Best Value for Money PC Upgrades

Hello readers! In this article I will tell you about the PC upgrades that will provide you with the most bang for your buck. Building your P...

Hello readers! In this article I will tell you about the PC upgrades that will provide you with the most bang for your buck.

Building your PC is one of the most satisfying technological experiences. And after building it, the next big thing is upgrading. It is the fun part of owning a PC. You can upgrade it to yours heart's content. But just like all men, not all upgrades are created equal.

PC Upgrades - An Overview

Before moving on, first let us see what are the parts that you can actually upgrade.



Upgrades options for a general PC

As you can see it's a long list, which is actually a good thing; you will always have some upgrade options.

An upgrade is a personal decision and the type of upgrade varies from person to person. Some do it for aesthetics, some do it for performance and for some compatibility and peace of mind is all that matters.

Your budget is important here. You don't want to spend on something that won't give you considerable returns. Spending 50$ more to get 60 FPS instead of 59 is not the wisest of decisions. Better get yourself some good clothes for that money.

Best VFM Performance Upgrade

Different people have different perceptions of performance. For some it is doing everything faster and for some it is doing one thing in the best possible way. For majority of the users the former is the goal; they want everything to be snappy and finish within a click. But some power users want to squeeze every ounce of performance from their components for one particular task- Gaming, rendering, data cracking and many other tasks.

Storage- SSDs

Until a new storage technology arrives, SSDs will remain one of the best VFM performance upgrade. This is especially true for mid-high end and older PCs. For many, the way to boost an old PC's life is by upgrading the processor. But they get one thing wrong; even the lowest-end processor is way faster that the storage of the system.



CrystalDiskMark score for a WD Blue drive on SATA 2



Samsung 840 1TB SSD scores

Image courtesy hothardware.com

Most of the day to day tasks of a PC consists of loading a program or file from the storage. This whole process is solely based on the storage. Even an Intel Extreme edition processor will have no role in faster loading times. That is why a faster storage is important. An SSD can get 5x to 10x faster than the fastest of HDDs.

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Faster read and writes (copy-pasting), snappier loading times and overall increase in speed that you can see. Apart from these, SSDs bring a lot more benefits too like lower heat and power consumption, silent operation and more secure data storage.

Holy Trinity- CPU, GPU & RAM

After storage the next big thing that you can upgrade for the best bang for buck is the Holy-Trinity of a modern PC- CPU, GPU and RAM. No you don't need to upgrade all three. At any moment you'll most likely upgrade just one.

CPU- If you are into 3D rendering and video editing, then you know the importance of having a powerful CPU. If you are a gamer who is also into video and 3D work but cannot afford having two different systems, then a CPU upgrade is a must. For a normal gaming system, you can get away with lower spec processor because of the higher dependence on the GPU for resolutions of 1080p and above.

But jumping from i5 6500 to i5 6600K won't give you any considerable improvement. A move from i3 or an AMD equivalent to an i5/i7 or FX-8350 is a more in the lines of a proper CPU upgrade. Keep in mind that good CPU upgrades are usually a long timely affair and should not be too much of a concern for many users.

GPU- If you have a good enough GPU but you are still seeing frames dropping here and there or if are not able to see the full glory of the game (maxed out settings), then a new GPU might be a good idea.

When upgrading a GPU you have mainly two options. Either you can get one of the same type, that is a multi-GPU setup like X-fire or SLI or the other option is to get a GPU of a higher spec. The second option is better for casual users because of compatibility, reasonable performance improvement for lower power and noise.

You don't have to go and buy the best top of the line model off the shelf. A well maintained, used card is good option if you want to save some money and need an increase in performance.

RAM-  Memory is still the most easily upgradable component of a PC system. Open the case, pop in the sticks and you just upgraded the system. Memory prices are running all time low so not having enough memory in your system because of lack of funds is not an excuse any more.

I remember a few years ago, 4GB was considered more than enough but now it is the minimum that you need to run many games and applications. Yes it's true that having a lots of RAM in your system won't actually make your system run faster but it can still be beneficial for running memory intensive softwares or chores.

One common mistake that people make while upgrading memory is that they focus on the speed more than it's required. You won't see any real life difference while going from 1333MHz to 1600MHz; benchmarks will show improvement but normal applications will not.

Simply put if your PC is capable and running with 4GB to 6GB of RAM, then it is high time that you should upgrade your RAM. Get the cheapest kit you can find and shove it in; having 32 gigs of memory and running a RAMDisk never killed anyone!

Wrap Up

There are some components that don't benefit from small upgrades. Motherboards, HDDs, PSUs and some others. You should be only thinking of changing them when they are actually showing signs of wear and tear, which they rarely do.

If you are an enthusiast, then most of the above mentioned points don't apply to you. As an enthusiast you only need the best and latest so upgrading frequently becomes second nature to you. And I respect that but for mortals like us, loosening our pockets is not easy.

As I wrote earlier, not every upgrade is created equal and neither every component should be upgraded. If it ain't broken then don't fix it; if it is then yeah, why not?

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