Budget Upgrade Help

Eastman51 · May 11, 2016

Recently I bought a fairly decent desktop PC to replace my quickly fading laptop. However, it's not a gaming PC, nor does it have all the ports, etc that I want. I've come up with a list of the possible upgrades and what I need. However, since I am doing this with very little cash, I need some help in determining good deals on the hardware I need. I'll also only be buying parts off of Amazon, since I have Prime. Anyways, here's my PC's current specs:

Intel Core i3-4170 Dual core w/ hyperthreading @ 3.7 GHz

8GB DDR3 RAM (single channel)

1 TB SATA HDD

Asus M32 motherboard (mini-ATX) (4 SATA ports)

1 chassis fan

1 optical SATA drive

5 USB 3.0 ports (total)

350W Power Supply

OK, now that I've listed what I have, I'll mention what parts I want. Notice that there isn't a GPU on the list above, obviously I am going to be in need of one quite soon. I want to get an Nvidia card, but have been torn between a few different cards. Initially I was going to get an Asus 750TI, however the price has gone up recently and I've stumbled across a couple other cards too. There is a very similar Asus 750TI to the one I originally wanted, however, unlike the other 750, this one requires a PCIe power connector, which my power supply does not have. I found an adapter cable for pretty cheap that I can buy if I do get that card. I also found an Asus 950 that isn't much more than the 750s, it doesn't require a PCIe power cable and would be significantly more powerful than the 750Ti. Recently I've been leaning towards the 950 since it is barely more and is more powerful, however I also realized something about these cards, they require two spots for the I/O panel on them. I was originally planning on placing a USB riser next to the GPU to expand my peripheral connections, but since the GPUs take to slots, I figured I'd just get an external USB hub and expand that way (which would cost less than the PCI card). In addition, I wanted to get a fairly cheap fan to utilize the available place for an extra fan. To accommodate the fan's power requirements I found a fan power splitter to split the fans and connect them both to the motherboard. However, I am undecided and have no idea when it comes to fans, so I'd like some suggestions. As far as storage goes, I am perfectly fine (I will add an SSD in the future, but too far out to need help in that regard). I have a internal 1TB drive and 2 external drives (a 500GB and a 2TB), as well as an old 80GB IDE drive I want to put inside just for goofs and giggles. As far as the IDE drive is concerned, all I need is a PATA to SATA adapter, I have PATA cables and an available drive mount (as well as some screws for it), not to mention an open molex power connector. I haven't really stumbled across any decent adapters for this so I would like a suggestion, based on what I've seen, these adapters go for pretty cheap so I don't think it will impact my wallet too much. Finally we come to the final upgrade, RAM. Since I have 8GB already (and all 3 GPUs I've bookmarked have 2GB DDR5 VRAM) this isn't a pressing upgrade. But since I am a "gamer," (no GPU tho, lol) I thought it would be nice to get another 8GB. My motherboard does have an open slot (only has 2 max though), and I've heard rumors that it can support up to 32GB so I have the room. I've decided that I want to get some Kingston HyperX Fury DDR3 (8GB of course) but am not sure if I should get a 2 pack (and replace the current RAM stick) or just buy a single one to put in the available slot.

As for a far look into the future, I'll get a much better GPU (eventually) as well as a new motherboard (more ports) and plenty more hard drives (RAID of course too) and that SSD I mentioned earlier. However, this is a huge look into the future and I am not even looking at these components yet. As for the CPU I have now, it has performed much better than I expected and may not even upgrade it when I swap motherboards (depends on how long I keep this rig as is). If necessary I will upgrade the power supply I have, but hope I do not have to (fyi, the external drives and the proposed USB hub both have external power sources, even all the speakers in my 7.1 surround are externally powered. The only devices that would draw power from the system itself would be a 360 controller, a couple thumb drives, a legacy flash memory card reader, my smartphone, microphone, and anymore potential memory cards I might buy in the meantime, of course the keyboard and mouse too.). If I do need to get a new PSU, I'd like to get one for under $100, or even cheaper if possible.

Keep in mind when you make suggestions that I am fairly young and don't have a job (all money earned from holidays and chores) so GPUs should cost less than $200 and anything else should be under $30 or $40 (not including the PSU of course). If you want I can edit this post later and include links to potential parts I found on amazon.

