Hello! :) I recently got a prebuilt PC for really cheap. I figured, since it was cheap, I could buy it and just upgrade some of the parts if need be. But truth be told, I'm not very knowledgeable about these things... I just know some basic stuff... Hence why I'm posting here, in hopes of getting responses from people who know better than me.

  • Intel i3-6100 3.7 GHz Dual Core
  • ASUS H110M-D Motherboard
  • Palit GTX 1050 Ti
  • Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (2133MHz)
  • WD 1TB Hard drive
  • PNY 240GB SSD
  • Thermaltake 550W power supply

I'd like to ask how would the PC's performance be in theory, and which ones I should upgrade or if I should upgrade at all? I guess in general I just want a rig that is balanced (i.e, none of the parts bottlenecking the performance) and can run most games decently. (For reference, I think the heaviest games that I own are Rust, MHW, DS3, Dragon's Dogma, and Fallout 4, so maybe something that can run those?) I can make do with low-med graphic settings.

Edit: I think I should mention I just need something that'd probably last me at least around 2-3 years or so. Just enough for me to find a job after I (hopefully) graduate university in October and save up for a new PC. :)

Edit #2: Okay, so I have another question. Will adding another HDD or SSD affect the PC's performance? Like, will it add load to the system and cause it to slow down, or will the additional memory not affect it at all? I did search it up before typing it here, but I'm not sure which is correct since I saw different answers. ;-; I used to think adding another drive would make it slower since the processor has to load up more stuff, but some of the things I read said it won't affect speed so now I'm not sure what to think. Thanks in advance to whomever will answer my question! :)

Thanks in advance to anyone who'll bump and/or answer my inquiry! Here's a train (+derailed cart) as thanks for reading. :)

4 years ago*

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Bump!

4 years ago
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Bump

4 years ago
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Probably upgrade the cpu

4 years ago
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i3 6100 to i5 6k or i3 8k
1050ti to RX570-580
1 stick 8Gb to 2 stick 4Gb
believe me no 1050ti or 1650, they're awful even with my 768p monitor

4 years ago
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4 years ago*
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Try it out. Looks pretty good to me in general, although 8 MB RAM is a bit low. I would recommend 16 MB as a minimum (Google Chrome is using 3 MB on my PC right now).

4 years ago
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4 years ago
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Thanks for all of your advice! Will continue reading and replying after I get home later. :)

4 years ago
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I have an i5-2400 with a GTX 760 and I can run stuff like Overwatch and Borderlands at 60FPS+ so I'd think you'd be good for a couple years with the much newer i3 and better video card compared to mine.

the board will support an i5 (we have the H110 in machines at work with i5s) and you can get one without killing your wallet, that probably would be helpful to extend the life of it. But I'd definitely look into doubling the RAM. Get that up to 16 and you won't have to worry so much if you have some RAM-hungry applications (like f'ing Chrome lately....)

4 years ago
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Ohh, I see. Chrome does take a lot of RAM. My laptop keeps dying probably because of it... ^^;; Thanks for the info and advice! :)

4 years ago
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The best thing you can do with that motherboard is get i7 7700 and 1660 ti. The 8xxx cpus won't work with that motherboard, any other more powerful gpu will require a better psu as well which adds to the cost. As for gpu brands I always go with EVGA. With those 2 mentioned above you will be able to play everything on max settings, however some games might crash on ultra settings with 8gigs of ram and need 16 of it. Happens to me with some of the latest AAA titles. Reverting some settings to high and it won't crash. Other than this having 8gigs of ram isn't an issue anywhere else, I can even run chrome with lots of tabs open and AAA games without lags. Such upgrade will also let you play VR games if you have VR headset with quite pleasant graphics and performance.
However 7700 will require updating the bios which might brick the motherboard if not done properly.

I cannot think of any other upgrade that can be done on this system.

4 years ago*
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Looks like a decent PC.

There's not much I can think of upgrading there except the CPU. You could in theory upgrade the CPU if you find a cheap used one, but the problem with Intel CPUs is that they tend to be quite expensive even when they're old. On the other hand, it's often possible to find a 6 core Ryzen 5 1600 with a motherboard for not much over $100, at least in the US.

For GPU, the best value right now is the Radeon RX 570 4GB. In general, the AMD side is currently best bang for the buck at the low end.

