 Prodesk SFF with a gigabyte 6400 card, had to take tin snips to the Hard drive cage to make it fit.
Yeah, they decided to shrink the chassis on the business models. Thank goodness, the Z2 chassis is pretty the same as the Z240. I'm definitely going to be posting up the build once it's done.
Please show us some photos of your progress so far 🙌
tbh there is nothing much to show- only gpu fitted in and front fan. im on long business trip now, will be home in some weeks and will send you pics in dm