Jskn · May 11, 2016

if it is not for gaming, what do you need a 950 for? That was made for 1080P gaming

RGProductions · May 11, 2016

5 minutes ago, Eastman51 said:

Recently I bought a fairly decent desktop PC to replace my quickly fading laptop. However, it's not a gaming PC, nor does it have all the ports, etc that I want. I've come up with a list of the possible upgrades and what I need. However, since I am doing this with very little cash, I need some help in determining good deals on the hardware I need. I'll also only be buying parts off of Amazon, since I have Prime. Anyways, here's my PC's current specs:

Intel Core i3-4170 Dual core w/ hyperthreading @ 3.7 GHz

8GB DDR3 RAM (single channel)

1 TB SATA HDD

Asus M32 motherboard (mini-ATX) (4 SATA ports)

1 chassis fan

1 optical SATA drive

5 USB 3.0 ports (total)

350W Power Supply

OK, now that I've listed what I have, I'll mention what parts I want. Notice that there isn't a GPU on the list above, obviously I am going to be in need of one quite soon. I want to get an Nvidia card, but have been torn between a few different cards. Initially I was going to get an Asus 750TI, however the price has gone up recently and I've stumbled across a couple other cards too. There is a very similar Asus 750TI to the one I originally wanted, however, unlike the other 750, this one requires a PCIe power connector, which my power supply does not have. I found an adapter cable for pretty cheap that I can buy if I do get that card. I also found an Asus 950 that isn't much more than the 750s, it doesn't require a PCIe power cable and would be significantly more powerful than the 750Ti. Recently I've been leaning towards the 950 since it is barely more and is more powerful, however I also realized something about these cards, they require two spots for the I/O panel on them. I was originally planning on placing a USB riser next to the GPU to expand my peripheral connections, but since the GPUs take to slots, I figured I'd just get an external USB hub and expand that way (which would cost less than the PCI card). In addition, I wanted to get a fairly cheap fan to utilize the available place for an extra fan. To accommodate the fan's power requirements I found a fan power splitter to split the fans and connect them both to the motherboard. However, I am undecided and have no idea when it comes to fans, so I'd like some suggestions. As far as storage goes, I am perfectly fine (I will add an SSD in the future, but too far out to need help in that regard). I have a internal 1TB drive and 2 external drives (a 500GB and a 2TB), as well as an old 80GB IDE drive I want to put inside just for goofs and giggles. As far as the IDE drive is concerned, all I need is a PATA to SATA adapter, I have PATA cables and an available drive mount (as well as some screws for it), not to mention an open molex power connector. I haven't really stumbled across any decent adapters for this so I would like a suggestion, based on what I've seen, these adapters go for pretty cheap so I don't think it will impact my wallet too much. Finally we come to the final upgrade, RAM. Since I have 8GB already (and all 3 GPUs I've bookmarked have 2GB DDR5 VRAM) this isn't a pressing upgrade. But since I am a "gamer," (no GPU tho, lol) I thought it would be nice to get another 8GB. My motherboard does have an open slot (only has 2 max though), and I've heard rumors that it can support up to 32GB so I have the room. I've decided that I want to get some Kingston HyperX Fury DDR3 (8GB of course) but am not sure if I should get a 2 pack (and replace the current RAM stick) or just buy a single one to put in the available slot.

As for a far look into the future, I'll get a much better GPU (eventually) as well as a new motherboard (more ports) and plenty more hard drives (RAID of course too) and that SSD I mentioned earlier. However, this is a huge look into the future and I am not even looking at these components yet. As for the CPU I have now, it has performed much better than I expected and may not even upgrade it when I swap motherboards (depends on how long I keep this rig as is). If necessary I will upgrade the power supply I have, but hope I do not have to (fyi, the external drives and the proposed USB hub both have external power sources, even all the speakers in my 7.1 surround are externally powered. The only devices that would draw power from the system itself would be a 360 controller, a couple thumb drives, a legacy flash memory card reader, my smartphone, microphone, and anymore potential memory cards I might buy in the meantime, of course the keyboard and mouse too.). If I do need to get a new PSU, I'd like to get one for under $100, or even cheaper if possible.

Keep in mind when you make suggestions that I am fairly young and don't have a job (all money earned from holidays and chores) so GPUs should cost less than $200 and anything else should be under $30 or $40 (not including the PSU of course). If you want I can edit this post later and include links to potential parts I found on amazon.

I doubt you need more than 8gb of ram

Eastman51 · May 11, 2016

2 minutes ago, Jskn said:

if it is not for gaming, what do you need a 950 for? That was made for 1080P gaming

I will be doing gaming on this system. I have been for a while, always meant to upgrade but didn't have the money. I haven't been in the gaming realm very long, so idk when it comes to this. As for non-gaming things, I will be doing quite a bit of programming since I'm going into the IT industry.