Upgrade options for 7 year old pc $500 area

johndeerejeff

Commendable
Jan 16, 2018
14
0
1,510
Hello community,

Looking to upgrade my home PC to allow me to play just about any game on the market (maybe not at full specs). I primarily play Simulator games, but only because performance has always been low with demanding games. I don't have the knowledge or comfort to alter my settings on GPU, but I know my other hardware is limiting me anyways. I built this computer 7 years ago and had a lot of help from a tech friend in college. So I may not fully understand the terminology (may want to dumb it down).

Here is my current specs:

CPU: AMD Phenom II x4 960T 3.0 Ghz AM3 Quad-Core
Motherboard: Biostar A880G+ Micro ATX AMD
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4) 240-Pin DDR3
Hard Drive: Seagate 1TB 32MB 7200 Internal
Power: Raidmax hybrid 2 Rx-630SS 630W SLI
GPU: MSI Geforce GTX 970 (upgraded 1.5 years ago)
Monitor: Acer S0 Series S220HQL 21.5"

Again, I am looking to improve gaming experience and value any/all suggestions and advice on where to go and what direction is best. If nothing is salvageable I would be open to full setup options that will get me going. Also may need advice on upgrading CPU and motherboard if going that direction. (sorry I am a newbie).

Appreciate what you do on here and I have been researching previous upgrades and forum questions to get a better idea where to go, but thought I would ask for 1st-hand perspective.

Thanks!

Jeff (USA)



 
Either Ryzen 1600 or I5 8400:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor ($199.79 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock - AB350 Pro4 ATX AM4 Motherboard ($73.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($187.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $461.76
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-01-30 22:29 EST-0500

Or


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i5-8400 2.8GHz 6-Core Processor ($190.98 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: MSI - Z370-A PRO ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($90.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($187.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $469.95
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-01-30 22:29 EST-0500