Will I be able to upgrade my GPU

[tagamingalliance]

Hi I recently bought a pre-built HP omen 870-206na Gaming PC. I was wondering for future reference if I can upgrade my GPU. I currently have a 1060 3GB but the motherboard only appears to have 1 PCIEX16 slot. Can I upgrade?

Sorry if this sounds stupid but I’m not very clued up when it comes to computers.

Also if it is possible to upgrade any suggestions for what card to get that will fit inside the PC?

Picture of inside PC
https://m.imgur.com/jJCxklw

HP’s website with specs about PC:
https://support.hp.com/us-en/product/OMEN-by-HP-870-200/13687063/document/c05366916/

 

[Darkbreeze]

Yes, if you have a GTX1060 now you can upgrade later. You will just remove the graphics card and install a different one.

Where you may be limited though is how capable, or not capable, your power supply is because prebuilt systems rarely include a power supply that is more than barely adequate for what it comes with and they are usually of lower quality.

Also, in prebuilt systems, the length of cards are often a factor, so that is something you will need to be aware of too.

 

[EpIckFa1LJoN]

Yes you will be able to upgrade, but you will be severely limited in your choices.

For starters you will need something that operates around the same wattage and only requires one supplemental power connector (looks like 6-pin from the picture)

Secondly, it will need to physically fit the dimensions of the case. It doesn't look like it would be TOO bad but you may be limited to shorter cards.

If you ever did decide to upgrade I would seriously just consider gutting that thing and putting it into a custom case with a new PSU. With that you would be able to upgrade to whatever card you want.

Side note: DANG no wonder those things are so cheap. That's not even a FE card.. that's just a cheap PCB with a weird heatsink on it. That explains so much.

 

[Hellfire13]

Video cards come in all kind of sizes, so saying decisively which card would fit will actually depend on the case of the PC. Your mobo form factor seems to be mATX, so we can assume thats a mATX case and should fit a standard card, with 2 fans. If not, then a mini or low-profile should fit easily.
And that cpu can hold upto a 1070 with a slight bit of bottlencking, which should be fine... https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1EQOWVLxk0DOFXKfzCmz9lEZ-qpMb7mIvt8KUYek69A8/edit#gid=0
So thats the max you can go.

TLDR... 1070 mini video card... PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Video Card: Zotac - GeForce GTX 1070 8GB Mini Video Card ($849.00 @ Newegg Marketplace)
Total: $849.00
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-01-25 13:10 EST-0500

 

[tagamingalliance]

Too be honest I really regret buying it, yes it performs well but all the parts are unbranded and just look like crap. I bought it at the time not knowing at all about PC’s wish I had just waited and built one myself. Thanks for the help

 

[EpIckFa1LJoN]

Too be honest I really regret buying it, yes it performs well but all the parts are unbranded and just look like crap. I bought it at the time not knowing at all about PC’s wish I had just waited and built one myself. Thanks for the help

You can easily upgrade it though.

If I were you I would upgrade it one piece at a time. Come up with a budget and figure out what you want/can afford and go from there.

First thing I would do is get a new case. You can get pretty solid cases for about $50. I think you will need at least an ATX though.

Once you have a case I would upgrade the PSU. That's another $50-100 depending on what you want.

After that you could literally do whatever you wanted with the rest of the components.
After a while you will have a PC you can be proud to look inside of, lol.

That's the best part of custom builds, you can literally upgrade the whole thing several times over. Just swap parts or install new ones. It's great!

 

[Darkbreeze]

So, there are a couple of ways you could go with this. That unit has a micro ATX case and power supply. This is a pretty limiting factor but there ARE some aftermarket power supplies, most are not very good, that could be used in place of that. There are also plenty of graphics cards likely to fit, but most of them are going to be much of an upgrade from what you have now except for a few of the higher end low profile and mini-ITX models. I don't think I'd recommend going that route.


A different case and power supply are likely a foregone conclusion if you want to upgrade. The card in there is a short model, only 6.8", so most aftermarket cards will likely have interference issues.

If at some point you want recommendations on a case and power supply, based on what you think you could likely afford, just ask. I agree that those are the two things you need to address first. Also, that unit comes with a very scant, certainly low quality 300w microATX power supply that is almost certainly not even IMO more than only barely, if that, capable enough to run the card your system came with.

All the specs on that unit can be found here, and the details are not promising.

https://support.hp.com/us-en/product/OMEN-by-HP-870-200/13687063/document/c05366916/

 

[Hellfire13]

I would say, continue with your current setup. That cpu/gpu combo is not bad considering its price and performance point.
Volta cards are coming around the corner. Instead of going for a 1070, you can wait for similar Volta card when it is here. And then carry on your upgrade path accordingly.
Or, instead of upgrading one part at a time, give this setup another couple of years and then build a new rig from scratch. Make sure you visit this part of the world and get some suggestions from the community next time around.

 

[Darkbreeze]

And if you are not gaming at higher than 1080p, there is probably not a terribly compelling reason to upgrade that graphics card right now anyhow. Granted, it is only a 3GB model and that does limit a few things, but overall it's pretty damn capable. The rest of the system, case, power supply, motherboard, not so much. Probaly wouldn't hurt to have another 8GB of memory too, but that system uses uDIMMs and I'm not too sure how the availability and compatibility of those modules will work out. You'll likely need to find identical modules if you want to add more. It's unlikely that aftermarket memory will work well if installed alongside those.

CPU is fairly capable. No matter what you do I'd get another case and power supply, contrary advise be damned. No way I'd want to continue running my system, regardless of the OEM level quality, with a low end power supply like that.

Just because it "works", and perhaps works fine for now, does not in any way mean that it is healthy for your system. These low end units are not targeted for the kind of rigorous long term reliability that aftermarket power supplies are and they tend to have much higher levels of ripple and noise than even a decent aftermarket unit would have. Problem with that is, that ripple and noise is probably going to take it's toll on most of your system capacitors, especially the motherboard, sooner than later. Definitely sooner than a good unit would.

I don't mean it's going to destroy it tomorrow, or potentially, ever, but it can, and they do.

 

[tagamingalliance]

After reasearching more and reading your thoughts I have decided to carry on using this system whilst I save up some money then sell this system and use the money to purchase at least some of the parts I would need to build my own. Thanks all for the help.