Upgrading pre-built PC

[TophCPU]

I was given my prebuild gaming PC (gateway FX6840) as a gift a couple years ago and, while it runs fine, there seems like there is room for improvement. I was wondering what I should upgrade to increase performance, and I am pretty new to the PC upgrading world.
current set up:
ATI radeon HD 5700 series
8 GB DDR3
1TB HDD
intel core i7 860 2.80GHz

 

[Spykezxp]

What is your upgrade budget (How much can you spend)?

 

[TophCPU]

I would say $100-$200 since I might be building something new in the next year or so. But I would like to hear any suggestions even if they aren't in budget.

 

[Spykezxp]

The system is showing its age a little, but it still has good specs for being a medium grade gaming system. If you are planning on building something new within the next year, I would suggest saving the money for better hardware with the new one. If you are insistent on upgrading your current one, then here are my suggestions/comments:

You already have 8GB of RAM (which is the "norm" for gaming now).
The i7 processor is still good enough, for now, for gaming.
Plenty of Hard Drive space with the 1TB drive.
So the video card and the power supply are the only options I see at upgrading. I would suggest getting something that you could transfer over into your new build. That way its one less thing you have to worry about buying.

What games do you play (so we can get a better idea of the video card you might need)?

 

[TophCPU]

Yeah I think I mostly want an upgrade in preparation of building something new so anything that I could transfer would be perfect. I play a lot of fps and rpg games like titanfall Battle field, skyrim, far cry 4, shadow of mordor, WoW, LoL, hearthstone. I know not many of those are too graphic intensive but I plane to get some more new games.

Also, out of curiosity, what are some things that could be transferred to a new pc in general?

 

[nickc]

A SSD for the operating system would be a large improvement, and keep the hard drive for downloads and programs. this will give faster boot time and lots of space for expansion.

 

[TophCPU]

Yeah I've been trying to figure out whether I should I get an ssd or not. What size would be suitable? of course bigger is better, but smaller is cheaper.
this kingston 120 gb one is on sale for $60 is that a good price for that size/brand?
http://www.amazon.com/Kingston-Digi...pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1417651038&sr=1-2&keywords=ssd
there is also this samsung one one sale for 75
http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-120GB...pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1417651038&sr=1-5&keywords=ssd/

 

[TophCPU]

Also, is an SSD transferable/reusable?

 

[Kaj Hansen]

Also, is an SSD transferable/reusable?

They are, so you can buy that now and bring it with you to the new future build. It's a fantastic upgrade but you do need to know your stuff a bit more, try to google some guides on SSD's, to keep em in optimal shape. They degrade in performance when they get filled to the max or if you have lots of rewrites on em. But the performance difference will blow you away.

Couple of things though, SSD's work with firmware, and it's very advicable to update to the latest firmware as a first move as soon as you get it out of the box, before you start installing things on it. The linked Samsung EVO for example had a massive bug fixed this way just last month.

In my book Samsung and Crucial are the best brands in SSD land. There is a slightly older M500 on amazon available for only 80 bucks

http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-2-5-I...qid=1417719145&sr=8-2&keywords=mx+500+crucial
It performs a bit less then the samsung, but you still get 90% of the performance at half the price.

You will need knowledge of installing windows n such, because you can only really enjoy an ssd with a fresh install. I also suggest that you don't use an older windows then windows 7, this is oldest windows that has proper support for SSD's.


A real money saver upgrade can also be a new PSU, especially if your current PSU is not 80% efficiency certified. You can see on the sticker on the PSU what it's efficiency is, you will need a new PSU anyways if you want to build a more powerful gaming system in the future.

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Understanding-the-80-Plus-Certification/742


Good luck, and if you decide to replace PSU be very very sure you read up first on savety measures.

 

[hellokitty[hk]]

I doubt anyone has ever saved money by upgrading their power supply in a normal user PC.

 

[TophCPU]

Awesome, thanks so much for all the advise, everyone. I think I will get my SSD this month and have already started watching tutorials on how to install and do everything right.

 

[nickc]

I doubt anyone has ever saved money by upgrading their power supply in a normal user PC.

kitty, if his PSU is "that old" #1 it may not be enough for the new pc and he stated he was going to build a more powerful pc and it might not even have enough for the cpu and video.