# Doing the big core upgrade of cpu, mem, g card, mobo, advice?



## Remes (Oct 12, 2010)

So im finally upgrading my dinosaur amd 3200  this baby has lasted me good and a long time! 

So Im lost in all the new nomenclature. I figure that Ill not get too bogged down in the technical specs and just pick whatever my price range can afford. 

I have decided I should spend around 100 ($160) pounds on each to total a good round 400 ($650). I figure this should get me another nice system to last me another 8 years . 

So for those more in the know could you recommend what would be a good choice? As I said I'll mainly be getting whatever is within that price range but any definite no-nos? I will go with AMD I figure since Ive been happy with my athlon and get more bang for your buck with AMD. At least you used to is this still the case? 

Graphics card there isn't much research to do either is there. both amd and nvidia are good companies so not much of a diff there. I think I'll go back to nvidia simply because I despise the stupid catalyst drvier updates as they have never worked. Pretty arbitrary I know but since they are close either way I figure might as well.

Now memory has me a little confused with all the diff clock speeds etc. Is 1866mhz the highest? Also what amount should i get? Ill go with win 7 64 bit but I dont wanna be wasting money for too much so how much is enough? I will be playing games but not a 'hardcore' gamer- well kinda of but rts/rpg is my fav genre rather than 'bleeding edge' FPS. i will certinaly make use of the new horsepower tho so i guess its one of the main considerations. Other than that I work in internet marketing so having alot of browsers is good but anything 4 or over is way more than required for that isnt it? Thats the only two things I use the comp for really.

And motherboard. This is the biggest thing to research I think. So please advise . Im wondering if my old hard drives will still do the job. Is IDE still a normal standard? i know they like to play tricks on you by keeping the names the same but still not making certain slots/wires compatible with previous ones. ie sata 3. and pci express. I was dismayed a cpl years ago to find out that pci express is totally different from pci and the new graphics card i bought wouldnt work in 'normal' pci. Same when I bought a new SATA 3 one finding it isnt compatible with sata 1.

I currently have a 20 gig old ide hard drive that i use for windows install and a 500 sata 133 one for storage. Will they still do the job in new mobo? 

Anything else to consider in terms of compatibility? ie will there be anything else i may not have mentioned which might no longer be compatible? Power supply i imagine could be one. I believe what I have is an antec truepower 550. Will this still do or no?

Monitor is fairly new and hdi whatever its called port so that should do the job. 

Fan ofc Ill have to check but that isnt gonna cost much. 

So advise please on whats mentioned above plus anything else i may have missed.


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

Look at our recommended builds list. http://www.techsupportforum.com/forums/f255/tsf-hardware-teams-recommended-builds-2013-a-668661.html

As for RAM usually 1333MHz - 1600MHz is standard speed, anything after that requires you to change settings in the BIOS which is akin to overclocking. Running a 64bit operating system means that it will see any amount of RAM that you put in and 8GB RAM is standard these days although no game will use anywhere near that.

I always go Nvidia for graphics cards as I had bad experiences years ago with AMD drivers although they are supposed to be ok now.

I would change the hard drives if I were you SATA 6 is standard these days. plus if you do use them and want your OS etc to be the same you will have to do a repair install but only if you have a retail version of the OS you cannot do this with an oem version and also if you do use new hard drives you will have to purchase another version of windows whether it be oem or retail.


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## gcavan (Aug 13, 2009)

Plan on replacing the hard drives. Few motherboards these days support IDE without installing an adapter card. Changing out the boot drive has no bearing on whether or not the OS must be replaced. Moot point anyway, time to lose XP and move up to at least Win 7.


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

Use our suggested build list as a guide to insure top quality known compatible components: http://www.techsupportforum.com/forums/f255/tsf-hardware-teams-recommended-builds-2013-a-668661.html


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## Remes (Oct 12, 2010)

So will my 550 watt psu be ok? i see that a 550 psu is one recomended in the 600 dollar build so that would indicate yes?

Also if tlaking hard drives is it worth getting a small ssd drive to keep windows on if I still save games and programs on a bigger 'nromal' hd? or will the older hd just bottleneck the ssd?


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

Brand - Model - age of your 550W PSU?
SSD's are very expensive for faster boot/access times. 
If you game, you would want the games on SSD.