4 years ago
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Parts here aren't that much more expensive (just a bit higher I suppose), but the difficult part is finding them in the first place. ^^;; Not that many places selling PC parts, much less used ones. :( But thank you for the advice! :)

4 years ago
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As many have written the I3 is kind of a bottleneck, not so sure about the Graphicscard, but seems also on the low end.
I don't know in which region you live, but check out pcpartpicker.com, for parts and compatibilities etc and maybe check out other build to get inspiration what you could add.

tomshardware.com/news/dell-inspiron-gaming-desktop-amd-ryzen-850,39697.html would have been a better system, but not knowing you budget could be that 400$ more might have been too much for you, generally not a fan of pre-build systems but better buying a pre-build then to destroy expensive parts :)

4 years ago
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it should be fine, but your CPU is probably the weakest link, it is a quad core but not a true one, i would recomend something like this:
8 cores that is just 20$ more expensive
true 4 cores that is nearly 50$ cheaper
BUT both require you to change the motheboard for an at least AMD B320 motherboard, the rest can be the same.
this is a good motherboard and its compatible with the new series of AMD proc
This one is more in the price range of yours.

4 years ago*
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... well ... 5 things i wanna ask ... how many ram slots do you have? 2x4 gb or 1x8 gb? ddr3l or ddr4?, how big is your budget and where do you live? ... pricing is different in every country... for fallout 4 your cpu is barely enough but too low for FFXV, your gpu is good enough for fallout lowish medium settings and barely enough for FFXV. 8Gb ram for gaming is borderline. older games will run just fine ... modern ones may not ... aslo depends how much is running in the backround.

4 years ago
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Mobo has 2 DDR4 ram slots. I have one 8 GB RAM chip. I live in Southeast Asia, and prices for PC parts are usually a bit higher here than in the US. Budget is about $200 right now, maybe? Probably not enough to significantly upgrade, so I might just add a RAM chip and wait until I get a job to build a new PC entirely.

4 years ago
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then take another 8gb ram its the cheapest way to get better performance ... you can may use it in your new build ... 200 dollar ... may wait for mid july ... there will come new pc parts ... many people will upgrade ... if you dont have a problem to buy used may you can get something decent ... may a ryzen 5 2600 with a b450m board ... i personally don't like apu but i think a ryzen 5 2400 should be more than enough ... had an fx8320 and that thing is even slower than your 6100 ... now my new cpu is mostly bottlenecked by my gpu ... i think the 1050 ti should be able to play newer games on low for max 2 years then you'll have a problem with newer games

4 years ago
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Ah, I see. :o Thanks for the advice!

4 years ago
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If you only have 200, you're def better off waiting like some of the others have suggested. I wouldn't even say the upgrade to 16gb of ram would be advised unless you think you'll have 1000+ in what, 2022ish to get/build another computer and still live properly? Although if you don't have 16gb of ram you probably won't be able to run fallout 4 properly but that's just how that goes

4 years ago
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Ah, that budget was just actually the money I'll probably gain if I sold the peripherals that came with the PC, so I can easily spend it if need be. Sorry for asking so many questions ^^;;; but if I were to buy another RAM chip, would getting the same model be of any benefit or would getting a one with higher specs be better? Thanks for all the advice! :)

TMI: I actually honestly have enough savings to buy a whole better rig right now and still live properly, but I'm really frugal and afraid of spending more than a small percentage of my money. (like, legitimately scared... it's a weird personality quirk, I know) Buying that PC took a lot of willpower, LMAO.

4 years ago
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From my experience, your overall ram speed speed scales to the speed of your lowest chip. So wouldn't recommend you go higher. Same build or different but with a similar speed.
Good news is ram speed does not have any real impact for Intel (1-2fps). Only AMD would benefit.

4 years ago
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I see. Thank you for the info! :)

4 years ago
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Oh, okay. I can understand that money thing. As for the RAM, magicmase has already said what needs to be said, although it should be noted that even with the same speed different ram sticks can be slightly faster then others, but only by marginal amounts so if you don't want to check which stick is better by like 2-5% on some things you don't need too it won't make much of a difference in the long run. Or even the short run

4 years ago
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I run Fallout 4 perfectly fine with 8GB, paired with a Ryzen 1500X and RX 580. 16GB would improve performance a little bit, but it's not required. I've yet to find a game I can't run on 8GB of RAM. The Graphics card will have the largest impact on overall performance in the case of their computer. At first I thought the CPU may be an issue, but I forget it's multi threaded. If any money is to be spent, the Graphics Card should be priority.

