Alienware Aurora R8 recommended upgrade(s)?

orbitalwalsh · 29 Mar 2019 at 14:05

i3 is 4 core so still handling current games okay at the moment, matches older i5's . single 4 pin for CPU power- 8700 non K should be okay int the future

Danny75 · 29 Mar 2019 at 15:29

BongoHunter said:
Does it have any stickers or labels on it? Need to know at least the wattage

MrDemonStu said:
So how would I find out if the PSU would handle it?

It's a 460W PSU like I said earlier. It's in the specs for the starter Aurora R8 on their website. The pair of PCIe connectors indicates +12v rail amperage is decent (possible 300W for GPU right there) and you should be able to use up to i7-8700 + RTX 2070 no problem (staying very comfortably below 460W).

MrDemonStu · 29 Mar 2019 at 15:32

BongoHunter said:
Does it have any stickers or labels on it? Need to know at least the wattage

Pretty sure its 460 Watt

MrDemonStu · 29 Mar 2019 at 21:58

Ok so if i upgrade GPU, add 8gb RAM and a SSD
How would my pc then handle games like Satisfactory?

Plec · 29 Mar 2019 at 22:13

MrDemonStu said:
Ok so if i upgrade GPU, add 8gb RAM and a SSD
How would my pc then handle games like Satisfactory?

Great, given game spec requirements and assuming you're upgrading to 1660ti or greater nVidia card (but 1660Ti or second hand gtx 1070Ti would compliment CPU at 1080p).

Plec · 29 Mar 2019 at 22:15

Look at this for an idea, i think you'll be impressed:

orbitalwalsh · 30 Mar 2019 at 08:18

^^^^ case if faster ram is allowed, then it will help for intel

Plec · 30 Mar 2019 at 10:32

orbitalwalsh said:
^^^^ case if faster ram is allowed, then it will help for intel

Yes, I noticed the ram speed after I embedded the link - but whats a few hundred MHz between forum members.

Try this one, slower memory speed too - but same outcome - you'll be happy:

MrDemonStu · 30 Mar 2019 at 21:57

After looking over prices and compatibility with the compact Alienware case. (GPU)
Still thinking it over but Im thinking of getting;
Hyperx fury 8gb ram
Gtx 1660ti
500gb ssd

With the GPU does it matter what make i get, any difference except price?

Plec · 30 Mar 2019 at 22:07

MrDemonStu said:
With the GPU does it matter what make i get, any difference except price?

I personally like the Gigabyte Windforce - twin copper pipes - better cooling - and 3/4 year UK warranty:

My basket at Overclockers UK:

1 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1660Ti WindForce OC 6144MB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card= £278.99

Danny75 · 30 Mar 2019 at 22:17

MrDemonStu said:
After looking over prices and compatibility with the compact Alienware case. (GPU)
Still thinking it over but Im thinking of getting;
Hyperx fury 8gb ram
Gtx 1660ti
500gb ssd

With the GPU does it matter what make i get, any difference except price?

Just avoid those which exceed PCIe bracket depth, of which there are quite a few having taken a look including the cheap Palits and some/all MSIs and the Zotacs. The Gigabyte Plec linked would be fine. EVGA too.

Hmm having a closer look at the Windforce OC (exceeds it a bit) you'd better check what I mentioned in another post. How much room there is behind the triangle below the PSU, to the PCIe bracket.

Plec · 30 Mar 2019 at 23:32

Danny75 said:
How much room there is behind the triangle below the PSU, to the PCIe bracket.

Dremel - flying bits of metal wont be a problem...

MrDemonStu · 1 Apr 2019 at 20:37

MrDemonStu said:
After looking over prices and compatibility with the compact Alienware case. (GPU)
Still thinking it over but Im thinking of getting;
Hyperx fury 8gb ram
Gtx 1660ti
500gb ssd

With the GPU does it matter what make i get, any difference except price?

Il upgrade 1 thing at a time just in case I run into any issues, any particular order to do these upgrades?

Also found this vid on Youtube...Is this worth doing?

Plec · 2 Apr 2019 at 16:23

MrDemonStu said:
Also found this vid on Youtube...Is this worth doing?

Personally, no.

It's an expensive form factor for very little gain over a standard SATA SSD. You have the spare SATA connections i would save the money getting a standard SSD or put the extra towards a larger drive. There are no speed benefits in real world terms for your usage - plus it will probably get extremely warm in that case underneath the GPU.

Plec · 2 Apr 2019 at 16:28

MrDemonStu said:
Il upgrade 1 thing at a time just in case I run into any issues, any particular order to do these upgrades?

If you're talking about an incremental upgrade - I would do the GPU first as next to the SSD it will be the most fun/impacting upgrade.

If you're talking about build order:

Stick in the memory first and make sure it's stable
Then the GPU - again ensure stability
Then SSD

MrDemonStu · 2 Apr 2019 at 18:31

Ok cool cheers Plec

MrDemonStu · 3 Apr 2019 at 10:16

Plec said:
Personally, no.

It's an expensive form factor for very little gain over a standard SATA SSD. You have the spare SATA connections i would save the money getting a standard SSD or put the extra towards a larger drive. There are no speed benefits in real world terms for your usage - plus it will probably get extremely warm in that case underneath the GPU.

So the speed gains he talks about in the vid are more likely due to the clean install of windows?
In which case I really need to look into doing this.
My systems not very snappy for only a 2 month old system with only a couple games installed.

orbitalwalsh · 3 Apr 2019 at 10:20

MrDemonStu said:
So the speed gains he talks about in the vid are more likely due to the clean install of windows?
In which case I really need to look into doing this.

nvme/sata 3 ssd actually work better with some data on the drive. do bench marks with clean install and then when you've got a few Gigs of Data and found it to be fsaster

Plec · 3 Apr 2019 at 10:20

MrDemonStu said:
So the speed gains he talks about in the vid are more likely due to the clean install of windows?
In which case I really need to look into doing this.

Didn't invest that much time in the video (due to obvious subject matter) - but the boot time will be fractionally faster with an m.2 drive. As for everything else, unless you have a failing/aged SSD you would be hard pushed to discern any speed difference in day to day usage.

MrDemonStu · 5 Apr 2019 at 10:22

Ok purchased a 8gb stick of RAM and a 1tb SSD. Il be installing them over the weekend. If all goes well il pick up a 1660TI GPU next week