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## Remes (Oct 12, 2010)

Well I said above its an antec truepower 550. 

I know when i got it the brand was considered the rolls royce of power suppllies. and its age is 6-8 years old. hasnt blown up yet!


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

The TP's are decent Seasonic built units, but it's nearing the the end of it's useful life I would not want to build a new system around it.


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

My apologies for missing the PSU info in the OP.
It was a good quality unit but any 6-8 yr. old PSU is a candidate for failure/damage.
Personally, I would not chance using it with the new investment.


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

As said a 6 year old psu is very suspect regardless of its quality.


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## Remes (Oct 12, 2010)

With the ram do i have to buy two 4 gig chips if i want 8 gig total?

Also ive been looking at the 

ASRock 970 Extreme3 R2.0 AMD ATX Skt AM3+ USB 3.0 Motherboard 4562193454344 | eBay

as reading around it seems a popular one for a reasonable price.

if that mobo isnt the best could someone rec another one. i really hate figuring out what mobo to get hardest part of the process. guess ill look at those linked recommendations above agian.

Will that be ok for a 8320 fx (piledriver what a gay name lol!)

also x2 it says it can take 1600 mhz ram but only in oc state. does this mean its better to play safe and only get 1333 ram or instead get a diff one which supports 1600 ram? do the extrea mhz make a diff? i want to get the best i can afford now. my main tasks are tons of firefox browsers thats about it, maybe some internet marketing programs, memory and cpu are my main concerns.

Also is it worth paying extra for an 8 core over a 6? i read itll allow an extra years lifetime form the processor. unless theres a deifneite reaosn i shouldnt it would give me piece of mind having the max cores at the time, cpl weeks i guess


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

Yes 2x4GB for RAM is best unless its a quad channel board then you can do that or a 2GB stick in each slot.

Asus and Gigabyte make better boards

When it says it will take 1600MHz RAM in OC it either means you overclock fully or change the DRAM settings in the BIOS. Sometimes all that it takes is to change the speed to 1600MHz save then exit. FYI you will never notice the difference between 1333 and 1600 or 1600 and 1866.

Unless you are into video editing and heavy CAD work you will not ever use anywhere near 6 cores never mind 8.

Also there is no such thing as future proofing. Tech changes every few months so if you need the latest thing all the time you will be changing every 3-6 months.

But a system should last you atleast 5 years and if your asking about life span the cpu you are choosing if doing the same things all the time could last you 20 years


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

AMD boards are dependent on CPU memory controller for ram speed, native speed on the FX 8320 is 1866 with one stick per channel. > AMD FX Model Number Comparison

Sniper - F3-14900CL9D-8GBSR - G.SKILL DDR3 Memory

I would look at the Asus M5A97 R2.0 The Asrock extreme3 doesn't have a lot of good reviews and there are a lot of refurb boards for sale.


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## Remes (Oct 12, 2010)

Thanks. Ye i really dont evne push my current old ahtlon xp 3200 tbh but i am kind of getting pushed into it due to firefox wanting upgrades every cpl of weeks and each time it lags behind and starts whining if i havent updated the latest plugins. flash player now hogs 100 of my cpu. htis never used to be the case. so all i really use it for is browsing and videos. 

Altho on the simple marketing tools it cannot handle those and they do need cpu power so that justifies it since that is what i do for work. Also win xp is going out of service soon so seems like the time.

If 6/8 cores is redundant why do they make them just as marketing crap to show off and oneupsmanship i presume? -like the redundancy of 'bling and fast cars' to show off one's wealth?

Since its isnt too demanding and what i use it for isnt likely to change hsuld i scale down and save some money. i could put the money to better use on something more practical like a new harddrive if so. 

What would be the lowest spec that would still give me decent breathing space? 4 core and if so would intel be better option as ive been reaidng today any intel is better than amd even a slower one? 8 gigs would still be nice since mem i think i will make use of.


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

If you run a lot of demanding programs at the same time, or did a lot video editing wit the latest software you would use the 8 cores, normal use they are not needed.

Intel has the fastest chip on the market but it costs just shy of $1000, AMD CPU's are priced just under the Intel equivalent, personally I prefer Intel but it's a Chevy/Ford thing.........


