I've had my PC for about 9 years and it's really starting to struggle. I've already upgraded the RAM and my graphics card is decent for its time, but I need to make some significant upgrades now. I have 64GB of DDR5 RAM that I bought but can't use because my motherboard doesn't support it. Since I want to keep costs down and I'm not planning to change out the RAM or graphics card, what do you suggest would be the best improvements for the cost? Here's what I have: Intel Core i5 7600K, Asus Z270-P motherboard, 32GB of DDR4 RAM (even though I have 64GB DDR5 sitting unused), and an RTX 5060 Ti.
1 Answer
Having the RAM already is a great bonus! What's your budget looking like? I highly recommend upgrading to a 5070 or a 9700X combo. A used 5070 usually goes for around $550 on eBay, which is a solid investment for a few years. The 9700X is about $230 used, and you can find a B650 motherboard for around $100. You could even sell your unused 64GB of DDR5 RAM for about $500 to fund a nice microcenter bundle that includes CPU, RAM, and motherboard.
That's good advice! Just keep in mind that your current motherboard is likely limited to older Intel chips. I wouldn't worry about the current RAM speed too much—those specs can differ in real-world performance.