What actually needs replacing?

[ElementiaYT]

I’m looking to upgrade my PC (it’s in dire need of it) but I have no idea what place to start. At the moment I know very little about what I’m doing, and while I intend to do loads of research, I’m wondering what parts need replacing? I figured I’d list them here and let you guys give feedback as necessary on what’s old and needs replacing.

 

First off, I won’t even bother listing GPU for the simple reason that I’m running off of integrated graphics right now (please, crucify me) and I’ll take basically anything at this point. Not much to say there.

 

However, if I want to upgrade my GPU, I’m thinking I’ll also need to upgrade my power supply, but I’ll need confirmation on that. My current PSU has a wattage of 280W, which from what I gather isn’t nearly enough for modern gaming? 

 

This is weird, though. The motherboard is listed as the AMIBIOS 686, if I’m reading correctly, which has an odd ATX connector that looks to be 14-pin (12 pins have wires running to the PSU, the remaining 2 don’t for whatever reason. Does this just mean it’s 12-pin? And do I need to worry about this if I’m replacing my PSU?).

 

My PC does have 16GB Corsair memory, which should be good, I’m thinking. Doubt it’ll have much effect on anything in the first place.

 

The CPU is an i7, which I believe should serve me well for a few years but feel free to correct me on that.

 

The PC also has a 500GB SSD, which isn’t as much as I’d like.

 

The case is 18cm wide, 42cm long, and 35 tall. Is this too small?

 

That’s all that seems important to mention. I’m not sure what needs replacing exactly, maybe a lot, I guess I just need someplace to start. Thank you in advance for any scrap of advice you can offer.

[IkeaGnome]

I am actually impressed at how many details you gave while telling us none of what the parts actually are, and what's bottlenecking you...

[Meddler2.0]

Good place to start is analyzing what things you want to do with your computer, and what parts of your current build aren't living up to your desires. The details you provided sound detailed but don't actually help that much (Intel has been making i7s for a very long time, 16 gigs of ddr3-4 etc. Task manager or the bios will give you those specifics but let's start with what you want your new computer to do better than this one.

[KingTdiGGiTTy]

9 minutes ago, ElementiaYT said:

AMIBIOS 686

That's a bios chip.

 

From what I can tell you've got a prebuilt?

If that's the case you almost definitely won't be able to use any Graphics Card that requires additional power. 

I'm also going to assume that your case won't support a full height Graphics Card and will therefore require a low profile card.

I think there are  1050, 1050 ti, and 1650 models that could work and I'm not sure what AMD has that could fit.

[ElementiaYT]

34 minutes ago, IkeaGnome said:

I am actually impressed at how many details you gave while telling us none of what the parts actually are, and what's bottlenecking you...

I guess that’s the result of me not knowing anything that’s going on. I feel like I’m caught in a sandstorm, only the sand is actually glass, and also I have no eyes.

[ElementiaYT]

31 minutes ago, KingTdiGGiTTy said:

That's a bios chip.

 

From what I can tell you've got a prebuilt?

If that's the case you almost definitely won't be able to use any Graphics Card that requires additional power. 

I'm also going to assume that your case won't support a full height Graphics Card and will therefore require a low profile card.

I think there are  1050, 1050 ti, and 1650 models that could work and I'm not sure what AMD has that could fit.

Yeah, I learned that that’s not actually info on the board itself, so that’s delightful. What would I need to do to be able to cram more power into this thing? Is there an alternative to simply using a lower card? What specifically makes it very difficult to use a graphics card that requires higher power for this machine?

[ElementiaYT]

3 minutes ago, ElementiaYT said:

I guess that’s the result of me not knowing anything that’s going on. I feel like I’m caught in a sandstorm, only the sand is actually glass, and also I have no eyes.

If it helps at all, the specific CPU is an i7-4770 and the ACTUAL motherboard (I guess I got it mixed up with the BIOS chip, that’s fun) is the Sharkbay 0B98401 Pro.

[ElementiaYT]

36 minutes ago, Meddler2.0 said:

Good place to start is analyzing what things you want to do with your computer, and what parts of your current build aren't living up to your desires. The details you provided sound detailed but don't actually help that much (Intel has been making i7s for a very long time, 16 gigs of ddr3-4 etc. Task manager or the bios will give you those specifics but let's start with what you want your new computer to do better than this one.

All I need is good performance for recent games on medium settings (I’m not too picky graphics-wise), and for software like Adobe Premiere to run well (I do some demanding edits for my YouTube channel).

[KingTdiGGiTTy]

One of these I'm guessing? What kind of case is this in?

If the case you have doesn't have full height PCI slots on the back, you can't use a regularly sized graphics card.

Since you have a 280w (OEM) I'm guessing, power supply, plugging in supplementary PCIe power is out of question, unless that is replaced. so cards like the 1050 and 1650 that don't require that may be a good option.

