Any good forums to help me upgrade my PC

grace2much

Hi all, 6 years ago I built (with help from a friend, I mainly handed the tools!!!) a PC and although its working ok I am gifting myself a present of either a new pc or a upgrade where the difference would be an improvement.

I will need some help choosing the components to make sure they are compatible and needed. I used a forum connected to CCL computers 6 years ago but it does not seem to be on the CCL site anymore? So do you know any sites that could prove the help I need, choosing components and practical "how to" info?

For example: I think I would like more ram for speed but I am not a gamer and a small HD as I use the cloud for 99% of my storage but I do need a graphics card for two (dual) 24" monitors.

This is what I bought from CCL 6 years ago:

Antec TriCool Fan - 120mm Despatched 1 £5.77 £5.77
320GB Western Digital Caviar Blue 3.5" Hard Disk Drive Despatched 1 £36.84 £36.84
500W Silverpower By Seasonic SP-SS500 Power Supply Despatched 1 £45.97 £45.97
Xigmatek Asgard ATX Mid Tower Case Despatched 1 £30.64 £30.64
Logitech U96 Optical Wheel Mouse Despatched 1 £5.01 £5.01
Logitech S120 Speaker System Despatched 1 £8.28 £8.28
Sony AD-7240S-0B 24x DVDRW Despatched 1 £16.13 £16.13
XFX Radeon HD 4350 Low Profile 1GB Despatched 2 £31.67 £63.33
Corsair ValueSelect 4GB DDR3 1333MHz Dual Channel Despatched 1 £93.85 £93.85
AMD Athlon II X4 620 Quad Core CPU Despatched 1 £80.95 £80.95
Gigabyte GA-MA785GT-UD3H AM3 Motherboard Despatched 1 £72.54 £72.54


I have a flexable budget of £300ish

Any ideas? Thanks in advance for any help offered......:)

rtho782

Tomshardware

Anandtech

Overclockers UK

Reddit, PC Master Race sub or Build a PC is probably your best option:
https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/

grace2much

Thanks rtho782, this is very helpful. I have never been on or used reddit so I'll have a look.....

esuhl

If you're using Windows, have a look at processor and memory usage when you're using the PC. It might give you an idea as to whether your current PC is slow because you're running out of RAM, or because the CPU isn't fast enough.

Don't just compare the "headline" specs of, say a 2GHz chip versus a 3GHz one -- look at the on-board cache, etc. And with RAM, look at the speed and latency.

I usually pick a CPU first, then the motherboard, and then everything else falls into place.

Tomshardware is a great site for reviews and benchmarks.

grace2much

Esuhl, thanks for the help. I'll ask Google how to look these data measurement s up and it makes sense to start with what u said. I use win 10 at present. Hhhmmmm just wondering will my upgrading affect my win 10 licence on my old computer? Anyhow thanks

Cisco001

Option 1 - recommend
wait until Q1 2017 for AMD Ryzen for quad core/ six core.

Option 2 - upgrade now.
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor (£100.79 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B150M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£62.65 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (£49.46 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Crucial MX300 275GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£69.30 @ Eclipse Computers)
Total: £282.20
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-12-16 15:02 GMT+0000

Option 3 - minimal upgrade
2 x 2GB DDR3 RAM - £17 at ebay
240GB SSD - £70

grace2much

Thnaks Cisco001, this is great! Never heard of pcpartpicker before....wow!! I'll enjoy looking through your suggestions....

esuhl

grace2much wrote: »

Esuhl, thanks for the help. I'll ask Google how to look these data measurement s up and it makes sense to start with what u said.

Oh sorry, I meant to explain that! Just right-click the task bar and choose "Task Manager", and then click the "Performance" tab:

grace2much

That's your good deed for the week.....thanks

esuhl

No worries

grace2much

Task master says regarding memory , that with 12 chrome browsers open I have only 12% of memory left. So I assume I need more ram.....