CyberPowerPC Upgrade Help

[soodz20]

Hello, I was wondering if it would be possible to manually upgrade a cyberpowerpc, namely the GUA1200BST. I am new to PCs and am unsure of the difficulty in upgrading a pre-built pc. Basically, I want to upgrade the CPU, the GPU, and the RAM from the defaults in the model to higher levels. Right now I am pondering on a CPU of AMD FX-8000+, some sort of affordable priced NVIDIA GPU, and at least 16GB RAM. My real question is will this be a good affordable upgrade, or are there any recommendations on upgradable parts?

 

[ritvarsdavis]

I doubt that pc has a good power supply. Before changing to anything beefier, I'd suggest getting a new power supply, which answers your questions - yes, you can easily upgrade. That's the beauty of PC's.

Can you let us know your total budget for the upgrades?

 

[ket311288vry]

AMD FX-8000 are represented as 8-core processors. But in fact, the processors have only 4 modules, in other words, they are closer to 4-core than 8.But the AMD FX-8320E processor with its 8 cores will be just the way. And the clock frequency can be raised from the standard 3.2 to 4.5 GHz.

 

[soodz20]

I doubt that pc has a good power supply. Before changing to anything beefier, I'd suggest getting a new power suppl, which answers your questions - yes, you can easily upgrade. That's the beauty of PC's.

Can you let us know your total budget for the upgrades?

I’d say that seeing how most things are able to attain over time, I could spend 200-300 per item at most. I know that the cpus and gpus are roughly in that category, but if there are any suggestions I’m all ears. But how would one change the power supply anyways?

 

[ritvarsdavis]

That's easy. Unplug it from the wall socket, press the PSU switch to "off" and then unplug all the connectors from it. After that get a Philips headscrew to screw it out of the case and that's it.

For the CPU, you can get the above mentioned FX 8320E.

Cryorig H7 CPU cooler to keep it cool. It's a decent, cheap cooler that gets the job done. But if you want to overclock, gonna need a beefier one.

As you already have 8GB ram, you can just add another 8GB. You need 2 identical ram sticks to run in dual channel mode. These days, 16GB is a must. For your platform, AM3+ a 16GB DDR3 kit usually at 1600MHz would be good. Mixing ram is never a good thing, I'd suggest getting a new 2x8GB kit and sell your existing 8GB to someone.

For the GPU, a 1050 Ti would be great. It can run all games at 1080p anywhere from low to high, depending on game. eSports titles easily 1080p max. Ideally a 1060 6GB would be better, but GPU prices aren't the best right now.

Another option is wait for them to drop down in price or wait for new GTX series to be released. Should be soon (Pascal i.e GTX 10XX-series are 2 years old).

And for the power supply, I'd suggest a 500W and up. Corsair grey label CXM series is good, SeaSonic Focus Plus and Prime are even better. EVGA G2, G3 are also good. CXM will be cheaper though. PSU is the most important part of your pc, so cheaping out on it is never a good thing. Might as well get an excellent unit for a piece of mind.

 

[soodz20]

That's easy. Unplug it from the wall socket, press the PSU switch to "off" and then unplug all the connectors from it. After that get a Philips headscrew to screw it out of the case and that's it.

For the CPU, you can get the above mentioned FX 8320E.

Cryorig H7 CPU cooler to keep it cool. It's a decent, cheap cooler that gets the job done. But if you want to overclock, gonna need a beefier one.

As you already have 8GB ram, you can just add another 8GB. You need 2 identical ram sticks to run in dual channel mode. These days, 16GB is a must. For your platform, AM3+ a 16GB DDR3 kit usually at 1600MHz would be good. Mixing ram is never a good thing, I'd suggest getting a new 2x8GB kit and sell your existing 8GB to someone.

For the GPU, a 1050 Ti would be great. It can run all games at 1080p anywhere from low to high, depending on game. eSports titles easily 1080p max. Ideally a 1060 6GB would be better, but GPU prices aren't the best right now.

Another option is wait for them to drop down in price or wait for new GTX series to be released. Should be soon (Pascal i.e GTX 10XX-series are 2 years old).

And for the power supply, I'd suggest a 500W and up. Corsair grey label CXM series is good, SeaSonic Focus Plus and Prime are even better. EVGA G2, G3 are also good. CXM will be cheaper though. PSU is the most important part of your pc, so cheaping out on it is never a good thing. Might as well get an excellent unit for a piece of mind.

Thank you for this help, but the only issue is this is like my first real PC, so I have no idea what you are talking about. Basically, it would help if there are links to the pieces that I need. That way, I can figure out what to achieve faster than the rest. I can easily wait for the GPUs since I’m not in a rush for quality, just speed. Also, if I were to change the CPU, would I need a new motherboard? And I have no idea what a 2x8GB kit is sorry. Also what is overclocking and do I really need a new fan? Finally, isn’t the AMD Ryzen 5 1500X better than all of the FXs? It doesn’t seem to be that bad of a price differential, but it says it needs an AM4 socket. Would I then need to change the motherboard?

 

[Corwin65]

To switch to Ryzen you would need a new motherboard, the CPU, and DDR4 RAM all at once.

You will probably also need a new copy of Windows due to the basically "new" computer.

 

[ritvarsdavis]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - FX-8320E 3.2GHz 8-Core Processor ($105.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG - H7 49.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($34.89 @ OutletPC)
Memory: ADATA - XPG V1.0 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($104.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB SC GAMING ACX 2.0 Video Card ($209.89 @ OutletPC)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - FOCUS Plus Gold 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $510.75
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-04-13 14:18 EDT-0400

Ok, so if you want to keep your mobo and save some money, you can change your processor to another FX series, the FX 8320E. When changing a CPU, you need to remove the thermal paste from the CPU and the existing cooler and then apply a new paste on both of them to install a new cooler. Cryorig H7 includes a thermal paste in its retail box. No worries, plenty of video tutorials out there that explain in detail how to do it.

