In times of low inflation and economic uncertainty, not everyone has the budget to compile one of the best PCs even if its a budget rig has mode specs. You need to make use of your existing system for a while, yet you can use it in the long run, so you can use up any time you need to improve your system or add useful new features without spending more than $100.
There is no way to choose the best graphics card or turn your processor off with one of the best processors. But, there is still a lot to do. From RAM to more advanced multitasking, and storage drives to more data or games, and coolers that push your current components to their limits, these are the best-looking PC upgrades for under $100.
Note that under each upgrade category, we suggest value-priced models that we found when writing this article. We haven’t tested all of the models that are right now, but that’s how these costs look.
1. Put in a bit of RAM.
In 2022, no gaming or productivity PC must have less than 16GB of RAM and 32GB is better. A memory of less than 16 GB in your own pocket means you have more than two years to spare. With only two dozen Chrome tabs open, Slack and Spotify, we were using 14GB of RAM on the computer we wrote.
When you run out of physical memory, your PC uses virtual memory on its drive for storage, which slows down the entire system. So upgrading from 8 to 16GB of RAM or 16 to 32GB could really speed things up.
The system may use DDR4 in the a 5-7 years, while older computers depend on DDR3 DIMMs. If you aren’t certain, make sure your motherboard is thoroughly cleaned up or use the Crucial Advisor (opening on the new tab) to look for your computer/stock. If your computer is full of DIMM slots, you have to buy the amount of RAM which you require. There is a list of the best RAM, but if you’re looking for a cheap upgrade, here are some very inexpensive kits that suit your needs.
DDR4 RAM
If you don’t try to game on AMD or AMD graphics, a RAM speed of PC-3200 will be more fast than anything else. Those older and cheaper computers will be much faster than you will get, it will be easier. Check your system or motherboard manual to find out whats supported, and it’s possible that the RAM you buy runs slower.
- 1GB: Teams Groups T-Force Zeus Kit (2 x 8GB at 3200 MHz) (opens in a new tab)- 450 at publish time.
- 32GB: Patriot Viper Steel DDR4 32GB (2x16GB) 3200 (opens in new tab) – $94 at publisher time. This value-oriented kit was great in our tests and reached a single data rate of 3,734.
DDR3 RAM
As an old standard, DDR3 won’t be the fastest, but if you are a computer, you can definitely use the extra memory you’re able to use from 16GB. In an old system, it is likely that it may not be worth going up to 32GB.
- 16GB: Patriot 16GB (2x8GB) Viper III DDR3 1866MHz (opens in new tab) $44 at publishing time.
2. Turn your SSD into an SSD.
Currently, you can get a 1TB SSD for less than $80, but this doesn’t necessarily be the best price for it. If you eat or drink the rice or hammer and drink it, that’s a sweet oat. If you’re tight and you don’t have much space, you might want a 550GB drive for more than 50 dollars.
If you have an SSD, check it out for what you can support. If you don’t know, check your manual or the Crucial Advisor.
If you plan on using your new SSD as an alternative to your boot drive, then speed is essential. If your computer supports NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSDs, you can purchase one of these, as it has speeds up to 7000 MBps. If not, and the standard supports PCIe 3.0 SSDs, go with that standard, which delivers roughly 3,000 MBps. The easiest of your choices is SATA, which is around 550 MBps.
If you plan to add a second drive, speed is cheaper than your own. However, if you install games on the secondary drive, that is very helpful.
PCIe 4G SSDs under $100.
- 1TB SSD: Black SN770 (opens in new tab) – 99 dollars at the date of publication. For testing for the SN770, the speed was a remarkable issue. It promises sequential reading of more than 5,000 MBps.
- 400 GB SSD: WD Black SN850 (opens in new tab) – $69 at publish time. The SN850, who has 7,000 MBps of sequential reading volume, is among the fastest drivers on the market. We tested SN850’s 1TB and 2TB capacity, and found they to deliver high transfer rates and game load time.
PCIe 3.0 PCIe SSDs under $100.
- 1TB SSD: Samsung 91 EVO Plus (opens in new tab) – 99 USD at the end of the release. Samsung is the leading SSD maker and a huge number of builders expect that only a Samsung will do. The 970 EVO Plus is the company’s flagship PCIe 3.0 drive. It promises 300 MBps of sequential reads and reads at 3500 MBps. In our tests, it loaded Final Fantasy XIV faster than most competitors and a bit harder than a hard-earned Intel Optane 905P drive.
- 250GB SSD: Crucial P3 (opens in new tab) – $43. If you want to make money and still receive the best of performance, the P3 will be the best choice. This drive promises three 500 MBps sequential readings with 900 MBps sequential writing. In our tests, the 2GB capacity actually exceeded the Samsung 970 EVO Plus standard on many tests, including PCMark 10. It doesn’t cost much to upgrade the smaller 500GB model. So the more you write, it’ll be faster.
