PC Upgrade help! - looking to upgrade my 6yr old prebuilt

[Winnah5]

Hey everyone, so firstly i'd like to ask when responding if you all could put your views of prebuilt aside (even though the majority are pretty bad or are just not worth the price), but anyway...

So I have a prebuilt PC i'm looking to upgrade, it's a CyberPowerPC Gamer Ultra GUA520 that I got for around $600 in 2014 as my first 'gaming' PC since at the time I knew very little about PC's and never knew how bad the prebuilt market was at the time for gaming PC's in that price range, but i've had it for 6 years now which honestly aside from the few hiccups this system can give has been a pretty reliable rig for my uses. I typically use this for 1080p 1920x1080 oriented gaming and play games like Euro Truck Simulator 2, CS:GO, Car Mechanic Simulator 2015, OMSI 2 the bus simulator (all of which are on low settings and average 15-30 FPS) and a few other games that are really meh in terms of being demanding. However OMSI 2 is really the most demanding out of the games I have as its a 32-bit game (i know 32-bit in 2020!) with tons of user mods, extremely mod friendly (to the point where you can mod the close game button to crash the game) and relatively poor optimization causing it to be more demanding than it needs to be.

 

Anyway I was looking to upgrade my RAM, GPU, PSU (plus the possibility of adding an SSD, my boot up times are bearable but it would be nice to make the system boot faster if possible. Budget wise I was thinking of spending max $400-450 on it since at this point I was hoping to make it to the 10 year mark before actually making the move to buy a new PC altogether, aside from that I was aiming to make these upgrades in hopes of being able to maintain the 60+ FPS range on medium to high settings (but not maxed out) in the games I mentioned with the possibility to play games like GTA 4, GTA 5 (for the mods lol) and also record gameplay using OBS (which right now is very tempermental due to my specs). By the way if the recommendations could be made in CAD and using Amazon, or other Canadian websites that would be greatly appreciated, considering the virus I would imagine it would be a pain in the butt to order outside of Canada if its not coming through Amazon (though it might be the same case with amazon tbh)

 

I've been watching a few videos from LTT, Bitwit and other youtubers to try and increase my knowledge a bit but even then, I'm still new to computers. I've never swapped parts and only opened my computer up this year to give it a good cleaning since I never really cleaned inside the case before...

 

Anyway here's the spec list:

 

Motherboard: MSI 760GM-P34 (FX)

CPU: AMD FX-4300 3.8GHz (includes stock deepcool cooler fan)

GPU: MSI GeForce GT 720 N720 1GB - The most important upgrade, just unsure of what card to actually go with

RAM: no-name brand 2x 4GB DDR3 1600mhz - I plan to upgrade this to a name brand 2x 8GB kit with the same speed, was thinking of something from G.skill, Kingston or Corsair (though i'm trying to avoid large heat spreaders)

PSU: Turbolink ATX-XG500W (basically a no-name PSU that surprisingly has been reliable) - 110% is getting replaced, still surprised it hasn't crapped out considering its 6yrs old, likely something modular from EVGA

Storage: Toshiba DT01ACA100 1TB 7200RPM SATA-III - I might add an SSD but that's not really needed being fully honest

Case fans: 1 intake & 1 exhaust stock Kingwin case fans w/ red lighting

Case: Thermaltake Commander MS-I

OS: Windows 10 Home

 

For the graphics card i'm mainly leaning towards more Nvidia GPU's but i'm open to AMD ones as well. If my PC is beyond upgradability (and I mean after serious consideration) I'm open to recommendations of prebuilts that are actually worth the price they are listed at (preferrably from sites where I can change almost any part and it's just a matter of paying the labour charges) or even pcpartpicker lists to possibly make a rig from the ground up as I like the idea of trying to build a PC and i know a friend that has built computers before who said he could help me out (except, that's an option that requires waiting until this quarantine stuff dies down unless I decide to build it myself). Thanks to those that respond!

