Upgrade Existing Computer

[kurosagi01]

Hey guys its that time of year where i am in need of upgrading my CPU,ram and possibly PSU, the system isn't performing as well as it used to now.
Here's my current spec
Case: NZXT Classic Source 210 Elite White
Processsor: Intel Core i3 530 @ 3.3GHZ with Coolermaster Hyper 212
Motherboard: Asus P7H55-M
Ram: Corsair Vengeance 2x2GB 4GB 1600Mhz
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB+Hitachi Deskstar 250GB+Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB
Graphics Card: MSI OC Nvidia GTX 660 2GB
Monitor: LG Flatron M2762DP Monitor TV
Speakers: Logitech Z-4
PSU: Corsair CX400W

I am mainly looking into replacing my CPU after 3 years and 1 month of usage,its starting to show its age in terms of my own personal usage and doing university work.
Being a student i am also on tight budget. I was just wondering if these are compatible with each other, as i am not familar with AMD side.

Another question is would i need to upgrade my current PSU after being used for 4+ years for this new CPU upgrade and with my current graphics card.
Also does my current cooler the Hyper 212 support FM2?

The usage is for casual gaming still and also doing university work such as java coding, web development and cisco networking.

Do appreciate the advice.

 

[LaytonJnr]

Everything you have stated is compatible. The Hyper 212 EVO supports FM2, although the motherboard A88X chipset is meant to support the Richland APUs. And I'm surprised you've managed to get by on a slightly lower wattage PSU than you really need. The APU line is quite good for budget systems, however you already have a graphics card, so the onboard graphics is not really useful so you might be better off with an AMD FX CPU instead. I can recommend this (as I am currently using a similar build):

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/3DdcV

The motherboard will also allow you to do some overclocking as well, using the Hyper 212 cooler (which is compatible). I would need to check the motherboard if you still want to use the A8-5600K APU. If I was building a low-power, budget PC for normal computing I would use an APU, but it seems you're wasting some of your money because you already have a dedicated GPU.

Hope this helps,

Layton

 

[buildzoid]

Get a Athlon X4 750K/760K you really don't need a chip with an integrated GPU(A series)
Actually don't buy an FM2 CPU they are about as fast as your i3 so you wouldn't really improve anything. You either want more cores or just a faster chip so that means an FX 6300(50% faster in multi threaded) or one of the Haswell i5s everything else won't be much faster

 

[jgunning]

Everything you have stated is compatible. The Hyper 212 EVO supports FM2, although the motherboard A88X chipset is meant to support the Richland APUs. And I'm surprised you've managed to get by on a slightly lower wattage PSU than you really need. The APU line is quite good for budget systems, however you already have a graphics card, so the onboard graphics is not really useful so you might be better off with an AMD FX CPU instead. I can recommend this (as I am currently using a similar build):

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/3DdcV

The motherboard will also allow you to do some overclocking as well, using the Hyper 212 cooler (which is compatible). I would need to check the motherboard if you still want to use the A8-5600K APU. If I was building a low-power, budget PC for normal computing I would use an APU, but it seems you're wasting some of your money because you already have a dedicated GPU.

Hope this helps,

Layton

Yea I agree, I would say a pick from the AMD FX range would be a smarter idea. like an 8320 or something like that. They are quite decent.

 

[scrum_half]

a better upgrade would be grabbing a haswell i5-4570 and an lga 1150 mobo, but if you want to stick to amd then what people have said above is great advice, depending on your budget

remember that most of time amd wins in budget range and intel wins in the $200+ range

your psu upgrade is only +150w, which almost isn't worth the extra money you're spending considering you've got a corsair psu (corsair + quality psus 99% of the time). if you're going to upgrade your psu, i'd suggest planning for the future with a 700w or higher.

your ram is fine

i'd also suggest picking up a 120gb or more SSD, they can be found for as cheap as $60 stateside, not sure about the uk

 

[Arjai]

a better upgrade would be grabbing a haswell i5-4570 and an lga 1150 mobo, but if you want to stick to amd then what people have said above is great advice, depending on your budget

remember that most of time amd wins in budget range and intel wins in the $200+ range

your psu upgrade is only +150w, which almost isn't worth the extra money you're spending considering you've got a corsair psu (corsair + quality psus 99% of the time). if you're going to upgrade your psu, i'd suggest planning for the future with a 700w or higher.