4 years ago
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I guess I should've wrote something other then properly, but I didn't mean they wouldn't be able to run it. You make a good point though

4 years ago
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now days, 8gb of RAM is only laptop standard, so i would highly recommend a RAM upgrade

4 years ago
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Samsung SSD

4 years ago
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Since all good suggestions were already mentioned, have a bump!

4 years ago
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For me, I would get extra 8 GB RAM, i5 processor and maybe GTX1070 (just maybe, your current GPU is decent enough).

4 years ago
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4 years ago
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It has a 550w Thermaltake PSU, odds are it has at least a 6+2 pin connector. If it didn't, I would be surprised. It may have been purchased pre-built, but it was built by a person like me or you, not a manufacturer. That's my take away based on components at least.

4 years ago*
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You're correct, it was built by the person I bought it from. :)

4 years ago
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That seems like solid advice. You are correct, I am going for 1080p. But Incariuz is right, I did buy it prebuilt, but it was bought from someone who built it himself. I think I might just add RAM for now and decide to upgrade to an entirely new rig after a few years. Thank you very much for the advice! :)

4 years ago
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4 years ago
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Don't feel bad, we all have those times. Up until just under 2 years ago, I was running a Celeron G1620 2.7GHz Dual Core with an HD 7770. When you can barely get 30 fps on Shadow of Mordor low settings, it sucks.

4 years ago
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Bump for the gibs :3

4 years ago
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You just need to upgrade the graphic card. The rest are ok. If you can afford it, get more RAM.

4 years ago
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Looks like you can play Fallout 2, so you're good to go!

4 years ago
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^^

4 years ago
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Thanks for the ride!

4 years ago
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Very late (and partially irrelevant) reply here. I read you spent about $570 on the prebuilt system. I was able to come up with a better system for roughly the same price (actual availability, prices, and shipping costs for your specific area notwithstanding). https://pcpartpicker.com/list/NZXvTB

That's too little, too late for what you're currently stuck with, but I can at least give some general advice for your future build(s). I would suggest using the above PC Part Picker website, which can help discern common possible compatibility issues (it's still a good idea to do your own research, but the website is a good starting point). I would also encourage comparing benchmark numbers for CPUs and GPUs, not only to decide what to initially choose to start a build, but also to decide if an upgrade choice is worth it. And don't be afraid to compare between Intel, AMD, and Nvidia, either. I know that some people prefer to stick to one brand or another, but that can sometimes short change you on actual price and/or performance gains. But most importantly, even with all of the above tools you have, seeking out other opinions is always a good idea.

4 years ago
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$570 was everything including monitor, kb, and mouse so I thought it was worth the price. I sold the mouse and also plan to sell the kb to bring total cost of the rig + monitor down to about $400. :) That does seem like a decent build and solid advice. I think I might ask SG again when I build a new rig in the future. :D Thanks for the advice! :)

4 years ago
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To question #2: no, adding more space/another harddrive won't slow down your computer. You need to check if there's enough space (in the case - as in another slot to put in the drive) and if you have a free sata controller slot and wire from the power supply before buying another disk. The stress on your cpu for managing another drive is minimal to non-existent, but be aware, extra hard drives can get warm. You already have an ssd, ideally you only use the ssd for running the operating system (because it's faster) and store the main data on your hard disk, so getting another ssd doesn't make much sense. If you want more space to store your games, video and such - a regular harddrive is the way to go.

4 years ago*
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Ohhh, I see. That's really helpful. Thank you! :) Would temporarily putting Steam games (like, whichever game I'm currently playing) in the SSD make sense? Would it positively affect performance enough to be worth the hassle or would putting it in the HDD be fine?

4 years ago
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There's different opinions on how much a game really benefits from running on an ssd. It also depends on the game. If the game relies heavily on swap space, the benefit may be greater. Personally, I experienced the only real performance boost is from running your entire operating system (Windows with swap space and everything) from SSD, it's really noticeably faster. It boots much faster too. Everything else, like videos, large picture archives and even games can be left on the harddrive. If you still have space on your ssd, you can experiment and see if it really runs faster - just create two Steam library directories, and move it around. Steam should be able to adjust the installation to the new location if start a new installation (without having to re-download your game).

4 years ago
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Ahh, that makes sense. Noted, thank you so much! :)

4 years ago
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True, the only thing I've noticed is it matters how you chain your drives. As you have two already try placing each on a separate SATA port if you can, on-board or otherwise.
As an example I have three drives and a DVD-RW. Had to put the DVD on its own controller because it was slowing down my SATA hard drive. Don't think it affects SSDs much.

4 years ago
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Closed 3 years ago by mikotomaki.