Need help with a PC upgrade

Hey there,

I'm looking to give my PC a bit of an upgrade since it’s been a few years now, and honestly, I just can't run any of the newer titles without some pretty nasty stuttering...🙂

According to Speccy, here is what I'm currently running:
Intel Core i3-4170 @3.7GHz
8GB single channel DDR3 @798MHz
Asus B85M-K motherboard (LGA 1150 socket)
Nvidia GeForce GTX 950

Do you think it's even possible to swap out most of this for around $1000 and actually see a meaningful difference, or am I just dreaming?😁

You could pull it off if you sell your old parts. You might get maybe $50 for the GPU, and the rest won't be much more than that. For $667, you could upgrade to a new motherboard, CPU, and RAM, then put about $150 toward a decent graphics card. What kind of power supply are you running?

The PSU is a 500W Hyper

Do you have any thoughts on what kind of specs I should aim for? What specifically should I be looking to pick up if I want the absolute best value for around $300 to $350?

Intel Core i3-10100F $231
ASRock H410M-HVS motherboard $156
2x8GB Patriot Viper Steel 3200MHz $169
500GB Kingston SSD, A2000,
M.2 2280, NVMe, PCIe 3.0 $163
Zalman S4 Midi Tower $93
FSP 400W Power Supply 80 PLUS, $111
KFA2 GTX 1650 SUPER EX, 1-Click OC, 4GB $442

eBay
If you need to stay under $400, just drop one stick of RAM and grab an 8GB module instead...

Alexander Moore67 put this together in a thread recently for about $1333 so use that as a guide... CPU, motherboard, RAM—that's the core. Mix and match the rest based on what you want and what you can afford...

Another route would be upgrading the Intel Core i7-4790 to a $367 (way too pricey) and picking up a used RX 580 for $233

Honestly, just buying a whole new rig is probably smarter, though this setup would still hold its own...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/i7-4790-listing

This processor works too...

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php....30GHz&id=1942

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php....60GHz&id=3863

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php....60GHz&id=2226

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php....30GHz&id=1942

Just some rough benchmarks for comparison

The performance gap between the Intel Core i7-4770 and the Intel Core i7-4790 is honestly negligible when you're gaming. You're better off picking up the Intel Core i7-4770 for $250 or even grabbing an Intel Xeon E3-1230 v3 for $217. Honestly, spending extra on a 4790 is just throwing money down the drain...

Since the budget isn't exactly bottomed out, I’d rather just buy something new. An Intel Core i3-10100F beats all those used i7s, and it costs about the same as the cheapest used chips. If he sells his current motherboard, RAM, and old i3 for $83, that basically covers getting some new RAM (at least 8GB), leaving him to just grab a cheap motherboard to get on a modern platform. Looking at $233, relying on an ancient quad-core after half a decade is just asking for trouble.

Forget about hunting for used i7s around town. You’re either looking at an Intel Xeon from overseas or just going with something brand new.

If you check the CPU support list here https://www.asus.com/supportonly/B85M-K/HelpDesk_CPU/, your best bet is hitting up AliExpress to hunt for an Intel Xeon E3-1230 v3 or whatever else fits the budget, provided they offer free shipping. Just make sure to double-check on Intel Ark that you're actually getting a 4-core, 8-thread processor, and verify that the free shipping applies to the US. Most importantly, ensure it says V3 at the end so it actually works with the 1150 socket.

Next step—if you decide to go the used route—grab some 8GB of DDR3, and then you can probably squeeze in something like an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Super. I saw some used ones listed on eBay $400 that even came with a one-year warranty. Otherwise, brand new cards are running closer to $667
.
Honestly, going the used route is strictly about "resurrecting" an old rig. It isn't going to handle modern AAA titles smoothly for very long before you start seeing major stuttering.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/QTY-1x-INTE...1&isGTR=1#shId

That comes out to about $44 total, which is roughly $93

But that’s just a straight quad-core

https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us...-3-10-ghz.html

If you ask me, you should always aim for the highest spec your socket can handle—go for the 4c8t setup.

A pure quad isn't actually much better than an i3 at first glance. Honestly? Go for 4c/8t or just don't bother at all.