[-]

-5er@reddit

For me, it was a 49” ultra widescreen. #2 would be going from 32 to 64gb ram, although I wish I maxed out to my motherboard’s 96gb limit instead. Who knew you could use 64gb so easily?!

[-]

Long-Shine-3701@reddit

PCIe expansion chassis. Gen 3.0 x 16 host adapter card connects to a box with dual 550W power supplies and has 8 slots. Currently populated with 4 x Radeon Pro VII 16GB cards.

This box has been soldiering on for years - from GTX 1080s to Vega Frontier Editions to the current iteration, it has outlasted several workstations and keeps getting connected to the newest one - currently Mac Pro 2019. Absolutely worth the investment.

[-]

TekkerFlows@reddit

For me it was the hard drives. I added 1 more HDD and set them up in Raid 0. You don’t notice how much time that saves on little things until you upgrade.

[-]

kermityfrog2@reddit

Why not SSDs instead of a RAID0 HDD? A 2TB SSD should satisfy your system and gaming needs, while a bunch of normal HDDs without RAID should be sufficient for media (movies/photos/music) as they don't require random seek speed. I have 24TB of HDD storage in my server that I can access from my network, and worldwide through Plex.

[-]

TekkerFlows@reddit

I have a SSD for the OS and the main games I play. I didn’t want to pay for massive SSDs. If you can do all SSDs in the computer that’s better. I already had 1 HDD so adding 1 more and going to raid 0 was a way more of a cost effective upgrade.

[-]

shaun________@reddit

My 8 year old PC has recently packed it in but over it's lifespan I made a few upgrades and I'll tell you about all of them.

RAM - I started with 8GB ram. The upgrade form 8 to 16 was immensely noticeable, lots of things would load quicker and crash less. 16 to 48 was less noticeable but it didn't allow me to develop a bad habit of never closing down my Google tabs (I'd routinely have like 50+ open)

HDD -> SSD - My boot drive was always a 256GB SSD but when my HDD packed up I repaced it with a 2TB SSD and the difference in load speed was night and day, especially for bigger and/or less optimised games.

Cooling - I'd imagine this is often overlooked but with the age of my PC the CPU was running into issues, crashing, slowing down etc so I downloaded core temp to monitor it and it was running hot (90°C plus) and I replaced my cooling and it went back down to mid 60s. (DO NOTE: Changing thermal paste is recommended before you change the whole cooling setup cos often the paste is what's causing it to run hot and not the cooling system. In my case the pump was dying and the liquid wasn't pumping as good as when it was new)

I've bought myself a new PC awaiting delivery so if I remember I'll come back to this and let you know the difference between a 1060 6GB GPU and 5070ti 16GB.

[-]

Spirited-Cat-964@reddit

Switching from monitor to 4k oled tv (lg c series 42inch)

[-]

StrategicBlenderBall@reddit

Not one upgrade, but in the last couple years it’d be:

Upgrading from my 8700k to a 9800X3D.
Upgrading from Windows 11 to CachyOS.

[-]

formi427@reddit

Upgrading monitor (and having the PC to take advantage of it)

Logitech mx master mouse, the thumb scroll wheel is great for excel.

[-]

Lord_Val@reddit

I'm a dev, but Iike the Logitec G502 for the same reason. The scrollwheel can be unlocked and spin freely. IDC how long the page is, but I can just flick it and it'll spin and take me to the bottom on the page before you know it. Also, it's just a fun fidgit toy as well.

[-]

tyjamo@reddit

Especially on the websites where the home and end keys don’t work. Zillow at the all-images page.

[-]

bobsim1@reddit

Definitely the monitor. For me it was a 3440x1440p IPS. Only switching to a ssd is better.

[-]

TThor@reddit

Logitech mx master

had to look it up, jusus that mouse is expensive. Here I thought my $60 mouse was already on the pricier end.

[-]

po1ar_opposite@reddit

I have big hands and the MX Master is the only mouse I can use. Been using them for 15+ years. Every job I get I have them get me one and now I have a stockpile 😂

And yes, the side scroll in excel is so clutch. Any idea why it sometimes doesn’t work when you freeze panes?

[-]

Yattogami201@reddit

Real, I changed my old TN monitor for a decent panel with 100hz and can't go back now, only way I'd use a worse monitor is at work

[-]

Autistocles@reddit

1080 to 9070xt felt so worth it.

[-]

Tinki_w@reddit

i did the same upgrade and its fabulous but I'd argue a jump from a 1080p 60hz ips monitor to a 1440p 165hz oled monitor was more significant to my computing experience

[-]

PeanutButterJalapeno@reddit

2060 to 5080 and same.

[-]

rav-age@reddit

did 980ti to 9070xt last year. went from still somewhat workable to very good

[-]

Autistocles@reddit

Surprisingly the 1080 is still functional and performed fine* but looked ridiculous in the new case and I was preparing a new build for bl4 seemed like a logical upgrade no regrets

[-]

rav-age@reddit

all's good :)

[-]

Even-Shake8428@reddit

If you’re still using a mechanical hard drive, switching to an SSD will be life-changing. When I switched from using an old laptop hard drive to even a cheap SSD, I realized I could never go back to mechanical.

[-]

tyjamo@reddit

Or if you’re already on SSD, like me, who can vouch for the impressive speeds of NVME?

[-]

Camera_Guy_83@reddit

Yes!! Ran my OS on a hard drive for years. Did a new build and put my OS on an SSD… game changer… loads in seconds.

[-]

TThor@reddit

honestly today, there is not a single reason for any modern computer to not have an SSD bootdrive. Frankly most computers shouldn't even have a HDD at all; only people who really need significant storage have use for one, and from what I've seen most users will rarely use a full TB of data.

[-]

M8gazine@reddit

Frankly most computers shouldn't even have a HDD at all

I disagree personally. HDDs are very useful for storage that doesn't require crazy speeds, e.g. videos, music, documents or photos, and even the most normal users will have at least some of those.

[-]

RapturousArc@reddit

Laughs in AAA steam game library. 7TB just in games and another 10ish in photos music and video

[-]

Automatic_File_5393@reddit

Haha i was going to say the same thing but probably the other way around i have at least 10tb in games....

[-]

FlowAndSwerve@reddit

You don't have enough life to me to even boot all your games for 1 good play, nor to replay all your videos and photos for a watch. You're collecting without reason... imo only.

[-]

Alternative-Sea-6238@reddit

I don't, but only because 97% of my game library is not currently installed.

I can't be the only one whose unplayed library will take longer to get through than the years I have left on this planet?

[-]

WingerRules@reddit

I just bought an 18tb hard drive to offload unused games from my SSDs.

[-]

Mehnard@reddit

I once installed a 20 Mb hard drive into a customer's computer and told him it was more storage than he would need for the rest of his life. He was kind of old, so maybe I was right.

[-]

adanceparty@reddit

Even then if you bought before the price hikes, I have a 2tb nvme and a 4tb one. I can install so many games at once.

[-]

_lefthook@reddit

You'd be surprised, i run into a few people on reddit who are adamant about using hdd due to the cost to size ratio. They are just happy with the speeds... even for gaming...

[-]

Thr33FN@reddit

I'd say as of the last 1-2 years I strongly disagree. A new build should have a 2-5ssd minimum.

I also have strong feeling about using a small 511-1tb SSD for just os and then using another SSD to put all programs on. If you have any sort of reasonable game library, with a 1tb drive you will be uninstalling games all the time to make room.

[-]

TetePepeF@reddit

i mean, for most people a 256 boot drive ssd and then a terabyte or two of hard drive is fine. sweet spot if you’re broke is a nice nvme ssd for boot and then a fat sata ssd. good speed, good prices

[-]

KayJune001@reddit

For my OS drive, 100% an SSD, but absolutely everything else goes on HDDs unless it needs an SSD. All of my personal media and server media goes on external HDDs, games and programs on internal SSDs.

