PC Upgrade Guide: Best ways to spend $450?

I am planning an upgrade for my current PC with a budget of roughly $550.
Up until now, the machine has mostly been used for web browsing—nothing heavy. Moving forward, I intend to use it for some light gaming occasionally.

My current setup is:

RAIJINTEK STYX mATX case
Cooler Master, PSU Latitude Series, 400W
ASUS AM1I-A motherboard, AM1 socket, mini ITX
KINGSTON 2 x 2 GB DDR3, 1333 MHz
AMD Athlon x4 5350
Intel ® SSD 535 Series 120GB

I have put together a list of what I might change. I don't plan on buying a dedicated GPU right now; I’ll stick with integrated graphics for a while and pick up a card later.

I have an external 2 TB backup plus a Western Digital RE3 750GB backup drive.
From my current build, I would reuse the case, the power supply, and the SSD, which would serve as a secondary drive in the new configuration.

I am not a fan of large cases, so I am sticking with the current mATX size, which means I need a new mini ITX motherboard.
My selection:

MSI H110i Pro motherboard, LGA 1151 socket, DDR4, mini ITX
Intel Core i3 6098P, 3600 MHz, LGA 1151
HyperX Fury 8 GB (2x4 GB) DDR4, 2666 MHz, DIMM, CL15
128 GB SSD, Samsung PM961, M.2 2280

It comes to about $867. I am wondering if this is okay, or if there is something better I could put together for approximately this amount of money.
It is important that the motherboard supports M.2 2280.

Any good recommendations would be appreciated. These parts are from Amazon.
Thanks.

Current PC.

What kind of games are you planning to play?










It's pretty obvious you could game on this too if you just add more RAM, overclock it, and pick up a decent GPU... That CPU can be pushed to 2.7 GHz if you try...

For basic web browsing, this setup is totally fine enough...

The issue is that I can't actually install a graphics card on this motherboard; I'm stuck using the integrated one.
It works fine for browsing the web, which I don't really need, but I was thinking about playing a few FPS games over the winter.

I have an old GeForce GTS 250 v2 Gainward Deep Green from a previous build, but my motherboard lacks a PCIe 3.0 x16 slot, so that's where the problem lies.

Your motherboard doesn't even need to be an ITX; you could go with an mATX instead, which is much more budget-friendly and offers way better variety.
Ditch that 128GB m.2 SSD. You're much better off taking that money—plus whatever you get from selling your old gear—and putting it toward a decent graphics card.

Only a 17 x 17 cm board will fit. If the board is 19x17, the GPU might not fit. Actually, it could work if there's only one slot, but most powerful cards these days take up two slots.
It doesn't make sense for me to swap out the case; I paid over $100 for it.

I just ordered the components listed above from Amazon. It feels a bit strange—after confirming the purchase, my cart is empty. Maybe it worked, but I don't know.
I'll call them tomorrow to see if the order actually went through.
The total comes to: $857 with free shipping.

I'll let you know when it arrives..

For instance,

Crucial DDR4 8GB 2133 MHz P/N: CT8G4DFS8213
CPU Intel Core i3 6098P CPU
MSI Video Card GeForce GTX 1050 Ti OC GDDR5 4GB/128bit, 1341MHz/7008MHz, PCIe 3.0 x16, DP, HDMI
ASRock H110M-DGS motherboard

Total: $1006 Center

It’s not the GPU’s fault; you're just struggling with some messy cable management, and honestly, you probably could have gone with a smaller 550W power supply



Just a heads-up: when you're working with an mATX motherboard (the one in the photo is actually an ITX), the GPU slot sits a bit higher up. A card like the GTX 1050 is pretty compact—it's definitely not some massive titan of a card.

Kimberly Gomez34 said:It’s not the GPU’s fault; you're just struggling with some messy cable management, and honestly, you probably could have gone with a smaller 550W power supply



Just a heads-up: when you're working with an mATX motherboard (the one in the photo is actually an ITX), the GPU slot sits a bit higher up. A card like the GTX 1050 is pretty compact—it's definitely not some massive titan of a card.

My apologies. I misstated the case model earlier; the correct one is... RAIJINTEK METIS That’s probably why there was some confusion.

Video

I'm looking at these case photos. It's the same model, but these cases are much taller than mine. I'll open mine up tomorrow and take some pictures.

If you manage to get the cables organized properly, a GPU up to 22cm should fit just fine. There are plenty of models like the GTX 1050, 1060, or RX 460 that stay within that 22cm limit, so I guess it shouldn't be an issue.

An M.2 SSD is a critical component for me because of the read speeds. I was actually on the verge of ordering a Samsung SSD 960 today, but I decided on the PM961 instead. I’ve been using an SSD for years now; I guess the faster the loading times, the better.

I did the math, and buying from the Center would actually end up costing me more.
So, what kind of GPU would actually make sense here for around $180? I'll probably be picking up a card soon anyway, so I’m looking for something relatively recent.

