Upgrading kid’s PC

[Scocho]

I’m looking to upgrade my kid’s PC. He primarily plays stuff like Minecraft and Fortnite, and is looking for increased FPS. His bday is coming up so I was hoping for any suggestions on best bang for the buck upgrade(s). He’s running low in storage so I’m thinking I’ll at least want to get another SSD.

It’s a Prebuilt, with the following:

AMD Ryzen 5 3600​

8GB DDR4 Memory​

AMD Radeon RX 550 2GB​

240GB SSD​

Thanks in advance!

 

[LukeTbk]

Edit, misunderstanding

A the current PC is the 3600, I would look what GPU can you put in with the current PSU, a second 8 gig of ram and add a new ssd to it

 

[pendragon1]

upgrade the psu and drop in whatever gpu you want. ssds are cheeeap now, i posted a 2tb thats only $71 earlier.
you dont need to replace the board/chip/ram...

 

[Scocho]

Thank you everyone. To clarify: I already own that system I linked; I’m looking to possibly upgrade some of the hardware.

 

[TheHig]

What I would do:
Get it to 16gb of ram.
Add a 1tb at least ssd for games / storage
Swap the psu for a 550-650w — something with 2x8pin gpu connections for future gpu headroom.
Toss in a Rx 6600

 

[Scocho]

Thank you so much for all the quick replies. Been awhile since I’ve built a pc or done upgrading - I totally spaced it on the need to ensure I took care of the psu. Thanks for the reminder!

Also… my other son’s bday is soon approaching and he has the exact same pc, so whatever I do I’ll be doing the same in both (so double the $) Seems like the immediate need will be more SSD storage and PSUs. Unfortunately I can’t afford to get those and a couple RX 6600’s… any suggestions on something that could help performance that won’t cost me too much?

Not sure if getting more RAM or a different ( less expensive) GPU would be the way to go…

 

[TheHig]

What psu is in the systems now? I think it listed 400w on the link you posted. What connectors does it have?

Ram and storage first for both because then you will just be gpu limited. Ram and a couple of SSDs are cheap and easy places to start.

 

[pendragon1]

grab a couple RX 580s for ~100/each(flip the 550s for $50/each)
ram is probably ok at 8 for what they are playing but should be the next update

 

[LukeTbk]

if you look here:
https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/radeon-rx-550.c2947

You can see a list of GPU with their rough performance relative to the RX550, an upgrade satisfaction is almost 100% relative to what you have right now.

As you see it is not be too expensive to give a huge boost an Rx470/RX580 being about 2.6 and 3.22 time the gpu, double the VRAM for about $35-$55 on ebay:
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=RX+470&_sacat=0&rt=nc&LH_Sold=1&LH_Complete=1
In the $85+ zone for the rx580
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fr...0&_odkw=580&_osacat=0&LH_Complete=1&LH_Sold=1


5700xt goes around $140-190 and are about 5-6 times the video cards with 4 time the vram.

So it depends on the boost wanted / price you want, but you can run a little bit of check up like this with a short list of possible skus, keeping in mind the power needed, connection that your PSU offer.

 

[TrunksZero]

RX580's would be the most affordable and provide a very large bump in performance as it's allot of tiers above the 550's they are currently rocking.

So I'd be inline with everyone else.

- RX 580's
- RAM & SSD upgrade
- Beefier PSU if needed.

Upside is SSD's, DDR4 ram and PSU can all be had for pretty cheap. Especially the ram if you go used

 

[Scocho]

What psu is in the systems now? I think it listed 400w on the link you posted. What connectors does it have?

Ram and storage first for both because then you will just be gpu limited. Ram and a couple of SSDs are cheap and easy places to start.

You were right, it’s a 400w: Solytech SL-400, has one 6-pin connector. I’ll start looking for a 550w by a reputable brand… if anyone has any recommendations at a food price point please let me know.

 

[Scocho]

grab a couple RX 580s for ~100/each(flip the 550s for $50/each)
ram is probably ok at 8 for what they are playing but should be the next update

Very helpful, thank you!

