What is the weakest component in my system?

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patrickmacx64

Commendable
Mar 19, 2016
3
0
1,510
Intel Core i3-4170
Gigabyte GA-H97M-D3H
16GB Crucial DDR3
1TB Western Digital Blue
EVGA GTX 750 Ti
Fractal Design Core 1000
Corsair CS450M

What component should I upgrade for the biggest gaming/system performance improvement?
 
Solution
davidarad02
80+ rating is not everything in a power supply's safety. sure, it will be more efficient then a 80+ bronze unit, but it doesn't mean that it would be more reliable and would have a lesser chance on crashing sooner.
the corsair CX and CS series are known for being cheap, good enough features, but iffy construction and reliabilty. there are many report of them just catching on fire and destroying people's components. you shouldn't be worried about your unit catching on fire (because thats still rare), but you should be worried of the supply just deing and taking your expensive hardware with it.
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davidarad02

davidarad02

Admirable
Dec 27, 2014
2,463
1
6,960
80+ rating is not everything in a power supply's safety. sure, it will be more efficient then a 80+ bronze unit, but it doesn't mean that it would be more reliable and would have a lesser chance on crashing sooner.
the corsair CX and CS series are known for being cheap, good enough features, but iffy construction and reliabilty. there are many report of them just catching on fire and destroying people's components. you shouldn't be worried about your unit catching on fire (because thats still rare), but you should be worried of the supply just deing and taking your expensive hardware with it.
 
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Solution
geofelt

geofelt

Titan
Oct 9, 2006
54,295
4,145
174,240
A perennial question, and the answer depends on the types of games you play.
Here is my canned approach to get you started:
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To help clarify your CPU/GPU options, run these two tests:

a) Run YOUR games, but lower your resolution and eye candy.
If your FPS increases, it indicates that your cpu is strong enough to drive a better graphics configuration.
If your FPS stays the same, you are likely more cpu limited.

b) Limit your cpu, either by reducing the OC, or, in windows power management, limit the maximum cpu% to something like 70%.
Go to control panel/power options/change plan settings/change advanced power settings/processor power management/maximum processor state/
This will simulate what a lack of cpu power will do.
Conversely what a 30% improvement in core speed might do.

You should also experiment with removing one core. You can do this in the windows msconfig boot advanced options option. You will need to reboot for the change to take effect. Set the number of processors to less than you have.
This will tell you how sensitive your games are to the benefits of many cores.

If your FPS drops significantly, it is an indicator that your cpu is the limiting factor, and a cpu upgrade is in order.

It is possible that both tests are positive, indicating that you have a well balanced system, and both cpu and gpu need to be upgraded to get better gaming FPS.
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I might think that a stronger graphics card would be best for a gaming upgrade.
A GTX960 is as strong as you can go with your psu.

From a everyday satisfaction point of view, a upgrade to a SSD for windows is tops.
Look for 240gb at least.
 
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Inkiad

Inkiad

Distinguished
Jul 10, 2010
1,320
0
19,960
The weakest component in your system is the HDD. To increase responsiveness of your pc, you can buy an SSD like samsung 850 evo. PC will be more like 'snappy', trust me. You will just double click photoshop icon, it will open in couple of seconds.

Otherwise our system is kinda balanced. But for big improvement in games you can upgrade your gpu.
 
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