Upgrading my PC

XxCodyDarnellxX

XxCodyDarnellxX

Member
Hello everybody!

So I'm fairly new to the hardware side of computers, and only really know a couple of basic things (what each part in my PC is called, and the basics of what it does). I'm looking to go to school to be a Computer Support Tech, so I imagine I'll be spending a lot more time on these forums when I get that started.


So, introduction aside, here's what I need the expert's help with.

I bought a computer from a friend last year, and it's starting to have issues. The HDD (Pretty sure it's the HDD) is making very loud noises when I start up a game, my disk usage in my task manager is always at 100%, and I'm not sure how good the CPU is now-a-days.

I have about a $150 - $200 budget to upgrade my PC, but keeping it under that would be great. I'll post my specs below - Let me know what you would replace, if any of these parts fall well below the rest and will boost my PCs performance.


OS: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
GPU: 2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 (EVGA)
CPU: AMD FX-8350 (Eight Core)
RAM: 16.0GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 671MHz
MB: Gigabyte Technology Co. Ltd. GA-990FXA-UD3 (Socket M2)
Storage: 465GB Western Digital WDC WD5000AAKS-00TMA0 (Possibly Failing)
Optical Drives: LITE-ON DVDRW LH-20A1S



THANKS FOR READING!




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You have the best CPU for your motherboard so no point doing anything with that. It's still fine for gaming, if a little old.

With your money I'd buy a new hard drive since you think yours is failing (go for a 1TB Seagate or WD) and maybe a 250GB SSD too. The Samsung 850 Evo is a good one. Put Windows and programs on the SSD and games on the HDD and that will really increase the speed of your PC!

Your next steps after that would probably be to replace the GPU with something newer but once you've spent money on the HDD and SSD you won't be able to afford a new GPU which is an upgrade from the GTX 680. Eventually you may want to replace the CPU, board and RAM too with the latest generation Intel or AMD platform and a DDR4 setup.
 
spirit said:
You have the best CPU for your motherboard so no point doing anything with that. It's still fine for gaming, if a little old.

With your money I'd buy a new hard drive since you think yours is failing (go for a 1TB Seagate or WD) and maybe a 250GB SSD too. The Samsung 850 Evo is a good one. Put Windows and programs on the SSD and games on the HDD and that will really increase the speed of your PC!

Your next steps after that would probably be to replace the GPU with something newer but once you've spent money on the HDD and SSD you won't be able to afford a new GPU which is an upgrade from the GTX 680. Eventually you may want to replace the CPU, board and RAM too with the latest generation Intel or AMD platform and a DDR4 setup.
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Thanks for the response!


A 1TB WD and the 250gb Evo total up to be $139.51 from Newegg, which leaves it under my budget. If I were to stretch my budget, what GPU would you recommend? I've heard good things about the GeForce GTX 770ti (or 750, I forget which it was now).

Edit: Pretty sure it was the 750, thinking back. Not sure there even is a 770ti.
 
It's the 750ti and you would be dropping in performance, not gaining any going from the 680 to a 750ti. You can run western digital diagnostics on the drive but almost positive its dying on you. Definitely get the new 1tb HDD and 250 gb 850 evo SSD though. As said, you have the best cpu for your motherboard. You said you have 16gb single channel ram. How many sticks do you have?
 
johnb35 said:
It's the 750ti and you would be dropping in performance, not gaining any going from the 680 to a 750ti. You can run western digital diagnostics on the drive but almost positive its dying on you. Definitely get the new 1tb HDD and 250 gb 850 evo SSD though. As said, you have the best cpu for your motherboard. You said you have 16gb single channel ram. How many sticks do you have?
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Thanks for the reply!

I just ordered the HDD and SSD that was recommended, as it's not the first I've heard of the 850 Evo being a good buy. Hopefully that helps with some performance issues. Now it's just a matter of if I'm capable of replacing my current parts or not, since I've never assembled or disassembled a PC before.

I have two 8gb sticks of RAM. :)
 
In order for them to be in dual channel you need to install them in alternating slots. So if you have a stick in the first slot next to the processor then you need to skip the second slot and put the second stick in the 3rd slot. Or you can put them in the 2nd and 4th slots. Having them in dual channel will help somewhat.

Replacing hard drive and SSD are pretty simple.
 
johnb35 said:
In order for them to be in dual channel you need to install them in alternating slots. So if you have a stick in the first slot next to the processor then you need to skip the second slot and put the second stick in the 3rd slot. Or you can put them in the 2nd and 4th slots. Having them in dual channel will help somewhat.

Replacing hard drive and SSD are pretty simple.
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I checked to see which slots they were in, and they're actually in the 2nd and 4th. Not sure why my Speccy said it was single channel.
 
