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Any cheap ways to upgrade my PC?

Freeman76

Freeman76

Member
Hi guys, looking to make a couple of upgrades to make my PC a bit better for gaming, it runs pretty well on most games but might have a bit of spare cash to improve it, and it's a minefield out there. GAF is a good place to get some advice is how I see it, and please move thread to right place if this isnt allowed.

Here is my current spec:


Intel Core i5 4570 Haswell Processor 3.20 GHz (No Overclocking)


Intel Stock Cooler


Asus B85M-G Basic Micro ATX Motherboard - Haswell CPU only



8GB Corsair PC3-12800 1600MHz DDR3 Memory (1 x 8GB sticks)



Chillblast NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 2048MB Graphics Card



500GB 7200RPM Hard Disk - 6Gbps



24x SATA DVD+/-RW Drive



Onboard High Definition Audio



Windows 10



FSP Premium Grade 600W PSU

Any advice/links for better GFX or something is appreciated, I'm in the UK
 
G

GhostTrick

Banned
I guess you should upgrade your GPU. I don't know though if i5 4570 is enough for 60fps without being bottlenecked for bigger GPUs. I have an R9 290 and it's not a bottleneck for it.
 
W

Why would you do that?

Member
Not very gaming related, but to be honest I would go with an SSD. Otherwise, a video card would probably be the best bet.

Adding an SSD will give you a giant and noticeable improvement over anything else I think.
 
ehead

ehead

Member
How much is your budget?

If its not an issue, you may want to get a new GPU (a GTX 1060 or 1070), an SSD, and additional ram. I guess you can get the parts in that order. In any case, the regular guys at "I need a new PC" thread can give you better advise regarding your question.
 
C

Corpekata

Banned
Platinum Mad said:
Getting a new GPU might require a new mobo and other things which would cost extra.

How much are you willing to spend OP?
Click to expand...

Getting a new GPU would not mean upgrading his MOBO. It's one of the most plug and play components.

CPU upgrades are where he would need a new MOBO.
 
D

duckroll

Member
The only thing to watch out for when getting a new GPU is your casing dimensions. If you're using a micro ATX case, you don't want to end up with a GPU you can't fit, lol.
 
W

Widge

Member
[Prices from Scan.co.uk]

Add SSD (Samsung EVO 850 250GB) for OS and games, keep the existing drive for cold storage. [£83.99]

Get a nice cooler to put on the existing CPU. 212 Evo. [£29.99]

Upgrade to a 470/480/1060/1070 depending on budget. Gigabyte G1 Nvidia 1060 for example. [£269.99]

RAM at your discretion. Assuming you have 2 slots on the micro ATX. Something like Corsair Memory Vengeance Low Profile Jet Black 16GB. [£68.99]

Depending on budget, you can just focus on the GPU and the SSD.
 
D

duckroll

Member
If he's not overclocking, he doesn't need a CPU cooler honestly, and with that mobo, he isn't going to be overclocking...
 
W

Widge

Member
Visualante2 said:
I'd get one of the new AMD cards. They're cheaper than the Nvidia ones.
Click to expand...

The 470 certainly, however I found the 480 either out of stock or a similar price to the 1060.

Oh, for the OP, in the wealth of cards that are out there, you probably want to stay away from the reference designs (usually long, plastic covered boards with a single small fan down one end of it) and go for the custom ones (2 or 3 big fans, or 1 big fan in the mini form factor).

On AMD - go for Sapphire or MSI, on Nvidia - EVGA, MSI or Gigabyte I can vouch for now.
 
C

Corpekata

Banned
Upgrade the GPU. Like duckroll said, make sure what you get will fit in your case since you have a microatx MOBO, so presumably your case is small too. Everything else will be fairly minor upgrade wise for now, or too hefty of an investment. Get an SSD for your OS if you have extra funds or maybe a bit after. RAM can wait.

So get the GPU this year, and possibly think of doing a full rebuild (but keeping the GPU and possibly the RAM, heck maybe even the PSU) in a year or two if you get into gaming on PC a bit more and want to get a little more oomph on the CPU side (because there's also going to be a few games a year that are fairly taxing on that aspect).
 
H

hodgy100

Member
No point getting a better cooler for the stock CPU that can't be overclocked, SSD's are nice for general use but won't offer much gaming performance.

I recommend upgrading upgrading your GPU got a RX-470 or RX480 or a GTX1060 depending on budget.

I would also recommend bumping up your RAM to 16GB

The rest seems pretty solid to me. I'm still running a i5-3570k 16GB and r9-290 and its still playing everything very well :)
 
DonMigs85

DonMigs85

Member
Add another identical 8GB module, or 3 if you want 32GB RAM. Dual channel will give a significant bump to CPU performance depending on the software.
 
D

Dhruv_hanom

Member
Upgrading your gpu should give you the greatest boost in performance. Get the best GPU that fits your budget without upgrading your psu.

Get a 1070 if it fits your case, don't bother with other upgrades if they eat into your GPU budget. You can deal with long load times but you can't deal with unplayable framerates.
 