[shark103]

@Winnah5
Hey,

Upgrading this machine hmmm... I wouldn't. That CPU is old and weak as hell it will be a bottleneck for any modern GPU. If don't want to buy a new rig just yet but feel the need to upgrade GPU then I would suggest getting a used GTX750Ti/AMD Radeon HD 7850 or something a bit more powerful that will still be cheap. 60fps on medium in GTA5 no way with that CPU, maybe 60fps on low.

RAM 16gb with that CPU is not worth it if you don't use memory hungry programs - you won't be using it in new future rig as it's DDR3.

[Winnah5]

22 hours ago, shark103 said:

@Winnah5
Hey,

Upgrading this machine hmmm... I wouldn't. That CPU is old and weak as hell it will be a bottleneck for any modern GPU. If don't want to buy a new rig just yet but feel the need to upgrade GPU then I would suggest getting a used GTX750Ti/AMD Radeon HD 7850 or something a bit more powerful that will still be cheap. 60fps on medium in GTA5 no way with that CPU, maybe 60fps on low.

RAM 16gb with that CPU is not worth it if you don't use memory hungry programs - you won't be using it in new future rig as it's DDR3.

Hmm true that. Regarding my RAM I find it's whenever I'm multitasking with multiple chorme tabs and more than 3 word documents that the RAM tends to get eaten up. That plus I stopped myself from using hibernate since that causes the ram to leak lol

 

But thanks though, I guess it really is too old for considerable upgrades at this point. I'll take a look at those GPU's you mentioned though since I might likely just do that at the bare minimum to boost my game performance a bit. I'll probably just save GTA for when I get a new PC haha.

[Winnah5]

On 4/11/2020 at 3:58 PM, shark103 said:

@Winnah5
Hey,

Upgrading this machine hmmm... I wouldn't. That CPU is old and weak as hell it will be a bottleneck for any modern GPU. If don't want to buy a new rig just yet but feel the need to upgrade GPU then I would suggest getting a used GTX750Ti/AMD Radeon HD 7850 or something a bit more powerful that will still be cheap. 60fps on medium in GTA5 no way with that CPU, maybe 60fps on low.

RAM 16gb with that CPU is not worth it if you don't use memory hungry programs - you won't be using it in new future rig as it's DDR3.

One last question I have as I may likely just go with the 750 Ti you mentioned. Would you recommending keeping the current PSU I have or should I replace it with an 80+ rated one? I could always just get a 2x Molex to 6 pin PCI-E connector if the variant I get needs one but the issue is of reliability as yes it has given literally no issues over its 6 year lifespan yet I've seen other topics regarding my same PC with a lot of them saying to swap out the no-name brand PSU.

Initially I was planning to keep it and just get the adapter but I don't want to take that risk seeing as i'm gonna try to get 2-4 more years out of this thing before I make the move to get a new rig all together

[cbigfoot]

4 hours ago, Winnah5 said:

One last question I have as I may likely just go with the 750 Ti you mentioned. Would you recommending keeping the current PSU I have or should I replace it with an 80+ rated one? I could always just get a 2x Molex to 6 pin PCI-E connector if the variant I get needs one but the issue is of reliability as yes it has given literally no issues over its 6 year lifespan yet I've seen other topics regarding my same PC with a lot of them saying to swap out the no-name brand PSU.

Initially I was planning to keep it and just get the adapter but I don't want to take that risk seeing as i'm gonna try to get 2-4 more years out of this thing before I make the move to get a new rig all together

I would look at a new PSU especially if its 6yrs old and going to add a more powerful card Personally i really like the seasonic Gold + line Fully modular and 10 yr warranty and can easily be moved to a new build. i tend to use my PSUs for 10 years before retiring.

