Best Value PC Upgrades Under $100

$100 can buy a lot these days, even when it comes to PC upgrades. You might think that upgrading your current PC just isn't cost efficient, but there are lots of deals out there to bring any computer up to par without breaking the bank. We'll divide this article into secions for Gamers (Because most store-bought PCs just don't cut it.), Multitaskers (Who need lots of applications running at the same time), and Media Enthusiasts (Movies, music, etc.). For each of these categories, there are a stunning amount of cheap upgrades that will vastly improve your computing experience.

ZOTAC GeForce 9800 GT - $88

The main bottleneck in most gaming PCs is the video card, or rather, the lack thereof. Many computers, either store bought, or even from specialized gaming PC vendors, use either a low end video card, or even worse, integrated graphics. This severely impacts the computer's performance in games, to the point of rendering most new games unplayable. Fortunately, there is a cheap solution that will give you great performance for your dollar: The 9800 GT Video Card. This card can be found for as low as $88, and offers enough performance to play any modern game at high settings. Even better, it doesn't require and extra PCIe power connector, making it a viable option for most store-bought systems that come with weak power supplies.

Powercolor HD 4650 - $50

Maybe you're not a huge gamer, but still enjoy the occasional strategy game or shooter. The HD 4650 is a great, cheap add-in card that can give any PC the ability to play new games, an ability that onboard graphics just can't deliver. This card draws very little power, so it can run on virtually any PC without other upgrades.

OCZ 4GB DDR2 1066 RAM - $48

Another limiting factor in many PCs today is the amount of RAM they have. Most PCs that are bought from a store come with 2 or 3GB of RAM. The problem is that the combination of modern games and the Vista operating system can easily use that much RAM at any time, causing slowdowns. RAM is one of the cheapest components to upgrade, fortunately, and you can now get 4GB of fast, DDR2 1066 for as little as $48.

AMD Athlon II X4 620 - $99

When multitasking, the CPU is one of the main factors in performance. Having a fast CPU is good, but a multi-core CPU is better. Most computers these days come with a dual-core CPU, but even these can be brought to a crawl when running many intensive applications. For those with an AMD system, the Athlon II brings the performance improvements of the Phenom II architecture, scaled down slightly, but at an amazing price. The Athlon II's can be great overclockers too.