Upgrading my Rig

[MaGNeTiC]

Hi all,
Hoping for a little help with my tight budget upgrade between £300-£350 ($480-$560). Looking to upgrade my MB, GFX and maybe HDD.

Current Rig

Case: Zalman Z9plus
PSU: Corsair 500W CX500 Builder Series 80+
Mainboard: Asus AM3+ M5A78L-M/USB3
CPU: AMD FX 6100 3.3 Not OC
Memmory: Corsair 8gb 1600mhz DDR3 vengeance Blue
GFX: Evga GeForce GTX 550TI 1gb
HDD: 500gb seagate Standard hdd

Thinking of getting

Mainboard: Asus M5A97 R2.0 AM3+ AMD 970 DDR3 ATX
GFX: 2GB MSI Radeon R9 270X HAWK
SSD: 240GB PNY Prevail, 2.5" SSD, SATA III - 6Gb/s, Read 550MB/s, Write 520MB/s, 85000 IOPS.

My current Rig Struggled with BF4 stuttering therefore adjusted my res to 1024x768 also got my old 15" dell monitor and is working a lot better but im looking to updating to an 18.5 or 21" monitor on a different budget as well so any recommendations would be great.

 

[d1nky]

If it were me , id get an asus sabertooth for motherboard, get a 2nd hand 7970 or similar, and get a 240 Samsung SSD

or buy it all used.

should come within budget.


(btw that mobo is awful lol and cool case)

monitor, I wouldn't get 21 inch, Bf4 is impossible to play. way too small, 24 inch is perfect

 

[brandonwh64]

To OP

I would look to get a better motherboard than what you have picked out if you plan on OCing

monitor, I wouldn't get 21 inch, Bf4 is impossible to play. way too small, 24 inch is perfect

I use a 19 inch wide screen at work for BF4 and it does quite well so I confused on how 21in is too small. Hell my home PC has a 22inch wide screen 1080P and its well beyond good enough for gaming

 

[RCoon]

Hi all,
Hoping for a little help with my tight budget upgrade between £300-£350 ($480-$560). Looking to upgrade my MB, GFX and maybe HDD.

Current Rig

Case: Zalman Z9plus
PSU: Corsair 500W CX500 Builder Series 80+
Mainboard: Asus AM3+ M5A78L-M/USB3
CPU: AMD FX 6100 3.3 Not OC
Memmory: Corsair 8gb 1600mhz DDR3 vengeance Blue
GFX: Evga GeForce GTX 550TI 1gb
HDD: 500gb seagate Standard hdd

Thinking of getting

Mainboard: Asus M5A97 R2.0 AM3+ AMD 970 DDR3 ATX
GFX: 2GB MSI Radeon R9 270X HAWK
SSD: 240GB PNY Prevail, 2.5" SSD, SATA III - 6Gb/s, Read 550MB/s, Write 520MB/s, 85000 IOPS.

My current Rig Struggled with BF4 stuttering therefore adjusted my res to 1024x768 also got my old 15" dell monitor and is working a lot better but im looking to updating to an 18.5 or 21" monitor on a different budget as well so any recommendations would be great.

Samsung 240/256 SSD is probably a better choice. Also look into getting second hand GPU(You can find GPU's for sale on these forums, there are 3 7950's for sale off the top of my head) and a better motherboard, like D1nky said, the Sabertooth is one of my favourite motherboards (Overclocks like a beast).
As for monitors, I only have experience with Achieva and BenQ, and I can vouch for BenQ's being reliable.

 

[suraswami]

500W PSU might have to do overtime if you plan to OC the 6100 and add a 7950/70. Look into getting atleast 700W.

 

[MaGNeTiC]

Thanks for the comments probably go with your ideas might have to lay of the oc until I get a bigger psu may look at getting the MSI HD 7950 Twin Frozr III 3072 MB and the sabertooth mb and may wait till jan see if anything drops in price. Also going to go with benq 19.5" monitor as it fits the bill.