J

Justinh

Member
Kenzodielocke said:
Get a 1060 and a 500GB SSD.
Click to expand...

I think this is solid advice.
A 1060 seems to be a great card for not too much and even if you won't be installing that many games on that size SSD, it's just such an improvement I think it's an automatic recommendation for anyone who doesn't have one.
 
G

GameFreak117x

Banned
GPU and get another stick of ram. Always have pairs of ram. Dual channel is faster than single. 2x 4GB sticks > 1x 8GB stick, 2x 8GB sticks > 1x 16GB stick.
 
V

Vipu

Banned
Like most said:
Gpu for pure gaming improvement.
Ssd to improve everything else.
8gb ram is fine.
 
nightmare-slain

nightmare-slain

Gold Member
how much is "a bit of spare cash"?

an SSD will make a huge difference to your computer. even if you buy a 128/256GB SSD and use it as a boot drive then keep your 500GB for storing games. an ssd will make your whole system much faster and responsive. i can never go back to mechanical drives. at low capacities like above they are quite affordable but might be a bit too much for 512+. they are still way more expensive than mechanical drives.

120GB SSD or 250GB SSD.

Next would be your GPU. an RX 480 or GTX 1060 might be worth looking at. Personally I'd recommend the 1060 as it's a better card and it seems it's hard to get hold of a 480 right now. The 1060 comes with either 3 or 6GB VRAM.

EVGA is a good make and seem to be one of the cheapest. Here is the 3GB model or the 6GB model.

8GB ram is ok but i would recommend 16GB if possible. ssd + gpu are the two components that will make your PC a lot more faster and powerful. if you were to buy the 120GB + 3GB it would be about £250 or if you were to buy the 250GB + 6GB gpu then it'd cost ~£300
 
V

Vidal

Member
SSD, it will make it feel like a new pc (especially with a fresh install of whatever system you are using).

Next step, GPU.
 
DonMigs85

DonMigs85

Member
I would probably get at least a 500GB SSD just so you can clone your existing Windows installation and most other files to it, then use the old 500GB HDD to store other bulky files or games.
 
J

jrcbandit

Member
Edit: N/M about the CPU, I thought it was a K (overclockable) processor.

Get 8 GB more of memory, a 256 or 512 GB SSD, and a Nvidia GTX 1060 6 GB video card. All together that will really boost your system immensely. The extra memory is optional, but the SSD and new graphic card will make a HUGE difference. And try for the 512 GB SSD, the space goes quickly with the huge size of games nowadays, and to see the real benefit of the SSD you need to transfer your OS to it as well (make it the primary hard drive).
 
M

Mohasus

Member
Buy a new GPU, the GTX 1060 should be enough. Or a second hand 970 as the poster above me said.

jrcbandit said:
Buy a new cooler for your CPU and overclock it to 4.3-4.6 Ghz range, getting to 4.3-4.4 Ghz is easy with little voltage boost. Get 8 GB more of memory, a 256 or 512 GB SSD, and a Nvidia GTX 1060 6 GB video card. All together that will really boost your system immensely. The extra memory is optional, but the SSD and new graphic card will make a HUGE difference. You need to overclock the CPU to make sure your new video card isn't CPU limited. And try for the 512 GB SSD, the space goes quickly with the huge size of games nowadays.
Click to expand...

It is a non-K processor, the OP wrote (No Overclocking) and it is a B85 chipset, which doesn't allow OC. He asked for a cheap way to upgrade his pc, not how to buy half of a new one.
 
stuminus3

stuminus3

Member
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baphomet

baphomet

Member
If you're upgrading for gaming you should buy a new GPU. A cpu or SSD isn't going to make what you have currently run games significantly better like a GPU will.
 
K

Keyouta

Junior Member
Get an SSD first, then upgrade your GPU, as most posts in here recommend. The SSD will be the biggest day-to-day change in usability/speed of the system.
 
R

Rizific

Member
is that pc a prebuilt OP? sounds like one. if you upgrade your gpu, id also throw that psu in the trash and look for a quality replacement. i dont trust any psu included in a prebuilt unless i know exactly what it is.
 
L

LelouchZero

Member
New GPU and maybe another 8GB of ram, ram has gotten a lot cheaper recently, maybe even a whole new faster kit like 1866-2400MHz of 16GB of ram to last you for many years to come.


Rizific said:
is that pc a prebuilt OP? sounds like one. if you upgrade your gpu, id also throw that psu in the trash and look for a quality replacement. i dont trust any psu included in a prebuilt unless i know exactly what it is.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it would be good to know the quality of the PSU.
 
J

jabuseika

Member
That CPU will be fine, at least for a few more years.

Like everyone else said, just upgrade your GPU for games, and SSD to improve your OS speed.

Do a clean reinstall of your OS on the SSD if you can, the improvements will be noticeable.
 
T

TheExodu5

Banned
GTX 1060 or RX 480.

SSD if you want to speed up your OS...but it won't help you much for gaming.

Don't bother with upgrading your RAM...it's unnecessary.
 
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