When and what PC Upgrades?

[jacksonpetz44]

So I bought a pre built Trace 940 from iBuyPower not that long ago and I was wondering when I should consider upgrading my specs and what I'll need to upgrade and what I'll need to get.
My specs are below if I'm missing anything that may be needed please let me know and I can provide the spec.

CPU
Intel Core i7 (8th Gen) 8700 / 3.2 GHz
Max Turbo Speed
4.6 GHz
Number of Cores
6-core

RAM
Installed Size
16 GB
Memory Speed
2400 MHz
Technology
DDR4 SDRAM
Installed Size
16 GB

Hard Drive
Capacity
1 x 120 GB
Type
SSD
Installed Qty
1
Capacity
120 GB
Hard Drive (2nd)
Type
HDD
Interface Type
Serial ATA-600
Type
HDD
Interface Class
Serial ATA
Installed Qty
1
Capacity
1 TB
Spindle Speed
7200 rpm

Processor
Installed Qty
1
Max Supported Qty
1
Type
Core i7
Processor Number
i7-8700
Generation
8
Manufacturer
Intel
Clock Speed
3.2 GHz

Graphics Controller
Graphics Processor
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060
Video Memory
3 GB
Video Interfaces
DVI, DisplayPort, HDMI, VGA

 

[volkgren]

You could probably benefit from a GPU upgrade. Find out what power supply you have. That will be important in upgrading your GPU. Also, what monitor do you have?

One of these would be great for game *installs.
Storage: Samsung - 860 Evo 1TB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($166.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung - 860 Evo 1TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($167.99 @ Amazon)

 

[cryoburner]

I was wondering when I should consider upgrading my specs and what I'll need to upgrade and what I'll need to get.

You should consider upgrading when you find the performance to not be satisfactory at whatever you are doing. I take it this is for gaming? Is the performance you are getting in games suitable enough for you still?

As far as your system specs go, I would say that your i7-8700 CPU should perform well for some years to come, and 16GB of RAM will likely be enough for gaming and most desktop tasks for at least a few years. Your graphics card should be pretty decent for nearly all of today's games running at 1080p resolution with relatively high settings, though I agree that if you decide that you need more gaming performance and want to run the latest games at max settings or with higher resolution or frame rates, that would likely be the first piece of hardware to upgrade.

As for storage, it looks like you have a 120GB SSD along with a 1TB HDD. The hard drive is decent-enough in size, and should be where you store any large files like video, as well as your extended game library, though if you want to install games to the SSD to reduce load times, 120GB is a bit small for that. Windows and your applications are likely installed on the SSD as well, which wouldn't leave much room for more than a handful of smaller games on there. So yeah, like Volkgren said, adding another, larger SSD would be a good option if you intend to store games on there for faster loading. You probably won't need an SSD quite that large though, as you can just keep your actively played games on there, and optionally move any other games over to the hard drive. A 500GB SSD might be a decent-enough size for storing a moderate collection of games, and some good SATA SSDs can be bought for around US $85 now, like the Crucial MX500 or Samsung 860 Evo 500GB.

 

[jacksonpetz44]

You could probably benefit from a GPU upgrade. Find out what power supply you have. That will be important in upgrading your GPU. Also, what monitor do you have?

One of these would be great for game *installs.
Storage: Samsung - 860 Evo 1TB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($166.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung - 860 Evo 1TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($167.99 @ Amazon)

I believe my power supply is AL-D500EXP and my two monitors one is a 24.5 inch Omen HP and the other is a 24 inch curved by MSI and I'm planning on having three monitors for my setup