Does This Look Right? Upgrading a PC *N00b Alert*
 

My son wants to stream his PC games but his current rig won't handle it.
I"m trying to figure out if I can get away with just upgrading his rig to and RTX 1660 or if I need to upgrade any other parts.

PC Part Picker tells me the 1660 is compatible with his current mobo, cpu, ram.

*Could I damage the new 1660 if I just plugged it into the mobo and fired it up?

*Is the current ram and cpu enough to drive the 1660 card?

Current System:

CPU Intel Core i5 6600
MOBO ASUS H170 Pro Gaming LGA 1151
RAM G.Skill Ripjaws V. Series 16GB DDR4 2133
GPU MSI Radeon 480
Storage 1 Mushkin 2.5" 256 GB Sata III SSD
Storage 2 Seagate 1TB internal Sata hard drive
PSU Corsair 750W 80 Plus Gold

There may have been exotic new developments in the past year or so, but my understanding over the past 20 or so of building PCs [personal level, 5-6 for myself and 3-4 more for family, counting only from scratch not just upgrades] is that the socket drives compatibility or danger of damage.

That is, if your MOBO has a slot for the part, you're not going to damage the part by using that slot. It might be underpowered or not operating at an optimal level. But if the power and speed demands are such that a lesser rig could damage it, they update the slot or socket.

The only caveat is you might run some risk running a powerful graphics card with a shitty power supply. But 750W Plus Gold should be sufficient. The RAM and storage should affect the graphics card at all, except if they sap too much power from a shitty supply. So if you're still apprehensive, run it with just the RAM and core storage, and add additional peripherals as you gain confidence in the rig.

Thanks BL. The bolded is the part about which I was concerned. Having never done an upgrade before I don't know what to watch out for so appreciate the input.

It will become evident to you when you try to implement the card, but make sure all connections are covered. For instance a lot of current powerful cards draw additional power directly from the supply, and the connections are shaped so that only the right kind of power connection will fit. Thus, if your power supply doesn't have the right connector for your card, don't try to force it or get by with some adapter or workaround, the supply is probably not spec-ed for your card.

EDIT: Bottom line is, the PC industry is fairly industrious in protecting you from yourself, so long as you follow protocols. If you install something correctly in a place where it's supposed to go, the product isn't going to surprise you with something not being up to the task as assembled.

all GPU slots have been standardized to PCI-E for about 18 years or so. It will plug right in and go.

Your PSU is overkill for that setup, and will plug up just fine to the 1660.

For 1080p gaming, with that setup you should be able to play everything on high settings within reason at 60~ FPS. Only exception would be 'future proofed' stuff like RDR2. That CPU is a good pairing with a 1660, but overall, higher resolution gaming is always going to be CPU limited, ie; if you had a 2080ti, at 1440p plus, its the CPU that will determine the framerate in most situations, as the GPU is going to give whatever FPUS the CPU can handle.

I am rambling a bit here. 1660 is a perfect pairing for a non OC 6600 and should make for high quality 1080p gaming.

Great input, very useful. Thanks man.

You might want to see if your MB might need a BIOS update. I thought I had read somewhere that you need to do that before putting in newer generation GPUs

Someone who knows more than me, might be able to confirm that.

Thanks! I hadn't thought of that but bios version definitely needs to be checked. Thinking along those lines, I guess I should uninstall the drivers for the old gpu once the new one is installed.

For the PCI-E video cards, there a retention device that can be tricky to get off if you aren't aware of it. Pretty much if it will plug in, it will work. I'm limping with an old Phenom II system with an HD480 card. Works fine. Your power supply is more than adequate for the GF 1660.

YouTube will have plenty of videos to help you through the process.

This wont matter.