Same with the PS5, 4TB internal SSD + the built-in 2TB, but all of my PS4 games get stored and ran off a 4TB external HDD

[-]

otacon7000@reddit

Unfortunately, with the recent prices of drives, I'm now downgrading from NVME back to HDD. Good stuff.

[-]

Cyber_Akuma@reddit

Depends how old and low-spec the system is. I put a SSD in my father's old 2011 era laptop that even for back then was lowest-end and it made no noticeable difference. For majority of people here though it should make a lot of difference.

[-]

onthenerdyside@reddit

Really? My first SSD was on a machine from around that timeframe. Started out on a hard drive, but moved to an SSD and it made a big difference. A fresh install of Windows can help, or you can try a lightweight Linux distro if you're feeling a bit adventurous.

[-]

Cyber_Akuma@reddit

It was my father's laptop, he would have no idea how to use Linux.

[-]

TortieMVH@reddit

This is the best upgrade one can do for an old PC.

[-]

onthenerdyside@reddit

SSD + Lightweight Linux distro

[-]

DeusXNex@reddit

Did this for my dad. His computer is old ish to begin with but his boot drive was a mechanical drive and it was agonizing how long it took to boot. I looked at his motherboard and saw that it actually supported nvme SSDs so I cloned it to a western digital green nvme ssd with 1 tb and it changed his life. Made his pc feel brand new by comparison

[-]

Blackops606@reddit

Yeah this is what I came to post too. You won’t feel more RAM, better refresh rate monitors, higher polling rate mice, or really anything like you will going from HDD to an SSD. It’s such a huge jump and can even be an advantage where load times matter.

There were some games, like Battlefield, years ago where devs actually had to change timers at the start of matches to level the playing field so everyone had a chance to spawn together and grab vehicles.

[-]

fugly16@reddit

mechanical drives are still ideal as back up or secondary drives given the sizes you can get for much cheaper

[-]

Raichu4u@reddit

For sure, they should be a non starter for running an OS on in modern times though.

[-]

onesleekrican@reddit

Totally agree

[-]

onesleekrican@reddit

They’re also good for files and storage that don’t require a fast recall. Like documents, music for listening etc. the ssd should be used for OS, games, DAW software and photo/video/coding apps.

[-]

SupposablyAtTheZoo@reddit

However, you probably want to switch out all HDDs in your pc. I kept one hdd for media storage in my PC for years, and even with m.2 ssds the hdd sometimes can hold it back.

Now that in fully on ssds only, it feels even faster overall.

[-]

MusicianEffective472@reddit

Yea I didn't include a hdd in my current build at all. I have enough m2 slots avaiable

[-]

-Spiritlol@reddit

I was gonna comment this. I used a 1tb HDD for 9-10 years, and when I finally used an SSD my boot times dropped from 9 minutes to 20 seconds.

[-]

Engvar@reddit

I've been looking into this option, but the prices are wild.

[-]

rednax1206@reddit

I always use both. Most documents, videos and games can run off an HDD with no problem. Newer, more demanding games and the OS itself? Always on an SSD.

[-]

kermityfrog2@reddit

Switching to a colour monitor from a Hercules Monochrome was a pretty big change too.

[-]

unclethulk@reddit

Yes! Went from mech hard disk to an NVME and I was floored by the boot speed alone. Huge quality of life upgrade.

[-]

DoubtfulOfQuantizing@reddit

I replaced the old case fans with more silent ones. Both my ears and my wife thanked me for that.

[-]

StergiouV@reddit

Going from a simple 24" 1080p monitor to Odyssey G9 47".

This is my most significant update.

[-]

stark_guy@reddit

Going from 60 -> 144 Hz

Going from IPS to OLED

[-]

Apprehensive-Sail924@reddit

went from a 3060 ti to a 5070 ti with the same cpu and it felt astronomical

[-]

Iansheng@reddit

I came from a GTX 1080 and a 120GB SSD + 1TB HDD combo. I upgraded to an RTX 5060ti 16GB and a 1TB SSD.

I felt that the SSD gave me the more noticeable upgrade versus the GPU upgrade. I was able to play most of my games at decent settings on the GTX but the faster loadtimes on the SSD blew me away.

[-]

Nearby_Pepper7676@reddit

Case fans and air cooler instead of stock cooler. Instead of 100% fans all time. Best 20$ I spent in years.

[-]

Some-Success-8941@reddit

Many, many moons ago, my first trackball. Now, after over twenty years of use, with all the damage accumulated from work and just life, carpal tunnel is not on the list. Highly recommend.

[-]

AstralPro@reddit

3d Odyssey display. First time 3d done right. Now can't watch anything on 2d because it looks bland. AI can make 2d videos to 3d videos realtime. Games looks much better. Sad thing about 3d displays are that they are hard to market, because you have to see them live to understand how good technology is.

[-]

katzengoldgott@reddit

Do you get any motion sickness from them?

[-]

Electrical-Run7436@reddit

a big mousepad

[-]

katzengoldgott@reddit

Same, my favourite is 120 cm x 90 cm.

[-]

sellera@reddit

My first SSD; My first oled monitor.

[-]

jetstrea87@reddit

NVME for boot/programs/games
Large mechanical HDD for important files and vacation pictures
Good sound card, it eliminated random static noise and pop. I was able to wire optical wire to my home theater system to get good sound quality when gaming alone.
Stream deck, it makes it easier to open programs with the press of a button.
Wired headphones: eliminated on charging them frequent and not worry about getting off the chat to recharge them
A good mobo with usb and type c ports, bluetooth capability - eliminated me throwing in extra hardware to have this. Went from a 2011-V3 mobo to a 14th Gen with wifi + bluetooth integrated.

[-]

Far_Tap_9966@reddit

GPU waterblock. but for noobs an nvme hard drive

[-]

SnowLeopardsAreSick@reddit

SSD for Windows and 60Hz to 144/240Hz were the most noticeable by far. Very fast start up times and super fluid viewing experience. Reduced strain on my eyes and the frequency of my headaches massively.

[-]

ThatOneOtter15@reddit

I just built a new PC this week to upgrade from my previous rig which had an AMD FX 8370 to a Ryzen 7 7800X3D. Legitimately feels like a night and day difference and I never realized just how massive the change in performance even in just menus in games would be with the significantly faster processing speed (and I’m sure going from DDR3 to DDR5 ram helped a lot).

I kept the same storage and GPU (2080 Super) from the previous rig, but it still made a massive improvement in overall responsiveness and it’s significantly quieter now.

If you’re keeping hardware for an extra long time like I did (9+ years), then pretty much updating it with any modern component would be a huge jump that feels worth it.

[-]

Corpskill@reddit

1080ti

[-]

RoughPuzzleheaded223@reddit

honestly a lot of upgrades felt worth it 😅
my gtx 1060 3gb died a few months ago so i got a 5060 it serves me too good but
kinda regret not getting the 16gb ti but it was like $200 more in my country,
used that money to get a new monitor instead so can’t complain

apart from that if you don't have SSD you need to buy and SSD ASAP

[-]

TerdyTheTerd@reddit

The only real upgrades that have a huge impact are: - Switching to an SSD from a hard drive - Upgrading to a 120hz+ monitor with better color rendering/response times from an old 60hz shitty monitor

Anything else really depends on your current hardware. Sure going from a AMD FX 6300 to a Ryzen 7800x3d will be a massive improvement, but going from a 5600x to a 7800x3d? An improvement for sure, but not an improvement that would notice all the time. Same thing for GPU, keyboard/mouse etc.

