Good Upgrades for Current Build

KagedStorm · August 17, 2020

Budget (including currency): $300

Country: United States

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Streamlabs OBS/Chatbot, Warzone, GTA V, Fall Guys, StarCraft II, Movavi Video Editor, GIMP/Paint.net

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc):

Current Build:
DELL Optiplex 990 case

DELL proprietary 265W power supply

Unknown DELL LGA 1155 motherboard (4 DIMM slots, Gigabit Ethernet port, NO WiFi/BT or M.2/nVMe slots)

Intel i5-2400

NVIDIA GTX 1050 (non-Ti) 2GB

8 GB RAM

1.70 TB total storage (1 TB SanDisk Sata SSD, 240 GB Boot Sata SSD, 500 GB HDD)

Hi! First post on here, thanks for having me! I was mainly wanting to know where to start on upgrading my rig, or if it's realistically viable to. I realize when upgrading anything will probably require the board, CPU and power supply to be also upgraded, this is moreso to ask what is a good upgrading route like where to start first and what can wait (I'm sure that PSU will be the first thing haha), or if I'm better off waiting a little while longer and just start buying parts for a new machine altogether.

I want the machine to be able to do video recording/editing, photo editing, and can be up there in game performance. Don't need it to look AMAZING, just want it to be able to look decent while running well. If I have one specific game I'd like to play, it'd be NBA 2k so I have more of a reason to completely switch to PC from console

I'm looking to stay with NVIDIA for GPU, either some sort of higher-tier Intel that supports LGA 1155 (it's rare, I know lol) or to completely switch to AMD if I have to replace the motherboard, and a PSU I won't worry about upgrading for at least a few years.

Any help would be appreciated!

VeganJoy · August 17, 2020

imo sell the main parts of what youve got, you can easily get 150 at least. then stick your storage into a build like this:

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 3 3100 3.6 GHz Quad-Core Processor	$104.99 @ Newegg
Motherboard	ASRock B450M PRO4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard	$82.99 @ Newegg
Memory	Team T-FORCE VULCAN Z 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory	$53.99 @ Newegg
Video Card	Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER 4 GB OC Video Card	$159.99 @ Best Buy
Case	Fractal Design Focus G ATX Mid Tower Case	$62.99 @ B&H
Power Supply	be quiet! Pure Power 11 500 W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply	$69.90 @ B&H
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$534.85
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-08-17 14:16 EDT-0400

if you can find a good deal on a cheap case locally or something that'd be a good way to save a few bucks.

Avocheeseado · August 17, 2020

1 hour ago, VeganJoy said:

$534.85

Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-08-17 14:16 EDT-0400

Thats way over budget.

The best CPU you could fit in that motherboard would be an i7 3770 which I would recommend to buy used it you do. Assuming you have extra DIMM slots, you could add another 8 to make 16GB ram. And then you could upgrade your GPU to something like a 1660 super.

That is one option. or you're probably better off building a whole new system. There is not much you can build with $300 but you can use your current storage and possibly your case

VeganJoy · August 17, 2020

22 minutes ago, Avocheeseado said:

Thats way over budget.

The best CPU you could fit in that motherboard would be an i7 3770 which I would recommend to buy used it you do. Assuming you have extra DIMM slots, you could add another 8 to make 16GB ram. And then you could upgrade your GPU to something like a 1660 super.

That is one option. or you're probably better off building a whole new system. There is not much you can build with $300 but you can use your current storage and possibly your case

op said:

1 hour ago, KagedStorm said:

or if I'm better off waiting a little while longer and just start buying parts for a new machine altogether.

which is likely the best idea here; a 3770 runs about 70 bucks used, another 8 gb of ddr3 is ~20-30, and a 1650 low profile would be 140-150. might as well sell the current build, the 1050 is worth almost 100, the rest of it can go for another 100. that frees them up for a new build on a modern platform with better performance and a strong upgrade path for the next few years. finding some deals on the used market can help stretch out their current budget along with profits from selling what they've got, or they can save a bit for new parts.