Which parts should I upgrade for my PC?

tgamesa · Oct 26, 2018

Hello, a few years back I bought a pc , it has a 2gb gtx 960 , 8gb ram , AMD FX 4300 , my pc has been good enough for me the past years however recently it's been significantly slower, I'm thinking about upgrading parts but im not sure which ones are most effective, can someone please help me out?

Thank you

Darkbreeze · Oct 26, 2018

Honestly, you need a full platform upgrade. That would include motherboard, CPU and memory.

If that's outside your possible budget, then possibly you can squeak a few more miles out of that system by upgrading to an FX 8 core CPU IF your motherboard is good enough to handle the thermal design power of the 8 core chips.

What is the model of your current motherboard?

In the even you CAN afford to upgrade the platform, what kind of budget would you have to work with and what is the model number of your current power supply? PSU model should be right on the side of the PSU somewhere.

tgamesa · Oct 26, 2018

PSU is a 500W fractal design model - HEC-500TC-2WB

Motherboard- gigabyte f2a68hm-hd2

tgamesa · Oct 26, 2018

PSU is a 500W fractal design model - HEC-500TC-2WB

Motherboard- gigabyte f2a68hm-hd2

Darkbreeze · Oct 26, 2018

No, something isn't right. That is an FM2/FM2+ motherboard and the FX-4300 is an AM3+ CPU. They are not compatible. Something is incorrect with your information.

tgamesa · Oct 26, 2018

Darkbreeze :

Sorry I just got into a bit of a mix up it's AMD Athlon X4 860K Quad-Core

Darkbreeze · Oct 26, 2018

Yeah, that's better. That's within a very close margin to the best CPU, which isn't really saying much, that you can use on that platform.

That part number doesn't translate to ANY known power supply, much less one by Fractal Design. Let's try that again. There should be a specifications sticker on the side of the power supply with the model number on it. It should look something similar to this and as you can see below the brand name on this unit, the naming scheme of the PSU you listed is not in line with Fractal Designs naming scheme for it's model numbers.

tgamesa · Oct 28, 2018

Fractal design 500 w essence

FD-PSU-ES1B-HV-500W

POWERED BY HEC

Darkbreeze · Oct 28, 2018

Fractal design, while a good case manufacturer, does not have a very good track record with power supplies. Practically every model they've ever sold has been either very, very mediocre or outright poor quality inside with bad performance. There are no professional reviews of that exact unit, which usually means a product is VERY bad and not worth reviewing. That is twofold. It either means the PSU company doesn't want to send out review samples and get hammered with bad publicity due to the poor reviews it would receive on that unit and that because NO companies received review samples, other companies don't want to waste money out of their purchase budgets to get one for review when they already know the product is likely to be not worth reviewing.

I'd assume, based on those models by Fractal design that have been reviewed, and considering that the essence is a budget model by FD, that it's a pretty poor quality unit.

Based on that, if you want to upgrade, my suggestion would be a new CPU, motherboard, memory and power supply. What kind of budget might you be looking at for an upgrade and what country are you in so we can identify parts that will actually be available to you?

tgamesa · Oct 28, 2018

Darkbreeze :

Fractal design, while a good case manufacturer, does not have a very good track record with power supplies. Practically every model they've ever sold has been either very, very mediocre or outright poor quality inside with bad performance. There are no professional reviews of that exact unit, which usually means a product is VERY bad and not worth reviewing. That is twofold. It either means the PSU company doesn't want to send out review samples and get hammered with bad publicity due to the poor reviews it would receive on that unit and that because NO companies received review samples, other companies don't want to waste money out of their purchase budgets to get one for review when they already know the product is likely to be not worth reviewing.

I'd assume, based on those models by Fractal design that have been reviewed, and considering that the essence is a budget model by FD, that it's a pretty poor quality unit.

Based on that, if you want to upgrade, my suggestion would be a new CPU, motherboard, memory and power supply. What kind of budget might you be looking at for an upgrade and what country are you in so we can identify parts that will actually be available to
you?

I'm in the UK I don't really have a budget but I want to keep the price at a minimum

tgamesa · Oct 28, 2018

Also to save money instead of buying a motherboard buying a good or the best processor with a fm2 or fm2+ socket ? Or will that not work

Darkbreeze · Oct 28, 2018

You already have about the best CPU that I'd recommend as offering any kind of performance advantage that is compatible with that platform and socket. There is no place to upgrade to that makes sense investing in considering the FM2 and FM2+ platform was a major failure anyhow for the most part. Good for basic internet and business machines. Not good for any serious productivity or gaming purposes. You would need a complete platform upgrade in my opinion.

What case do you have right now?

tgamesa · Oct 28, 2018

Darkbreeze :

Aerocool Battle Hawk White Gaming Midi Chassis

Darkbreeze · Oct 28, 2018

Ok, so that isn't a terrible chassis at all. The fans that come with it leave something to be desired, but the chassis itself is good enough and supports ATX motherboards. This would probably be the least expensive upgrade option I'd want to recommend to you. Certainly, if your budget can stand it, there are better options, but this would be miles better than what you have now.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 3 2200G 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£86.39 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte - B450 AORUS ELITE ATX AM4 Motherboard (£90.47 @ Box Limited)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (£122.98 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: Corsair - TXM Gold 550W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£64.99 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £364.83
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-10-28 17:24 GMT+0000

tgamesa · Oct 28, 2018

Darkbreeze :

Ok, so that isn't a terrible chassis at all. The fans that come with it leave something to be desired, but the chassis itself is good enough and supports ATX motherboards. This would probably be the least expensive upgrade option I'd want to recommend to you. Certainly, if your budget can stand it, there are better options, but this would be miles better than what you have now.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 3 2200G 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£86.39 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte - B450 AORUS ELITE ATX AM4 Motherboard (£90.47 @ Box Limited)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (£122.98 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: Corsair - TXM Gold 550W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£64.99 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £364.83
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-10-28 17:24 GMT+0000

Thank you very much , I'll think about the upgrade or might buy a new computer

Darkbreeze · Oct 28, 2018

Buying a prebuilt is usually not very cost effective. You can practically always build something better yourself, for the same price as just about any prebuilt system and with none of the quality control and poor assembly issues that plague most of these prebuilt system companies.

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