[-]

ThatOneOtter15@reddit

Funny enough, I literally just switched from a FX 8370 to a R7 7800X3D this week. Felt like going from a Prius to a Bugatti 😂

[-]

PigSlam@reddit

Sure, the impact of all upgrade depend on the from and to conditions.

[-]

TerdyTheTerd@reddit

Well my two specific items were more of a general regardless of what you had or use the PC for these upgrades will make a noticeable improvement everywhere.

[-]

M8gazine@reddit

A SSD to install your operating system on is by far the most meaningful upgrade you can make to your PC, at least as long as your GPU/CPU aren't 20 years old. Preferably a NVMe drive, but even a SATA SSD will be a big upgrade.

It'll be much faster.

[-]

dTmUK@reddit

You should probably say ur specs w current setup and we could give more advice, sometimes a monitor upgrade can be the most noticeable if performance is already okay, need to work out what your current bottleneck is

[-]

Bvalie@reddit

GTX 1070 to a RTX 5090

[-]

nightwood@reddit

I can't remember a PC upgrade that wasn't worth it.

[-]

Canadian_Border_Czar@reddit

Upgrading to an X3D CPU.

[-]

secretreddname@reddit

X3D

[-]

dydlee@reddit

Upgrading to Fiber internet. While not PC specifically, it changed almost all latency that had a network connection.

Everyone said the usual things…SSD, GPU, CPU, RAM…. In that order these days. If it’s bang for buck, then the user market has good options for a 2nd PC, harvest the best out of both for 1…new PC parts are a luxury.

[-]

Dark-Nearby@reddit

Monitor, at first i fully upgraded my pc but stayed with the same old crusty monitor and swapping it to a new one was just a blessing. Going from 6hz to 200hz is beyond amazing and if you play competitive shhoters like the difference will be light and day

[-]

jkteddy77@reddit

Monitor Arm. They're cheap enough, take back your desk space and freely adjust the viewing angle

[-]

WorseElk@reddit

NVME drive is the obvious one but honestly a better monitor made the biggest difference for me, went from 1080p 60hz to 1440p 144hz and suddenly everything felt responsive.

[-]

PlatoPirate_01@reddit

FTW3 1080 Ti

[-]

Short_Ad_9524@reddit

Going from my eight year old GTX 1060 3GB to the RTX 5050 8GB. My first upgrade

[-]

expatfella@reddit

I'm thinking of going 1050 to 5050.

I assume it's a big difference? I know 8gb is slightly frowned upon but surely it meets most needs?

[-]

Azoraqua_@reddit

Might as well go to the 5070 Ti for a more decent upgrade.

[-]

expatfella@reddit

Classic Reddit comment.

[-]

smoggins@reddit

The guy waited 10 years for an upgrade, $100/year (or $75/year more than what you need for a 5050) isn’t a crazy amount to spend.

[-]

PigSlam@reddit

Why not quad 5090s?

[-]

Azoraqua_@reddit

Because a 5070 Ti is nowhere near as expensive while having a decent performance.

[-]

PigSlam@reddit

Yeah, but the performance of 6 5090s would be way higher. Why not get 8?

[-]

Azoraqua_@reddit

Simple, the price of a 5070 Ti is no where near as high, and unaffordable. It’s reasonably cheap.

[-]

iszoloscope@reddit

Yeah 900 to a 1000 bucks is simply a steal.

[-]

Azoraqua_@reddit

It’s not exactly cheap, but I’d say that it could be decent. Might have to forfeit a holiday though.

[-]

PikaTchu47@reddit

Dude, you are inoculated against sarcasm.

[-]

PigSlam@reddit

What about working at a 6 or 8 fast food places?

[-]

CrotchSoup@reddit

I don’t think he’s getting the sarcasm…

[-]

iszoloscope@reddit

Anything less is a waste.

[-]

JohnLovesGaming@reddit

If you can manage on a 1050 for so long, it’ll be a massive jump for you. 8 will be plenty for you.

[-]

Demitrico@reddit

8gb is fine but it will show struggles if you plan to do certain gpu heavy tasks at 1440p resolution or higher.

[-]

Scoo_By@reddit

YT exists, check comparisons. To answer the q, HUGE.

[-]

vGrillby@reddit

8GB is more than enough on a 50 class card

[-]

Fuzzy_Wumpkins@reddit

Did a 980Ti to a 5070Ti recently, didn’t realize what I was missing

[-]

smeghead_85@reddit

Quite similar for me. Same years, same old card, but I recently got a 9060 (non XT) 16Gb, and a 180hz monitor (from a 60hz). Couldn't believe my eyes when I started my first game on it

[-]

TThor@reddit

my 1060 6gb still lives on in my Truenas Server, along with my old 3700x. ♫ The circle of life ♫

[-]

Specialist_Cod4711@reddit

I went from a 660 to a 5050 and wow it was game changing

Not as much as the ssd from hard drive change but still was amazing

[-]

lipman19@reddit

Finally getting off my intel high horse and switching to Ryzen and finally having a genuinely fast computer

[-]

reddit-85@reddit

I think it depends on your pc’s current weakest link, plus your personal activity. I already have pretty high spec pc and bought a streamdeck plus as a button box. Digging in i realized those things can be incredibly power and time saving if you have any gaming or multi step workflow. Most people map one action to another one button, but you can basically turn it into a one press automation flow.

In the case though… it’ll probably be whatever your weakest component is mobo, ram, cpu, gpu. Hell, a good cleaning might net you some gains if it’s dirty enough

[-]

RetardStupidPOS@reddit

I color sprayed mine to red white. 100% worth it

[-]

Material_Sky9863@reddit

upgrading to an SSD from HDD was the biggest quality of life change for me. games loaded so much faster and the whole system felt snappier. second would be going from 60hz to 144hz, once you see it you cant go back

[-]

vaikunth1991@reddit

SSD and 144hz monitor

[-]

BhaltairX@reddit

From a hard drive to a SSD, and the upgrade from FHD 23" to a 27" QHD monitor.

[-]

j_reinegade@reddit

Pc panel. Or any multi volume control module. So easy controlling volume on multiple sources at the twist of a knobby

[-]

Puzzled-Park-69@reddit

GTX 1660 super to rtx 9070 ti

[-]

Neither-Pomelo5928@reddit

64 RAM

[-]

passwordistako@reddit

Went from a 13” flat screen from 2002 to a UHD 32” dual screen set up.

[-]

grappleshot@reddit

I added a Monster 3D discrete gfx card to my pc in the 90s'. Was definitely a good boost. The jump from only dual floppies (5.25") to also a 20MB HDD was brilliant.

[-]

furculture@reddit

Old computer with a cheap SSD for the OS drive. Now it could be used for a decent home server and extend it's life. Just make sure that it is drawing a comfortable amount of power that you are willing to pay for.

[-]

WingerRules@reddit

Better Monitor

[-]

BeefySTi@reddit

Going from IPS to OLED. Very different experience in gaming. At least for me.

Chef's kiss.

[-]

NightCityStoic@reddit

Getting an X3D CPU. That L3 cache really is a gamechanger.

[-]

Electrical_Coach_887@reddit

Agreed. Nice name

[-]

Administrative_Air_0@reddit

Before building a new PC whole all keeping my old 1060 6GB, my GPU ranked bottom 1% of all identical GPUs scored. After putting the GPU into the newly built PC, it ranked top 1%. It was astonishing how much higher settngs I could run games that barely ran at all on my previous setup. Then, I replaced my poor 1060 6GB with a 7900XTX. That was also a difference like might and day. Both were game changing. Together, they were absolutely awesome.

[-]

skrukketiss69@reddit

Getting an OLED monitor is the biggest upgrade I've ever done, and now I can never go back..

