Planning an upgrade path. | Linus Tech Tips | Page 1

noble lark Aug 7, 2023, 2:08 PM

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So, I bought my gaming PC online a year ago. Other than upgrading the RAM, it's the same as I bought it, but I don't know much about computers in general so I'm not sure how to figure out a suitable upgrade path. How do I identify the parts in it for future reference, and are there any tips for ensuring compatibility?

hushed cliff Aug 7, 2023, 2:13 PM

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It should say on the actual part, or a list of parts when you got your pc. Like, I remember one time getting a sparkle gpu. Never heard of sparkle in my life but it worked well. Same for ram, itll have on the chips like a Samsung stick ... hopefully. Sometimes it won't. Ram will be tricky, unless you just buy new ram completely, which I would recomend to avoid any issues.

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Motherboard you can check via .... Start Menu > Windows Tools > System Information

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Power supply won't matter, nor will the gpu with the cpu you got .... you shouldn't bottleneck anything unless you try getting a 4090 or something lol.

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So, in summary, you can upgrade your power supply no issue, gpu, ram .... and storage, without any conflicts really.

noble lark Aug 7, 2023, 2:18 PM

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Yeah. I stuck with the same brand of RAM but went DDR5 and upped capacity.

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If I were to replace the motherboard for I/O reasons down the line, are there any suitable replacements? I find the lack of USB-C to be pretty annoying for VR reasons.

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hushed cliff Aug 7, 2023, 2:20 PM

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Brand won't mean anything, you need the EXACT dim to avoid issues

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So you always want to buy them in kits

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If you have ddr4 3200mhz Kingston from 4 years ago, if you buy the same thing today, you could run into issues.

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People will always advise buying a completely new kit

noble lark Aug 7, 2023, 2:23 PM

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I don't understand what you mean by that.

hushed cliff Aug 7, 2023, 2:23 PM

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Uhm ...

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To avoid possible issues, buy new ram entirely

noble lark Aug 7, 2023, 2:24 PM

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I did.

hushed cliff Aug 7, 2023, 2:24 PM

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Like remove the old one too

noble lark Aug 7, 2023, 2:24 PM

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I did.

hushed cliff Aug 7, 2023, 2:24 PM

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Oh you good then brother lol

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Or sister

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Or non gender conforming individual

noble lark Aug 7, 2023, 2:25 PM

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No worries. Lul.

hushed cliff Aug 7, 2023, 2:26 PM

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But yeah, once you figure out your motherboard, you can upgrade based off that

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But just going off your cpu, I can say nearly any ram, just not ddr5, any gpu upgrade will be easy

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Same for storage

cyan peak Aug 7, 2023, 4:21 PM

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i think his 1st step should be to get like a 1 tb ssd and then maybe look to upgrade to a 40 series card

#Planning an upgrade path.