XxCodyDarnellxX said:
I checked to see which slots they were in, and they're actually in the 2nd and 4th. Not sure why my Speccy said it was single channel.
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Also cross reference with CPU-Z. Some boards have different channels to different slots as well. I migrated from another Z97 board to this Z97 board but having the modules next to each other is now a single channel configuration where it used to be a dual. You can additionally verify in the motherboard manual which will break out which slots belong to which channels.

Here's from the manual of your board, it looks like you'll have to leave a space between modules in order to utilize both memory channels. The 2nd and 4th are only bound to channel A.

GKBBKlV.png
 
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beers said:
Here's from the manual of your board, it looks like you'll have to leave a space between modules in order to utilize both memory channels. The 2nd and 4th are only bound to channel A.

GKBBKlV.png
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Thanks for this!

Edit: Ahh, figured out what I was doing wrong.

Edit2: Okay, I have my sticks in DDR3_2 and DDR3_1, but it still says single channel.
 
I'd just verify in BIOS. On my Gigabyte board it breaks down how each channel is populated. I'd also trust CPU-Z more than Speccy ;)

You could also use the outer edge slots just to verify (1 & 4) since those will always be on separate channels.
 
Keep your graphics card and put the $70 towards a better one in the future or for something else.

16GB RAM is enough, no need to go to 32GB. Just replace the HDD and get an SSD now. If you really want to spend more the why not get a bigger HDD and/or a bigger SSD? Maybe a 500GB SSD and a 2TB or 4TB drive? Reliability rates of Seagate 3TB drives at least seems poor (and my Seagate 3TB died too), so I'd stay away from Seagate 3TB drives (but my WD Green 3TB seems absolutely fine and is about 4 or 5 years old).
 
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beers said:
I'd just verify in BIOS. On my Gigabyte board it breaks down how each channel is populated. I'd also trust CPU-Z more than Speccy ;)

You could also use the outer edge slots just to verify (1 & 4) since those will always be on separate channels.
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Okay, you were definitely right not to trust Speccy. All I did was reboot the PC and run Speccy again and it said dual-channel. Problem solved. :confused:


spirit said:
Keep your graphics card and put the $70 towards a better one in the future or for something else.

16GB RAM is enough, no need to go to 32GB. Just replace the HDD and get an SSD now. If you really want to spend more the why not get a bigger HDD and/or a bigger SSD? Maybe a 500GB SSD and a 2TB or 4TB drive? Reliability rates of Seagate 3TB drives at least seems poor (and my Seagate 3TB died too), so I'd stay away from Seagate 3TB drives (but my WD Green 3TB seems absolutely fine and is about 4 or 5 years old).
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Solid advice. I think a 1TB HDD and 250GB SSD will help a lot, and I don't see myself using much space past that anyways. I only ever have 3 - 5 games at a time on my PC anyways. So I think saving toward my next GPU is probably the best way to go. :)
 
XxCodyDarnellxX said:
Solid advice. I think a 1TB HDD and 250GB SSD will help a lot, and I don't see myself using much space past that anyways. I only ever have 3 - 5 games at a time on my PC anyways. So I think saving toward my next GPU is probably the best way to go. :)
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Good idea. Just curious: what resolution do you play at and are you not satisfied with your system's gaming performance?
 
spirit said:
Good idea. Just curious: what resolution do you play at and are you not satisfied with your system's gaming performance?
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I have two monitors, one being an old Dell 60hz and an RCA TV, using an HDMI cable.
When playing games on the TV (WoW, 7 Days to Die, Smite) I play at 1768x992 or 1920x1080.
When playing games on the Dell (CS:GO, sometimes the above 3) I play at 1440x900 or 1280x960.

I'm not dissatisfied with it's performance, it handles most* games really well at max settings with a smooth framerate. The loud sounds I've been hearing and constant computer and/or game crashes are my main issue. These crashes mostly occur when playing 7DTD.

*It struggles to run 7 Days to Die at anything higher than the minimum settings. I'm not sure if it's due to 7DTD being in Alpha and poorly optimized, or if it's just a really resource intensive game, but my PC obviously struggles as it gets louder like it's climbing a hill. I'm hoping replacing my HDD will help with that, as 7DTD uses randomly generated worlds which are loaded around your character as you move (I think this requires it to constantly be writing to my drive?), but as is, my PC is always at 100% disk usage, even when very few programs are running.
 
Just got a blue screen that said "UNEXPECTED_KERNEL_MODE_TRAP". And the whirring has gotten really loud. To the point I pretty much don't want to run any games.

I'm pretty sure the sounds are coming from the HDD, but will it harm my other parts at all to keep it running like this with the constant crashes and what-not? Or should I just ride this HDD 'til it dies or my new parts come in?

Edit: Blue screen again. 30 mins or so later. "KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED"...
 
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