When should you upgrade your PC?? And how do you know what you should upgrade first?

Ever wonder how you can know when it's really time to upgrade something in your PC?

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[blaie]

My golden rule... _"Have I got the cash to upgrade?"_ If no, then no upgrade for me.

[VadikRamm]

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[Psycho-Ben]

9:25 yes, please do an updated video physically comparing modern PCI-E lane Generations. seeing ACTUAL performance vs. theoretical would be awesome 👍

[joekenorer]

After 35 years of playing with computers I don't think I'm going to upgrade anymore, the economy has priced everything out and my wages haven't increased since 2020. On top of that the games aren't good anymore and I'm getting old and just don't have infinite patience to invest in them anymore. I'm thinking about unplugging completely and buying a motorcycle and spending the rest of my days outside.

[sureberferber]

"Should I upgrade" is really nothing but a comparison between "What do you actually do with your PC" versus "Epeen Reasons".
- If you spend 95% of your time playing Indie Steam games, watching Youtube, and checking email... You don't need half of what you think you do.
- If your stuff is old, but it still does everything fine "As far as you can tell"... Let it go. You're fine for now. Wait for the deals.

[djmidnightwolf]

I don't need an *_steps into Micro Center_*

[Legendsingray]

I just upgraded from a pre-built that had some components fail (after only 4 years) and many had proprietary connections. Finally built myself one.

[NewRaven]

My golden rule(s) as someone who wasted way too much cash in his life for pc upgrades? Only upgrade when you really need to, not when you just want to. Buy new stuff if you actually need the performance or the technical right now. Don't upgrade because you like shiny new stuff, don't upgrade because "it could be useful at some point" - upgrade when you need it. Upgrade when something isn't performing the way you need it to. In pc hardware, nothing is particular "future-proof" and - all scalpers, pandemics and so on aside - prices usually go down, sometimes rather quick. You just waste money if you upgrade too early, even if you buy on sale. And rule 2: don't go all the way to the highest high-end or the lowest low-end. Both variants are usually not worth your money. With the former you often pay 30% more for 15% more performance, with the latter you probably have to replace that part much earlier than if you had spent 10% more.

[darklordbungus]

My golden rule is whatever part I'm upgrading must be at least a 25% improvement in performance/capacity for a similar price to the original part. I've followed your budget builds and managed to upgrade my entire PC for about $1000 while improving performance by at least 50%. New case plus fans ($125), CPU i7-9700 to 12700K ($225), Z790 MOBA ($200), RX 6600 XT to RX 7700 XT with two Steam codes ($350), extra 16 GB RAM ($75), extra 1TB SSD ($75), 450 W to 750 W PSU ($125, purchased in advance). Thanks for all of the great build videos!

[JamieStuff]

This past year, I DOWNGRADED to a 7940HS based tiny PC, and I love it. However, I do have a bit of a different use case. I'm a trucker, and I'm limited to 1080p/60 on my TV. The tiny PC is running Linux, and most of my gaming is through Steam. Most of the Steam games run just fine under Linux. (Think Steam Deck v1.5.) However, I do still have my gaming PC on board, which is an all-AMD AM4 SFF system. The big difference for me is with power draw. On the tiny PC, I can let the computer stay on all night, downloading via the slow truck stop WiFi without draining the truck battery. The AM4 system, however, can go only 5-6 hours doing a download before the low voltage alarm goes off, so I need to idle. (Not a problem during the summer when I need the A/C, but it is the rest of the year.)

TL/DR: Only you can determine if what you have now is "good enough".

[jameseisterhold]

As someone upgrading soon good to see it’s time to upgrade everything

[blderm]

13:45 the golden rule here is: check your motherboard manual, if it says adding an extra drive will steal bandwidth from your GPU then upgrade to a bigger drive and use the old one as external, otherwise add an extra drive.

[skytechiesnexusjinx]

Congratulations again for the new Studio JTC team..

[samknight]

good stuff Jay. I'm one of your very first viewer, have been watching your videos for years, and learned a lot. I used to be ridiculously into DIY/custom PC builds, and I always overbuild my PCs for over 15 years. After the COVID time, the one most important thing I realized is just as you say in this videos, many things in my builds just don't need an upgrade. my corsair psu works fine after 10 years, my 1080ti always delivered, still 120hz monitor 2k can last me for couple more years till everything is 4k.
I now lost the desire or passion to upgrade my pc, not only that these parts still kickass for most daily tasks, but it could also provide me good results at work. I just don't think a 30% performance lift worth another 1000 bucks. I still remember the day 1080ti was lunched and I ordered 2 for sli, just cuz its crazy at that time and this cards worth every penny, nowadays looking at the price tags of the rtx 40s just makes me sad.

[Juliencharb]

i cant listen to you, i'm looking at the 3gpu fan spinning from time to time LOL

[leagreenall]

This has been a BRILLIANT video. I'm very experienced at building my own system for decades... but... I don't know all the tech savvy terms and meanings. So when you explained the issues with upgrading Drives and taking lane spots - BANG - it was like a new paradigm was discovered. Same with all the power supply and requirements, and especially the Motherboard.... I just build a system with 'guesstimating' based on what didn't blow up in the past and was proven.

I currently have a SFF build with ROG Strix X570-I gaming MB, Ryzen 9 5950X, WD SN850X 2TB Gen 4 NVMe, 64GB Corsair Veng RAM, Zotac RTX 4070 Twin Edge OC GPU, SX650G PSU, all water-cooled in a HYTE Revolt 3 ITX case... all attached to a Dell 32 4K G3223Q UHD Gaming Monitor.

So with the AMD 5 series and X3D CPUs as well as the RTX 5 series on the horizon, was wondering if I needed to upgrade... I mainly play Skyrim in 4K, mod and stream... Your video made it clear I do NOT need to upgrade and I am VERY grateful to have watched it.... only thing I do NOT like in my setup is the Motherboard as I can't get sound and only 1x M.2 drive is recognised.

Thanks very much :)

[Vegibyte]

I just updated my 3700X to a 5700X3D with a Lian Li cooler to prolong the life of my current system, since it hasn't had any issues.
My golden rule is to always wait around 6 months after a series releases and see how it performs before committing to a full build. I don't have time to be a free beta tester.

[MariuszWodarczyk]

These are some level-headed pieces of advice. Thanks, Jay.

[KidFrom]

I recently upgraded my cpu from a 3700x to a 5900x and I instantly noticed my games being a lot smoother next upgrade for me is my gpu

[cjeffcoatjr]

1:55 This felt like a direct callout at me, lol. My 5950X and 6800XT are still going strong. I recently upgraded my primary "monitor" to a 42-inch LG C4 instead of upgrading the computer itself. Consider your setup friends 😃