UPGRADE
UPGRADE
UPGRADE
UPGRADE
COOLER
GPU
OTHER
IN ALL HONESTY, the cooler is the
last part of this build that needs
upgrading. For low-intensity tasks,
the Wraith Stealth provides all the
heat management you’ll need, and
upgrading the CPU will provide
you with another packaged AMD
cooler (such as the Wraith Spire or
Wraith Prism). If you’re looking to
go further, the Q500L can supportA GRAPHICS CARD would be the
biggest key addition to this build.
There’s a myriad of potential
options out there, but unless
you’re upgrading the CPU as
well, it’s best to stick with a
relatively conservative choice. A
Radeon RX 580 or 570 from AMD
would serve this build well, or a
GeForce GTX 1650 from Nvidia. IfOF COURSE, there are more esoteric
components you could add. If music
or video editing is your thing, a
soundcard may be a worthy addition,
or a capture card if streaming is what
you plan to do. Additional case fans
are a possibility, too, and potentially
a valuable addition if you’re looking
to overclock anything. Lastly, we’ll
turn our eyes to aesthetics: lighting.
The pronounced lip around the rim
of the Q500L’s mobo
cavity is the perfect
place to position sticky
LED strips, and with
the right screws,
an RGB controller
can be anchored to
the inside of the
case, thanks to
the perforated
metal design.up to 240mm of radiator space for
an AIO cooler. Cooler Master has
plenty of offerings in this arena,
which are practically guaranteed
to be compatible. Corsair and
Enermax also have affordable AIO
cooling solutions. Unless you’re
looking to overclock, 120mm of
radiator space should be sufficient
for most CPUs.you are inclined to upgrade the
processor, though, the sky’s the
limit; currently, our top GPU
recommendations are the GeForce
RTX 2070 Super and 2080 Super,
both excellent cards for 1080p and
1440p gaming. The Radeon RX
5700 XT also gets an honorable
mention here, currently one of the
best AMD GPUs available.MEMORY
16GB WAS GENEROUS for this build,
which could run with 8GB or even
4GB. We stand by our decision,
though; the increased capacity
means this rig is better equipped
to support CPU or GPU upgrades.
There’s still potential for expansion,
mind you. Upgrading to 32GB would
be overkill unless you completely
overhaul this PC’s internals,
but as we’re using an AMD CPU,
improved memory speed will make a
reasonable difference. An upgrade to
Corsair’s DDR4-3000 Vengeance LPX
makes sense—G.Skill, Ballistix, and
T-Force all have quality offerings in
the 3000-3600MHz range, too.maximumpc.com DEC 2019 MAXIMUMPC 37