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PC Noob Requesting Advice

Davygreat
By Davygreat
in New Builds and Planning
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Go to solution Solved by RONOTHAN##,

The biggest things you should upgrade in this PC are the RAM and the storage. SSDs are one of the biggest quality of life improvements you can get on a PC, even something really cheap. 120GB SSDs can be had for as low as $20 US on Amazon, and will make your computer feel so much faster. If you have more money to spend, however, ~1TB SSDs tend to be the best value and still usually cost less than $100. This one is a very well rated drive for less than $100.

 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078211KBB?tag=pcpapi-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1

 

As for RAM, 4GB is quite frankly not enough for Windows 10 on a modern computer. 8GB would be the absolute minimum I would recommend for a gaming system, with 16GB being where you should be targeting for a minimum. Look on eBay/Craigslist/FB Marketplace/where ever to try and find a used stick of 8GB non-ECC DDR3, or preferably 2. Just get the cheapest one you can find, since this isn't a platform worth spending a ton of money on, but it is still enough for more basic games.

 

Anything outside of the RAM and SSD upgrade, you should just build a new system. There isn't much that you would be able to save, and everything is old enough that considering just building something new isn't a bad idea. 

Posted

Hello!

 

I am novice pc gamer and am just starting to try and get into pc building/gaming. I currently have a pc that I bought off of eBay many years ago and was thinking about starting to upgrade it (both to play games and also the hobby of pc building interests me.) My predicament however, is that I have very minimal knowledge on the subject. While watching multiple videos and researching the topic just seems to add even greater confusion. I figure before I start going crazy adding new parts I should at least know what is the most important parts to upgrade and what from my pc needs improvement first. 

 

PC Specs:

 

CPU: Intel i5-2400 3.10GHz

CPU Cooler: AVC- Asia Vital Components Computer Fan + Heat Sink

Motherboard: Dell 0GDG8Y

Memory: ELPIDA 4GB 2Rx8 PC3-10600U-9-10-B1 DDR3 1333MHz 

Storage: Barracuda Es Sata 3.0gb/s 500-gb Hard Drive

GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 960 (XLR8)

Power Supply: Power Man IP-S350CQ2-0 350W

Case: DarkFlash Micro ATX Mini ITX Tower

 

Any advice on where to start or basically anything important I should consider before upgrading random parts in my build would be extremely appreciated! 

Thanks!

 

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Have any particular budget in mind? That normally determines what you should upgrade. At this point though, you pretty much need a completely new build for newer games.

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The biggest things you should upgrade in this PC are the RAM and the storage. SSDs are one of the biggest quality of life improvements you can get on a PC, even something really cheap. 120GB SSDs can be had for as low as $20 US on Amazon, and will make your computer feel so much faster. If you have more money to spend, however, ~1TB SSDs tend to be the best value and still usually cost less than $100. This one is a very well rated drive for less than $100.

 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078211KBB?tag=pcpapi-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1

 

As for RAM, 4GB is quite frankly not enough for Windows 10 on a modern computer. 8GB would be the absolute minimum I would recommend for a gaming system, with 16GB being where you should be targeting for a minimum. Look on eBay/Craigslist/FB Marketplace/where ever to try and find a used stick of 8GB non-ECC DDR3, or preferably 2. Just get the cheapest one you can find, since this isn't a platform worth spending a ton of money on, but it is still enough for more basic games.

 

Anything outside of the RAM and SSD upgrade, you should just build a new system. There isn't much that you would be able to save, and everything is old enough that considering just building something new isn't a bad idea. 

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Just now, Jonathan Lee said:

Have any particular budget in mind? That normally determines what you should upgrade. At this point though, you pretty much need a completely new build for newer games.

Thanks for the response!

 

I don't have a set budget in mind because I genuinely am not sure what is reasonable or what decent pc parts cost. that being said at the current moment I wouldn't mind putting it maybe 300$ or so into improving my pc. I know the thing is old because I could hardly find the parts online anymore. That is why I'm not sure what parts are the most junk and should be replaced first.

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I would say going with new would be easier to do, outside of SSD like @RONOTHAN## said. DDR3 is pretty expensive for what it is so I wouldn't really recommend going to upgrade that. For around 300, you can improve CPU, ram and mobo, but SSD probably would have a quite noticeable effect.

 

For the current market, a decent starter build would be about 1200-1500USD. A more mid-range build would be around 2-2.5K USD. What I would recommend is to keep your current GPU for the time being and get replace everything else.

 

Here's something you can go with:

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i7-12700K 3.6 GHz 12-Core Processor  ($414.88 @ Newegg) 
CPU Cooler: ARCTIC Freezer 34 eSports DUO CPU Cooler  ($49.99 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: MSI PRO Z690-A DDR4 ATX LGA1700 Motherboard  ($219.99 @ Newegg) 
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  ($104.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Mushkin Pilot-E 2 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  ($189.99 @ Newegg) 
Case: MSI MAG FORGE 100R ATX Mid Tower Case  ($70.98 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: Corsair RM (2021) 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($111.99 @ Amazon) 
Total: $1162.81
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2021-12-12 18:54 EST-0500

 

This is more of an "overkill" build, but it should age nicely as games get more demanding in the future.

 

If you're a little more short in cash, you can go with something a bit lower end, but still good. Here is an example:

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i5-11400 2.6 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($189.98 @ Newegg) 
CPU Cooler: ARCTIC Freezer 34 eSports DUO CPU Cooler  ($49.99 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: MSI MAG B560 TORPEDO ATX LGA1200 Motherboard  ($149.99 @ Amazon) 
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory  ($54.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Silicon Power P34A80 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  ($94.99 @ Amazon) 
Case: MSI MAG FORGE 100R ATX Mid Tower Case  ($70.98 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: Corsair RM (2021) 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($111.99 @ Amazon) 
Total: $722.91
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2021-12-12 18:57 EST-0500

 

Then you can just  keep an eye on the GPU market until you see one that's a good price.

 

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