Help needed :)

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12 Nov 2025
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Nottinghamshire
Hello,
I'm seeking on upgrading my computer, purchased pre-built via eBay.
These are the specifications:

Motherboard is a Gigabyte H510M H V2 x.x
Processor is an Intel core i5-10400F @ 2.90GHz 6 cores
Graphics card is an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 with 12GB
RAM is 16GB DDR4 Kingston

My Hard drive is only 1TB, would like to upgrade this as well but not sure how to find which one I have.

My startup is somewhat sluggish, and my computer seems to lag during high intensity fights in World of Warcraft & Ark Survival Ascended (the main two games I play).
I'm also wondering if upgrading any parts on it would increase the speed at which my games update via steam (download speed is acceptable, but when downloaded games take hours and hours to patch).
Looking to be able to spend minimal for maximum results, but will spend more if needed.

Wondered if someone could recommend parts that are compatible with my current motherboard or other parts that require upgrades.

Many thanks,
Cando
 
Hi thanks for the reply,
No budget at the moment, just looking for advice on which parts to upgrade first & compatibility and stuff.
 
Sluggish startup will either be harddrive or software. If you open file explorer and right click 'This PC' and click properties, then the hardware tab, what does it show in the list? Gamepatching may be harddrive as well, let's see what you have.

There's not much upgrade headroom in your system short of a new graphics card. Apart from that it's going to be a new CPU / Mobo / RAM. At that point you might want to just get a new prebuilt. Really need an idea of budget as that will dictate everything.

It might be a case of get the best graphics card you can afford and see how you go for the moment, then upgrade the rest a bit later, or you find you don't need to.
 
My Hard drive is only 1TB, would like to upgrade this as well but not sure how to find which one I have.
Download something like hwinfo and you can get lots more specs than you'll probably ever want!

An easier option would be to just open up task manager, click the performance tab and your hard drive model number(s) should be listed at the top of the window when you click on them. You can then google that.

My startup is somewhat sluggish, and my computer seems to lag during high intensity fights in World of Warcraft & Ark Survival Ascended (the main two games I play).
I'm also wondering if upgrading any parts on it would increase the speed at which my games update via steam (download speed is acceptable, but when downloaded games take hours and hours to patch).
Looking to be able to spend minimal for maximum results, but will spend more if needed.
Like InkZ said, a slow start-up and slow patching can be hardware, software or both. If you run task manager alongside the sluggishness, hopefully you can find out what the problem is.

If the PC genuinely has a hard drive rather than a SSD, then that's your problem right there. Get it replaced and your PC will arrive in the 21st century.

It could also just be a really bad/bargain basement SSD. These can have poor patch performance.

Note that Steam uses a bunch of CPU for downloading/unpacking, so I'd also check (in task manager) that your CPU is correctly boosting and not stuck at 2.9 Ghz. If it is stuck at 2.9 Ghz, that would feel really slow with the above.

Wondered if someone could recommend parts that are compatible with my current motherboard or other parts that require upgrades.
Your current PC is well balanced. The 10400 pairs nicely with a 3060.

What resolution do you play your games at?

My startup is somewhat sluggish, and my computer seems to lag during high intensity fights in World of Warcraft & Ark Survival Ascended (the main two games I play).
I assume you don't run any monitoring software? I'd suggest using afterburner to find out your usage, but I'm not sure if that's a good idea with World of Warcraft, because they're antsy about running third party software and I don't want to get you banned :o

I should think you're safe to run hwinfo's sensor tab, because that doesn't have any interaction with the game.
 
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