I’m helping a family member upgrade their PC, and thought it might be good to get a second opinion on it since I’m not a pro either when it comes to PC parts.
Here are the specs:
- Intel Core i5 6600K
- Nvidia GeForce GTX 970
- Samsung SSD 850 EVO 500GB (and a 2TB HDD)
- 2x4GB DDR4 RAM from Corsair
- ASUS Maximus VIII Ranger
- Corsair RM750i
Intent of the upgrade is to enhance gaming experience.
My first thought was to upgrade the SSD since 500GB isn’t a lot anyways and the product page of the 850 EVO says it has 540 MB/s read speed which doesn’t seem like a lot to me these days. Then also maybe the RAM, but I have no idea how much of an impact upgrading it has.
The other thing is upgrading CPU and/or GPU, but for that to be worth it I think you need to spend a lot more. I was thinking about giving them my RTX 3070 when I upgrade my own PC soon, in that case what would be a good CPU to go with it. Or would it be fine to just upgrade the GPU?
Some specs you just need enough of, and adding more won’t help. Others improve performance all around.
RAM and storage space are the former. You definitely need more RAM. You might need a bigger SSD, but you would need to evaluate that yourself. Is it low on space? RAM and storage speed are the latter.
You probably don’t need faster RAM (although it won’t hurt; it’s just unnecessary). But a faster SSD will make a world of difference. If the specs I found are to be believed, that board has a single M.2 slot that can be used for NVMe. Even the cheapest NVMe today is several times faster than the fastest SATA SSD. For gaming, this will affect load times. It may also reduce stuttering