[-]

shoegvze@reddit

OLED MONITOR

[-]

gen_adams@reddit

OLED, WOLED, QD-OLED, AMOLED whateverORGANICled tech screen - not simple LED backlit LCD! just make it OLED, you will orgasm

[-]

TThor@reddit

I've got 4 monitors in front of me, including two 27in, a 24in, and a vertical 16:10 24in; I'm debating replacing like two of my monitors for a big OLED monitor, maybe even curved. I can't help but feel like it would help a lot for actually feeling immersed in a game, the 27in always feels very apparent I am viewing the game through a window.

[-]

Legirion@reddit

What games are you playing? Most games I've played aren't that great on ultra wide.

[-]

Cr1t1cal_Hazard@reddit

All games are better in Ultrawide

[-]

Legirion@reddit

All games except competitive ones

[-]

Cr1t1cal_Hazard@reddit

You are technically more competetive when you can see more of your game. If you aren't, you have the option to change the resolution

[-]

Legirion@reddit

I recently got an OLED 240 Hz screen and it's not as amazing as you make it sound. I had a side by side of "OLED Test Videos" on YouTube and my old IPS monitor looked almost the same.

Yes, I like the OLED, but it's not a life changing experience IMO.

[-]

harris_kid@reddit

Something is wrong if you couldn't tell the difference between an oled and LCD on an oled test video. That or you have some kind of incredible mini led panel...

[-]

Legirion@reddit

Nothing is wrong

[-]

LMM01@reddit

The display is the final bottleneck of a gaming PC build.

It took me almost 15 years to understand that when I finally bought a 21:9 OLED

[-]

xAimForTheBushes@reddit

I disagree. While OLED is mostly an upgrade of course, a good LED/LCD of any kind is still plenty excellent.

There's tons of other upgrades that make a much larger difference.

[-]

nova46@reddit

All depends on what you're coming from. 60 hz to 144 hz was a massive difference, 1080p to 1440p was a big jump as well. Going from a TN panel to an IPS was massive because the viewing angles and colors on the TN were absolute garbage.

OLED is my next step because I want inky blacks and colors that pop, but I'm still waiting for the monitor tech to mature a bit more. Seems like each top offering has some sort of drawback (burn in is not an issue for me). My IPS is still perfectly fine, I just know what OLED can offer based on my TV and phones.

[-]

xAimForTheBushes@reddit

Yeah I’d say this is a fair assessment!

[-]

dalzmc@reddit

What if you’re not a gamer?

[-]

xAimForTheBushes@reddit

That's fair. But still, 60 vs 120 or 240hz is still a huge difference maker even for non-gaming activities.

[-]

dalzmc@reddit

Agreed. Do I think my phone/ipad displays are absolutely gorgeous? Yeah, but still... For example, I think in my use case, I’d rather have my ultrawide than a regular monitor but OLED.

[-]

xAimForTheBushes@reddit

Right. (and speaking of phone displays - you used to be able to set your phone's panel Hz at least on galaxy a few years ago. The difference between having it at 60hz and 120hz is pretty big and noticeable. It's definitely a lot less smooth and jerky at 60hz)

Anyway, OLED is great don't get me wrong. I was just saying there are a lot of other things that matter for a PC upgrade than making sure you've got the oled technology on the monitor. I'd argue that a good QLED (or whatever else they've used for LED for the last 10 years) with everything else the same on a setup compared with the equivalent OLED is basically more or less very similar overall experiences.

Now change the HD type or the GPU or the size/speed of the monitor....yeah those are gonna make a pretty huge difference.

[-]

gen_adams@reddit

I'll just vote for a 27" 240Hz QD-OLED that has insane pixel density and gives crisp images and dynamic ranges like nothing else. the best of both worlds, or all worlds for that matter.

[-]

SolasB@reddit

This.

[-]

Healthy-Ear1039@reddit

I am still blown away after coming home from the office to my QD-OLED setup.

[-]

Hystercy@reddit

SSD then graphics card

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deleted_by_reddit@reddit

[removed]

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[-]

sengir0@reddit

My first upgrade was changing the case after 6 years. from a fish tank type to lian li lancool 217. Thermals went down from 80 to 60 at load.

I would be changing everything soon, just waiting for a gpu and psu bundle

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firezero10@reddit

I switched from a hotbox nzxt H500 to lian li 216 and had similar gains. Not to mention, it is much easier build in the lian li as well with removable top.

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ScoobThaProblem@reddit

Funny I switched to a fishtank and got lower temps

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Salamanda0913@reddit

What brand was it?

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FearfulFerret@reddit

HDD to SSD
Mechanical keyboard
=120Hz monitor (and GPU that can support)
Mouse with programmable buttons
Uninterruptible power supply

[-]

herobrinewarns@reddit

Going from a GTX 1080 to an RTX 3060 for Daz studio. Having an RTX card with 4 more gigabytes made a massive different in render times for my hobby. Like some things that would take an hour went down to like 20 minutes

[-]

SomeoneHereIsMissing@reddit

1- Going from an HDD to a SSD 2- Having more RAM than the current average (512MB in 2001, 8GB in 2011, 16GB in 2016, 32GB now) 3- Going from a 2 cores CPU to a 6 cores CPU

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AdvancedMilk7795@reddit

Going from HDD to SSD

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xl129@reddit

It’s either switching from hdd to ssd or getting a big OLED monitor.

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Grom_a_Llama@reddit

I have a 3440x1440 screen next to a 2560x1440.

The ultra wide is 100 hz and the wide is 120hz.

Anyway...a 6000x1440p set up is so nice for both gaming and productivity.

[-]

PizzaTacoCat312@reddit

Upgraded to a 5090 GPU. Gaming at 4K on an OLED never looked so good. Upgrading to a 77" LG G5 TV for couch gaming was also a worthwhile upgrade too.

[-]

holiday_lightseeker@reddit

Upgrade ram! Multitask run and longer period use, standard built is sufficient and comfortable for browser

[-]

krapalicious@reddit

Double your RAM makes a huge difference. Everything runs faster, less storage thrashing, and I can open more programs/windows at the same time.

[-]

KashMo_xGesis@reddit

Bought 32GB DDR5 and they delivered two sets by mistake. The company told me to keep it so ended up having 64GB overkill system 😂

... And then the data center crap happened a year later and now I could sell for 300% of the original price. I'll keep them though.

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SheepOnDaStreet@reddit

9800x3D

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canUrollwithTHIS@reddit

Biggest upgrades through the many years in this hobby.

1) hdd to ssd 2) single core to multi core processors 3) lcd to OLED monitor.

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VeryBigPP0830@reddit

Going from a 1660Ti I7 10th gen laptop to a pc with 7800x3d and 5070Ti. Nothing has ever blown me away like this

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EffiCiT@reddit

I upgraded from the rx 6600 to the 9070xt and it was a massive jump in performance.

[-]

jestermx6@reddit

Why pick just one?

L2 cache
dial-up to broadband
dedicated 3d processor
Simultaneous Multithreading (SMT)
HDD to SSD
LCD to OLED

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JakeRay@reddit

I'll say a rare one: Headphones.

Good audio. I know it's overkill, but i bought a proper amplifier, a DAC and the Sennheiser HD650 headphones.

Now I have crisp clear audio at all times, ease of control at my fingertips, and I can easily add a pair of passive speakers to my setup, instead of buying active speakers.

And the HD650's got such a nice and soft treble, it's comfortable to listen to anything with them.

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Hellfire_Goliath@reddit

Articulating monitor arms. You reclaim so much desk space otherwise taken up by monitor stands. Honestly doesn't even have to be monitor arms, just find a way to get the monitors off your desk haha (like a wall mount).

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milesahead2052@reddit

I ditched console for pc relatively recently( a little over a year ago) and I’d say the best upgrade I’ve made so far was going from my 4k/60hz tv to my current 1440/240hz qd oled monitor. Not so much the fps (I usually cap my games at 120) but the picture quality was an amazing transition and still am in awe at times at how good games can look.

