Should I Upgrade My Current PC or Build a New One?

For these games, you don’t necessarily need an expensive high-end replacement. A modern midrange system would be a noticeable improvement and give you better upgrade options. Building it yourself is reasonable if you’re comfortable learning: follow a current parts guide, verify compatibility, and take your time with cable connections and front-panel wiring. If that feels stressful, a reputable prebuilt can be worthwhile, but check that it uses standard components and clearly lists the power supply and motherboard.

Given the age of the platform, I’d lean toward planning a new build rather than putting much money into upgrades. You could likely reuse the SSD for extra storage, but I’d avoid relying on the old hard drive for games that benefit from faster loading. Before deciding, check the health of both drives and make sure the slowdown isn’t caused by a nearly full SSD, overheating, background software, or a Windows issue.

Use real game benchmarks and hardware reviews to compare possible upgrades rather than relying on generalized component-ranking websites. First decide what you want improved—higher frame rates, better graphics settings, or faster load times—and set a budget. That will determine whether a GPU upgrade is enough or whether it makes more sense to replace the CPU, motherboard, and RAM together.

Check the condition of the drives first. Tools such as CrystalDiskInfo can show their SMART health and warning status. Also monitor CPU and GPU temperatures while gaming, since dust buildup or aging thermal paste can reduce performance. If the hardware is healthy, a clean Windows installation may help, but the i7-6700K and GTX 1070 are still an older combination, so a major performance increase would usually require a newer platform and graphics card.