[SOLVED] Please help upgrade

[SwiftCadence]

Hey all, could you please help make recommendations to upgrade what was once I gaming PC? Due to work and life, I basically stopped playing games but now I want to get back into it. Primarily looking forward to BL3 and Cyberpunk. I feel like it's been so long since I did anything with computers, I don't even know what things do anymore. (i.e. I have no idea why I have two hard drives on my computer) I feel incredibly clueless, please help.

Operating System: Windows 10
Hard Drive 1: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6GB/S 7200RPM 64MB Cache 3.5in Hard Drive OEM (WD10EZEX)
Hard Drive 2: Crucial MX100 256GB SATA 6Gbps 150/550MB/S 2.5? 7MM (with 9.5mm Adapter) SSD (CT256MX100SSD1)
CPU Processor: Intel Core i5 I5-4690 Haswell 3.5 GHz Processor LGA 1150 6MB Cache Retail (BX80646I54690)
Motherboard: ASUS Z97-A ATX LGA1150 DDR3 3PCI-E16 2PCI-E1 2PCI CrossFireX/SKI SATA3 USB3.0 HDMI Motherboard (Z97-A)
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce EVGA GTX 770 1111MHz Superclocked w/ ACX Cooler 2GB GDDR5 256Bit 7010MHz HDMI SLI Graphics Card (02G-P4-2774-KR)
Memory: G.SKILL Ripjaws X F3-14900CL9D-8GBXL 8GB 2x4GB DDR3-4/99 CL9-10-9-28 Memory (F3-14900CL9D-8GBXL)
Computer Case: Fractal Design Arc MIDI R2 Tower (FD-CA-ARC-R2-BL-W)
Fan: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo Direct Touch 4 Heatpipe Heatsink (RR-212E-20PK-R2)
Power Supply: Seasonic G-750 Gold 750W ATX 80PLUS Modular 120mm Fan Power Supply PSU DC to DC (SSR-750RM)
Wireless Adapter: TP-Link TL-WDN4800 560 MBPS Dual-Band Wireless N PCI-E Adapter Atheros 3T3R 2.4/5GHz 802 11A/B/G/N (TL-WDN4800)
Monitor: ASUS MX279H 27” LED HD
Mouse: Razer Ouroborus
Keyboard: Logitech G213 Prodigy Gaming Keyboard

 

[Darkbreeze]

What is your FULL budget for upgrades?

What range of in game quality settings are you looking to target?

What country are you in (Because, prices are different everywhere)?

Likely, you have the SSD for your operating system and the hard disk drive for storing games or personal files. Back when that system was new the price of a large SSD was much more expensive than it is these days, which is probably why you had a large hard drive along with your smaller SSD.

 

[NightHawkRMX]

Systrm is dated, but can still game well if you dont mind lower settings. Not sure how it will handle future games tho.

Budget and currency?

Country?

 

[Darkbreeze]

He already listed his monitor. It's a MX279H and is a 1080p display.

 

[NightHawkRMX]

Missed it aswell.

 

[SwiftCadence]

Monitor is 1920x1080. I'm in the united states. I don't really know what my budget is as I don't know how much quality equipment runs for. I've really been away from things for a while. Thank you again.

 

[NightHawkRMX]

Cant seem to find the hz of that monitor, but since it claims 5mz i suspect its 60 hz.

Really budget is a major dictator, but id try something like this.

PCPartPicker Part List

Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
CPU | AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor | $193.89 @ OutletPC
Motherboard | ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming 4 ATX AM4 Motherboard | $157.98 @ Newegg
Memory | G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory | $77.99 @ Newegg
Storage | Intel 660p Series 512 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive | $59.89 @ OutletPC
Video Card | MSI GeForce GTX 1660 Ti 6 GB VENTUS XS OC Video Card | $254.99 @ B&H
| Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts |
| Total (before mail-in rebates) | $759.74
| Mail-in rebates | -$15.00
| Total | $744.74
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-08-31 17:39 EDT-0400 |
Reuse case, psu, and storage drives.


