Need help!! Build first gaming pc

[otterknight]

Now I don't know much about gaming PCs at all and what I do have is a desktop that if possible like to build off. It has a 3.4 ghz pentium i3 processor, 8gb of ddr3 ram that is expandable to 16gb, 1 terabyte hard drive and runs Windows 8.1. What would I need to do to make this better?

 

[StormBrew]

Well I have a question, is it a Pentium or an i3? It cannot be both, they're two different architectures. As for gaming, 8GB of ram is fine, you do not need more. If your PC is pre built, may I know what model? The two upgrades I would recommend would be PSU and GPU, but only after I know what the whole base system is.

 

[otterknight]

Now see I don't really know. That is how little I know lol. It is an hp pavilion 500. It was given to me. I don't even have a monitor.

 

[jdcranke07]

Well I have a question, is it a Pentium or an i3? It cannot be both, they're two different architectures. As for gaming, 8GB of ram is fine, you do not need more. If your PC is pre built, may I know what model? The two upgrades I would recommend would be PSU and GPU, but only after I know what the whole base system is.

^^Agreed with above. However, for best possible experience and not wasting your money, building a PC with minimum 8GB of RAM (depends on how many programs you have up at once while gaming), and i5 processor, a 950 or higher Nvidia type GPU would be best (keep in mind the 7xx series is still viable for budget builds) for performance to power consumption ratios, and having a solid state drive coupled with your hard disk drive would be best for performance yields. SSDs are also really cheap nowadays and you can just get a smaller one and only have windows on there. Also, go for Windows 10 because it is the best in terms of optimization and Microsoft will stop all future compatibility with CPUs and prior versions of Windows starting summer of 2017. Windows 10 is here to stay and is better than Windows 8/8.1 by far.

 

[Rolfejc0]

You will need a new graphics card for most games, the iGPU of whatever CPU you have generally isn't going to do great for even most simple games. You may also need a better CPU, a Pentium can only do so well in a game unless you have an i3 which is a bit better but an i5 would be a good option if you have the budget and if the motherboard supports an i5 upgrade as well. You may also need to upgrade the PSU depending on what GPU you get.