upgrade thoughts

Hawkesbury said:
Thanks so much for your help.

Looking on some CAD forums basically for my uses an fx6300 would be fine and I wouldn't see many real world differences with any faster processor (this will change though).

Do you think my current mobo would be plain pointless with an fx6300? Am I wasting money, as I will want to upgrade the mobo it in the not so distant future, and then should have got a better CPU.

I take it getting an 8320 will basically mean a new PSU, but with the 6300 I could be okay?

Would it be worth spending money on a 8320 and mobo, then save some more for a psu and new gfx for November? I take it I could run on stock cooler and pants psu?
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You could run a 6300 on your motherboard, and im pretty sure you could run the 8320 too but you won't get the best out of the 8320... So this is how i see you options:

Option 1:

  • Keep current motherboard
  • Buy 6300
  • buy new GPU and PSU (may be bottlenecked)
  • Then in 6-12 months buy new motherboard a CPU upgrade (either 8320 or new steamroller CPU)

Option 2:

  • Buy new motherboard and 8320
  • Run with current PSU (for now)
  • Upgrade PSU and GPU
  • Get good cooler
  • Overclock the 'sack' of it and have fun!

Obviously option 2 is the more costly way now, but option 1 spreads more money over a long period of time and will/may reward you with better gear.

What do you think?
 
It should do, but the 6300 is really not as bad as people are making it sound, it's still a decent cpu really.

The question is what can you afford to spend at the moment?

No point going into debt for a bit better upgrade in my opinion anyway.
 
Yeah, the 6300 is not a bad CPU. For games that don't use more than 4 cores you won't really see any benefit on an 8320 - and they tend to overclock better than the 8 core CPUs too. The reason I'm wary of it is that BF4 will make full use of an 8320 and if you're buying hoping to get good performance in that game I would want to spend the extra £25 or whatever on the better CPU.
 
How I view it is if I buy into option 1 I waste money on buying 2 CPUs in a year.

Option 2 is more fun! Looking around I could get an 8320 for £115, depending on next weeks deals that means I could get MOBO and CPU for about £200, and I guess if im doing that I would buy the refurbished h80 while its still on pre order price and make 22 posts for free delivery!
 
Hawkesbury said:
How I view it is if I buy into option 1 I waste money on buying 2 CPUs in a year.
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Very true.. I prefer option 2 myself too, its just option 1 is cheaper now. :)

Hawkesbury said:
Option 2 is more fun! Looking around I could get an 8320 for £115, depending on next weeks deals that means I could get MOBO and CPU for about £200, and I guess if im doing that I would buy the refurbished h80 while its still on pre order price and make 22 posts for free delivery!
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I like your thinking sir. :)
 
teppic said:
Yeah, the 6300 is not a bad CPU. For games that don't use more than 4 cores you won't really see any benefit on an 8320 - and they tend to overclock better than the 8 core CPUs too. The reason I'm wary of it is that BF4 will make full use of an 8320 and if you're buying hoping to get good performance in that game I would want to spend the extra £25 or whatever on the better CPU.
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now people making me think a 6300 will be fine! arghhh

(oh well thats another post)

how much performance difference would we be talking? bear in mind i play bf3 on a phenom dual core and its okay. The 6300 will be miles ahead, and the 8320 a little bit more?
 
An 8320 + new board would be an ideal upgrade, with the GPU later. Concerning the PSU, without the GPU, the full system would use about 200W at load -- if your graphics card uses another 200W at full load, that's getting close.
 
teppic said:
An 8320 + new board would be an ideal upgrade, with the GPU later. Concerning the PSU, without the GPU, the full system would use about 200W at load -- if your graphics card uses another 200W at full load, that's getting close.
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Is that the current 5770? or the new one?
 
Hawkesbury said:
Is that the current 5770? or the new one?
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It looks like the 5770 only uses 100W or so maximum, so you'd be ok. Some newer GPUs can use 200W though (and be careful with second hand ones like GTX 580s, they use a lot).

As for BF3, usually it'll make no difference, but on 64 multiplayer maps you can get a big increase on the 8320. Of course the new board gives you nice extras anyway, like USB 3, SATA 3, etc.
 
are USB 3 and SATA 3 backwards compatible?

In addition i currently have an MSI board and dont think it is as good as the Asus it replaced, are they a reasonable brand is or there something better?
 
Hawkesbury said:
are USB 3 and SATA 3 backwards compatible?

In addition i currently have an MSI board and dont think it is as good as the Asus it replaced, are they a reasonable brand is or there something better?
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Yes USB 3 and SATA 3 are backward compatible..

which are the boards in question (links)?
 
This is the important bit with the Gigabyte 990XA:

"8+2 phase CPU VRM power design for AMD high-TDP CPU support"

This is much, much better than ones which have 4+1, like most cheap boards.

Gigabyte and Asus have the best reputation for AMD boards.
 
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teppic said:
This is the important bit with the Gigabyte 990XA:

"8+2 phase CPU VRM power design for AMD high-TDP CPU support"

This is much, much better than ones which have 4+1, like most cheap boards.

Gigabyte and Asus have the best reputation for AMD boards.
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so I take it that makes it worth the extra £10?
 
Tomorrow you might find it's on weekly offer if you're lucky. I'd go for the Gigabyte board because of their AMD reputation and the UK RMA.

Bear in mind though that the 5770 card will be holding back the system quite a bit. You'll want to upgrade to something like a 7870 LE if possible later.
 
Hawkesbury said:
so I take it that makes it worth the extra £10?
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i'd say so.

teppic said:
Tomorrow you might find it's on weekly offer if you're lucky. I'd go for the Gigabyte board because of their AMD reputation and the UK RMA.

Bear in mind though that the 5770 card will be holding back the system quite a bit. You'll want to upgrade to something like a 7870 LE if possible later.
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Fingers crossed. :)
 
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