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Lumentum_LITE@reddit

Monitor. High quality desk, custom keyboard

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keypusher@reddit

Depends on your current setup. Imo better peripherals like a large monitor and good headphones are often underrated in favor of slightly faster specs that make a minimal difference to your actual experience

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AstarothSquirrel@reddit

Technically not an upgrade but my streamdeck (not to be confused with my steamdeck) is one of the best purchases I've ever made. Before I bought it I really deliberated as to how much I'd use it and I use it constantly.

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Mediocre_Ad_4812@reddit

Silence, going for full noctua build

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Legirion@reddit

Silence is the determining factor? Do you not wear headphones or have game sound on when you play games?

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Mediocre_Ad_4812@reddit

Constant humming from lian li made me go crazy, full noctua now and so dead silent

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Legirion@reddit

That makes sense, especially if you live in the room with the computer and don't shut it down. I usually shut down my computer when I'm not using it, but I understand a lot of people don't.

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gus2155@reddit

For me, switching to a computer with an SSD, I don’t have the patience for hard drives anymore.

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ggkidurbad@reddit

IPS TO OLED was huge for me

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UncleMadness@reddit

i5 6600k to AMD 9950X3D

Significant upgrade

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Agitated-Sloth@reddit

custom water loop.

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Lil_Hater112@reddit

Oled and nvidia

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Legirion@reddit

OLED is not that big of a deal.

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stopruining@reddit

harddrive -> SSD

gpu if u have a gtx 1060 or equivalent you wont see a big change unless it’s an expensive upgrade

cpu depending on gaming but relatively cheap upgrade if you have an old one

(I went from gtx 1060 -> rtx 3060, no big change except DLSS, but I went from Ryzen 3600 -> 5600 and felt a massive difference, haven’t had an actual HDD for a long time but I remember it making a difference)

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Thornfist22@reddit

LG 5k Ultrawide OLED monitor. I will never go back, neither will you.

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Warranty_V0id@reddit

That really depends on what you currently have, what you want to do with it and how much money you can spend.

Overall generally was the biggest boost in the recent years the swap from mechanical drives to ssds.

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kneegrowpengwin@reddit

Replacing the main storage device from an HDD with an SSD was an absolute game changer for QoL, especially on an older system. Fast boot times, responsive UI, faster loading of files and games etc.

It shifted the bottleneck of my old system elsewhere, sure, but gave me another 2 years use-ability on an already 10-year old system and was a change that was positively felt all of the time.

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takad0ri@reddit

49" curved....love it..want the new oled version.. BUT! Need new GPU when you buy it :P Damn those pixels

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G-nome420@reddit

Escape from Tarkov —> 16gb to 32gb

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secso93@reddit

same just with cpus 5600x-->5700x3d-->9800x3d OMG every step was HUGE

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gen_adams@reddit

a man of culture I see (how's the catering at your mental hospital btw? mine sucks)

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G-nome420@reddit

head eyes head jaws head eyes head jaws head eyes head jaws head eyes head jaws head eyes head jaws

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AdvancedTeacher9446@reddit

Tarkov gives burnout lol.

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KR_97@reddit

My oled mate really

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SkullDemon75@reddit

GTX 1660 Super to a 4060Ti and 8GB of ram to 64GB and i5-10400F to a i9-12900K

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pedroflovera@reddit

In my personal experience, i remember when i swap the RTX2060 for the RTX3080. Wooao that blow my mind.

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dgrim67@reddit

From AM3 to AM4, because of PCIE 4.0 with a 7600r 6500w SSD and smart memory access.

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Mihai_1907@reddit

Adding a GPU to an integrated PC or getting a good ssd

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ToxicBloke@reddit

For Battlefield 6, I had to build a new PC, an OLED 34-inch monitor, a Razer viper pro 3 mouse, an Artisan mousepad, an Evo80 keyboard, and a Secretlab Magnus Evo. Now, I’m not playing the damn game because Crimson Desert came out. 😂

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ha17h3m@reddit

Going from gtx 1660 super to rtx 5070

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notadroid@reddit

2 for me:

mechanical hdd to ssd

amd 3700x to amd 5950x

both of these changes were night and day to me.

the hard drive one was obvious as thats something many people can relate to.

the CPU change I really didn't anticipate because the 3700x was doing everything I needed it to, very easily, without issue. But when I put in the 5950x, it was doing everything MONSTROUSLY better.

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idkeyesac@reddit

Wireless mouse and keyboard. I like how it keeps my set up clean and simple. Also if you game, not having a wire restricting mouse movement is a bonus for consistency in competitive fps games.

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Marty5020@reddit

Going from integrated graphics to any decent GPU. Ditching HDD for an SSD. A quality monitor. Undervolting CPU and GPU for some extra marginal gains.

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joyOFFmissingOut@reddit

I9 un po di anni fa. Ha resuscitato la mia ormai obsoleta 1080 però abbassando alcune impostazioni grafiche sposto il carico sulla cpu così da poter giocare molto bene a qualunque gioco in full hd

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TOREYNATOR@reddit

Going from a cheap 1080p VA panel to 1440P OLED

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DocOckBlock@reddit

For me it was a 4k monitor. The jump from 1080p to 4k is insane. Obviously that implies that you have a good enough pc to handle 4k.

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LeatherGood6148@reddit

3080 > 3090 24gb for running local AI models.

The difference is astounding.

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ImSiLeNt1@reddit

A new rig. Oh and a SSD. Recently also got an NVME, but the jump between SATA SSD and M.2 isn't as impressive as between HDD and anything else

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AnubianWolf@reddit

1080p>>1440p, VA to IPS monitor. Next upgrade will probably be OLED.

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parity_account@reddit

I had a super loud cpu fan. Replaced it with a quieter one made a big difference.

I replaced speakers with headphones. Made a huge big difference.

I bought my first ssd, installed my os and my favorite game on it instead of on the old HD. Made a huge ddifference.

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AcanthisittaFeeling6@reddit

NVME and X3D cpus and OLED.

I do productivity and gaming as well as I own HT system, it's all connected to one hub.

Going from 3700X to 5950X to 9950X3D was a game changing.

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davegru203@reddit

5800x3d to 9800x3d. Got way better 1% lows and a little more fps. I play on a 1440p monitor.

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BeginningProperty436@reddit

Going from one stick of 16gb ddr4 ram to 2 sticks equalling 32gb. I got more performance of my cpu and gpu as well as less stuttering in game

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Vanadiack@reddit

Switching from an HDD to NVMe SSD. Improved all of the above.

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Mountain_Tax_6264@reddit

Most recently I upgraded my RAM from 16 to 32 GB and 3days later the prices were more than doubled. No other upgrade felt so satisfying.

(on a laptop) This was a couple of years ago.. Put an SSD on an old legion laptop my friends suggested to throw away. Ran it for another 2 years. And my dhobi's son is still using it now after almost 4 years.

