I want to upgrade my PC for no particular reason - advice :)

alex_ncfc

alex_ncfc

alex_ncfc

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31 Jul 2013
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Location
Norwich, UK
As the thread title suggests, I have the urge to upgrade my PC. I think it's because of all what's going on with lockdowns etc which just means, kind of almost out of boredom, I fancy doing an upgrade. Trouble is, I am kind out so out of touch with tech these days that I don't know where to start. Also, I don't use my PC for anything too taxing, and it still runs perfectly for what I do do on it (specs below) but sometimes it's nice just to update things.

I did a similar thing back in early 2015 when I built this machine - I came on to this very forum and got some great advice, got the parts, put it together and it's essentially exactly the same PC I am using right now as it was 6 years ago:

* ASUS H81M-K Motherboard
* i5-4440 3.10Ghz CPU
* 8GB DDR3-PC12800 RAM
* 128GB O/S drive (SSD), 2TB data drive (spinner)
* 500W EVGA PSU

The only thing added since over time is a couple of graphics cards I've had, and I currently have a:

* ASUS Geforce GTX 660 Ti

I feel the graphics card is more than enough. I might rarely fire up a game, or run some emulators with games etc

Say I set a budget of £500, what would be a good upgrade path to take? I would prefer a more fully featured motherboard, as this one is quite restricted with very few expansion slots (it's a really small board) and also I would like something that has the likes of USB-C if this is now a thing. In that sense I guess I'd possibly need a new case too with some sort of front facing USB-C ports? It'd be handy because my phone cable is USB-C only so as an example I'd be able to easily connect it to my PC.

Also, do current motherboards have built in connectivity like WIFI and Bluetooth? The latter especially would be handy as I use it quite often.

I suppose the only other thing I can think of is memory and storage wise - I currently have 8GB RAM, which is actually starting to feel like not enough these days. I have looked into upgrading the RAM a few times on this board to the max of 16GB - but as time has gone on, it doesn't seem cost effective to max out a now old motherboard, and I'd love a machine which is quite future proofed, say 32GB RAM and something that will last me for the next 6 years, potentially. Storage wise, I don't think my 128GB SSD is quite uptp scratch, plus it's quite small capacity these days (though I never seem to have less than 40GB free) but there must be much faster ones available today? For instance, I've never used one of those M.2 drives, what are they like?

Does anyone have any good advice? I look through products in the online shops (and here on OC of course) but I just feel completely out of touch with what's good and what's not these days.

Thanks for reading :)
 
Last edited:
mickyflinn said:
Reusing your psu and graphics card. Case comes with front type c port. Motheboard is matx wwith wifi and Bluetooth. And some parts are not in stock but gives you am idea of what yo get.

CODE My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £490.17 (includes shipping: £12.30)
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Click to expand...

Thank you @mickyflinn, that's fantastic and just the sort of ideas I was looking for. Even if I didn't go for those specifics, I now have a sort of idea of what I need to look for.

That motherboard looks decent, especially with a max of 128GB RAM giving it great upgrade options for the future. I've not heard of mATX boards before, do those fit into standard ATX cases?

This is going to sound silly, but guessing that despite the i5 above being slower than mine in terms of clock speed (slightly) it will still in reality be much much faster than what I've got?

Also say I was wanting to push it to an i7, just to give even more speed, would I still be able to use my 500W PSU with the above sort of set up?

Many thanks
 
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