TB SSDs of less than $100.
- 1.TB: Crucial MX500 (opens in new tab) – $75 at publish time. The drive promises sequential speed of up to 560 MBps / reads and 5 MBps writes. When we tested the MX500 (way back in 2019), we found that it was nearly the top of the SATA pack, just a few inches behind the Samsung 850 EVO.
- 500 GB: Crucial MX500 – $46 at publication time. The 500 GB version of the drive delivers some similar performance to its 1TB sibling.
3. Add a hard drive that will allow for more storage.
In this day and age no reason to use hard drives as your boot drive. But if you need much a storage space for data such as photos, videos and videos, adding a hard drive to a secondary drive makes sense. The drive needs to be fast enough to take up your media or other files.
Those were a 7 200 rpm drive, which is cheaper than 5400 rpm drive. So we picked 7 200 rpm drives below. As for what it does, I want to go with reputable brands such as Western Digital, Seagate and Toshiba. Note that the hard drives come with 3.5-inch shapes. So make sure your case has a 3.5-inch spare bay or consider a 2.5-inch laptop drive instead.
- 2TB HDD: WD Blue – 49 dollars when this is released.
- 5TB HDD – Seagate Exos 7E8 (opens in new tab) – $38,83 at publishing time.
4. Powerful, lithium-flaker.
You could not be able to have a chance to go out and drink. For less than $100, the AIO (all-in-one) liquid cooler is better equipped with less powerful liquid-cooled air conditioning. It’s also better for a better job of moving heat away from your processor, normally at lower decibels. Your CPU’s cooler, so long as it stays at its top speed.
AIO coolers are a water block that sits on top of the CPU and absorbs the heat and transfers it to a liquid-cooled liquid, which circulates through closed tubes. The heat pump sends the liquid back to the tyre (like the case), where you can’t find a heating solution like the one on the top. A fan blows the hot air while a pump sends the now-cooled cooling back to the waterblock. The fans can be quieter than those on a CPU-cockpit, partly because they don’t need to spin as fast. With larger radiators offering much better cooling, AIO Coolers usually have 120 or 240 x 360 mm radiators.
Most of the best AIO coolers cost more than 100 dollars if they don’t sell them. Some good-sellers offer one hundred, 240mm air coolers that sell at a low cost.
- I’ll publish a Cooler Master Liquid ML240L V2 (opens in new tab) – $44. We tested the original version of this 240 mm cooler and found the performance very strong, as it delivered lower temperatures than competitors. The V2 version should be sharp and have RGB lighting, like the original.
5. Air Cooler
A high-quality air cooler can lower your CPUs temperature and lower the stock cooler on the processor board. If you don’t want to spend a lot more money or make room for an aIO, a third-party air cooler would be a good choice. Just make sure it is not too tall for your case.
- DeepCool AK500, opening in new tab, – $54 at published time. We tested and tested the DeepCool AK500 ; this was a low noise sensor, and it’s able to cool even high-end CPUs.
6. SmartFi.65 o’clock card.
If you upgraded your router to Wi-Fi 6 or 6E (you can also get a router for less than $100), but your desktop is still connecting via Wi-Fi 5 so you should have an upgrade. Wi-Fi 6 is 2.5 times faster than Wi-Fi 5 and speeds up to 9.6 Gbps. A brand-name PCIe card boasts Wi-Fi 6 / 6E capability and Bluetooth for around $50. You can get cash for less than one’s price.
We suggest to go with reputable brands such as TP-Link and Asus, although many of these devices carry Wi-Fi. The card name is frequently checked on the technical specs section of the product page. Take the time, as is an automatic download.
- The TP-Link WiFi 6E AXE5400 PCIe Card (opens in new tab)- 53 dollars at the latest time. This card is connected to a broadband wireless connection (Ti-band) and includes Bluetooth 5.2 and MU-MIMO.
- Asus WiFi 6E + Bluetooth 5.2 (PCE-AXE58BT) (opens in new tab) – 70 dollars at publish time. This card has four-band wireless, MU-MIMO, and a large externe antenna.
7. USB 3.2 Card.
Even though their version numbers have changed from 3.0 to 3.0 and now 3.0, all of the ports operate at the same speed as USB 3.2. But newer ports and devices deliver 10 or even 20 Gbps, and these are essentially a USB 3 or 3.2 Gen 2 and 4 or 2 Gen 2. This increase in speed is good for writing or reading to external SSDs or for connecting to other high-bandband devices.
What do you need not have a USB port 3.1 or two or more for your current computer? With a cheap computerie, you can add these rapid ports. If you’re not able to use ten or 20 grams of hardware, you can also get a PCIe card that is able to use a greater USB Type-A port. Again, make sure your motherboard has a spare slot that is not blocked by your graphics card or something else in your case.
- USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 (20 Gbps): StarTech-Port USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 Card (opens in new tab) – 48 dollars at publish time. If you need a 220 Gbps port, this is the one for you.
- USB 3.0 (10 Gbps): Vantec 3.0 port USB 3.2.6 (opens in new tab)- 33 EUR at publish time. This card has one USB Type-A and one USB Type-C port, which both can work at a time of 10 Gbps. There’s an internal header for connecting to the ports on the front of your case.
- The latest USB 3.0: Yeeliya USB 3.0 7-port card (opens in new tab) – $37 at the end of the release. If you are just looking for more 5 Gbps options, this card has five Type-A and two Type-C ports, but none does just run at 10 or 20 Gbps.
8. Power Supply Cables.
The cables that came with your power supply are most difficult to look at at and at worst, a cable business nightmare because they aren’t long enough. You can’t replace them (even if they’re removable, you’ll need them specific to your PSU), but you’ll find out what a great extension cables are, and you can get the wires out of your pocket so the ugly parts stay hidden. You could even get AX and GPU extension cables with RGB lighting that make your build really pop.
- ATX cable – $94. This cordoada comes with a slap on a table with all the necessary light output. When we reviewed the Strimer’s V2, we saw it with great flexibility and bright colours. I have one in my computer and could bend it close to 180 degrees so I can wrap it up neatly through a grommet in this case.
- Windows 10: 8-pin, Lian Li Strimer-V2 (opens in new tab) – 49 dollars at print time. This is the dual X eight-pin Strimer that you can use to power a graphics card. You can either use it alone or with the ATX Strimer cable. Or you can buy two books together for a little more than three dollars (opens in new tab).
- Full set: AsianHorse AXP (opens new tab) – 25 dollars at publish time. It doesn’t have any lighting, but there are many colours available for your taste.
9. Case Fans
As we’ve said earlier, a cooler computer is a faster computer. Your CPU and GPU get too hot, so they slow down to avoid physical damage. You could have an electric and electric amplifier, but it doesn’t matter that you have a cool CPU and a graphics card with 3 fans to carry on. This case needs enough airflow so the computer doesn’t miss it most!
Unfortunately, many PC-based models only have one engine, 120mm exhaust fan which is spiting the cold air out of the back. When it comes to your systems, it is appropriate you have to have an air conditioning system. If so, on the rear, then the top and possibly even the bottom of your system. Even if your PC case has multiple fans, it may not have the fastest, quietest or best-looking fans available.
The good news is that you can buy highly powerful, attractive case fans for very affordable prices, using built-in RGB lighting. A one 120mm fan costs $15 to $25, but a set of three to five fans costs a lot less, with prices reaching $7 ($197) for quite a few cheap fans with prices reaching 90 dollars.
You can tell up the speed by bending a bit of a hand, so you should give your motherboard a 4-pin stewardry. We are like to go with the name. If you already run a RGB ecosystem, you may want to buy the controllers that compatible with the software you use to control your other RGB components. A motherboard with 4 or 5pins of a RGB connector and any of those with all of your fans can control the system.
- 2 bags of Lian Li UX120 fans (opens in new tab) – 7 cents at release time. The fans are snapable and are removable so that they can connect and leave them unlocked. I have two more sets of those in my case, but I really love the RGB light transforming the fan so that the multiple colors are on both the back and the side of each fan.
- Noctua NF-P12 (opens for now): $14 for a single fan at the time of publication. This 1700 yr fan promises to increase airflow while akin to RGB but looking for quiet performance. Our Managing Editor, Matt Safford, has been using these two for years on his 240mm AIO and they’re very reliable and reliable.
- Antec 4-pack of PWM-fans (opens in new tab) – 29 dollars at the date of publication. That is a great deal if you’re just starting to get a frank PC with fans, and don’t care about RGB. To be precise, each fan can reach 1,600 lb, so they can move air pretty quickly.
10. RGB Lights Strips and Controller.
You can use RGB case fans, an RGB cooler, a CCR and a PCB. But if you wish to add a little more RGB that isn’t tied to a specific component? You can bathe all your components in vibrant colors with light strips and a controller box. Just put down the strips at the top, bottom or sides of the case and use a controller to set the colours.
- Corsair iCue Lighting Node Pro (opens in new tabs) – 58 $ at the moment of the publication. This control box is complete with four LED strips and a controller box. It is controlled via iCue as part of Corsairs’ ecosystem.
- DeepCool’s RGB 350 (opens in new tab) – $15 at print time. This set is a little cost-efficient, but not very expensive. You stick the two strips in the case, connect them to a small port that draws power from a molex connector, and turn the whole process over remote control, not software. It’s not the slickest setup, but don’t spend money.
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