Upgrading my budget pc.

[Aar420x]

Hi guys completely new to building PCs. Bought myself a basic setup 2nd hand for £190 just to use for minor gaming and just work. But now I have decided I want to game on it and get it vr ready. Here are my specs so far:

 

Case- Zalman z9 plus

OS- windows 10 pro

CPU- AMD ryzen 3 1300x 

RAM- Corsair vengence ddr4 8gb (2x4gb)

Motherboard- msi b350m gaming pro

GPU- Nvidia geforce gtx960 2gb

Storage- Toshiba 500gb had

 

I am going to hopefully install a ssd drive but unsure of brand and capacity I should go for?

Looking to uprgrade the ram, should I add to what I have? (Keeping same brand probably another 2x4gb) or should I replace the lot with 2x8gb?

Then after that I want to upgrade the GPU, looking for recommendations? Looking for best value for money but will happily pay more if it's worth it. Also will I need to uprgrade my cpu or motherboard along the way at all? 

 

Any help at all is much appreciated as I am a console peasant and looking to get build together as a bit of a hobby but all seems very confusing. 

 

Thanks in advance!

[Jurrunio]

GPU first, but how far depends on budget. At least the GTX 1660 if you want to keep its performance relevant for longer.

 

7 minutes ago, Aar420x said:

I am going to hopefully install a ssd drive but unsure of brand and capacity I should go for?

depends on budget, but since it doesnt affect performance I'd leave it to last (tho boot time will stay long)

 

8 minutes ago, Aar420x said:

Looking to uprgrade the ram, should I add to what I have? (Keeping same brand probably another 2x4gb) or should I replace the lot with 2x8gb?

2x4gb is good enough for now, GPU is what matters

 

8 minutes ago, Aar420x said:

Also will I need to uprgrade my cpu or motherboard along the way at all? 

Not yet

[Mnky313]

4 minutes ago, Aar420x said:

I am going to hopefully install a ssd drive but unsure of brand and capacity I should go for?

I would get a cheap 250/256GB M.2 drive (not NVMe but a sata m.2) from a reputable manufacturer like Samsung or Sandisk, wait for specific suggestions from people who know more about these if you want.

6 minutes ago, Aar420x said:

Looking to uprgrade the ram, should I add to what I have? (Keeping same brand probably another 2x4gb) or should I replace the lot with 2x8gb?

it's cheaper to do another 2x4gb to give you 4x4gb and as long as you get the same speed or faster you aren't losing any performance, no reason to get 2x8gb to replace the 2x4gb unless you have 2133mhz with ryzen, getting a 3000/3200mhz kit does actually give a small but noticeable boost to performance.

8 minutes ago, Aar420x said:

Then after that I want to upgrade the GPU, looking for recommendations? Looking for best value for money but will happily pay more if it's worth it. Also will I need to uprgrade my cpu or motherboard along the way at all? 

The 960 isn't awful but getting something like a used rx 480/580 for ~$90 is a very good performance boost.
I would personally go for a ~$130 r5 2600 if you upgrade the GPU to help with bottlenecks.

[SpookyCitrus]

This depends entirely on your budget and country. 

GPU in my opinion is the most important out of all of your upgrades, I'd say go for a 1660ti. (Make sure your PSU supports the power draw and has the connectors for the GPU you decide on.)

Your ram is okay but if you do want to up it, I would recommend buying a whole new kit as DDR4 ram is very picky and even if you get the exact same kit as your original it could have issues. They stress buying it in kits for a reason.

SSD's are pretty inexpensive right now, you can get a 480GB for around $45 USD. This TCSunBow has been recommended by a few of the storage guys I've talked too for price and quality. (SSD's are very important in my opinion, faster load times for maps and textures, Windows, etc. People that say they don't make a difference have probably never used one or have a crappy one.)

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
Memory	Team T-FORCE VULCAN Z 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory	$49.99 @ Newegg
Storage	TCSunBow X3 480 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive	$44.99 @ Amazon
Video Card	EVGA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti 6 GB SC ULTRA GAMING Video Card	$239.99 @ Newegg
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$354.97
	Mail-in rebates	-$20.00
	Total	$334.97
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-11-26 16:38 EST-0500

 

[Aar420x]

Wow thank you for all the input guys massive help!! Like I said I'm a complete noob so I dont understand some of the terms used but I'll get there learning more everyday!

 

So my gpu is the most important so I'll likely do that first had a look at benchmarks for some games and vr and gpu is what is letting me down most. I dont understand the gpu model numbers of I'm honest lol is a 970 better than my 960 for example and a 1060 better than that? Is there anything I need to consider or can I literally get any graphics card and it will work? (I will look into this alot further beforw I fit and install myself lol)

 

Ssd drive I've heard is quite important especially if you can be an impatient person, like myself lol I think I saw a 260gb samsung fairly cheap in my local currys store. Any particular reason to go for a m.2? Also I've heard Samsung's software is the easiest to move windows etc from your hdd to ssd?

 

I have just looked on speccy and it says I have 0 free memory slots and 2 used so maybe I will have to get 2x8gb? (I need to open the case and double check this though.) I think I seen somewhere that mine is running around 1000mhz? Again I have no idea what this means or if it is correct lol but I was told by a friend that amd cpu runs better with 2000mhz+? Is he correct? 

 

@SpookyCitrus I'm in the uk but I assume I could get those parts here? That seems quite a reasonable price to upgrade I think that would be about 250-300 in£s. Would that make my setup pretty decent with those 3 upgrades? 

 

Again thank you all for your help I will keep checking here and likely be here for help quite often on my new pc building adventure lol

 

 

 

[Aar420x]

Also is the case I have any good? I assume as long as it's got good air flow and not made of chocolate it's all good?

[Aar420x]

@SpookyCitrus also I'm guessing psu is the power pack? How do I find out what I have just open it up and look or can I check in something like speccy? And connections I'm guessing is just a case of googling once I know what power unit I have?

[SpookyCitrus]

1 hour ago, Aar420x said:

@SpookyCitrus also I'm guessing psu is the power pack? How do I find out what I have just open it up and look or can I check in something like speccy? And connections I'm guessing is just a case of googling once I know what power unit I have?

Yeah the power supply. Just take the side panel off and see if there is a label on the side of it. Sometimes prebuilts use fairly cheap units. As for the price in the UK it would be a bit more for those specific parts and some are unavailable. I can make a separate list for the UK for around the same price.

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
Memory	Team Vulcan 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory	£52.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk
Storage	Crucial BX500 480 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive	£45.00 @ Amazon UK
Video Card	Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1660 Ti 6 GB GAMING OC Video Card	£249.99 @ Box Limited
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	£347.98
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-11-26 23:26 GMT+0000

 

[Aar420x]

Sweet mate thanks for that! That's a bit more expensive but guessing parts are cheaper in the US. Still pretty reasonable though, would those 3 upgrades make quite a big difference do you think and will that graphics card last awhile or would it be worth spending out a bit more for a slightly higher model? Or save the money for the eventual cpu upgrade? 

I will double check the power unit and post it up here. Apparently the guy I bought it from built it himself for racing simulator but wether he didnor not I dont know if he did or not.

 

All of these parts are fairly easy to install aren't they? The sad is just a case of fitting in a bracket connecting using sata cable? And the install your OS onto the sdd? 

Ram is plug and play as far as I know?

And graphics card I'll have to watch a how to video I think to check 

[Aar420x]

@Mnky313 any reason to not go for a nvme ssd card?