 

[d1nky]

I use a 19 inch wide screen at work for BF4 and it does quite well so I confused on how 21in is too small. Hell my home PC has a 22inch wide screen 1080P and its well beyond good enough for gaming

I have a 22inch most of the time, but when I play BF4 on a big screen 50'', it kind of feels small when you go back to the 22''

its that small and things are that minute, its impossible.

good choice on the mobo OP, wasn't there a 7950 for like £100 around here?! just keep ya eyes open!

 

[Fourstaff]

Processor is fine, upgrade graphics first. What games do you play?

 

[d1nky]

Processor is fine, upgrade graphics first. What games do you play?

the motherboard isn't tho, Op probably knows this.

even with my 4core, at stock it still throttles full load. when I put my 7950 with it, the mobo used to get red hot!

 

[MaGNeTiC]

I mainly play on BF4, Fifa 14 and csgo, that's when I get time to game lol. About the motherboard mine is pants I had to even connect my arctic freezer 13 to a power unit as the onboard cpu fan didn't work correctly as it started to run at 1200rpm then down to 280rpm.

 

[Dent1]

I mainly play on BF4, Fifa 14 and csgo, that's when I get time to game lol. About the motherboard mine is pants I had to even connect my arctic freezer 13 to a power unit as the onboard cpu fan didn't work correctly as it started to run at 1200rpm then down to 280rpm.

Hi all,
Hoping for a little help with my tight budget upgrade between £300-£350 ($480-$560). Looking to upgrade my MB, GFX and maybe HDD.

Current Rig

Case: Zalman Z9plus
PSU: Corsair 500W CX500 Builder Series 80+
Mainboard: Asus AM3+ M5A78L-M/USB3
CPU: AMD FX 6100 3.3 Not OC
Memmory: Corsair 8gb 1600mhz DDR3 vengeance Blue
GFX: Evga GeForce GTX 550TI 1gb
HDD: 500gb seagate Standard hdd

Thinking of getting

Mainboard: Asus M5A97 R2.0 AM3+ AMD 970 DDR3 ATX
GFX: 2GB MSI Radeon R9 270X HAWK
SSD: 240GB PNY Prevail, 2.5" SSD, SATA III - 6Gb/s, Read 550MB/s, Write 520MB/s, 85000 IOPS.

My current Rig Struggled with BF4 stuttering therefore adjusted my res to 1024x768 also got my old 15" dell monitor and is working a lot better but im looking to updating to an 18.5 or 21" monitor on a different budget as well so any recommendations would be great.

Swap your GPU with a ATI R9 270 £139 or ATI 7950 for £114 . These cards alone is enough for BF4. No other upgrade necessary.

http://www.ebuyer.com/544191-powerc...yport-pci-e-graphics-card-ax7850-2gbd5-2dhppe
http://www.ebuyer.com/584514-powerc...port-pci-e-graphics-card-axr9-270-2gbd5-dh-oc

 

[d1nky]

I take it no one else has played for 4+ hours with this motherboard?!

1. the cpu throttles
2. the NB gets very hot
3. its sata 3gbs
4. its crap and very low end!

but I agree, a 7950 or similar is pretty good for bf4

 

[MaGNeTiC]

I have been told to try and match your memory 1600mhz with your gfx memory clock speed? I this a load of crap or is there some truth in this?

 

[d1nky]

I have been told to try and match your memory 1600mhz with your gfx memory clock speed? I this a load of crap or is there some truth in this?

who told you that?!

ram speed matching your vram speed?! I think that's BS, its new on me lol

 

[MaGNeTiC]

thought it sound odd plus I like you pc mod and liked your old cpu fan with the dual corsairs, did it keep it really cool, I have and arctic freezer be cool if I could add another fan to the heat sink if possible.

 

[d1nky]

post a pic of your rig either in pc atm or on my mod page, ill give some tips if you wish!

I liked that first mod as well, looking at the pics brings back modding memories and I cant wait to do another!

and yea the performance of the heatsink and fans was pretty good!