- Jan 23, 2015
- 15
- 0
- 10,510
Hello, I'm looking at doing a quick upgrade on my PC, I tried to have a look at parts on my own and quickly got overwhelmed, so I wanted to solicit some advice here. My Budget for new parts is $250, I prefer to buy through Amazon but I am fine with other stores provided I can buy all parts in one order (free shipping preferred) My current specs are below, with what I most want to upgrade listed in bold text:
Finally, if possible that I have enough cash left over, I would like to get a USB 3.0 Hub for my PC and replace my Secondary Games HDD. I have 4 external HDDs, Mouse, Keyboard, Bluetooth Dongle, Wifi, and SD Card Reader all plugged in so my USB options are pretty maxed out, I'd like to be able to plug in additional devices without unplugging anything. For my games, while there's nothing wrong with the Toshiba drive, I'm finding that 2TB is a little limiting on space and having either a second drive or upgrading to a larger capacity drive to store my games would be nice.
While my MoBo, CPU, and GPU aren't top of the line they are the newest components and suitable for my current needs so I am fine putting off those upgrades.
PRIMARY USE: I mainly use my computer as a gaming & multimedia desktop. The most intense game I play for specs is probably The Witcher 3, which runs fine (I use a 1050 res monitor). My upgrade plans don't really affect performance much for gaming though I don't feel.
For HDDs, I looked at SSD options but cost-to-size ratio is more important I think, I am open to a SSHD option though. I am primarily looking at speed (RPM) as I do a lot of downloading and file movement, storage capacity (needs to be at least 2 TB), and preferably quiet since my tower is located right next to my monitors. For a secondary gaming HDD I primarily want high speed and capacity, sound is less of an issue as I will generally drown out the noise made by the HDD. I looked at several brands of HDD but it seems I will have to make some trade-off either in RPM, noise level, storage capacity (above 2TB) or cost, so it's hard to factor in with my other needs here.
For PSU, according to this tool: https://www.newegg.com/tools/power-supply-calculator/ I only need 374 Watts to run primary components (all external HDDs have their own power supply), so while keeping a 750Watt would be nice, I can go down to a 450W and focus more on price point and rating. I would prefer modular, but as long as it can provide power for up to 4 HDDs I don't mind, I'm pretty good at cable management. I would feel more comfortable staying at 550W or higher though but I realize PSUs are expensive, and I don't do any overclocking.
For RAM I'm not really picky, I don't need to upgrade this right now, and I don't think my MoBo supports above DDR3, but having a higher clockspeed than 1333 would be nice. This is pretty low priority.
For a USB Hub I was looking at this Atolla 7-Port ( https://www.amazon.com/Splitter-Charging-Individual-Switches-Extension/dp/B07G8CMR18/ ), I don't really need a lot of powered USBs, but I do want 3.0 speeds so I can keep all my External HDDs access time higher (I rarely access multiple at once so buffering isn't a huge concern.)
To prioritize the parts I most need:
- Mid Tower ATX Case (just mentioned for size reference)
- ASUS Maximus VII Hero Motherboard
- Intel i7-4790K CPU @ 4 GHz
- Windows 7 Pro SP1 (not looking to upgrade yet)
- 16GB DDR3 1333 MhZ
- Zotac GeForce GTX 970
- Seagate 2TB HDD 64MB Cache, 6.0Gb/s 3.5" 7200 RPM (Primary System Drive)
- Toshiba 2TB HDD 64MB Cache, 6.0Gb/s 3.5" 7200 RPM (Secondary Games Drive)
- 750 Watt PSU(Not sure of brand but it's the oldest part of my build and most critical in need of upgrade.)
- 4 External HDDs (1TB, 2TBx2, 5TB, mostly media storage)
- 1050P Acer Monitors (x2)
Finally, if possible that I have enough cash left over, I would like to get a USB 3.0 Hub for my PC and replace my Secondary Games HDD. I have 4 external HDDs, Mouse, Keyboard, Bluetooth Dongle, Wifi, and SD Card Reader all plugged in so my USB options are pretty maxed out, I'd like to be able to plug in additional devices without unplugging anything. For my games, while there's nothing wrong with the Toshiba drive, I'm finding that 2TB is a little limiting on space and having either a second drive or upgrading to a larger capacity drive to store my games would be nice.
While my MoBo, CPU, and GPU aren't top of the line they are the newest components and suitable for my current needs so I am fine putting off those upgrades.
PRIMARY USE: I mainly use my computer as a gaming & multimedia desktop. The most intense game I play for specs is probably The Witcher 3, which runs fine (I use a 1050 res monitor). My upgrade plans don't really affect performance much for gaming though I don't feel.
For HDDs, I looked at SSD options but cost-to-size ratio is more important I think, I am open to a SSHD option though. I am primarily looking at speed (RPM) as I do a lot of downloading and file movement, storage capacity (needs to be at least 2 TB), and preferably quiet since my tower is located right next to my monitors. For a secondary gaming HDD I primarily want high speed and capacity, sound is less of an issue as I will generally drown out the noise made by the HDD. I looked at several brands of HDD but it seems I will have to make some trade-off either in RPM, noise level, storage capacity (above 2TB) or cost, so it's hard to factor in with my other needs here.
For PSU, according to this tool: https://www.newegg.com/tools/power-supply-calculator/ I only need 374 Watts to run primary components (all external HDDs have their own power supply), so while keeping a 750Watt would be nice, I can go down to a 450W and focus more on price point and rating. I would prefer modular, but as long as it can provide power for up to 4 HDDs I don't mind, I'm pretty good at cable management. I would feel more comfortable staying at 550W or higher though but I realize PSUs are expensive, and I don't do any overclocking.
For RAM I'm not really picky, I don't need to upgrade this right now, and I don't think my MoBo supports above DDR3, but having a higher clockspeed than 1333 would be nice. This is pretty low priority.
For a USB Hub I was looking at this Atolla 7-Port ( https://www.amazon.com/Splitter-Charging-Individual-Switches-Extension/dp/B07G8CMR18/ ), I don't really need a lot of powered USBs, but I do want 3.0 speeds so I can keep all my External HDDs access time higher (I rarely access multiple at once so buffering isn't a huge concern.)
To prioritize the parts I most need:
- PSU
- Primary HDD
- USB Hub
- RAM
- Secondary HDD
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