 

[Scocho]

if you look here:
https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/radeon-rx-550.c2947

You can see a list of GPU with their rough performance relative to the RX550, an upgrade satisfaction is almost 100% relative to what you have right now.

As you see it is not be too expensive to give a huge boost an Rx470/RX580 being about 2.6 and 3.22 time the gpu, double the VRAM for about $35-$55 on ebay:
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=RX+470&_sacat=0&rt=nc&LH_Sold=1&LH_Complete=1
In the $85+ zone for the rx580
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fr...0&_odkw=580&_osacat=0&LH_Complete=1&LH_Sold=1


5700xt goes around $140-190 and are about 5-6 times the video cards with 4 time the vram.

So it depends on the boost wanted / price you want, but you can run a little bit of check up like this with a short list of possible skus, keeping in mind the power needed, connection that your PSU offer.

Awesome, thanks!

 

[Scocho]

RX580's would be the most affordable and provide a very large bump in performance as it's allot of tiers above the 550's they are currently rocking.

So I'd be inline with everyone else.

- RX 580's
- RAM & SSD upgrade
- Beefier PSU if needed.

Upside is SSD's, DDR4 ram and PSU can all be had for pretty cheap. Especially the ram if you go used

Thank you!

What’s the consensus on buying used? As you can see I’m not aiming for the latest and greatest speed demon by any stretch of the imagination… but imagine stuff like PSUs and SSDs would be a no-no for used. Would RAM be okay used?

 

[TrunksZero]

Used ram should be fine. I've had very good experiences over the years with used ram. Same with used GPU's and CPU's to be honest.

Used SSD... I'm not sure I would bother. Decent deals on SATA SSD's are pretty common place. And while I'd agree that 1Tb is a good option... 512Gb might want to be considered as it would double thier space and they tend to be/can be cheaper

 

[Scocho]

Used ram should be fine. I've had very good experiences over the years with used ram. Same with used GPU's and CPU's to be honest.

Used SSD... I'm not sure I would bother. Decent deals on SATA SSD's are pretty common place. And while I'd agree that 1Tb is a good option... 512Gb might want to be considered as it would double thier space and they tend to be/can be cheaper

Thank you!

 

[TrunksZero]

Let us know how it goes!

 

[funkydmunky]

If you are out of storage you are out of storage. Nothing worse then that.
Obvious choice is as big an SSD as you can afford.

 

[Scocho]

The latest in the upgrade saga for my kids - they really want new monitors. They currently both have a Dell S2421NX. Been a long time since I’ve looked at monitors… is there anything folks would recommend under $200? One of my sons said he heard this would be a good option: AOC C24G1A

 

[pendragon1]

The latest in the upgrade saga for my kids - they really want new monitors. They currently both have a Dell S2421NX. Been a long time since I’ve looked at monitors… is there anything folks would recommend under $200? One of my sons said he heard this would be a good option: AOC C24G1A

they wont be running high hz, even after the upgrades, so stick with those dells

 

[Scocho]

they wont be running high hz, even after the upgrades, so stick with those dells

Think my kids are watching too many YouTube videos lol. I’m a bit rusty on hardware, but I didn’t think their monitors would be the bottleneck.

So even with all the upgrades at play (psu, up to 32g ram, rx 580, ssd) - there’s no benefit from a different monitor?

 

[pendragon1]

Think my kids are watching too many YouTube videos lol. I’m a bit rusty on hardware, but I didn’t think their monitors would be the bottleneck.

So even with all the upgrades at play (psu, up to 32g ram, rx 580, ssd) - there’s no benefit from a different monitor?

nope. they are already 75hz and if you add a 580 most games will only be doing 1080p/60/high settings anyways. i wouldn't jump to 32gb ram either, 16 is plenty unless they are doing video/photos, VMs or heavy multitasking.

 

[Scocho]

they wont be running high hz, even after the upgrades, so stick with those dells

Thank you so much!

