Another stupid hardware question--so I really wanted to build a new system, but I saw this on IGN and I'm not sure I could build something like this for $579: i7 6700K, 16 Gb DDR3L RAM, 2Tb HDD, AMD Radeon R9 360 2Gb GDDR5. Thoughts?
check the PSU and if the board and case can handle more items i.e. GPU, a SSD / or other hard drive. the 360 GPU is not that great and if it is the Dell, some people have complained about the PSU being off size and not able to fit a different one in the case
pulled from slickdeals posting about the deal:
This is still a good deal considering the hardware. Adding a SSD would be about the extent of upgrades that could (should) be done to this machine.
Once lower-tier video cards start rolling out for the new generation from both AMD and Nvidia, the GPU might be able to get a slight upgrade. You need something that runs at full load in the 85W range and doesn't require a direct PSU connection. With both camps pushing out great performance at low power (compared to previous generations) they should have a fairly decent upgrade to offer at 85W, but reading comparison reviews is the only way to tell for sure. I don't recommend upgrading the GPU at all, but if you must upgrade it, waiting for the current-gen lower-end cards is your best option.
The R9 360 is an OEM card, you can't find one for sale as an aftermarket video card. It's closest relatives are the R7 260X and R7 360, and performance is typically somewhere in between. It is essentially an R7 360 with some of the shaders disabled in order to hit the OEM required 85W for PCIE slot driven power... From what I've seen, it sometimes nudges above the R7 360 in benchmarks (I don't look at benchmarks much because scores too often don't coincide with real-world performance)... I would say you can do some 1080p 60Hz gaming without issue at medium settings. Depends on the game, of course. It is DirectX 12 capable, but that requires Windows 10, and with a video card this low in performance, not sure you would get much difference with DX12 vs DX11 anyway. Most games support both...
The processor and RAM are good/great... No reason to mess with either of them.
The motherboard will be a fickle mess, and should just be left alone along with the case.
The PSU has proprietary connections to the motherboard, and is likely a SFF or custom size... that means replacing it with something decent wouldn't be cheap. Don't replace it unless you have to, and don't stress it by trying to add a GPU it can't handle.