Worth an upgrade or build new?

demighost · Feb 6, 2016

Sup all, I've been gaming a bit more on the pc lately with friends, my pc build is old and starting to show its age, I am struggle to run games smoothly at around medium settings.
My current pc is in my sig, I was thinking my cpu is probably the biggest bottleneck currently . Was thinking of upgrade to a 8core fx and swapping out to a higher amount of ram at a faster speed. and then obviously a video card, and new psu to be safe.

I am not on the up and up currently. Where should I start on my setup?

edit- just realized my sig is old.

I run a hd6950 2gb at the moment, and have the cpu on a corsair water cooled loop.

Dlaw · Feb 6, 2016

That board is notorious for having problems with the 8core FXs. The less than awesome VRM section throttles the chip pretty bad, if I recall correctly. So, if you're swapping chips, you'll need to swap boards too. At that rate, you'd be better off going Intel.

demighost · Feb 6, 2016

So at that point I would be looking at basically a new pc. I do want to utilize as much I can from what I have now to limit cost. Im not familiar with intel as much what would be a good starting point? and i5 variant I assume?

Mandrake4565 · Feb 6, 2016

Intel I5 would be fine, the only issue is if you want to utilize the DDR3 ram you have you'll have to go with a I5 4690k Z97 setup. The newest Intel platform is using DDR4 ram. If you can make a trip to the Microcenter in Westbury NY it would be worth your while you can get a walk in deal for a i5/Z97 board around $300.00.

Dlaw · Feb 6, 2016

I would go the route Mandrake suggested if it's an option. How old is the PSU, and what model is it? If it's quality and 2 years old or less, I would dare say it's safe to use in the new build. Everything else should transfer over fine.

demighost · Feb 6, 2016

yea, I would like to stay as cost effective as possible. I'm not looking for ultra settings, stable framerate is the focus. I love microcenter and will definately check it out. What should I look for in a z97 setup

Dlaw · Feb 6, 2016

Just the features you need. Asrock Extreme series boards are all pretty solid, and I believe the Ext.4 and up have the ALC1150 audio CODEC (though it may be limited to the 6 and up). I did a build for a friend a month or so after I built my rig with an Extreme3 in it, and he has had absolutely no issues with it.

This is all assuming you have a case that supports full ATX form factor boards, which I'm assuming is the case given the M5A97.

Mandrake4565 · Feb 6, 2016

demighost said:
yea, I would like to stay as cost effective as possible. I'm not looking for ultra settings, stable framerate is the focus. I love microcenter and will definately check it out. What should I look for in a z97 setup

As long as the board has the features you want almost any Z97 board will fit the bill for a i5 4690 k setup

demighost · Feb 6, 2016

how THIS has the 1150 codec, every mboard i see supports both SLI/Xfire but I'll be using 1 video card.

Mandrake4565 · Feb 6, 2016

My only issue with it is it's a refurb, you can get the Asrock anniversary addition for the same price and it's new.

wingman99 · Feb 8, 2016

You could purchase a motherboard 1151 with DDR3 link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007627 600567584 600036387&IsNodeId=1

EarthDog · Feb 8, 2016

That is the "H" series and you cannot overclock on it. If he isn't overclocking, that is a good choice.

There is also DDR3L for the Z170 boards...

I don't see a point in going to a new platform with old ram. While there are few performances differences, it just doesn't makes sense (to me).

wingman99 · Feb 9, 2016

Yes if he want's to overclock I would Pick one of these DDR3 boards http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007627 600567584 600567554 600036387&IsNodeId=1 The way I see it, if you cant afford to upgrade everything, at least you don't have to buy DDR3 memory. There really is not much performance difference with DDR4, it is a factor of margin of error in applications.

demighost · Feb 13, 2016

Thanks for the info, just got back from a vacation so I'll start shopping around. Microcenter will most likely be used for the mobo/cpu portion. I will stick with the previous gen i5. I doubt ddr4 will add much for my application. I believe my psu was an ocz, but with the new power requirement on everything I will be buying a new one also. Now a gpu is the fun part. Ive read alot about the new r390/380 offerings, these cards have 8gbs of vram? Would I be better off with the prior 290 series with less ram?

Worth an upgrade or build new?

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Mandrake4565

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