The hardware compatibility thing almost bit me. I have an older dell t3600 that a bought a new Radeon 480 GPU for. I only verified that the power supply could handle it and the pci slots were compatible. The card “fit” but I couldn’t put side cover back on, because there is a handle riveted to the inside of the side panel that collided with the card. I ended up having to drill out the rivets and remove the handle.