One of the things that close friends and family often ask me the most is how you can improve your computerwhat components they should choose and what they can do if they have a very limited budget.
Many believe that they have no real room for improvement and that they will eventually need a lot of money to make noticeable improvements, or even have no choice but to buy new equipment, but the truth is that the opposite happens.
Any computer that has been configured within the last ten years You can improve a lot with a very modest investmentwe just need to know what components we need to buy to improve our computer depending on the budget we have.
Obviously there are many variables that will also depend on the base configuration our team has and our goals, but ultimately these are two minor issues that we can overcome in a simple way. if we start from the right approach.
That’s exactly what I did to create a very special guide that I want to share with you all, in which I will explain in general terms how you can improve your computer. with only 100 euros when choosing six components that will make a big difference.
Each of these components will not exceed the 100 euros and I explain each of them. what upgrades you get and when you should prioritize them. If you have any questions, you can leave them in the comments and I will help you solve it. That’s where we start.
Components to improve your PC for little money
1.- New processor

Replacing your PC’s processor will allow you to significantly improve your computer’s performance, and you don’t have to spend huge amounts of money to achieve it. The processor handles the basic operations and calculations of the computer, and is responsible for overall performance the same.
Its weight is so great that by replacing the processor we can give a second life to a PC that seemed to be outdated, and maybe it will allow us enjoy apps, games and operating systems that didn’t work before in our team.
Choosing a new processor will depend on many factors, but I can leave it to you a number of general recommendations which will help you make this important decision and keep the maximum budget of 100 euros:
- If you have a PC with AM4 motherboard with Ryzen 1000, the jump to Ryzen 5 3600 or Ryzen 5 5500 will be a good jump in terms of performance. You will meet the recommended requirement in current games and have a processor compatible with Windows 11. The Ryzen 5 5500 costs about 97 euros.
- If you have an Intel computer, you have many interesting options, especially in the used market. A computer with an LGA 1151 socket can have a second life if we go from a Core i5 6000 to an Intel Core i7-6700, and if we have a computer with an LGA1200 socket, we go from a Core i3 Gen10 to Core i5-11400F It will give us a huge performance jump. Its price is 99.99 euros.
Please note that the processor may affect the performance of other componentssuch as the graphics card, and that it is always important to find a certain balance in this component. If you have questions, check out this article for a detailed summary of what processor you need for each graphics card.
2.- RAM memory set

RAM is another of the most important components in determining a PC’s performance and capabilities, and it’s usually one of the most limiting specifications and has the biggest impact on a computer’s obsolescence. Fortunately, it is too one of the easiest and cheapest to update.
It is important that you know how much RAM your computer has and what type it is. This information will help you determine what kind of update This is what you need.
Expanding RAM allows you to run applications, programs, games, and even operating systems that you previously had no access to, and can improve performance in specific cases.
If you are upgrading a computer purchased between 2015 and 2022 you will most likely need DDR4 memory. These kits are available at a very good price and start already at speeds that we can consider optimal (3,200 MT/s). All in all, be sure to check the compatibility of your RAM with your motherboard.
Generally speaking, if you have less than 16 GB of RAM Ideally, you should buy a new set with this capacity in two modules, as this will allow you to activate the dual channel. There are very economical options (38 euros), so it is not worth resorting to the second-hand market, except in very specific cases.
If you use professional applications that consume a lot of RAM, it would make sense to connect 32 GB of RAM. In this case, there are sets with prizes from 68 euros, a very economical figure, especially considering that these kits already start with speeds.
3.- Make the jump to the SSD drive

Many computers older than four years use HDDs. These types of drives have mechanical parts and rely on a magnetic head to perform read and write operations, so they are very slow. Its sequential read and write speed is usually between 100 MB/s and 200 MB/s.
In terms of performance and latency, they are very far from what we can achieve with even the slowest and cheapest SSD available today. For example, a cheap SATA III SSD It will easily be around 500 MB/s when reading and writing sequentially, and because it has no mechanical parts, its latency and access times are much lower.
A cheap NVMe SSD can easily outperform 3000 MB/s in sequential read and write speed. As we can see, there is a huge difference and the best part is that this type of storage units has become much cheaper now They are much more affordable.
Buying an SSD of this type with a capacity of 1 TB can cost us little 65 euros approximately and will give us such a large performance improvement that It’ll be like going from night to day In fact, this is one of the most recommended upgrades for any computer that still has a hard drive.
If we have an SSD our device starts up and shuts down fasterbasic applications and files open immediately, we notice that the operating system responds with much more fluencyand will also improve loading times and streaming operations in apps and games.
4.- New graphics card

If your goal is power continue to enjoy the current games That should be one of your priorities. Unfortunately, it is impossible to find a good gaming graphics card for 100 euros or less on the first-hand market, but luckily there are very interesting solutions on the second-hand market.
The functionality of the games mainly depends on the graphics card, so this component is the most important for this type of applications, but keep in mind that have a processor that meets the requirementsand it is highly recommended to have 16GB RAM and SSD.
Right now the best graphics card we can buy for 100 euros on the used market is GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER. It has 6 GB of graphics memory, uses the Turing architecture and has very low power requirements, which makes it an ideal choice for computers with less powerful resources, since we will not have to change the mentioned component.
This graphics card represents a major improvement compared to graphics cards such as GeForce GTX 1060, Radeon RX 580 and previous models. If you have a GeForce GTX 1070, Radeon RX Vega 56 or higher, it’s not worth jumping to the GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER, you’ll have to spend more money to buy something that really gives you a good performance boost.
5.- New cooling system

Many low-cost, mid-range and low-end processors come with reference cooling systems They offer acceptable performance, but can be quite noisy and in some cases may not keep the processor in the optimal temperature range, which will ultimately affect its performance.
Changing the CPU cooling system can make a big difference in these cases and we don’t need a big investment to enjoy this improvement because today we can buy high performance fans for less than 60 euros, and we also have complete liquid cooling kits for less than 100 euros.
We have many options, but the truth is that one of the most interesting is the all-in-one liquid cooling kits, because they got a lot cheaper They offer a good balance between performance and noise level and are usually compatible with almost all outlets available, so you won’t have to worry about the compatibility issue.
Right now, in terms of price-performance ratio, one of the most interesting all-in-one liquid cooling kits that we can buy, Tempest 360 RGBwhich comes with a 395mm heatsink and has three 120mm fans. It is quite quiet and very efficient and can be purchased for less than 80 euros. It can optimally cool any current processor, so you can continue to use it in future expansions of your computer.
6.- New power supply

I left it last not because it is the least important, nothing could be further from the truth, but because it is one of the ingredients to those of us who tend to pay less attentionand leaving it last will give you more visibility in this guide.
One of the problems that older PCs usually have when upgrading is their power supply, because this may lack performance and limit There are a wide variety of components that we have access to.
For example, imagine that you want to build the GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER that I recommended in this article, but you have a low-quality power supply with a power of only 300 watts. You should replace the power supply first so that you can safely move the graphics card.
Buying a new power supply will be a big upgrade for your PC because gives you access to new componentsmore efficient and effective. In many cases, it is necessary to give the computer a second life, especially if we are going to replace the graphics card, since this is usually the component that consumes the most.
The price of resources has dropped a lot in recent years and today we can find sa models good level of performance and 80 Plus Gold certification for less than 100 euros. For example, the 650-watt Corsair RM650 is available for €84.91.
This is not to say that we will always need a resource of this level. This will depend on what we are building and our aspirations, but we need to think of this part as a very long-term investment, to get a quality resource that slightly exceeds our needs. It will allow us to continue using it in future extensions.