upgrading my $500 budget gaming PC

Pcbuilder123 · Jun 7, 2014

Hey! I built a gaming pc for 500$ nearly 4 months ago and here are the specs:
x4300, ga78lmt-usb3,cx430 v2, 2tb seagate green, rosewill ranger m, 2gb asus hd 7770, and 8 gigs of ddr3 1333mhz ram. I was given around $50 of birthday money which I plan to trade in for an Amazon gift card, so I will either be getting a PNY xlr8 120 GBsolid state drive, or I can buy a fractal design core 1000, and an Arctic Alpine 64 Pro to upgrade my CPU cooler. right now my boot times are okay and my CPU temperatures are also OK even at 4.2ghz, but either way, I will likely upgrade the other component by the end of the summer. Please make recommendations

Pcbuilder123 · Jun 7, 2014

Sorry about the typos, using voice to text

Martell1977 · Jun 7, 2014

The SSD will only improve loading times and Windows boot/shutdown times. If you are looking to beef up performance, I'd start with the GPU.

Not knowing your budget, just use this chart to find what you can afford:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107.html

Pcbuilder123 · Jun 7, 2014

hello. I am actually not looking to upgrade my graphics card, because I only have I 50 dollars to spend, and my 2 gigabyte asus 7770 is plenty fast. I just got it like 2 months ago. Should I do an SSD upgrade, or get a new case and a CPU cooler?

Martell1977 · Jun 7, 2014

Pcbuilder123 :

Since the computer is running cool, the SSD is the better choice. You will get some return on the money in the load time changes. If cooling were an issue, then the CPU cooler and case would be worth it.

Pcbuilder123 · Jun 7, 2014

http://imgur.com/5irrBBO

Martell1977 · Jun 7, 2014

Pcbuilder123 :

Looks like you have good airflow, and you stated CPU temps were okay even OC'd. I would go with the SSD, and for future, when you have money, I'd add either a 4gb or another 8gb RAM module in there to take advantage of dual channel.

Pcbuilder123 · Jun 7, 2014

Oh, I don't know if you can tell, but there are two sticks, one just doesn't have a heatsink. Same clock speed and timings, though.

Martell1977 · Jun 7, 2014

Pcbuilder123 :

Ahh, from the angle of the pic, can't even see it, lol. No worries

Pcbuilder123 · Jun 7, 2014

I will take a few more pictures of the blemishes on my case. The side panel screws are cross threaded and can't put those in, and the other side has two large scratches.I will be much more careful from now on, though.
Here ya go:

Code:

Pcbuilder123 · Jun 7, 2014

Just as a test mount, I added an old 2.5" hard drive, so adding the ssd is as easy as just Velcro or taping it in

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