Upgrading GPU

[jacobbouyer880]

Hi all,

So I currently have:

Case
GAME MAX FALCON BLACK GAMING CASE (RGB LED)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i5 Six Core Processor i5-8400 (2.8GHz) 9MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® PRIME B360M-A: Micro-ATX, LGA1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs - RGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
8GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 2133MHz (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1060 - DVI, HDMI, 3 x DP - GeForce GTX VR Ready!
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
Power Supply
CORSAIR 550W VS SERIES™ VS-550 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
PCS FrostFlow 100 Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless Network Card
WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS

I want to upgrade the graphics card but I'm not sure what would fit in the case, any suggestions? I play a lot of Assassin's Creed, Ni No Kuni, Dead Cells, Euro Truck Simulator etc nothing wildly intense but I want to be able to run them well and especially with Assassin's Creed Odyssey this is getting harder and harder with my current card. Do I need to upgrade anything else at the same time? Ideally it would just be a new graphics card but I know sometimes cards need more power than previous installs etc. I don't mind installing myself I just want to know that it will fit!

Pic of current space is here

https://imgur.com/a/2nU1g0g

Thanks in advance

 

[sck451]

Presuming you're still looking at 1080p, the obvious thing to do would be to increase the graphics card to a 6600 XT for around £400. However, you're very marginal for that with your power supply. 450W isn't really quite enough for that card (or the Nvidia equivalent, the 3060) so you'd probably be best getting a power supply upgrade to at least the 650W TXm model. I doubt the cheap 450W one will be fully able to handle the current generation of cards.

Elsewhere, probably the biggest upgrade you could make would be to add an M.2 SSD to the build for booting and storing some games. Your motherboard is compatible, so you could get the Samsung 970 or the Intel 670p for a big performance uplift in load times and general computing, though it probably won't have a huge FPS impact. An SSD could also be moved over into a new build as and when you upgrade fully.

Finally, I'd think about memory. 8GB is pretty tight these days for a gaming system: it might be worth getting another stick of RAM to bring it to 16GB. On Intel's 8th gen, there's not much point in going for very fast RAM, so I'd pick up something to match either on PCS (though I don't think they stock 2133 any more) or elsewhere.

All that would come to around £600 and would breathe new life into your machine. None of it should be too difficult to do,, though redoing the cabling for the power supply might be a bit of a pain.