Improving Your PC's Performance - HARDWARE Edition

Prologue -

This is a guide to how to increase your PC's performance by changing your hardware. Do make sure that your motherboard is compatible with the listed products such as processors fit only in the given specific socket.

We have released a post showing how clearing prefetch speeds up your pc. But software only does so much. Additional hardware has an exponential benefit provided you invest in it.

Without further ado, to the tips - 

Graphics Cards - 

By far the simplest and most effective of the components to install and use, but also the most expensive one. They can increase you PC's gaming performance by a huge margin. Every extra rupee you spend gives you better performance. Choosing graphic cards is purely based on budget.

Now you will notice major manufacturers : AMD and Nvidia. Choosing between them isn't always easy. For this I suggest checking this site.

If you have a tight budget of ₹10,000 then check out Nvidia GT 740 or AMD R7260X.

₹10,000 - ₹20,000 then Nvidia GTX 960 or R7 370. 

Evga Nvidia GTX 960

MSI AMD R7 370

Nvidia GT 750Ti is by far the best when compared with Price to Performance (i.e. More performance for less price)

Zotac Nvidia GT 750Ti

Others cards get more expensive but give proportionately less performance. So buy them only if you have extra budget.

RAM -

A crucial and simple upgrade. This not only improves day-to-day performance like in multi-tab browsing but also in games. Modern gaming titles use 8GB for optimal performance. 

While choosing RAM you need to look for two things, clock speed and capacity.

Clock speed - 1333, 1600, 1866, 2133, 2400 MHz. The faster the better but your motherboard must support it.

Capacity - 2,4,6,8,16,32 GB. 2-8GB sticks are enough for the most part.

All modern computers use DDR3 RAM. But DDR4 is slowly becoming common. Pre-2006 computer use DDR2. Difference between DDRs isn't big but only 1 variety fits in a specific motherboard.

I suggest buying either Corsair or Kingston. They are the most reliable and powerful ones in the market.

Corsair Vengeance RAM

Kingston Hyper X RAM

SSD -

This along with a ram upgrade can bring tremendous improvement to everyday performance. Most apps loads slowly because the hard drive is to slow to copy the data to RAM. 

Basic SSD's that fit in your hard drive's slot can be 10x as fast. M.2 can be 4 times as fast as basic SSDs but cost higher and only work in new motherboards.

The best manufacturers are Intel, Samsung, Sandisk and Kingston.

Intel 530 SSD

Samsung 950 Pro M.2 SSD

Processor -

This upgrade is not really necessary for any 2012-later computer and using for everyday usage. But if you have a old pc and/or use it for heavy duty tasks, processors can make quite a bit of improvement.

It is very tough to chose between processor these days but we will simplify it. Check this site for head to head comparisons between similar processors.

There are only two major companies making them, Intel and AMD. The choice between them entirely depends on your motherboard. Intel CPU's cannot be swapped out for AMD and vice versa.

AMD makes a special chip which is called APU. Basically it is CPU+GPU. It allows you to game and do your daily tasks at cheap. 

Intel 6700K

AMD A8-7600

Overclocking - 

If you cannot change your CPU or want to maximise your current CPU's performance you can overclock it. This also goes with GPU's.

Click here to find how to overclock your Intel CPU.

Click here to find how to overclock your AMD CPU.

Click here to find how to overclock GPU.

Motherboard - 

If you are looking to make a new computer or your current ones cannot use the above recommended components, then buying a new motherboard can help.

Although it does not improve performance directly, it gives you expandability and future-proofness. 

This is also an important decision as it defines which companies CPUs you will buy or how many expansion slots, case LEDs, USB 3 etc.

We suggest getting ASUS motherboards as overclocking, fan speeds, advanced boot settings are extremely easy to tinker with. It even has markings telling what slot is what.

But if your budget is tight, Gigabyte makes some fantastic but inexpensive mobos.

Asus X99 Motherboard

Gigabyte Z97X Motherboard

Epilogue - 

All right mates, that's it for this article. Hope you found what you are looking for. Searching for components and building or modifying your PC is absolutely fun. 

If you have any questions or want suggestion on what you want to buy, let us know in the comments. 

Also, please check out my Fiverr gig here and show your support.