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

Remes said:


> If 6/8 cores is redundant why do they make them just as marketing crap to show off and oneupsmanship i presume? -like the redundancy of 'bling and fast cars' to show off one's wealth?


More CPU Cores is mainly, mine is bigger than yours, advertising for now. 
A few yrs. back the same could be said for 4 Cores but software, and even a few games, can actually utilize 4 Cores. When 8 Cores can be utilized for normal use, the PC you build today will be seriously outdated and there will be 12 and 16 Core CPU's available to the public. :smile:


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## Remes (Oct 12, 2010)

Wrench97 said:


> I would look at the Asus M5A97 R2.0 The Asrock extreme3 doesn't have a lot of good reviews and there are a lot of refurb boards for sale.



Ah thanks for the rec that mobo looks right up my street! Good price with practical features rather than superfluous bells and whistles 

things are starting to come together now, think ill go with that mobo, the 8320, 8g ram and a 30 quid basic pcie graphics card.


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

If you have Onboard Graphics it would probably be just as good, if not better, as a 30 quid GPU.


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## Remes (Oct 12, 2010)

What would you suggest on that front? Arent the gpu/cpu combos a diferent socket again? havent researched that yet but it was something playing in the back of my mind.

Cpu is most important really so i wouldnt wanna compromise on cpu for a bit extra graphics.

I decided i want to max out cpu for what i can afford cos even tho its semi redundant atm and there will be better ones in a few years and it's 'outdated' then that is irrelevant to me so long as it is running the stuff i want it to so it wont be wasted.


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

What CPU & Mobo have you decided on?


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

The AMD "A" series APU like the A8 6600K and a FM2 socket board like the A85XM-A

Is a decent setup for using integrated graphics.


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## Remes (Oct 12, 2010)

Asus M5A97 EVO R2.0, 8320, 8g ram and a 30 quid basic pcie graphics card.

I stated just a message or two above. :angel:


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

Probably better to bounce that up a couple bucks the R7 240 is around 50 quid> XFX Radeon R7 240 Core Edition AMD Graphics Card - 2GB - R7-240A-CLF2 - Scan.co.uk


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## Remes (Oct 12, 2010)

Better for what tho? for gaming ofc but i never do that so  well only occasionally. might do tho but the graphics card is def gonna be an after thought.


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

Gaming yes, the current low end cards are no more powerful then integrated, if that's all you need then a 780 or 880 chipset board with integrated video instead of the 970 board may be something to look at.


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

Remes said:


> Better for what tho? for gaming ofc but i never do that so  well only occasionally. might do tho but the graphics card is def gonna be an after thought.





Tyree said:


> If you have Onboard Graphics it would probably be just as good, if not better, as a 30 quid GPU.


Add a gaming capable GPU when needed.


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## Remes (Oct 12, 2010)

With regards to the ram do i HAVE to get 1866 mhz since the speed is controlled by the cpu? 

The speeds all seem to be similar price anyhow for the same amount so i might as well get 1866 right?


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## Remes (Oct 12, 2010)

Also I see an offer for some ram which is 20 quid less than otehrs with frequencies up to 2400mhz:

TeamGroup Xtreem LV "Frost Edition" 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C10 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit []

Could i just buy that one due to the good price and have it run at 1866?


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

Off brand ram is iffy, it's often purchased from different manufactures on a low bid basis so it's hard to know from 1 batch to the next if it's any good or what specs it'll run.


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

I would also advice staying with known good quality RAM. G.Skill is very reliable and 1600MHz will be fine.


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

Remes said:


> Also I see an offer for some ram which is 20 quid less than otehrs with frequencies up to 2400mhz:
> 
> TeamGroup Xtreem LV "Frost Edition" 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C10 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit []
> 
> Could i just buy that one due to the good price and have it run at 1866?


Never heard of that RAM in my 16 years of building computers. I have heard of some crap brands before but if I haven't heard of a brand I can bet you that it is on the crap scale.


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## Rich-M (May 2, 2007)

As everyone is advising 1600 GSkill ram is all you need and the prices on that can be rather good. GSkill is Micron ram among the best made. If you aren't going to do any gaming the Apu is perfect for you and probably better than the 30 quit video card you want to add. You can always add a better one later.