A single-fan GTX 1050 Ti (either from MSI or Gigabyte) should be about 17cm wide for both.

I guess it’s not really worth paying nearly double for an M.2/PCIe drive of the same capacity compared to a solid SATA SSD, at least not yet. In real-world scenarios, the difference is pretty negligible.

I was just opening up the case, and the maximum GPU clearance is about 19.5 cm. My current GeForce GTS 250 v2 Gainward Deep Green barely fits because I have to worry about the cable bundle coming from the power supply getting in the way. Ideally, it would need to be around 25 cm.

I've been looking through some graphics card reviews today, and it seems like the GTX 1050 is the best value right now. You can find one for maybe $150. I'll probably just stick with this GTS 250 for a while until I can pick up a 1050.

This SSD should theoretically be up to four times faster than my Intel 535. I suppose I'll have to see if there's a noticeable difference in actual use once everything is assembled. I'll run some tests and see.

If I hadn't read this post, I probably would have just kept using my Intel 535 as the system drive. But now, that's decided.

The components arrived today. I'll start the build tomorrow, then I might post some photos.

Also, I have a question. I guess it might be better to swap out the stock CPU cooler for a liquid cooler like the Cooler Master Seidon 120. What do you think?

You don't need that; it's not even a high-end build.

This cooler is unbelievably thin, almost like what we used to see back when we were running Intel Core 2 duo setups. I expect the processor will just run at stock settings, so I'm wondering if I should just stick with this one or maybe look into buying something else..
The main thing is that it isn't noisy..

It'll be fine while you're just sitting there doing nothing, but once you actually start gaming, you might hear a little noise—though honestly, you'll probably hear the rest of your components too. 😬

Edward Thompson86 said:This cooler is unbelievably thin, almost like what we used to see back when we were running Intel Core 2 duo setups. I expect the processor will just run at stock settings, so I'm wondering if I should just stick with this one or maybe look into buying something else..
The main thing is that it isn't noisy..

This chip pulls about 10W less than an Intel Core 2 duo E8400, which was a pretty standard model back in the day. Honestly, the cooler on my Ivy Bridge i3 used to drive me crazy because of the buzzing, but I fixed 90% of that problem by tweaking the BIOS. I set the fan to stay quiet until the CPU hits 60C, which rarely happens. Before, it would ramp up to 100% at around 55C, which is just unnecessary.

There is a sale on liquid cooling at Links tomorrow, so I am somewhat undecided. Currently, I am still running an Intel Core2 duo E4300, which was sufficient for my needs back then.

What interests me most is how the new Samsung PM961 SSD will perform.
I am assembling the PC tomorrow; if I don't pick up the liquid cooling, I will just use the stock cooler and see how it behaves.
My main concern right now is the noise from the power supply fans, the CPU, the GPU, and the single 120mm case fan. My current setup is almost silent, so I suppose we will see how it changes later.

This is what I am looking forward to most.


Thanks for the suggestions.

I just ordered a CHIEFTEC A-90 Series 550W power supply and the LC Power LC-CC-120-LiCo liquid cooler. I am heading to Links today to pick them up.
I chose a modular power supply, which works well for my case. Since the GPU can be about 25 cm long, I think I have everything figured out now.

You can definitely find a better 550W power supply than that, and honestly, I'm not sure you'll even see much of a benefit from switching to water cooling... For 99% of people, decent air cooling is more than enough. But hey, you can always just return it to Amazon if it doesn't work out for you...

We'll just have to see how the liquid cooling performs; I haven't used one before, so this is my first time running it in a build.

Also, there will be two SSD drives inside, maybe even three.
I'm putting my old graphics card in this rig for now, so we'll see how it holds up. If it doesn't perform well enough, I might upgrade to a GF1060. I have the funds available, but I'd rather not spend the money if this one can manage for a while.

Everything is ready for the assembly; all the parts are here.

I swapped out the memory. Apparently, this set is better, though it was a bit more expensive than what was originally ordered. The RAM is PC-19200, 8 GB, Kingston HyperX Savage, HX424C12SB2K2/8, DDR4 2400 MHz, 2x4GB kit.

Finished building this rig today. It was a bit of a struggle trying to cram everything into such a small case. Here are a few photos.

I couldn't install the new power supply because my current graphics card wouldn't have been able to handle it. Once I pick up a new GPU, I'll swap out the power supply then. For now, I guess it stays like this.

The new SSD is excellent. I am quite satisfied. The speed is insane. I ran some tests today and I'm posting two images: one shows the Intel 535 and the other is the Samsung PM961. I guess I'll be installing the new OS on the Samsung in the next few days.

Benchmarks are all well and good, but you shouldn't actually notice a tangible difference during your day-to-day routine—things like booting up, shutting down, launching apps, or even game loading screens.

Samsung 960 Pro vs SATA SSD - game loading times tested