In 2014 my job allowed me a stipend to build my own computer. I believe the budget was about $1,000 which gave me enough room to budget for good parts that I could update later. These are the specs of the computer:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
| Type | Item | Price |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | Intel - Core i7-3770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor | $530.00 @ Newegg Marketplace |
| Motherboard | ASRock - Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard | |
| Memory | G.Skill - Sniper Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory | |
| Video Card | Asus - GeForce GTX 660 Ti 2GB Video Card | $339.99 @ Amazon |
| Case | Fractal Design - Define XL Black Pearl ATX Full Tower Case | |
| Power Supply | Corsair - CX 500W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply | $107.89 @ OutletPC |
| Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts | ||
| Total | $977.88 | |
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-03-24 08:52 EDT-0400 |
I have since left the company which has separated me from my machine, but yesterday, almost 4 years later, I was given the opportunity to purchase it back at a huge discount. I took some time to get some advice for how to upgrade it. I knew it needed a bit of a lift, but it is not necessary to improve everything on the inside.
I immediately purchased Windows 10 and a 500GB SSD drive for an increased boost in speed. The graphics card was a potential point of improvement, but, according to the advice I received, it would not be necessary unless I noticed performance drops. It was highly recommended I improve the power supply. That makes sense. The one I purchased was cheap, and not the best. The next point of upgrade would be increasing the RAM.
Then I'll overclock.