2x8GB kit means that the manufacturer has tested both of the kits and can guarantee that they will work together. As opposed to adding another stick yourself, cuz you can't guarantee. A kit is always better.

Overclocking - https://youtu.be/RPmDSYRKnXM

Considering you don't really know what it is, don't worry about it. You don't need to do it. And in case you consider it, Google has plenty of tutorials.

You said that you wanted to upgrade CPU, GPU and RAM with a budget of 200 - 300 (I assume USD). If we take, 300 per piece, that's 900$. For that amount of money you can get an entirely new build with up-to-date platforms, such as new chipset motherboard, DDR4 ram and so on. Something to think about.

EDIT:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor ($175.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG - H7 49.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($34.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: MSI - B350 TOMAHAWK ATX AM4 Motherboard ($77.29 @ OutletPC)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($177.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB SC GAMING ACX 2.0 Video Card ($209.89 @ OutletPC)
Case: NZXT - S340 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($66.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: Corsair - CXM (2015) 450W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($47.00 @ Amazon)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($89.89 @ OutletPC)
Total: $879.93
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-04-13 14:33 EDT-0400

Didn't add storage, assumed you already have it.

Another thing to consider, you could sell your Cyber pc and add that money to the 900$ budget and get even better components.

 

[Zerk2012]

Hello, I was wondering if it would be possible to manually upgrade a cyberpowerpc, namely the GUA1200BST. I am new to PCs and am unsure of the difficulty in upgrading a pre-built pc. Basically, I want to upgrade the CPU, the GPU, and the RAM from the defaults in the model to higher levels. Right now I am pondering on a CPU of AMD FX-8000+, some sort of affordable priced NVIDIA GPU, and at least 16GB RAM. My real question is will this be a good affordable upgrade, or are there any recommendations on upgradable parts?

Sell it and start over. Any FX processor you use will be 6 years old already and was not really good for gaming when released.

 

[soodz20]

Thank you so much for the help! I think I will try to sell my PC, but I did buy it less than 30 days ago. Does BestBuy work with refunds? I will search it up right now. Thanks so much!

Edit:
Actually, since I will be off to college soon, there is no need for me to input that much money into a PC. I think the $500 upgrade will suffice, or at least the GPU and RAM. I don’t really care about top-notch FPS, but my internet is quite alright and I feel that the graphics is the main issue in this PC, AMD Radeon RX 560. Quite outdated I believe. Is it possible to just upgrade the GPU and RAM? Also will I need a new power supply for just those two items?

 

[ritvarsdavis]

If you don't upgrade the CPU, but only RAM and GPU, you might as well get the GTX 1060 6GB instead of 1050 Ti. As for the RAM, get a matching kit of 2x8GB and when you get it, sell your existing 8GB stick. Oh, and I'd also get a new power supply, the one I mentioned bit above is of excellent quality. I don't trust those PSU's that are in prebuilts, especially cheap prebuilts. They only use low quality units to cut the costs.

16GB Ram + 1060 6GB + SeaSonic Focus Plus Gold 550W = about 400 to 500 depending where you buy. (+ Some money back from the 8GB stick if you successfully manage to sell it as well as a more powerful card than a 1050 Ti).

 

[soodz20]

Sorry about reopening this discussion, but I’ve recently decided to try and return my CyberPowerPC. It runs Fortnite pretty well, 100+ FPS, but I can’t stream on it whilst playing. The CPU doesn’t have enough strength to run it and the game itself uses 99% of the GPU (I saw this through Task Manager). I’m looking for a PC that I can stream and play fortnite. Would the Alienware Alpha i5-6400T for $700 be worth it? It’s a Quad Core unlike my FX 6300. I’m trying to get a nice PC that can run both Stream and Fortnite. Any recommendations? Also budget is like under $800

 

[ritvarsdavis]

i5 6400T won't be good for streaming. The AMD build I shared above is your best bet.

 

[soodz20]

Are there any prebuilt PCs that you’d recommend under $900?

 

[ritvarsdavis]

I checked some offerings on Newegg and they don't seem that great. If it holds up everywhere, then prebuilts don't come with decent boards nor PSU's. For example, 700 bucks, Ryzen 5 and an A320 board. Unacceptable. I think it's best to build your own unless you find a steal of a deal on some site.

The only deal that stood out was this for $750 - https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883102289

Not much detail on the spec sheet, but that RX 570 that's in it, retails for more than $300 on its own. Pretty crazy deal. Has a B350 board which it doesn't show exact model (might as well be a B350 PC MATE which is the worst B350), 8GB ram (probably low speed single stick, which is not that great for Ryzen) and most definitely a generic low quality PSU.

Here is a list of parts that I upgraded from that Newegg offer:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor ($174.79 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG - H7 49.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($34.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: MSI - B350 TOMAHAWK ATX AM4 Motherboard ($77.39 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($103.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($43.85 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Asus - Radeon RX 570 4GB ROG STRIX Video Card ($279.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design - Focus G (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($54.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - FOCUS Plus Gold 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($89.89 @ OutletPC)
Total: $914.77
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-04-30 17:53 EDT-0400

It has decent, high speed, dual channel RAM that's proper for a Ryzen build. A good mobo to overclock the CPU, nice cooler, great quality PSU. It is $170 more than what Newegg asks (they even include a full license of Win10, not too shabby).