Or alternatively you could upgrade to an i7 4770k and then upgrade to the 1660ti.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Well most of your system, well, parts anyhow, are still pretty solid.

If you wanted to go as cheap as possible, which still probably isn't going to be all THAT cheap, I'd just upgrade your graphics card and see how that does for you. If you are not looking for a bazilliony FPS, which, based on your monitors refresh rate you shouldn't be, then just a graphics card upgrade might be enough.

Better would be replacing that i5 with a 4790k which adds four hyperthreads in addition to the four cores your 4690k has, another 8GB of RAM AND a graphics card.

In truth, a full platform upgrade plus graphics card would probably be necessary if you are wanting to be able to play top shelf AAA games and maintain 60 or more FPS at Ultra settings or close to it.

In order to know what kind of upgrade is even feasible for you, knowing what kind of budget you can throw at this is absolutely essential. Obviously, the more you can afford, the better the results, but there are a variety of ways you could improve things without spending any more than necessary AND knowing what your expectations are for the end result would definitely be helpful.

 

[SwiftCadence]

Thank you for the responses. I'd like to be able to get into a position where I don't have to upgrade again soon, so hopefully I can just make small changes in the future. I'm okay if I have to revamp everything, I just don't know what that'll cost any more. I don't have an unlimited budget but I'm willing to push it a bit.

What do you think about the monitor? Upgrade as well?

 

[NightHawkRMX]

If your happy with 1080p 60hz and the way your monitor works, i wouldnt change it.

The cheapest route would be to throw in a 1660ti, another 8gb ram for 16gb total, and 4770k or 4790k. Both cpus are fine for 60hz gaming, but will get slightly bogged down in the latest titles. But if you wanted to upgrade in the future you eould have to chage cpu mobo and go to ddr4 ram.

The other option will perform better and leave more room for uogrades in the future, but it will also cost much more.

This option woild be to upgrade to a ryzen 5 or newer i5 and 1660ti along with ddr4 ram.

 

[Darkbreeze]

How much are you WILLING to spend, if necessary? Obviously, there are upgrade options at practically every price point, but knowing "I have five hundred dollars to spend" or "I could put 1000 dollars into this" are going to be the determining factors as far as what is going to make sense. Anything else is just throwing things at the wall to see what sticks without having any idea of what is REALISTIC for YOU.

Also, it would help to know if you are looking for a system that can do 1080p ultra, or if you're going to be happy with high settings and some key options turned down, or if you prefer moving up to a 1440p display, these are all things we need to know. If you're going to spend money, you want to be sure you spend it in a way that results in getting what you actually WANT rather than just what can I get for 300 bucks. Sometimes, to get what you want, and make spending the money not turn out to be a waste and an unhappy end result, it may be better to simply wait and save up so that that can happen rather than settling for only what you can afford now.

Obviously, those are thinking processes related to budget restrictions, and if you have none, then we can do whatever you like, but if you do, it would be a lot better to know what they are so that recommendations can be tailored to them rather than offering suggestions that are not realistic based on your cash flow or lack of it where an upgrade is concerned.

 

[Calvin7]

Crucial MX100 SATA SSD is not a hard drive.

GTX 770 is an old power hungry video card. That can be replaced with one of the top current models. Next, you could pick up a used i7 CPU on eBay if you feel like changing the CPU.

 

[Darkbreeze]

In case you haven't noticed, which apparently you haven't, many if not MOST of the prebuilt system detail break downs, like those online pre-configurators for building your own "custom" system, show storage devices as "hard drive 1" and "hard drive 2", even when one or more of the devices are not spinning drives.

I don't think it's necessary OR helpful, to be so persnickety about the semantics of the OPs build outline. Especially when he's already conceded that he's not particularly well versed with hardware. I think you get "not cool" points for that.

@SwiftCadence, just ignore that (Get off my lawn) comment other than to note for future reference that TECHNICALLY, an SSD isn't a hard drive, although in some forms of casual conversation they could loosely be used interchangeably by a somewhat less knowledgeable user.