I’m helping a family member upgrade their PC, and thought it might be good to get a second opinion on it since I’m not a pro either when it comes to PC parts.
Here are the specs:
- Intel Core i5 6600K
- Nvidia GeForce GTX 970
- Samsung SSD 850 EVO 500GB (and a 2TB HDD)
- 2x4GB DDR4 RAM from Corsair
- ASUS Maximus VIII Ranger
- Corsair RM750i
Intent of the upgrade is to enhance gaming experience.
My first thought was to upgrade the SSD since 500GB isn’t a lot anyways and the product page of the 850 EVO says it has 540 MB/s read speed which doesn’t seem like a lot to me these days. Then also maybe the RAM, but I have no idea how much of an impact upgrading it has.
The other thing is upgrading CPU and/or GPU, but for that to be worth it I think you need to spend a lot more. I was thinking about giving them my RTX 3070 when I upgrade my own PC soon, in that case what would be a good CPU to go with it. Or would it be fine to just upgrade the GPU?
It’s a trade off. You could get 32GB of whatever speed, up to the DDR4-3400 limit of the board. You’ll probably end up with DDR4-3200. Your existing RAM, having been purchased years ago, is probably around 2400.
All RAM must operate at matching specs, which is why you sometimes see that it can run at 3200, 2666, 2400, 2133. It will (usually) run at the highest spec supported by all of the pieces - every stick, the motherboard, and the CPU.
So, in the above scenario, you could either have 32GB @ DDR4-3200, or 40GB @ DDR4-2400. If you don’t need more than 32GB, the extra capacity won’t help, and the speed difference is all you would ever notice. But if you need more, the extra capacity will make all the difference.