What Should I Upgrade on My PC and How to Do It?

Scenario

What should I do for upgrading my PC?

“I am a senior PC gamer, and I recently discovered that when the computer is running games, there will be obvious freezes. I have prepared a budget to improve performance. Is my PC upgradable? Which parts of the PC do you recommend I should upgrade? (My hard drive is HDD). Please explain to me what are the benefits of upgrading these parts? All answers will be greatly appreciated.”

 

Which parts of the PC should you upgrade?

When your computer has problems such as freezing, long loading time, delay, or crash, the computer hardware may be the culprit. If you haven't replaced computer accessories for a long time and have the idea of upgrading your computer, then updating computer accessories is a wise choice. The following will introduce you to four types of hardware worth upgrading.

Generally speaking, RAM, SSD, graphics card and processor are the most common upgrades in various PC upgrade guides. If you are a gamer, it must be essential to replace HDD with SSD.

│Update hard drive  for faster running speed

What's the first thing I should upgrade on my PC is change or add a new hard drive.

The hard drive is where all the data on the computer is stored. Hard disk drives are divided into HDD and SSD, but the read and write speed of SSD is better than HDD. SSD can effectively reduce the time for programs and resources to load into the system, greatly shorten the delay of the system, and increase the speed of the whole machine.

So if you are using an HDD or a small-capacity SSD,  you need to replace a new or larger SSD. This is also the fastest and most effective way to upgrade your PC.

│Install RAM  to get more memory

Random access memory (RAM) temporarily stores the data that you are actively using while on your computer. RAM allows you to more quickly access data than if it was coming straight from your hard drive. The more RAM, the more programs you can run at the same time.

Before upgrading, you need to know the type of RAM your computer uses. You can directly visit the manufacturer's website to obtain detailed information about the specific hardware that can be used to upgrade your PC.

Notes:
1. 4 GB RAM is sufficient for general Internet browsing and/or running non-memory-intensive applications.
2. 8 GB to12 GB RAM is more suitable for games, video streaming and/or running memory-intensive applications.

│Upgrade the graphics card to improve graphic performance

What should I upgrade on my PC for gaming? There is no doubt that the graphics card is too important for games.

The graphics card is an important component that connects the monitor to the PC motherboard. Unless your computer is specifically configured for gaming, manufacturers usually use integrated graphics. Desktop graphics card upgrades have a great impact on the gaming experience, and poor performance graphics cards cannot even drive certain games. A good graphics card can keep your game frame rate at a good value.

│Upgrade CPU (not recommend)

The central processing unit（CPU）is the brain of your computer. It receives information（fetches）, processes data (decodes), and performs calculations (executes). The level of CPU performance directly determines the level of performance of a computer system.

Most important:
1. The CPU needs to be matched with the motherboard when replacing it. If there is no CPU suitable for the motherboard on the market, you have to replace the motherboard.
2. If the motherboard needs to be replaced, the RAM cannot be inserted into the new motherboard, and the RAM needs to be replaced.
3. The success rate of simply replacing the CPU is not very high, and it is often necessary to change a batch of things.

How to upgrade the PC?

In summary, upgrading the hard disk, installing memory modules, updating the graphics card, and upgrading the CPU are ways to directly improve the performance of the computer, which is enough to meet your gaming needs. But because the operation process of replacing CPU is complicated, it is difficult for ordinary users to complete it independently and it is not recommended here. Below, I will demonstrate in detail how to replace these accessories.

│Method 1. Update hard drive

Upgrading the hard drive is the easiest and most effective operation. To upgrade HDD to SSD, you only need to clone HDD data to SSD and there will be no trouble of data loss. I recommend you to use AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional for disk cloning, which is a professional cloning software. Two cloning methods are provided: "Clone Disk Quickly" and "Sector-by-Sector Clone". The former only clones the used space to the new disk, and the latter clones all sectors to the new disk.

If you just want to migrate the operating system partition, then Migrate OS to SSD is sufficient.

PS.: Before cloning, you need to use a SATA to USB cable to connect the SSD to the computer, and ensure the computer can detect the SSD.

Step 1. Install and run AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional Edition. Right-click the disk where the games located and select “Clone Disk". (Take Disk 1 as an example)

Step 2. Choose any method and click "Next".

Step 3. Select the SSD you replaced（take Disk 3 as an example）, check "Optimize the performance of SSD" and then click "Next".

Step 4. Now, you can edit the partition size on the SSD drive, and then click "Next".

PS.: If it is cloned to a smaller SSD, the first option is grayed out.

Step 5. Read the follow-up instructions and click Finish.

Step 6. In the main interface, click "Apply" to start cloning HDD to SSD.

After that, you have cloned the old disk to the SSD. Then you just need to insert the new SSD into the PC.

│Method 2. Add a RAM

Before you add new RAM, you need to check what type of memory the computer is using: Open Task Manager and click "Performance". The system will display the memory type and the number of slots used. Then purchase compatible RAM and install it on your computer.

From the following screenshot, you can see that the system is running DDR3 and RAM is 8 GB.

PS.: Most factory-built computers have slots for adding more RAM. If there is no room for more RAM, you can replace the existing RAM with a larger capacity.
1. Purchase the corresponding memory module.
2. Open the location of the motherboard memory slot on the chassis.
3. Before you are ready to insert the memory, push out the lock on the head of the memory slot.
4. Then insert the memory module into the slot and insert it to the end.
5. Tighten the latches at both ends of the memory module to ensure that the memory module is not loose.
6. Turn on the computer to check it.

│Method 3. Change new graphic card

You can learn how to replace a new graphics card from this video.

Conclusion

Seeing this, I believe you have an answer to the question "what should I upgrade on my PC?". There are three methods for you to choose. If you have enough budget, you can update all the above accessories.