Upgrading my current rig. Need some help/suggestions on parts.

MarcoPolo1667 · 9 Mar 2015 at 14:34

I made a thread a month back about BSODing after I upgraded my CPU and a lot of people told me my board and psu sucks... at the time I didn't have the money to upgrade but now I do. I'm mainly looking at a new PSU, MOBO and Case. I have around £200-250 and hopefully if I can sell this Corsair 380T Mini case that I won I can spend an extra £70ish on upgrades.

These are my current spec's;

MSI R9 270x 4GB
AMD FX8230E
MOBO: Asus M5A78L-M LX
8 GB Ram
650w PSU (100% upgrading this to a Corsair model)
500GB HDD

I have a AOC 144hz gaming monitor, mech keyboard, etc so there's no need for me to focus on those parts.

Any suggestions on what I should look at getting would help, the CPU is a month old.

Cheers.

I was looking at this MOBO: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-286-MS&tool=3

Hagar · 9 Mar 2015 at 15:18

YOUR BASKET
1 x Phanteks Enthoo Pro Mid Tower Enthusiast Case with Window £89.99
1 x Asus M5A97 EVO R2.0 AMD 970 (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £79.99
1 x Seasonic G series 550w '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £72.95
Total : £252.53 (includes shipping : £8.00).

Another £20 gets you a 650w PSU if you prefer. The ASUS board is a good one but may be a bit blue?

Danny75 · 9 Mar 2015 at 15:24

MarcoPolo1667 said:
650w PSU (100% upgrading this to a Corsair model)

Any suggestions on what I should look at getting would help

Yes, it depends on which Corsair model, and more often than not there are superior PSUs for the money. And why 650W for a 270X? Will you be adding another for Cross Fire?

The board should be fine.

250GB SSD would be nice.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Crucial BX100 250GB SSD SATA 6Gbps 7mm Solid State Drive (CT250BX100SSD1) £79.99
1 x MSI 970 Gaming AMD 970 (Socket AM3+) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £72.95
1 x EVGA SuperNova G1 650W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply (120-G1-0650-XR) £69.95
1 x NZXT Source 340 Midi-Tower Case - Red Window £59.99
Total : £297.88 (includes shipping : £12.50).

Save the SSD for the £70 or so upgrade, maybe.

Or this PSU if you're only going to have one GPU (even a 450W would be fine but this one would give you more room for a future upgrade):

YOUR BASKET
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £52.99

MarcoPolo1667 · 9 Mar 2015 at 15:43

Thanks for the replies.

I'm looking more towards Danny's list, I most likely will buy an SSD later after this bulk buy when I get the money.

Another question, would I need to do a fresh install of Windows after changing out the Mobo? Or can I just swap them out and use my current CPU and it'll be fine?

Danny75 · 9 Mar 2015 at 20:59

MarcoPolo1667 said:
Another question, would I need to do a fresh install of Windows after changing out the Mobo? Or can I just swap them out and use my current CPU and it'll be fine?

I would do a fresh install. No harm in experimenting if you want, but if you want more reassurance that you won't encounter issues, then fresh is the way to go.