[SOLVED] Buy a new MB, or upgrade components?

[nofearcavalier]

I've had my ASUS p8z77-v LE motherboard for 7 years (with an i7-3770 CPU @ 3.4GHz and a 5 year old graphics card that I can't complain about) and I'd like to employ various upgrades like a SSD, a new graphics card, and additional RAM. My intent is for my PC to boot and multitask as quickly as possible and allow for future sustainability, without breaking the bank.

I'm not tech savy, but I realized that because I don't have a M.2 connection on my MB, I'll be paying a lot more for an SSD. I also noticed that many of the better graphics cards don't appear to be compatiable with my MB. Ram seems to be fairly straight forward; I have 16gb, and I can double that to 32 apparently.

I have been having occaional crashing issues as well with Skyrim as well (which I might be inappropriately blaming on my older components), and well, I'd like some advice as to whether it's time for me to invest in a new MB (maybe there will be all sorts of performance/feature upgrade to doing this), or pay for an AIC SSD and additional RAM (and just suck-up not having the option for a better graphics card)?

I'm willing to invest in a sustainable solution, but also don't want to do it unnecessarily if the features associated with a more modern MB don't justifty its purchase.

Advice?

 

[kanewolf]

I've had my ASUS p8z77-v LE motherboard for 7 years (with an i7-3770 CPU @ 3.4GHz and a 5 year old graphics card that I can't complain about) and I'd like to employ various upgrades like a SSD, a new graphics card, and additional RAM. My intent is for my PC to boot and multitask as quickly as possible and allow for future sustainability, without breaking the bank.

I'm not tech savy, but I realized that because I don't have a M.2 connection on my MB, I'll be paying a lot more for an SSD. I also noticed that many of the better graphics cards don't appear to be compatiable with my MB. Ram seems to be fairly straight forward; I have 16gb, and I can double that to 32 apparently.

I have been having occaional crashing issues as well with Skyrim as well (which I might be inappropriately blaming on my older components), and well, I'd like some advice as to whether it's time for me to invest in a new MB (maybe there will be all sorts of performance/feature upgrade to doing this), or pay for an AIC SSD and additional RAM (and just suck-up not having the option for a better graphics card)?

I'm willing to invest in a sustainable solution, but also don't want to do it unnecessarily if the features associated with a more modern MB don't justifty its purchase.

Advice?

You WON'T be paying a lot more for an SSD. You will just be buying a SATA SSD rather than an NVMe. Pricing for SATA is about the same and there are a lot of specials for SATA SSDs since they sell more of them. An MX500 SATA SSD will be just fine. Although it is painful, one thing that can improve your performance in conjunction with a new SSD is a clean OS install. An OS that has 7 years of "stuff" in the registry can be slow.
16GB vs 32GB is difficult to make a recommendation. MOST home users don't max out 16GB. It will depend on how you use the system. IMO, for a 7 year old system, I would save the money for a CPU/RAM/motherboard combo upgrade.

 

[jon96789]

I agree, salvaging a 7yo system is wasting money. You'd be better off buying a new system... doesn't have to be the latest or greatest. There are a lot of decent PCs out there for $500