Best Cheap Used Parts

[oliverbattley05]

I need advice on the best cheap used parts, as I'm looking to upgrade my 1156 i3 540 system and don't know where to start. I'm 13, so disposable income is a rarity, but at Christmas I will accumulate around £200 (I think) to spend on upgrading my rig. Any advice?

 

[racksmith101]

If you list your system specs then people will know what you have to work with.

 

[oliverbattley05]

i3 540, 4 GB ddr3 1333mhz, Intel HD. Decent enough power supply. Can't remember the motherboard name but it has usb3 on the end of the name and is made by Asus

 

[Quanticriver]

look for used pc's with these cpu's:
i5 2400 or i5 3470 - you should find something within your tiny budget
these are socket 1155 so you can recycle your ram

 

[Aeacus]

200 quid will get you these:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Pentium Gold G5400 3.7 GHz Dual-Core Processor (£67.31 @ CCL Computers)
Motherboard: MSI - B360M PRO-VDH Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£65.39 @ Box Limited)
Memory: Kingston - FURY 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2666 Memory (£65.96 @ More Computers)
Total: £198.66
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-11-07 18:26 GMT+0000

Few words
Due to the small budget, put in Pentium Gold G5400 CPU which is far better than your current i3-540 and it's also the latest tech. CPU cooler is included with CPU,
i3-540 vs G5400 comparison: https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i3-540-vs-Intel-Pentium-Gold-G5400/m2936vsm484278

Also picked B360 chipset micro-ATX MoBo which comes with 4x RAM slots for easier RAM upgrade in the future.

And lastly, put in 2x 4GB DDR4 2666 Mhz RAM. 2666 Mhz is the fastest RAM speed supported by that MoBo. And due to the 4x RAM slots on MoBo, you can easily upgrade your RAM to 16GB by buying 2nd 2x 4GB RAM set in the future, if you need it.

Another benefit of latest tech is far better performance in games. Since you don't have dedicated GPU in your PC, you're currently running CPU's on-board graphics (your monitor is connected to your MoBo, right)? If so, your GPU is Intel HD Graphics Clarkdale. With G5400 CPU, you'll get Intel UHD 610 graphics which is miles better than your current graphics chip in your CPU,
comparison: https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-UHD-Graphics-610-vs-Intel-HD-Graphics-Clarkdale-073309-GHz/m7702vsm484279

Though, with this CPU-MoBo-RAM combo, you'll need to re-use your storage drive(s), case and PSU. Good side about latest tech is that all of them come as brand new and you have lots of upgrade paths without the need to change MoBo or replace RAM.