On Mon, 2022-03-07 at 23:35 -0500, R. G. Newbury wrote:
To get anything faster I would need to step up to a faster CPU and MB and RAM... for not a lot of change.
For the average user, who just emails, browses the web, and does a bit of typing, they could double their CPU speed (and other things) and not notice any tangible difference. Most of the time the computer is idling and waiting for you. You'd really have to do a lot more than just make the computer a twice as fast to see a significant improvement. If everything is currently nice and responsive, you've probably got the system you already need.
If you were a heavy graphics gamer, video editor, or anything that required intensive processing work, then you would notice that things go quicker (e.g. if something used to take 30 minutes to render, you're going to appreciate it now taking 15 minutes).
So, one way to decide whether to upgrade any hardware is to consider what you do with the computer. If you do anything visually intensive, a better graphics card might be a worthwhile investment, without changing anything else, but if your existing one isn't slow or otherwise insufficient, it's probably not worth it. For some people, simply getting a nicer monitor is a big improvement, even if they don't buy a better graphics card.
If your computer ever gets into the running low on RAM stage, then that's something you can quite cheaply improve.