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DoktorLuciferWong@reddit

imo, almost everything can be upgraded and have meaningful returns (bottlenecks aside). it probably depends on how much you value of each of those things. if there's a particular area you've underspent on, you stand to gain a lot of utility/enjoyment from upgrading that first

putting aside the obvious ones (internal components):

desk (mine is the secretlabs magnus). sit/stand is nice, and makes it easier to work on my machine without having to (necessarily) move it. magnetic cable management and a cable tray is also very nice to have
chair. this directly affects your health, so i'd say spending a lot on a chair is always worth. currently using a herman miller cosm.
arms for everything. both my monitors are mounted on arms. my microphone and my "ring light" are also mounted on arms. i use this light when i'm working on my pc or building keyboards. also being able to just move around your monitors can be very handy
keyboard. i use a standard unibody keyboard (enter67) for typing, but also use the left side of a neodox for gaming. it has a columnar layout, and a cluster of thumb keys, which is great for gaming in general
audio. a modestly priced dac/amp/headphone combo will cross the point of diminishing returns quickly. if you're a sweatlord, better audio could be like a 1% improvement to your ladder rank lol. if you're a music enjoyer, then this upgrade is self-explanatory.
i'm personally using a jds labs element for my dac/amp. current headphones are the lcd-x (pricy, arguably summit-fi), but i previously used the sundara (inexpensive, entry-level, neutral-warm signature)

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Tgrove88@reddit

OLED display and Optane drives

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slimpie2003@reddit

I upgraded from a Ryzen 7 2700 to a Ryzen 7 5700x3d 2 weeks ago and it is the biggest upgrade i made yet and is like night and day performance wise. i swapped my GTX 1070 for a RTX 3070 2 years ago but that didn't make as big a difference as upgrading my CPU did. I also upgraded my ram from 16 to 32 GB which is nice if you have a lot of tabs open and want to game but that didn't do much for performance.

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Professional-Fig-134@reddit

When I upgraded my 2080 super to a 3080ti four years ago

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Doktorek322@reddit

1080p -> 1440p ssd and more of ssd, ram, big cpu upgrade, new big case with good filters

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Copponex@reddit

Getting x3d if you play games that likes it a lot. It has massively improved my experience in WOW and cs2

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Infinite-Attorney478@reddit

So far upgrading to a Pulsar monitor has been a real game changer for motion clarity, especially at high frame rates

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lordcochise@reddit

SSD, hands down. Most bang for your buck now, or even like 14 years ago back in the days of the Samsung 840. If you have any kind of HDD as your system drive, even the lowest-end SSD will give a big boost; just imagine in '26 going from, say, a WD Blue 2TB to a Gen 5 2280 NVME SSD on the same machine

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dagababa@reddit

Going from integrated graphics to a dedicated GPU is an experience I want to experience for the first time all over again.

I never actually figured out that games were supposed to load really quickly until I used an SSD.

Other than that (in no particular order):
- Membrane keyboard to mechanical (though I do want to move to something way quieter eventually)
- Getting a wireless mouse
- Getting a 180hz monitor and being in awe of how smooth everything felt

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SilkyZ@reddit

For less than $5, you can get a beeper speaker for your motherboard. Hearing a beep when you boot up and using it to troubleshoot POST codes is nice

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bradslamdunk@reddit

A 5090 lol. Kinda joking of course but kind of not! It’s SAD how expensive it is but like this 3k hunk has gave me such joy with VR simracing it’s ridiculous.

Anything can feel like a good upgrade if it fits your use case. If I got a 5090 for regular gaming I would be pretty bummed at the overkill aspect. You should think about what you want to use it for first.

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ThisGuySpeedfear@reddit

1060 to 9070 XT was like jumping 50 years forward

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digital_rain@reddit

Just did this exact same thing earlier this month!

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Cocoon992@reddit

Rtx 5090 & 4k gaminf

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InternetJettator@reddit

Seconding everyone saying to switch from an HDD to an SSD - lightyears of difference if you're still on an old mechanical, and it's pretty easy to switch even if you need to migrate your operating system.

Apart from that, I just upgraded my main monitor from an old 22" FHD to a pretty cheap 27" QHD that refreshes at 200hz, and I can tell you it's a REALLY nice upgrade. Helps that I've got a pretty decent PC that can take advantage of it, but even older games look much better on a bigger, brighter screen with a faster refresh rate, and the increased resolution gives you a lot more real estate in most programs.

In a distant third place is my mechanical keyboard. It makes typing a genuine pleasure. I bought one out of pure curiosity to see firsthand what the hype was about, and unfortunately now I can never go back.

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ThaGlizzard@reddit

A quality monitor

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TheOriginalKrampus@reddit

Replacing my old wired mouse from 2013 to a nice wireless mouse. There’s lots of really good Chinese mice for under $50.

Same with getting a nice mech keyboard. I had an old Reddragon keyboard with loud, pingy cherry red switches. Even my budget $50 new keyboard feels like a big upgrade. Being able to hotswap the switches, the choice for wireless connection and being able to sync with 3 different devices via bluetooth, all nice QoL.

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f3arl3es@reddit

1060Ti to 3080. From unable to run a game on lowest settings on 1080p to running all of them on Ultra with raytracing on 1440p.

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digital_n01se_@reddit

-SSD

-Enough RAM to open many edge tabs

-Monitor

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coffeeandleague@reddit

Great tldr

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coolgaara@reddit

OLED.

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coffeeandleague@reddit

oled monitor

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118shadow118@reddit

I recently bought a monitor arm for my triples. It cleared quite a lot of space on my desk and it's now a lot easier to bring the monitors closer for simracing

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cmacy6@reddit

A lot of people on this sub are already on 32gb of ddr5, but going from 16gb to 32gb of ddr4 was a very noticeable change

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ShatterMcSlabbin@reddit

SSD + jump to 144hz were the biggest changes for me.

Everything else has been less exponential, but I do feel like it compounds even when the increases are somewhat minimal.

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f3exthegamer@reddit

Besides SSD, upgrading from a gtx 1650 to a rtx 2060, and recently from an i3-10100f to an i5-12400f. I changed my gpu too to an rx 7600 but that wasn't as significant a change.

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j0hanSE@reddit

2060 to 9070xt

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Realistic-Table9398@reddit

3 items for me so far. My RTX 5090, my 27” 4k 240hz qd oled and my Logitech g502 with the infinite scroll wheel.

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baaahbuuuh@reddit

Going from a normal SSD to a nvme

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Dunadain_@reddit

1 was my 1080ti

2 was a 9800x3d

The two single component upgrades that made the biggest difference

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DaoLei@reddit

I can 100% agree on the HDD -> SSD upgrade.

Upgrading to a power GPU was also nice, simply not needing to worry about If my machine can run something, but it wasn't really revolutionary, just a hindrance i no longer needed to worry about. Still very nice tho.

I honestly think getting a nice 2nd monitor had a bigger impact on how I use my set-up and improving my workflow/productivity.

Even just a cheap budget monitor as your 2nd monitor is very much worth it.

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Crytaz@reddit

Moving to an OLED has made gaming movies and general use a lot better

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Ozzimo@reddit

The upgrade from spinning rust to SSD is the top answer for a reason. Boot is so much quicker and everything loads faster.

If your computer is loud, a new set of fans is a good call as well. 4 fans shouldn't cost you more than 50 bucks, even with ARGB and such in them. The quiet yo can achieve from a new set of fans is sometimes worth the effort of replacing them.

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Far_Bad_5847@reddit

Recently upgraded to 64gb of ram, which isn’t necessary but I went from cl48 to cl38 and that made a big difference for me in all the games I play.

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pm_social_cues@reddit

Isn’t ram still the most expensive it’s been in years? I was seeing posts and ram kits were quadruple in price vs a year or two ago.

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Rightimar@reddit

They're getting cheaper right now

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kermityfrog2@reddit

Depends on luck and timing. I managed to get 64GB 6400 RAM for under $400 CAD in Dec.

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Far_Bad_5847@reddit

Yes, I never said I made sound financial decisions lol

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Light_Darkness77@reddit

From a V.A panel monitor 1440p 165hz to an OLED 240hz 4k display Color never seen before.

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Nightlower@reddit

i mean obvious is SSD but i assume everyone is starting now with one so this might not be it anymore. I did upgrade to ultrawide and that is definitely better than 2 monitors imo

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BigOlBearCanada@reddit

The day I could finally afford a voodoo2 back in the day.

The 1080ti.

Eveeything other than that has been a disappointment.

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warkidooo@reddit

After HDD to SSD, moving from 1080p to 1440p at similar screen sizes.