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/WrNypg/seasonic-focus-plus-gold-650w-80-gold-certified-fully-modular-atx-power-supply-ssr-650fx

 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073H33X7R/ref=twister_B07ZQHDR5H?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1 $135 us currently

 

and my 2 cents on vcard is look for a used rtx 2060 or Rx580 yes they may be bottle-necked by the CPU BUT will be one less upgrade to worry about in the future. and when the ryzen 4000 series rolls out get new MB CPU (3000 Series will be cheaper then if you dont mind being a generation behind) & nvme ssd and memory and you will be golden. wouldnt buy a sata ssd if you dont have to.

[Winnah5]

2 hours ago, cbigfoot said:

I would look at a new PSU especially if its 6yrs old and going to add a more powerful card Personally i really like the seasonic Gold + line Fully modular and 10 yr warranty and can easily be moved to a new build. i tend to use my PSUs for 10 years before retiring.

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/WrNypg/seasonic-focus-plus-gold-650w-80-gold-certified-fully-modular-atx-power-supply-ssr-650fx

 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073H33X7R/ref=twister_B07ZQHDR5H?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1 $135 us currently

 

and my 2 cents on vcard is look for a used rtx 2060 or Rx580 yes they may be bottle-necked by the CPU BUT will be one less upgrade to worry about in the future. and when the ryzen 4000 series rolls out get new MB CPU (3000 Series will be cheaper then if you dont mind being a generation behind) & nvme ssd and memory and you will be golden. wouldnt buy a sata ssd if you dont have to.

Thanks for the PSU recommendation! I'm starting to like the idea of fully modular PSU's since it would probably make cable management much easier for me being first time doing so and on top of that my case isn't as friendly for cable management solutions but its still doable lol. It makes sense though since even for my case fans something about the 3 pin to Molex connection just gave me a weird feeling, I guess even the noob in me knows adapters and cheap power sources don't go together really lol

 

I'm going to hold back on the RTX 2060 though, it would be nice to have it on hand for when I do build a new rig, but i'd rather not bottleneck my system and would like to fully explore my options after upgrading this rig before even considering stuff for the new one (well aside from the PSU depending on if I will utilize the same wattage in the new one). I'll definitely consider the other stuff for the new build though, after watching a few vids I do like the smaller form factor of a NVMe SSD versus the Sata one in which my case would be a pain in the ass to mount anyway. The Commander MS-I is a decent case but seeing it's a bulk bought part from a prebuilt company all the neat features it has instantly get stripped away lmao

[shark103]

2 hours ago, Winnah5 said:

Thanks for the PSU recommendation! I'm starting to like the idea of fully modular PSU's since it would probably make cable management much easier for me being first time doing so and on top of that my case isn't as friendly for cable management solutions but its still doable lol. It makes sense though since even for my case fans something about the 3 pin to Molex connection just gave me a weird feeling, I guess even the noob in me knows adapters and cheap power sources don't go together really lol

 

I'm going to hold back on the RTX 2060 though, it would be nice to have it on hand for when I do build a new rig, but i'd rather not bottleneck my system and would like to fully explore my options after upgrading this rig before even considering stuff for the new one (well aside from the PSU depending on if I will utilize the same wattage in the new one). I'll definitely consider the other stuff for the new build though, after watching a few vids I do like the smaller form factor of a NVMe SSD versus the Sata one in which my case would be a pain in the ass to mount anyway. The Commander MS-I is a decent case but seeing it's a bulk bought part from a prebuilt company all the neat features it has instantly get stripped away lmao

Get a new PSU for sure. @cbigfoot gave you a nice suggestion with that. You can also look at this list if you can get a modular cheaper - suggestion look at tier A and PSU with long warranty like that Seasonic.

 

Getting a RTX 2060 now make zero sense, there is absolutely no point in that if you plan to keep current rig with upgraded GPU for 2-4 years. After that time 2060 could be a bottleneck for new CPU or could just be dead and you would never even use 50% of it's power.

