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Upgrading on a budget

S

shady3210

n00b
Joined
Apr 3, 2008
Messages
20
So my rig is starting to show its age and I am thinking about upgrading it. My budget is $200 and I am deciding between a new cpu/mobo or vid card.

Here are my current specs:

CPU: AMD Phenon II x2 555 @ 3.2
MOBO: ECS A885GM-A2 (V1.1) AM3
Vid Card: Radeon 5870 1GB
Ram: 8GB DDR3
HDs: 1 80gb SSD and 1 1TB sata
PSU: 600w Corsair

So if you had $200 what would you look to upgrade?
 
If you're gaming, you'll need to upgrade all three components.

Switching out one thing (CPU/mobo) or the other (GPU) will cause the other part as the performance bottleneck.

Where are you seeing slowdown the most?
 
If the OP has a strict $200 limit, even the HD 7950 is a no-go.

The cheapest (good) one I could find was $210 shipped.
 
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Its not a hard $200 budget but 200ish. And yes it's for gaming. It isn't any specific game but having to run medium on most of the newer titles. I am more of a MMO gamer but not currently playing anything specific until Wildstar or Elder Scrolls. I know its better to upgrade both at the same time but with 2 kids in full time daycare that wont happen anytime soon lol. It may be one of the 2 now then 6 months down the road the other.
 
Shady is the one who knows how strict his $200 budget is. A 5% increase is not a big deal for most. Also, a HD7870 would fall under the "7950ish" category if $210 is to steep.
 
shady3210 said:
Its not a hard $200 budget but 200ish. And yes it's for gaming. It isn't any specific game but having to run medium on most of the newer titles. I am more of a MMO gamer but not currently playing anything specific until Wildstar or Elder Scrolls. I know its better to upgrade both at the same time but with 2 kids in full time daycare that wont happen anytime soon lol. It may be one of the 2 now then 6 months down the road the other.
Click to expand...

Then why upgrade now? Why not save that $200 and then upgrade when those two games are out? Like you said, you're not playing anything. So..... why upgrade when you're not playing?

Which Corsair 600W PSU do you have? What case do you have? Can please you be a bit more specific on what games you're currently playing that you feel requires an upgrade? Some games need a faster CPU or some games need a faster GPU.
 
Could you unlock the CPU? I can't remember if yours was one of the CPUs that had unlockable cores. I believe it was dependent on the motherboard as well.
 
BroHamBone said:
Could you unlock the CPU? I can't remember if yours was one of the CPUs that had unlockable cores. I believe it was dependent on the motherboard as well.
Click to expand...

I believe most 555's can unlock, either to an X3 or X4. Mine is unlocked to an X4 at 3.5Ghz.
 
lucidmammary said:
Shady is the one who knows how strict his $200 budget is. A 5% increase is not a big deal for most. Also, a HD7870 would fall under the "7950ish" category if $210 is to steep.
Click to expand...

I still stand by my earlier assessment that the OP needs to upgrade the processor, motherboard, and video card.

For best results, he'll spend over $300 for all three parts.
 
Thanks for the advice. The PSU is a Corsair cx600 that is about a year old I think my last psu died at the beginning of this year. The $200 budget is due to this being a xmas gift from the in laws. I would ask for a gift card but they want to actually give me something. My 555 is sadly locked to 2 cores I tried to unlock the others with no success.
 
$119 - AMD FX-6300 Black Edition
$75 - MSI 970A-G46
=====
$194 - Subtotal (not including shipping, taxes, or rebates)

Assuming you have DDR3 1333 or faster RAM, you can reuse it with the above two parts.

You can overclock the processor, but I recommend a good third-party CPU cooler like the Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO.
 
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At that price range, you have more options with AMD.

The cheapest Intel quad-core processor costs nearly $200 on its own. It's faster in most single-threaded tasks than the FX-6300 (comparing stock speeds), but it's not worth depleting your budget if you can't afford it.
 
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