Didn't notice much at gaming, but reading stuff became 100x more comfortable. Turns out it wasn't astigmatism making the fonts blurry, just the lack of pixels combined with built-in font AA, the blurriness made me unconsciously squish my eyes a bit every time I read something. The first thing I noticed while trying 1440p for the first time was that my eyes were relaxed while reading on a PC, probably for the first time in my life.

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sgrobpla@reddit

SSD and cooling. I'm still waiting for some down time from work to replace the thermal paste on my phantom spirit 120 Evo with some ptm7950. But those were significant changes. Dual m.2 SSD, one for the OS, one for cache.

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R3tr0spect@reddit

Good quality headphones or speaker setup. Assuming you already have a decent screen, a good pair of headphones or speakers that have been dialled in are going to be huge for immersion.

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coolboy856@reddit

Why is this question asked every 1.5 weeks now?

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Ragingpoo@reddit

Will not be for most people, but custom loop for comfort was a much bigger one than I expected myself, not just no more fan ramp up, it's no more fan noise completely, and the pump is running low so also inaudible, now only if I can get rid of that coil whine.

Before someone say maintainence, I have maintain my loop once in 3 years.

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cocosoy@reddit

List your spec

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magicmulder@reddit

Stream Deck (or Corsair Xeneon Edge).

Having so many complex actions literally at my fingertips has boosted my productivity and my mood significantly.

Wrote an AHK script that fires up all my applications for work with one button, and switches over to my private setup with another.

Another for shutdown (send monitors to sleep mode, send Stream Decks to sleep mode, close browsers, close OBS).

Another for "bring this window to my main monitor and full screen it" / "restore back to previous position".

Another for "flip secondary monitor orientation" when I rotate it for gaming.

Accept Teams call, switch camera scene internal/external call, switch to different virtual desktop, move window between monitors, mute/unmute in Teams/Discord/all, switch between teams channel and DND in Discord, PC fan control, ...

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antmanfersil@reddit

HDD to SSD. I was completely blown away back in the day. Like having a whole new PC.

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Low_Raccoon_784@reddit

A lot of people skimp on the monitor, it's basically the main single thing that determines your graphical fidelity.

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pdt9876@reddit

All of my PC upgrades have felt worth it because I don't upgrade that often.

960 to Vega64 to 3090 all felt huge,
870 to 6700 to 9900 to 13900 all felt huge

Setting aside the internals. I'd say a windows hello compatible webcam (I have the logitech brio) is one of the best purchases I've ever made. Also if you spend a lot of time looking at screens a good high PPI screen makes a lot of difference

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stillphat@reddit

ram, ez.

if not that then processor.

then graphics card.

then more anime stickers.

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Pyreknight@reddit

A good USB hub on the desk.

If your rig is on the floor or you can't get to the ports, invest in a good hub. A few USB, few type C maybe with power and some sort of SD card reader. I found one that has two USB 3, USB C PD and audio ports that has been amazing.

Also, if you have a monitor with a hub, use those ports. I've got my webcam and keyboard/mouse dongle using the monitors hub.

Also, not a PC part but just as vital. Power strip/battery UPS. Harbor Freight has a 4 foot one I mounted two of on the bottom of the desk. The one the has the monitor and PC plugged into it is plugged into the UPS. Enough to run the PC for about 6 minutes.

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DREWBICE@reddit

Mind sharing the USB hub?

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h8rfisternator@reddit

Your monitor is how you see and experience the world.

Ultrawide aspect ratio 5K2K resolution OLED high refresh

These are all life changing upgrades.

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riek1@reddit

Went from 1080p with 1070 laptop to an oled 2k with 9070xt . You can imagine the difference

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PigSlam@reddit

I repalced a 2019 Razer Blade with an RTX 3070 in an eGPU with a new desktop machine I built last year. At the time, it cost around $2200 for the build. I went from an intel i7 9750/RTX 3070/16gb DDR4 to a Ryzen 7 7800X3D/RX 9070/64GB DDR5 with 2x 2TB Samsung SSD 990 EVO for storage. I haven't priced it out, but when Trump won the election, I figured I'd better build it before things went to shit. I didn't anticipate the RAMpocalypse thing but either way, my fear of the unknown did me a solid.

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dwarfzulu@reddit

When I've built my pc, around 2 years ago, it started with 32gb of ram, 2x16.

When I've finished buying everything it need, I had more money to spend, and as the mobo has 4 ram slots, I bought more 2.

Today, what I've paid for the 4, can't buy 1.

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Powerful_Physics1780@reddit

Multiple monitors. When gaming I can have a monitor showing a movie or something. For work I use two wide screens when programming ladder logic or reading schematics. Game changing all around.

Also... atx to matx. More desk space means more monitors.

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po1ar_opposite@reddit

I’ve been using multiple monitors for years at work and at home and it didn’t even dawn on me that this was an upgrade, that’s how integral it is to my PC experience

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hrl3qn@reddit

OLED monitor, I bought 2 years ago and G6, no regrets, no burns ... yet

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SherrifsNear@reddit

The 34" curved monitor I got a few years ago was possibly the single best upgrade I have made in many, many years of building my own systems.

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Iamhandsomesorry@reddit

I regret upgrading my ram from 8x2 3200mhz to 16x2 3600 ddr4. i cannot see any difference. The jump from 5600 to 5700x3d tho is crazy insane especially the frame times on monster wilds

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Balizzm@reddit

Going from an RX 470 to RX 6900xt

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dayeye2006@reddit

Better screen

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No-Improvement-8316@reddit

For me it was:

Voodoo2
SSD
Three monitors for ultra wide screen gaming (recently replaced with a single 55" 8K monitor - for productivity)
MMO mouse with 12 programmable buttons is really helpful for doing (non-gaming) stuff on a PC. Macros are godlike if you have to do repetitive tasks.

[-]

po1ar_opposite@reddit

A motor operated adjustable height desk. I love being able to micro adjust it so I’m not always stuck in the same position. Also works great for when my kids jump on my computer they can adjust to their height.

[-]

aloomis16@reddit

When I went from HDD to SSD ~20 years ago

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roehnin@reddit

HDD→SSD 💯

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mistiklest@reddit

A really nice chair.

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TryingT0Wr1t3@reddit

Switching my monitor from the regular stand it comes to a proper arm stand gave me more desk space and made it easier to swing it around and use the same desk in different ways.

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Low_Importance_9292@reddit

As always there is a law of dimeninsioning returns.

I think the biggest mistake people make (and I made it as well) is cutting back on the seldom upgraded parts. The ones that are upgraded maybe rvery 5 or so builds. This is where you want to prioritize your spending.

Immediate: Your monitor, and not your GPU/CPU is what you stare at. The main purpose of your GPU is to maximize the capabilities of what your monitor. This was the biggest change for me.

Headphones. Another factor and often overlooked. I went from regular Bluetooth headphones to Corsair Virtuosos the difference was night and day.

Longer Term: I have never owned a gaming chair. I probably never will because upgrading to a high quality office chair was the business. I stopped getting sore after long sessions.

Better Cooling I water cooled my 5800X/3090, but I opted to lower fan noise instead of increasing performance. I have 2 360mm XR7 radiators each with 3 120ML fans and they're inaudible below 1000 rpms. I also have an older black ice stealth GT 360 mm which 3 120 ml fans.

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Temporary-Ad8539@reddit

I went from a 1000 series nvidia gpu to a 5070ti and im still impressed

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draven33l@reddit

SSD has been the biggest change in the last 20 years. Mechanical drives are still the best for storage, but for boot drives and games, SSD will change your experience.

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keithstonee@reddit

I feel like that type of upgrade doesn't really exist now. For me it was going from 59hz to 144hz monitor. Or going from HDD to SSD.

