Deciding when to upgrade your PC is as difficult a decision as any. There's a constant stream of new PC components hitting the market, each one surpassing the last, and computer upgrades aren't always easy to afford. But now is a good time to give an update. There are plenty of good parts on the market, with good prices on some of the best items, and not much reason to wait. Let's look at some of the particularly important reasons to make sure your gaming PC is up to date.
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(Image credit: future)
Ryzen competitiveness
We're not just going to say that the latest Ryzen 3000 series is reason enough to upgrade your computer. But, they introduced a great new platform and also helped drive down the prices of Intel products. From AMD's high-end Zen 2 chips to the lower end, like the Ryzen 5 3600, the new ecosystem offers incredible performance that evolves well with the number of cores. It's even better for gamers, who can get great gaming performance from even the cheapest Ryzen 5 chips. The new AMD X570 chipset also works with new processors to enable PCIe 4.0. This can double the data bandwidth for expansion cards, allowing for much faster storage. Best of all, many of AMD's great consumer Ryzen 3000 series chips have been around long enough to start enjoying deep discounts. A perfect example is this Ryzen 5 3600X deal that seems to go on forever. While AMD processors have been bad news for Intel, they're good news for buyers looking to buy Intel parts. We've seen some of the latest Intel chips fetch lower prices than their predecessors, because Intel again has some real competition. Intel's Coffee Lake Refresh chips offer plenty of power, especially when it comes to individual cores. We even saw Intel cut the price of its HEDT chips, while the Intel Core i9-10980XE launched at half the price of its predecessor. So if you're looking to buy a new CPU and a new motherboard, you'll find great options from Team Red and Team Blue right now.
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RAM and storage prices are quite low
We've come a long way since the flash shortage of 2018. Now, it's almost as affordable as ever to load up your computer for solid-state memory and storage. We've even seen 1TB of PCIe SSD storage cost quite a bit compared to the price of a new video game. If your computer runs on a hard drive and has 8 GB of RAM, now is a good time to upgrade. You can find cheap RAM to power your computer, giving you plenty of memory for gaming or Chrome. Or you can use the best RAM, which gives your PC faster memory to work with. The best upgrade would be to run your favorite operating system and programs on an SSD. And no, we're not even talking about an old 2.5-inch SSD. While these can offer a nice performance boost over a hard drive, a PCIe NVMe SSD offers even more performance by ignoring the antiquated SATA interface used by older hard drives and SSDs. You can find the best SSD at surprisingly reasonable prices. So if you want to add an SSD (or three) to your computer because the price has always seemed too high, check again.
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(Image credit: future)
When you use your computer, you look at your monitor. So it will do your eyes a service to make sure you have a good one. This is especially true if you work at home a lot or play games to maintain social distance. While only a few years ago, 4K and high refresh monitors were expensive and specialized, they are starting to become much more common. And that means they're also getting a lot more affordable. Gamers can find plenty of gaming monitors that offer resolutions of 1440p and higher, while also offering smooth and sharp 144Hz refresh rates. There are even affordable 240Hz monitors. High-end monitors are starting to outperform as well. the limits with 4K and HDR. You can be sure you're getting a brilliant monitor by looking for certifications like VESA's G-Sync Ultimate, FreeSync Premium Pro, or DisplayHDR 1000, though VESA also has lower-tier certifications that indicate a reduced level of quality. With all these upgrades, you'll consider a high-performance work on a modern home machine or gaming rig that's ready to guide you through all the exciting PC games coming out in 2020.