Need some direction on how best to upgrade my PC

Thank you, thank you, thank you. This is all great!

I do not have a SSD so that will be something to look into. I had heard of those, but didn't know it made such a big difference. I will also look into more RAM and the graphics cards.

Forgive my ignorance, but the GPU is the graphics card, correct?

With out your complete system specs (everything)....we can only speculate on what we can suggest. From what you have listed....there are two critical ones....RAM and GPU.

I can definitely provide more info, just too knew to this to know what is relevant. Just let me know and I will try and figure it out.

Edit: Sorry, just read more thoroughly and realized there was a post above to a site to get all this info. I will work on that. Thanks!

Thanks again for all the help! There is a lot to learn, but this makes it much easier!

Ok, here are the screenshots from CPU-Z. As a note, when I went to the SPD, there was only info under 'slot 2'.

HI,
Crucial makes good ssd's
While you're checking them for memory upgrade options to max it out :)
Crucial System Scanner | Crucial.com

It seems there is a general consensus of the best things to upgrade (SSD, RAM, GPU). It would help to know not only more details of your computer (as others have suggested), but also what you intend to use it for.

Generically, I would suggest adding the SSD first for the most obvious performance improvement. (It will just feel faster, all around.) Next, I'd do RAM, and finally GPU. However, if you plan on playing with VR (virtual reality), then I'd do the GPU first.

So, you might want to share what you want to use the rig for, in general.

-Aikiscott

Hi, long time lurker here. I wouldn't bother upgrading RAM. If you google it, there's a website somewhere that ran lots of different benchmarks on a machine with 8GB and then 16GB. The only thing faster on the 16GB machine was zipping a massive file. Every other test barely noticed the extra RAM. I'd go for a GTX 1060 and an SSD boot drive. Will give a huge improvement to your current rig.

Thank you all for the help. I have been taking some time and looking things over and I have been trying to do a good job filling out my profile with the computer specs so that would be easier to find. Not sure I got everything, but I tried to find the info I could.

Also, in answer to a few questions above, I will mostly focus on gaming with this PC. I play games like Star Citizen, The Division, Skyrim, Ark, Divinitiy Original Sin, etc.

After taking some time with the links you all have given me I have a few ideas I'd like to run by you:

SSD:

Didn't know this was such a big thing, but glad that you told me. Cutting down on loading times would be very nice! I am guessing that I will install the games to this drive instead of my normal C: drive from now on, right? I tried to find some with good amounts of space as I have a few pretty big games installed right now.

Here are two options I found:

https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-2-5-I...ds=Samsung+SSD

Crucial MX300 525GB SATA 2.5 7mm (with 9.5mm adapter) Internal SSD CT8517218 | Z87-K | Crucial.com

GPU:

Can't quite afford the GTX 1080 card, but the 1060 is doable for my price range. Is this a pretty decent card? Also, this card is 3GB, will that be good enough or do I need to go to 6GB? It's about $100 more, but if it makes a big difference I am all for it.

https://www.amazon.com/EVGA-GeForce-...dia%2BGTX&th=1

Thank you all again!

I've recently replaced my GTX580 with a GTX1060 6GB and I'm extremely pleased with it. I only run 1920x1080 so it stomps on even the most recent games, I'm currently playing Wolfenstein 2 and it's fantastic.