On the RAM - I was originally thinking of 16gb, it was just so close in price it’s hard to pass up! I was gonna go with this Corsair 32gb for $68 (vs $40 for 16gb)… but if you think that’s overkill I’m happy to save some $

 

[pendragon1]

Thank you so much!

On the RAM - I was originally thinking of 16gb, it was just so close in price it’s hard to pass up! I was gonna go with this Corsair 32gb for $68 (vs $40 for 16gb)… but if you think that’s overkill I’m happy to save some $

imo, it is.
if you have the extra cash for even more ram and monitors, it would be better spent to move up a tier or two on the gpu, up to a 5600 or higher/newer(if you get a 650w psu).

 

[Scocho]

Hello again. Well, I’ve bought some components; so far I’ve put the PSUs in both PCs, next up I was planning on adding the SSD in each. I realize these may not have been the most optimal choices (like I know 700w is way more than needed) but I was in a big box store and there they were…

PSU: Thermaltake Smart 700
SSD: SAMSUNG 970 EVO Plus SSD 1TB NVMe M.2

I’m a little stumped on the SSD - as in, from the little bit I’ve read, having an NVME would ideally be a boot drive. But as this is a prebuilt, I can’t copy the OS (Win10), right? Should I just keep the existing SSD as the boot?

The Mobo is a ASRock A320M/ac and the existing SSD is an ADATA SU650 SSD 240GB

 

[LukeTbk]

But as this is a prebuilt, I can’t copy the OS (Win10), right?

I could imagine every licensing could be different but I did copy a Windows 10 OS from a dell/HP type of computer from an HDD to a SSD in the past.

Because your os drive is already an OS drive and their size is not unnatural (small one for the OS, install anything big like games on the non os), maybe not that big of a deal and simple not too.

 

[applegrcoug]

Hello again. Well, I’ve bought some components; so far I’ve put the PSUs in both PCs, next up I was planning on adding the SSD in each. I realize these may not have been the most optimal choices (like I know 700w is way more than needed) but I was in a big box store and there they were…

PSU: Thermaltake Smart 700
SSD: SAMSUNG 970 EVO Plus SSD 1TB NVMe M.2

I’m a little stumped on the SSD - as in, from the little bit I’ve read, having an NVME would ideally be a boot drive. But as this is a prebuilt, I can’t copy the OS (Win10), right? Should I just keep the existing SSD as the boot?

The Mobo is a ASRock A320M/ac and the existing SSD is an ADATA SU650 SSD 240GB

you could try using macrium reflect to clone the boot drive onto the nvme and then set the nvme to the active boot device. I've done that lots of times and windows usually plays nice.

 

[learners permit]

Download samsung magician for free and clone the drives to target nvme no problems.

 

[Scocho]

Thanks for the responses, I’ll let you know how it goes!

 

[emphy]

If looking for rx580, you may want to check:



Personally, I would prefer such a new video card, built around a recycled gpu, to a card that has been pinky-promised not to have been used for mining.

 

[Scocho]

If looking for rx580, you may want to check:



Personally, I would prefer such a new video card, built around a recycled gpu, to a card that has been pinky-promised not to have been used for mining.

Hey, that’s awesome, thanks for sharing! It’s looking like this might be the route I go.

 

[Scocho]

Just wanted to say thanks to all of you for your input! I ended up getting the rx580 and the kids are loving their upgraded systems!

Now… any advice on what the next logical upgrade(s) would be lol? Would it make sense to get a better monitor (current has refresh rate of 75 Hz)… or is it a matter of when I want to upgrade the video card again?

 

[pendragon1]

Just wanted to say thanks to all of you for your input! I ended up getting the rx580 and the kids are loving their upgraded systems!

Now… any advice on what the next logical upgrade(s) would be lol? Would it make sense to get a better monitor (current has refresh rate of 75 Hz)… or is it a matter of when I want to upgrade the video card again?

monitor is fine. next would be a much better/newer gpu.