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

greenbrucelee said:


> Never heard of that RAM in my 16 years of building computers. I have heard of some crap brands before but if I haven't heard of a brand I can bet you that it is on the crap scale.


Newegg has sold Team Group RAM for quite awhile and it has a lot of positive reviews. But, I prefer staying with what I know works. :smile:


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

The basic point remains you buy cheap or by quality you get crap. Quality = better performance/ reliability.

Your choice.


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## Remes (Oct 12, 2010)

Out of interest what graphics card would allow me to play most games at 1600x 1200 at 60fps or near it ? i remember 60 being the holy grail of fluid gameplay. not really into fpses but things like open world games such as skyrim.

want to see if it is doable/worth the price jump or if i should lower my expectations


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

a GTX 660ti would do but you wont get 60FPS all the time if you want 60fps especially on skyrim at that resolution you will need a higher graphics card and also need to upgrade your psu.


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## Remes (Oct 12, 2010)

ooff ye its quite a bump up to the £200 range or near enough. 

Hmm, anything about 30 is playable and smooth right? what can you recommend for 40fps range ? Im thinking something between £50-100 max would be my range.


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

a 650ti is entry level really you dont want to go below that.

FPS is down to individual preference. Many people claim they can see past 60 fps when they actually can't. Sure things look smoother but they are actually not seeing past 60 fps. The odd person can see past 60 fps but those people are generally fighter pilots.

The average person can see 30 fps and upto 60.

50 to 100 quid on a gpu really isn't gonna get you a decent playing experience. I would suggest saving a bit more and looking for 130 upwards. 

You could get this EVGA GeForce GTX 650 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (01G-P4-2650-KR) [01G-P4-2650-KR] but if you save up another 50 quid you could get a 660


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## Remes (Oct 12, 2010)

hmmm yes looking at the price range i see that seems to be the case.

maybe ill try picking up and ebay deal for one second hand for under a hundred.


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## Remes (Oct 12, 2010)

Picked up this: Zotac GeForce GTX 660 2GB badboy on ebay last night for £92. The bid was ending shortly so thought Id go for it . 

Now am I gonna need a new psu for it? I realised that is gonna push my budget to the limit if so!


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

a good 550w should be ok as long as you dont overclock or anything.


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## Remes (Oct 12, 2010)

when you guys say that the ram speed is dependant on the cpu does that mean that if i bought a 8320 and the ram was under 1866mhz that the ram would be forced into overdrive and/or not work properly? 

ie do i have to buy the same speed ram as the cpu frequency?


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

No the FSB speed of the cpu determings what ram speed you should get.

For example if the FSB speed is 1333MHz then you should get RAM that is 1333MHz if you get over that which you could go to 1600 but anything over that would mean you would have to overclock your pc and change settings in the BIOS to get it to work at its full speed.


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

Wrench97 said:


> AMD boards are dependent on CPU memory controller for ram speed, native speed on the FX 8320 is 1866 with one stick per channel. > AMD FX Model Number Comparison
> 
> Sniper - F3-14900CL9D-8GBSR - G.SKILL DDR3 Memory
> 
> I would look at the Asus M5A97 R2.0 The Asrock extreme3 doesn't have a lot of good reviews and there are a lot of refurb boards for sale.


Post #13 the native ram speed for FX 8320 is 1866, 1333 would be underclocking, 2133 would be overclocking.


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## Remes (Oct 12, 2010)

Ok thanks for the clarification. Ill go with 1866.


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

FYI I was just using that as an example.


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## Remes (Oct 12, 2010)

Thanks for the help guys. Oredered now. Gone with 8320, m5a97 r2.0 board, 8 gig 1866 g skill ram and a 3 TB sata3 hard drive


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## Remes (Oct 12, 2010)

Hmm just reading aorund and not too sure. If im not overclocking is the stock heatsink/fan going to be ok?

Also I still have the gigabyte 3dcooler would that fit on the am3 sockets? and if so is it gonna be better than the stock one?


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## Rich-M (May 2, 2007)

The stock Hsf is just fine.


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

Rich-M said:


> The stock Hsf is just fine.


Ditto ^


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