I've recently bought an Aspire XC-1660. I haven't owned or tinkered with a desktop in over 8 years so am looking for some advice as to whether I'm on the right track or if I've missed something.
It's got an intel i5-11400, came with 8gb ram and a 1tb HDD along with an m.2 wireless card, the power supply is 300w.
Upgrading the RAM (2x16gb) and fitting it with an m.2 NVME were both relatively painless.
Following these upgrades I'm now more than happy with how it's running for day to day tasks. Although it seems like I am going to have to think about graphics cards. I'm not looking to play AAA games on ultra 4k, but I'd like to be able to play most stuff at a steady frame rate and as a bonus be able to play some stuff on my Meta Quest2.
Being SFF I realise I'm limited for choice without major modifications, I also have realised I know very little about GPUs.
Here's what I've been able to narrow it down to -
GTX 1650 4gb low profile - seems to be the popular option, prices seem to be upwards of £150 and I'm worried that long term this isn't a viable option.
RX 6400 - I've seen suggested, but with PCIE 4.0x4 it seems this card is massively throttled by the aspires PCIE 3.0 motherboard. A 350watt psu is also recommended.
RTX A2000 6gb - Seems like a great choice, apart from even used ones seem to cost upwards of £250.
RTX 3050 6gb low profile - at just under £200 new this seems like it might be a viable option, although it seems like a lot of people feel like it's not a good choice.
RTX 4060 8gb low profile - I can't find a better option performance wise, £300 is expensive though and it requires a 450w psu.
Intel ARC a380 6gb low profile - There a few versions of this card requiring between 300-450w psu. They are cheap though at £100-£140 and from what I can tell are on par if not superior to the GTX 1650.
From what I can tell this 500w PSU - FSP500-20TGBAB https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/285796186415 is the easiest way to upgrade my existing power supply, its dimensions are the same as my existing psu and has the correct leads for the motherboard whilst also giving the required 8pin that some of the above graphics cards require. Prices do seem to be all over the place £50-£130, this example being in the middle of what I've found so far.
I hope all of that makes sense, does anyone here have experience with any of these gpus and has anyone upgraded their psu? Are there any options that I've missed?
Thank you very much if you've read through all this, I'm a little out of my depth here so any advice or thoughts are welcome. Please also let me know if I've missed anything or if you need any other information about my setup.