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Dangermouse454@reddit

SSD… hands down

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Faumann@reddit

I had a real Old SSD which made playing games, pretty bad crazy fps drops because SSD loaded textures and shaders and everything insanely slow. Yesterday i put in a new SSD Critical BX500 1TB and its different of Day and Night. Many Games i can now play on Higher settings just because my SSD dosnt struggle Loading. I wish i did that much earlyer.

Cant wait for next Poe 2 season i had pretty bad Times in Endgame with Maplaoding and Shader loading takeing ages. Game ran good when everything laoded but it took ages. Tryed it today on some Endgame Maps absolut no problems anymore.

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pres02@reddit

Getting mini itx PCs. It’s become my addiction though. I love super powerful stuff the size of a small shoebox.

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Key_Wish_7990@reddit

49 inch Samsung G9 monitor. I thought it would be good for productivity and amazing for gaming. Turns out it's good for gaming and amazing for productivity.

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OttawaDog@reddit

Biggest over the years for me:

HDD -> SSD

Integrated graphics to decent GPU card for gaming.

That's it. I barely noticed anything else.

But a lot of the time I would be upgrade everything at once.

My rule of thumb for a new PC was I would not upgrade until new one was at minimum twice as fast. That was easier in the old days (1990s) when starting with a 486...

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Balalajka03@reddit

Going from a 1060 to a 3060 ti. It was during the start of mainstream bitcoin mining so it was pretty expensive, but since I feel content with 1080p 60fps, I don't think I will need to upgrade for a long while.

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Scoo_By@reddit

Bought 1 TB nvme in late 2023/early 2024 (don't remember), great game drive.

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crazyates88@reddit

The best upgrade that will "feel worth it" is the one that you need the most.

If you've got a killer $5,000 gaming setup with a $2,000 monitor but sitting on a folding metal chair, a good chair will make your setup 10x more enjoyable.

If you've got a 5090 but you're using a 1080p 60hz TN monitor, then yeah a monitor will feel worth it.

Is your gaming PC too loud? Get a better cooler/case/fans.

Is your gaming PC too slow? Upgrade the hardware you need the most.

Is your gaming PC performing well but looks like shit? Get a better monitor.

Is your performance and monitor good but your ergonomics suck? Get a better keyboard/mouse.

Does it sound bad? Get better speakers or headset.

What was the best upgrade for me might not be as important to you, depending on what you're already using and what you prioritize.

That said, nothing ever made a PC feel faster then when I upgraded to an SSD for the first time. But, that was a 1-time upgrade, and every SSD since has felt mostly the same. Sata VS NVME, 2GB/s vs 8GB/s, PCIe 3 vs PCIe 5, etc don't make a huge difference in terms of speed. Yes I know file transfers are technically faster, and games might load 1-2 seconds faster, but for normal booting up, responsiveness, launching games, running games, running almost any program, it will not matter in 98% of scenarios.

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Separate_Claim_8627@reddit

I3 10100 to i5 12400 and hdd to ssd

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Retnirpa@reddit

The obvious was an ssd.

But switching from IPS to OLED made a big difference too since it's soooo much more crisper in picture quality. I would always have to sit directly infront of my IPS or VA to get the clearest picture and constantly adjusting my seat or desk height.

But with OLED.. No light bleed from whatever angle you view your monitor/tv. I might even say getting a good monitor is more future proof than getting a GPU. My hot take

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Flutterpiewow@reddit

Mx master Silentwing fans Canopus pure3d 6mb

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mackybd@reddit

My first HDD to SSD and going from 1650 super to a 3080

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rav-age@reddit

One of the popular ones. SSD for everything remotely active. But still use bigger HDD for nas/archive, whatnot. Also getting a nice klonky keyboard again, after years of mushy ones

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Error___418@reddit

16 -> 32 gigs of ram

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Yuugere@reddit

upgrading fron 2400g to 5600g then 60hz to 200hz monitor

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CarlosDiVega@reddit

Hi, the upgrade really depends on your needs and budget. Last year I built a new workstation around a Minisforum BD790i motherboard with an Nvidia RTX 5080 (I got one on the first release day) and an curved LG 5K screen. As case I used a "Mechanic Master C28". This setup is a small super fast machine with lot of screen space. From photo and video editing to 3D rendering and running a local AI, you can through all that stuff with this little monster.

But as I said it really depends on your needs.

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UserCheckNamesOut@reddit

NAS

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LexB777@reddit

Getting an MX Master mouse. Going from a 7920x workstation CPU from 2017 to a Ryzen 9 9900x from 2024, the single thread performance is just immeasurably better for gaming. Going from a 1080ti to a 7900xtx. Getting an Herman Miller Embody chair. Getting an actual desk instead of a small folding table.

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AnOrdinaryChullo@reddit

4070 Super to 5090 - improved my experience across everything.

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TDYDave2@reddit

I suggest installing a system benchmarking program (such as passmark) and then upgrade whatever component in your particular system seems weakest.

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Dr_Lipshitz_@reddit

I mean it’s hard to say without knowing where you are coming from or what you’re using it for.

For me some memorable changes are:

HDD to SSD

1080p to 1440p ultrawide to 4k OLED ultrawide

Some more obvious ones tho were upgrading 2ish generations from a mid tier to high end card. That was crazy.

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Addsnheath@reddit

Biggest jump in performance was upgrading to a voodoo gpu back in the day.

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ImStillExcited@reddit

USB 1.1 to USB 2.0 pci card when I was 14,

My Y2K was fassssst

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DirtyYogurt@reddit

I have 3

HDD to SSD
Variable refresh rate monitor
Single to multithread CPU, hard to replicate a similar upgrade these days, but when I did it in 2020 background tasks fighting over 4 cores was a legit problem.

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Statharas@reddit

128gb ram.

Many have tried to tell me that I'd lose clock speed on my ram, that it's overkill, etc.

Nah. I'm sick of restraints. I switched to Linux, use no page file, I can load up two games at once, have as many tabs open on Firefox as I want, have multiple apps in the background for when I want to Continue work on them, etc.

How many times have I gone over 64gb? Twice. Do I regret this? No.

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joeh4384@reddit

Hmmmm, I have for the last 10 years or so pretty much always had a near top of line PC with only at most a couple generations back. I think in the post SSD world, the best upgrade I did was buying a good office chair right during the covid lockdowns.

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RDS_WAS_HERE@reddit

I just upgraded to a more expensive keyboard. I had no idea how crappy my old keyboard was until I got the new one. Some designer was having a good day when he/she moved the Caps LED right next to the Caps key. The quality of the keyboard is something you have to experience to appreciate.

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313Wolverine@reddit

OLED monitor

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BigFatCoder@reddit

OS Drive : HDD to SSD
1050Ti to 4070
24" QWHD Monitor to 32" 4K Monitor

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Adorable_Tangelo_964@reddit

Going from 3900X to 9800X3D was so worth it, even for higher resolution gameplay (especially BG3 and E33). THAT was some real generational upgrade. Like an idiot, I first upgraded my GPU from 3080 10G to 5080, and couldn’t see real difference because of CPU bottleneck. 😅

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onesleekrican@reddit

My oldest son’s pc. He roped my wife into ordering parts and she had no clue what they were. This thing is 5yrs old and aside from the 4060 in it, it’s current and strong. 64gb ram, 4060ti, ryzen9 series. Runs like a dream.

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alex0810@reddit

Oles monitor

Gen 4 nvme ssd with dram cache

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I recently got nvme for 75euro 1tb sn550 i think it was gen3 absolutely no difference noticeable from gen4 for gaming as a secondary drive. So point of saving there when you find a good deal.

Cpu with X generate more heat and are slightly better fron non X ones that are cooler.

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Leo9991@reddit

4060ti to 5070ti. It was so worth it.