Possible Upgrades

Hi there, i'm one of those uneducated pc guys, almost a year ago i bought
PC Specialist Vanquish Centurion 1050TI Gaming PC,
Lately it's been slowing down in the performance so i thought maybe time for small upgrade.
So i would like to ask what could i do for upgrade for up to ~300 pounds? Thank you very much.


These are the specs:

Case PCS FUSION-RED 6018B CASE
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-7400 (3.0GHz) 6MB Cache
Motherboard ASUS® H110M-R: Micro-ATX, DDR4, LG1151, USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs
Memory (RAM) 8GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 2133MHz (2 x 4GB)
Graphics Card 4GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1050 Ti - DVI, HDMI, DP
1st Hard Disk 1TB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 32MB CACHE
2nd Hard Disk NONE
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive NOT REQUIRED
Power Supply CORSAIR 350W VS SERIES™ VS-350 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable 1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling INTEL STANDARD CPU COOLER
Thermal Paste STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD
USB Options MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence
Operating System Language United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media Windows 10 (64-bit) Home DVD with paper sleeve
Office Software FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365
Anti-Virus BullGuard™ Internet Security - Free 90 Day License inc. Gamer Mode
Browser Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Warranty 3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)

How do you mean, slowing down in performance? Do you mean you're buying newer, more demanding games and it can't handle those very well? Or that it's becoming less capable when doing things you've been doing with it all along? If so, what?

I'm asking partly as it may help suggest what upgrades are most relevant, and also might let people suggest solutions that involve spending no money at all

Hi, that was quick reply, i do not know why but the whole post seems disappeared while i was trying to edit it.
Both actually, the pc perfomance slowed quite a bit overall (maybe requires windows re installation) but i was looking into more demanding games lately, and thought i might as well start upgrading it bit by bit.

Especially when you're new to the forums, your posts can get auto-moderated, even when you edit them. If that happens, please wait for a volunteer mod to release them.

I was posting more detailed comments, but I'll just post this note now and more comments later

Others on here can advise on PC maintenance and performance much better than I can, so I'll leave that to them.

I'll have a stab at commenting on upgrades though

In terms of more demanding games at higher settings you would want a new graphics card since this is the component that is most responsible for gaming performance. A GTX 1060 would be a significant upgrade, however
- a GTX 1060 6gb will cost you £240+, which is nearly all your upgrade budget
- you bought a GTX 1050 ti (say, £150) less than a year ago and you're already replacing it
- a 1050 ti will still handle modern, demanding games as long as you carefully manage the settings
- a new generation of GPUs is expected to be coming out in not too long

There's always new tech around the corner, so it's often pointless holding off. But given all the points above i.e. how a GPU upgrade will eat your entire budget and how you'd only be buying something you could have just bought at the time you originally purchased the machine, it would be worth thinking about sticking with the 1050 ti if you can until the next gen starts trickling out.

As a general observation, your PSU is only 350W and this may limit your future upgrade options. It's not worth replacing it if you don't need to, but it's something to be aware for future upgrades.

If you decide not to get a new GPU, a very nice quality of like upgrade would be an SSD. That motherboard doesn't support fast M.2 NVMe SSDs, but a nice Sata SSD like a Samsung 860 Evo or similar would improve Windows' loading times, program loading times, and the general responsiveness of the PC. It doesn't improve game framerates, but makes using the PC feel a lot smoother and faster than an HDD. SSDs are quite expensive at the moment but I did just see a 250gb 860 Evo on sale for ~£66.

Hmm i see, so it would be better to wait for new generation of Graphics cards, could save some $$ too so could do bigger upgrade too.
As of now is it worth upgrading my PSU or not yet?
As for SSD card i was thinking about it actually after one of my friends suggested it, but when i had a look on the pc specialist site upgrade section, on the M.2 SSD Drive tab, it said no upgrades available, or is that something completely separate?
If you think i could run SSD card i wouldn't mind getting one, just need to know which one would be alright.
What do you think about CPU is it still alright for the time being?
Thanks a lot for your help

As of now is it worth upgrading my PSU or not yet?

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Not yet, because you don't need to spend the money, and you don't know what your future GPU might need. Well, you could make an educated guess, but no point if you're not sure and the current one is fine

As for SSD card i was thinking about it actually after one of my friends suggested it, but when i had a look on the pc specialist site upgrade section, on the M.2 SSD Drive tab, it said no upgrades available, or is that something completely separate?

Click to expand...

Like I say, your motherboard does not have an M.2 slot. So you can't get something like a 970 Evo M.2 NVMe SSD.

But you can get a Sata SSD like an 860 Evo, which connects to the sata ports on your motherboard. This would be a big boost over a regular HDD.

What do you think about CPU is it still alright for the time being?

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At this kind of level, yes, it's more than fine. Upgrading a CPU is an expensive business that will also require a new motherboard. And most games will be limited by the GPU's performance, not the CPU's. I'd suggest you only want to upgrade the CPU when it starts bottlenecking future GPU upgrades - which it won't for a while yet.

Oh okay, that makes sense, so when you mentioned SSD 860 evo you meant something like this?
Or i can get something even better which would be worth?

There's a forum policy that it's not allowed to post links to competitors' websites. There often seems to be a bit of flexibility on this where it relates to upgrades, but erring on the side of caution in this instance I've removed the link.

But to answer your question, yes, an 860 Evo is one of the best sata SSDs going, and if you can find it from a store selling it for cheaper than PCS are via their upgrades service, go right ahead

Aha, i didn't know that, i just typed in google and opened the first one, so i might as well get that SSD for now, and then wait for the future GPU release.
Thanks a lot for your help