$200 toward a new build

So I need to spend at least $200 in the coming week or so, and I’m think the best way to spend it might be on a component of an eventual new build. Which component should I put it towards?

I’m thinking a nice PCI-E 4.0 SSD since those aren’t in danger of being obsoleted soon, are readily available for purchase, and take up almost no space in the closet until its time has come.

If you were in this position what would you be buying?

A motherboard or save for decent cpu.

The SSD may limit your motherboard selection.

Would normally save up but I need to buy now to meet the requirements for a credit card bonus (thanks to bonus the $200 spent is refunded). Will consider motherboard.

How so, PCI-E 4.0 compatibility (or lack thereof)? Not too worried about that, definitely will be going for a board that has that anyway.

  1. Storage. Unless these breaks or something drastic happens, I often re-use storage drives.
  2. Fans/heatsinks/other cooling accessories/PSU. I usually carry these over unless they’re over 5 years old.
  3. ram/cpu/motherboard. Ram is probably the least likely to be changed in this batch. CPU/Motherboard are usually the most volatile parts as I change them out fairly frequently.

My mobo requires an 11th gen Intel CPU to use the PCI-Express 4.0 m.2 slot.

1 Like

Look up the 3.0 vs 4.0 gaming comparisons. If you’re just using it for gaming the 4.0 speed probably won’t be a factor. Unless you plan on doing productivity kind of stuff that will benefit from moving large files really fast… you probably won’t notice the difference.

Just got 10 generation i9 4terbit 64 bit aera 51 only laptop upgrad able like a desk top

Currently using a 1TB Gen 4 NVME in a Gen 3 slot because the price was right. No worrys.