your ram is fine

i'd also suggest picking up a 120gb or more SSD, they can be found for as cheap as $60 stateside, not sure about the uk

+1 Although I love my 8GB's

 

[jgunning]

a better upgrade would be grabbing a haswell i5-4570 and an lga 1150 mobo, but if you want to stick to amd then what people have said above is great advice, depending on your budget

remember that most of time amd wins in budget range and intel wins in the $200+ range

your psu upgrade is only +150w, which almost isn't worth the extra money you're spending considering you've got a corsair psu (corsair + quality psus 99% of the time). if you're going to upgrade your psu, i'd suggest planning for the future with a 700w or higher.

your ram is fine

i'd also suggest picking up a 120gb or more SSD, they can be found for as cheap as $60 stateside, not sure about the uk

good advice here

 

[a_ump]

I must be in disagreement with most, sorry if i sound....dickish. ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND? you have an intel platform, why not just upgrade the CPU to a Sandy bridge and cheap mobo for the same price? There's nothing wrong with your RAM btw, I game with 4gb(crysis, m2tw+third age mod, maxed) no issues. A sandybridge will outperform AMD(i bought my 3570k for 100 bucks on TPU) and you can get mobo's for 50 bucks or less(like myself) and upgrade later when overclocking is necessary for performance. I wouldn't side grade per say to an AMD platform, nothing against them but their performance across the board is just lower than intel.

I'd recommend finding either used parts for cheap or perhaps these.

i5-3350p 3.1ghz quad core154.94+6.95
ASRock lga 1155 mobo 47.99+6.95
216.83 Total

i5-3470 3.2ghz quad core 154.16+13.45
ASRock lga 1155 mobo 33.65+?
201.65 Total

Those compared to your 238.68 Total.

As for PSU, as long as HWMontor or some other software, better yet a multimeter, reads solid voltages on your rails i wouldn't be too concerned. Procoessors and hardware in general are a lot more efficient than your old CPU. SO the performance increase is at the same or less wattage than your current CPU and hardware.

that's just what i would do. And even if you need to replace your PSU, i'd still go an intel CPU. unless you can get a killer deal on an AMD CPU+mobo combo.

 

[scrum_half]

thanks for support arjai and jgunning

I game with 4gb(crysis, m2tw+third age mod, maxed) no issues.

how

i5-3350p 3.1ghz quad core154.94+6.95
ASRock lga 1155 mobo 47.99+6.95
216.83 Total

the 3350p is going out of service, to the cries of many budget gamers.

 

[Dent1]

This thread is old, very old.

 

[scrum_half]

This thread is old, very old.

agreed, but the poor op never got a response until now. at least we helped him, if he decides to check in.

 

[a_ump]

how

well i suppose i didn't mention that i'm constrained to a 1280x1024 monitor. and by max i meant all settings maxed, 4xMSAA and 16xAF. for crysis that is. the other games again run like butter with everything maxed 8x MSAA. but at 1280x1024. everyone just assumes that max has to mean 1920x1080 lol. Suppose i should mention my res for now on, even if it is in my system specs

 

[scrum_half]

yes please do mention res, as 1080p is the standard nowawdays

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

One question, what's the point in maxing settings and especially texture detail if your running your monitor at a res that can not show the detail at all

 

[LaytonJnr]

well i suppose i didn't mention that i'm constrained to a 1280x1024 monitor. and by max i meant all settings maxed, 4xMSAA and 16xAF. for crysis that is. the other games again run like butter with everything maxed 8x MSAA. but at 1280x1024. everyone just assumes that max has to mean 1920x1080 lol. Suppose i should mention my res for now on, even if it is in my system specs

One question, what's the point in maxing settings and especially texture detail if your running your monitor at a res that can not show the detail at all

I agree. If you're unable to buy a new monitor with a higher resolution, you could always try improving texture detail using OGSSAA. Quite easy with NVIDIA cards.

Layton

 

[RCoon]

One question, what's the point in maxing settings and especially texture detail if your running your monitor at a res that can not show the detail at all

Jaggies still show(moreso) on 1280x1024, AA is pretty useful in that effect.

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

AA is going to be amazingly useful at that res I agree but high res texures (hell even most games normal settings) just are not going to be able to actually display their detail and most filtering is going to be wasted too since nuances cant be seen.