So you need more RAM, ok probably best way is to just buy that in shop as DDR3 should be cheap as it's older gen - 60-70 bucks would get you 2x8gb from Patriot, Mushkin or G.Skill.
Sata SSD is obvious that's why I didn't even mention it. You'll be upgrading psu, gpu, ram quite a bit under your budget so you can spend that 35-50 bucks for a WD Green, Kingston A400, Crucial BX500. Later on when you will be building new rig you can take that ssd and throw it into cheap usb3.0 external enclosure.

 

PSU+RAM+SSD+GPU would on total be around 300-350 bucks from what i see online. PSU will be moved to new rig later on, SSD could be used as external.

[Winnah5]

15 hours ago, shark103 said:

Get a new PSU for sure. @cbigfoot gave you a nice suggestion with that. You can also look at this list if you can get a modular cheaper - suggestion look at tier A and PSU with long warranty like that Seasonic.

 

Getting a RTX 2060 now make zero sense, there is absolutely no point in that if you plan to keep current rig with upgraded GPU for 2-4 years. After that time 2060 could be a bottleneck for new CPU or could just be dead and you would never even use 50% of it's power.

So you need more RAM, ok probably best way is to just buy that in shop as DDR3 should be cheap as it's older gen - 60-70 bucks would get you 2x8gb from Patriot, Mushkin or G.Skill.
Sata SSD is obvious that's why I didn't even mention it. You'll be upgrading psu, gpu, ram quite a bit under your budget so you can spend that 35-50 bucks for a WD Green, Kingston A400, Crucial BX500. Later on when you will be building new rig you can take that ssd and throw it into cheap usb3.0 external enclosure.

 

PSU+RAM+SSD+GPU would on total be around 300-350 bucks from what i see online. PSU will be moved to new rig later on, SSD could be used as external.

Last question and I should be okay to put some possible parts together before coming to a conclusion. Are there any other cards I should consider aside from the GTX 750 Ti/AMD Radeon HD 7850? I just want to expand my options before settling on a card since i' m buying used after all.

 

Anyway time to start prepping for my finals and then I can choose what I will actually go with for these upgrades lol

[shark103]

22 hours ago, Winnah5 said:

Last question and I should be okay to put some possible parts together before coming to a conclusion. Are there any other cards I should consider aside from the GTX 750 Ti/AMD Radeon HD 7850? I just want to expand my options before settling on a card since i' m buying used after all.

 

Anyway time to start prepping for my finals and then I can choose what I will actually go with for these upgrades lol

Can be anything higher (in power) than those if you can get it cheap enough. Example if you can get a GTX950 (or higher) in the same price or lower than 750Ti then go for it. Nothing lower as 750Ti/7850 is an optimal pair with your cpu - lower one and your new gpu will be the bottleneck for the cpu.

One additional thing as you might not now this a 670 is more powerful than 750ti and those you probably could also get cheap.

 

Nvidia gpu power you could say that if you take their number from gtx family as XY0 then

X|Y+2|0 >> X+1|Y|0

what i mean on examples

670 >> 750

660 around the same 750

650 << 750

XY0 << XY0ti

[Winnah5]

Okay so I've pretty much finalized my list

 

I decided to not add an SSD since that goes over my budget. So that's so something im going to save for the new computer. But anyway here's the final list

 

- Patriot Viper 3 16GB (2x8 kit) DDR3 1600mhz ram for $129.99 CAD on Newegg

- EVGA GTX 750 Ti FTW 2GB for a total of $133.58 CAD on eBay (card was bought for roughly $84.90 CAD + shipping fees)

- Corsair RM650x for a total of $180.78 CAD from Canada Computers (which I have installed since yesterday)

 

But other than the RM650x everything else is on the way. But overall my total is $444.35 which is right within the budget I initially had in mind! Thanks @shark103 & @cbigfoot for helping me with this! I'm really greatful for fourms like this where people can get very thoughtful and nice help from fellow users! In fact even just putting the new PSU in and routing the cables + some management was actually rather fun and I'm starting to lean towards the side of want to build a computer now. Anyway thanks again

 

Mark this thread as solved!