I’m not very tech savvy so please bear with me.
I bought a premade in 2018 and I’ve only updated the graphics card and ram since then. I’m using a 55" Samsung TV as a monitor. It’s really starting to get sluggish/finicky. Gaming example: it can run BGate3 on medium but starts having issues any higher.
- Processor: Intel Core i3-8100 Coffee Lake CPU, 4 Cores, 3.6GHz
- Graphics Card NIVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 8gb
- CPU Cooler: Intel Stock CPU Cooler
- Motherboard: ASUS Z370-P Motherboard
- Memory: 8GB DDR4 2400MHz Memory (2 x 4GB Sticks) + Crucial Ballistix BL2K8G36C16U4B 3600 MHz, DDR4, DRAM, Desktop Gaming Memory Kit, 16GB (8GB x2), CL16, Black
- Hard Drive: Seagate 2TB Firecuda Hybrid Hard Disk
EDIT for more info
It’s hooked up to my TV because I use it for everything from simple browsing, YouTube, streaming TV/movies, to gaming. For games the most taxing is something like BG3, but I can’t think of anything else in terms of taxing programmes.
I don’t think I’d have a use for it if I kept it. Even if I kept the hard drive I’d have to research How and What To Save To Which Drive On Your PC, but if that’s what y’all recommend then I can.
I’m not against investing a few grand if it’s the right money spent at the right time, if that makes sense? My worry about changing individual parts is the standard worries about installation and compatibility, but if it’s too soon to be chasing the whole rig then I can get over that
you could literally just get a better graphics card and this is all fine but because it’s an older machine it should be quite inexpensive to upgrade everything to max spec and get another 6 years out of it
Sorry, I’m being a noob, but what does “upgrade everything to max spec” mean? Does that mean to replace everything, in which case are you suggesting it’s time for a whole new rig?
What he means is to upgrade to the highest version of parts that your motherboard will support. So as an example, figure out the highest model i7 that will fit your chipset and socket and look into that. Because it is older it won’t have the premium price a new model will have but would still be a considerable upgrade for you. This upgrade would replace your CPU, RAM, Storage, and if you can afford it then GPU. You can do them in stages to save money as well in which case I would recommend this order, Storage > CPU > RAM > GPU.
Ah I understand, thanks
So is the motherboard the best thing to use as The Thing I Keep and level up everything else to meet its ability?
Depending on budget it can be a great option. I suggest pricing out what it would cost to upgrade the pieces on the existing motherboard vs what it would cost to build something in the current models with a new motherboard. At the end you will end up with better classes of parts from 2018 but they will still be older and lacking in the efficiencies of newer.
Personally over the past few years I would recommend looking into a newer model AMD Ryzen system. Look into a motherboard from a couple years ago that supports the current gen CPU socket and DDR5 to set yourself up for the future. Get yourself an NVMe M.2 SSD and a Ryzen 5 with 32 GB of DDR5 and you would notice a huge difference and have great upgrade potential with current gen parts.
This all depends heavily on your budget however. Use a site like PC part picker to through all the parts for a few builds in and see which fits comfortably in your budget just recognizing that depending when you plan for your next upgrade, the only thing you could take from maxing out your old system would be the SSD.
Thanks for this
I got a good 10 years out of my previous machine using in place upgrades like this.
Upgrading SSD, RAM and an in-socket upgrade for the CPU will be pretty cheap. If he spends more money and upgrades the GPU as well then he should be good to go.