[SOLVED] Help upgrading graphics card (pc noob)

[elliotjameshoey]

Hi there I am considering upgrading my gtx 1080 for a rtx 2080 bearing in mind my pc was prebuilt and I have very little pc experience.
My current specs are:
I7 8700
Gtx 1080
32gb ram
2tb SATA hdd
256gb ssd
460W Air cooled chassis

My question is, will I have to change anything else in my pc to upgrade to an rtx 2080? Or is everything fine as is?
Thank you everyone in advance, I look forward to hearing your responses 👍

 

[NightHawkRMX]

Well if you are happy enough with performance now, I wouldn't upgrade.

Then if you really want an upgrade, I would suggest seeing if your PSU can be swapped out and then upgrade PSU and GPU.

In a few years as GPUs get more efficient, there may be something that offers much better than GTX1080 performance while drawing an acceptable amount of power for an OEM 460w.

 

[elliotjameshoey]

Well if you are happy enough with performance now, I wouldn't upgrade.

Then if you really want an upgrade, I would suggest seeing if your PSU can be swapped out and then upgrade PSU and GPU.

In a few years as GPUs get more efficient, there may be something that offers much better than GTX1080 performance while drawing an acceptable amount of power for an OEM 460w.

Those are my thoughts exactly, once again thank you everyone for your help and for tolerating my incredible lack of pc knowledge 😂

 

[King_V]

Oh ok then op don't do that

If it's a Dell XPS system, it can be replaced - see my sig below. I replaced the PSU in my XPS 8700 with a Seasonic FOCUS.

In a few years as GPUs get more efficient, there may be something that offers much better than GTX1080 performance while drawing an acceptable amount of power for an OEM 460w.

Unless the Dell BIOS won't play nice with it. That's a distinct possibility with some of their machines.

 

[NightHawkRMX]

If it's a Dell XPS system, it can be replaced - see my sig below. I replaced the PSU in my XPS 8700 with a Seasonic FOCUS.

Its an Aurora R7.

Looks to be one of these guys: https://www.amazon.com/Alienware-Gaming-PC-Desktop-Aurora/dp/B076BHG74V
Heres a pic of the PSU.

I just cant get a model number to see if its ATX or not.

 

[King_V]

Ah, I am ALMOST certain that they use the same PSU as the XPS towers, and are thus replaceable with any standard ATX power supply.

EDIT: slightly older version, but this seems to confirm it.

https://www.windowscentral.com/dell-alienware-aurora-review

About 1/3 of the way down:

There's nothing inside the Aurora that can't be replaced. It uses a standard ATX modular power supply (though swapping this isn't easy thanks to the latch system on the arm), a standard motherboard design and full-sized graphics cards from either AMD or NVIDIA. That's cards plural, too, as you can fit a pair of GPUs inside this thing.

 

[NightHawkRMX]

Ah, I am ALMOST certain that they use the same PSU as the XPS towers, and are thus replaceable with any standard ATX power supply.

EDIT: slightly older version, but this seems to confirm it.

https://www.windowscentral.com/dell-alienware-aurora-review

About 1/3 of the way down:

Good news!

It might even be a good delta unit that dell likes to use. Still too little wattage tho.

 

[King_V]

Agreed, especially with an i7 CPU and an RTX 2080.

I've used 190-195W GPUs (R9 285 factory overclocked by Gigabyte, and a PowerColor RX 580) on the standard Dell 460W PSUs, but both times that was with an i5 (Haswell in one, Skylake in another). I'd be uncomfortable going over 200W on a GPU and an i7 CPU with that PSU.

 

[NightHawkRMX]

Agreed, especially with an i7 CPU and an RTX 2080.

I've used 190-195W GPUs (R9 285 factory overclocked by Gigabyte, and a PowerColor RX 580) on the standard Dell 460W PSUs, but both times that was with an i5 (Haswell in one, Skylake in another). I'd be uncomfortable going over 200W on a GPU and an i7 CPU with that PSU.

Just curious, who OEMs those units?

Dell uses anything from AC-Bel to Delta, so its a little hard to tell what they are using. Given it hasn't caught on fire yet with his 1080, I doubt its from AC-Bel.

 

[King_V]

I can't speak for all of them, but the one I pulled from my XPS 8700 is a Shenzhen Huntkey.

I'm given to understand that, overall, whatever Dell's using has improved in quality - though, I've had Dells from 1996, 2012, 2014, and 2016, with none of them failing.

Also, the article I quoted might be overstating the case about replacing the PSU with Dell's swing-arm mount. The XPS 8910 and later XPS machines use the same kind of swingarm that the Alienware does. When the 8910 showed up, it had a 350W variant of the PSU instead of the 460W, so I had them send me the correct PSU.

I'm a bit of a klutz, but, while a little awkward, it didn't seem unusually difficult to swap.

 

[elliotjameshoey]

I can't speak for all of them, but the one I pulled from my XPS 8700 is a Shenzhen Huntkey.

I'm given to understand that, overall, whatever Dell's using has improved in quality - though, I've had Dells from 1996, 2012, 2014, and 2016, with none of them failing.

Also, the article I quoted might be overstating the case about replacing the PSU with Dell's swing-arm mount. The XPS 8910 and later XPS machines use the same kind of swingarm that the Alienware does. When the 8910 showed up, it had a 350W variant of the PSU instead of the 460W, so I had them send me the correct PSU.

I'm a bit of a klutz, but, while a little awkward, it didn't seem unusually difficult to swap.

Thanks everyone, I am very glad to hear that it sounds like I can replace the psu in my pc, I think this will be my first upgrade. Something like 650w would do fine for a 2080 am I right?

 

[NightHawkRMX]

A good 650w would do.

Something like a seasonic focus gold 650w is a good pairing.

 

[elliotjameshoey]

A good 650w would do.

Something like a seasonic focus gold 650w is a good pairing.

OK thank you! 😀