how should i upgrade my pc?

Posted by feelpxz@reddit | buildapc | View on Reddit | 42 comments

i have this piece of trash i call a pc, and i wanna upgrade all the components immediatly, but i dont have much money now. (i have like 150 dollars). which component should i uppgrade now? should i hold my anxiety and save more money to upgrade the motherboard and stuff? or maybe invest on psu and gpu?

specs:

i3 2100

no graphic card

2x4gb ram ddr3

200w generic power supply

1tb laptop hd

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TheBrickYard_317@reddit

The point is he could save some money instead of wasting his money. But thank you for the math lesson.

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TheBrickYard_317@reddit

You can buy a refurbished Dell and a cheap graphics card for around $400 if you search. Microcenter often has refurbished workstations with plenty of power. Just need a GPU, which you can get one that will play things at low settings for a hundred bucks or less.

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gocommiteatabrick@reddit

Literally over 3x his budget.

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gocommiteatabrick@reddit

Sorry I meant over 2x

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gocommiteatabrick@reddit

I recommend what other people are saying, but I will still give an answer. Get a random cheap 500w psu like a thermaltake smart or something $40, get a xeon e3 1240 v2 for around $12 on ebay, get an extra 580/GTX 970 for around $40. Thing will probably last a year or two depending on how many AAA games you play.

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Zz_GORDOX_zZ@reddit

Or sell the whole thing for $500

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NoTheme4306@reddit

Who would pay $500 for that in 2025? I'm not sure it was worth that the day it was produced.

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Zz_GORDOX_zZ@reddit

I know just for buyers to say I want it for $200 then it sold

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Zz_GORDOX_zZ@reddit

True, at least gotta try it 😅

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feelpxz@reddit (OP)

yes i thought about selling it but i dont think someone's gonna buy it for 500 dollars, maybe 100 or a bit more

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Zz_GORDOX_zZ@reddit

try sell for $500, because 90%of the time they will say I'll buy it for 300 or 250 then take that deal

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TheYoungLung@reddit

Yeah you can save for a whole new PC but if you want to Frankenstein this one I would go

RAM, PSU, GPU, CPU, Storage

I don’t know about the availability of DDR3 RAM but I would try to get 16gb

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feelpxz@reddit (OP)

8gb of dual chanel ram is the best thing i have on this pc talking about performance, the bottleneck is my cpu and gpu, i could consider it but i dont think its gonna improve my fps

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Half-Eaten-Cranberry@reddit

I wouldn’t bother upgrading anything right now since everything is very outdated. Start setting aside money now and start from scratch

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feelpxz@reddit (OP)

but there is nothing i can do now? like buy a better psu and a gpu to at least open modern games?

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Zz_GORDOX_zZ@reddit

Nah how old r you?

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feelpxz@reddit (OP)

14, and i dont get why im being downvoted for that, i meant i could buy a psu and then get a better gpu, bc this psu cant afford a gpu even if its an old one

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Zz_GORDOX_zZ@reddit

I recommend save the money and buy pre-build gaming PC

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arkutek-em@reddit

If you buy a PSU now , you want it to be able to handle your new PC in the future. So if you would have to determine every component you would eventually want to have. So if you want the best current gaming PC, 9800x3d, 50 series gpu, etc. you would probably need at least an 850 watt PSU. Check prices on good units and you might be very close to your current budget just for the PSU. You need a complete platform upgrade. Save until you can purchase newer used components. Then determine what parts you want to try to get.

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feelpxz@reddit (OP)

but i already know im not buying a flagship pc, probably a ryzen 5 5500, rx 580 ir rx 6600, and 16gb ram, i was looking at the msi mag a650bn which has 650 watts

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arkutek-em@reddit

In that case then you can probably start with purchasing the components. PSU to support the GPU then the GPU. Eventually you'll change the rest of the platform at once because nothing can be used from the current build. Perhaps you could keep the storage drive. Good luck.

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Shot-Finish-4655@reddit

basically if you choose to upgrade 1 part you'd have to upgrade something else, cause the new thing will get bottle necked by what you didn't upgrade like the person said above me best to just save money and get something new

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ziptofaf@reddit

You have a 14 year old processor. I am not sure if you could even plug a new GPU and if it would start (do you even run Windows 10?). Even if it does start - this processor will be a huge bottleneck for any even remotely modern video game anyway.

The biggest update you can do right now is to spend $50 on a SATA SSD and move all your data to it. This will run you approximately $50. It will not help your games FPS at all but it will at least make your PC somewhat responsive (+ you can reuse it later).

For anything more worthwhile that can actually run modern games, you would be looking at price tags like this:

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/2mHWqH

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feelpxz@reddit (OP)

yes, i run windows 10, but it lags sometimes. i think ill just wait and try getting more money, bc i donjt think that spending on a new ssd will change something. it probably wont even open apps faster, bc the bottleneck here is my gpu.,ill se if i can get this pc u sent me or a similar one, thank you for your advice :)

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ziptofaf@reddit

bc i donjt think that spending on a new ssd will change something

Oh, it will make a difference. Eg. Windows should start in about 20-30s and not 3-4 minutes :) Same with web browser, any Office programs, any games that already do work and their save files etc.

It indeed won't do ANYTHING for your in game FPS. But it will make your PC at least usable for non-gaming tasks.

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feelpxz@reddit (OP)

yeah youre right, but i dont care for boot speed bc my pc is on all day, idk i think ill prob save some money i try getting a pc simillar to the one u sent me

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OPTCMDLuffy@reddit

Why a psu? What do you think you can do with a better psu? Like the previous redittor said, nothing is worth upgrading in this pc. Just save money to buy/build a new one.

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feelpxz@reddit (OP)

only to afford a new gpu, bc this psu barely handles the pc well

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EleceRock@reddit

It depends on what you want to use that pc for, you may have a good pc for emulating retro consoles up to ps2-ish and some old games if you buy at least a cheap nvidia gt 700 series or something, maybe you should think about a procesor with at least 4 cores too, but for the long-term and for gaming is not worth it to spend that much money on that, you might as well just build something from scratch at that point.

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oldmannick420@reddit

Yeah dont waste money on a outdated system, save the money and build a new one

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Yez_swgoh@reddit

Just built mine, total was $900. Ryzen 9600, asus b650, 16ddr, and a GeForce 5060 rtx. Nothing crazy but it runs what needs running.

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Dangerous-Leek-966@reddit

Buy an old dell workstation desktop. Those have pretty good cpus and save up for like a used 6600xt. Either that or get a series s if you just want to game.

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Smarmy82@reddit

You should save until you can get on a new platform/ monitor/ GPU or buy a PS5

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Humble_Operation_220@reddit

Try to be laptop good condition call me

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Zz_GORDOX_zZ@reddit

Show me a picture of your PC case

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TriplePi@reddit

It's e waste there is no point in upgrading. Save until you can build a decent budget build or if you really really want to upgrade now which I don't recommend get an optiplex for like $100 or less off eBay and it might "play" games at ultra low settings.

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