An i7-4770 may be getting a little old, but I don't think it will prevent you from having a fun time in most games.

If you're trying to edit 4k video reliably, a higher end system might be better suited. I think that might push something like this to its limit.

[ElementiaYT]

3 minutes ago, KingTdiGGiTTy said:

One of these I'm guessing? What kind of case is this in?

If the case you have doesn't have full height PCI slots on the back, you can't use a regularly sized graphics card.

Since you have a 280w (OEM) I'm guessing, power supply, plugging in supplementary PCIe power is out of question, unless that is replaced. so cards like the 1050 and 1650 that don't require that may be a good option.

An i7-4770 may be getting a little old, but I don't think it will prevent you from having a fun time in most games.

If you're trying to edit 4k video reliably, a higher end system might be better suited. I think that might push something like this to its limit.

The picture isn’t loading for me atm, so I can’t say for sure. But I’m 90% sure it does have full sized PCIe x16 slots, 2 of them. I don’t know what one that isn’t full sized would look like, though.

 

if I replace the power supply, am I going to have a hard time? Is that difficult/dangerous?

 

I think the i7 should serve me well for a while, yeah, though I’ve heard it might affect video editing more so than the GPU.

 

speaking of the video editing, I’m not doing 4K, sticking to 1080P at the moment, which considering the edits I’m doing (keyframes, tracking, distortion, effects, layers upon layers) is still rough. If replacing the CPU isn’t a difficult side quest, I may have to do that in the future as well.

[Tech87]

3 minutes ago, ElementiaYT said:

The picture isn’t loading for me atm, so I can’t say for sure. But I’m 90% sure it does have full sized PCIe x16 slots, 2 of them. I don’t know what one that isn’t full sized would look like, though.

 

if I replace the power supply, am I going to have a hard time? Is that difficult/dangerous?

 

I think the i7 should serve me well for a while, yeah, though I’ve heard it might affect video editing more so than the GPU.

 

speaking of the video editing, I’m not doing 4K, sticking to 1080P at the moment, which considering the edits I’m doing (keyframes, tracking, distortion, effects, layers upon layers) is still rough. If replacing the CPU isn’t a difficult side quest, I may have to do that in the future as well.

Have you thought about selling your current system on the used market and buying a new one?

 

Is that in the cards?

[ElementiaYT]

1 minute ago, Tech87 said:

Have you thought about selling your current system on the used market and buying a new one?

 

Is that in the cards?

Possibly, do you think it would be more efficient/a cheaper option to just replacing parts? Keep in mind this question is coming from a far-from-expert lol.

 

But considering I don’t need super high-end gaming in the first place (just modern games on medium-low settings, I’m not picky at all when it comes to graphics), is buying something completely new necessary?

[Tech87]

4 minutes ago, ElementiaYT said:

Possibly, do you think it would be more efficient/a cheaper option to just replacing parts? Keep in mind this question is coming from a far-from-expert lol.

 

But considering I don’t need super high-end gaming in the first place (just modern games on medium-low settings, I’m not picky at all when it comes to graphics), is buying something completely new necessary?

Tough to say without knowing your full system specs so we can determine the best course of action.

 

Download and install a program called hwinfo. Run it, and list all the details of your build. (Ie.. RAM make/model, speed, GPU make/model, etc etc..)

[KingTdiGGiTTy]

5 minutes ago, ElementiaYT said:

PCIe x16 slots, 2 of them. I don’t know what one that isn’t full sized would look like, though.

I'm not talking about motherboard compatibility. If the picture I found is correct you have one. You might want to dive into the old build guides and such on YouTube to learn a bit more before diving into this.

6 minutes ago, ElementiaYT said:

if I replace the power supply, am I going to have a hard time? Is that difficult/dangerous?

It is one of the easier things to do in a custom built PC, if yours is a prebuilt it may be much more difficult or impossible because many use proprietary Power Supplies. But it is safe, in most cases.

6 minutes ago, ElementiaYT said:

I think the i7 should serve me well for a while, yeah, though I’ve heard it might affect video editing more so than the GPU.

 

speaking of the video editing, I’m not doing 4K, sticking to 1080P at the moment, which considering the edits I’m doing (keyframes, tracking, distortion, effects, layers upon layers) is still rough. If replacing the CPU isn’t a difficult side quest, I may have to do that in the future as well.

It would be possible in that system even without a GPU, especially since that CPU supports Intel QuickSync, but it wouldn't be a very good experience.

1 minute ago, ElementiaYT said:

But considering I don’t need super high-end gaming in the first place (just modern games on medium-low settings, I’m not picky at all when it comes to graphics), is buying something completely new necessary?

Modify a system like this can cause some real compatibility headaches.

A new system is guaranteed to work and will perform the best ( and be a bit more expensive)

You could buy used hardware and build a system, or get a higher-end and more standard prebuilt to upgrade.