I'm looking to upgrade an older PC so my son can use it for gaming. Currently, it takes forever to boot up—around 30 minutes—and three of the fans have stopped working. Here are the specs: Intel Core i7-6700K CPU, MSI Z170A GAMING M7 motherboard, 16GB DDR4 RAM, GTX 1060 graphics card, and it's running Windows 10 Home. What upgrades would you recommend to improve its performance?
3 Answers
Upgrading to an SSD is a must since it seems you're still using a hard drive. A 512GB or 1TB NVMe SSD would be a perfect choice, but keep in mind that prices can be steep. Also, consider replacing the cooling fans and thermal paste on the CPU and GPU for better performance.
Have you thought about switching to Linux? It could optimize performance, especially for Steam games. Some people have had good experiences with it on older hardware.
I’m not really familiar with Linux, but my son mainly plays on Steam. Would it affect his gaming experience?
You should definitely get an SSD for the operating system and games. That alone can make a huge difference in load times. The CPU and GPU are a bit old, but they should still work fine for lightweight games.
Do you have any specific SSD recommendations? What makes one better than another?
Would any SSD work with my setup? And about the thermal paste—how do I go about replacing that?