Possibly Time For A cpu Upgrade

Pighardia

Pighardia

Pighardia

Soldato
Joined
9 Jan 2011
Posts
17,987
Hi everyone.

Current rig:

Phenom ii 965be, OC'd sometimes.
Asus M4A89GTD PRO, AMD 890GX
HD 7950
Antec Kuhler 620
8gb RAM
Decent PSU

I am finding games have started to perform ever so slightly below the level that I would like, and I figure it would be wise to upgrade now, whilst I have the spare cash!

Any suggestions for a budget around about the £200 mark, possibly higher if needed?

Thanks
 
This would be my recommendation despite being over your budget:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - OEM £179.99
1 x MSI Z87-G45 Gaming Series Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £109.99
Total : £300.78 (includes shipping : £9.00).



Do you have a preference to AMD/Intel?

YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-8 Eight Core 8320 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £119.99
1 x Asus M5A99X EVO R2.0 AMD 990X (Socket AM3+) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £109.99
Total : £240.78 (includes shipping : £9.00).

 
Tbh, I do have a slight preference towards AMD, but nothing too serious;)

Thank you for your recommendation. Doing some reading atm, been a long time since I have done a big upgrade!
 
Thanks to some price cuts:

YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-8 Eight Core 8320 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £110.99
1 x Asus M5A97 EVO R2.0 AMD 970 (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £79.99
Total : £190.98 (includes shipping : FREE).



Or if you want something higher end:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 AMD 990FX (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £139.99
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-8 Eight Core 8320 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £110.99
Total : £250.98 (includes shipping : FREE).

 
I have the same processor as you and will be going for an FX-8350 for Christmas. This processor has served me very well and its the longest I've ever owned a single CPU but its showing its age in recent titles
 
Relentless81 said:
I have the same processor as you and will be going for an FX-8350 for Christmas. This processor has served me very well and its the longest I've ever owned a single CPU but its showing its age in recent titles
Click to expand...

Yeah, it has been a great servant for me as well, but just recently has started to show it's age. Shame, as it really is top quality, and I really did get my money's worth out of it!

I am happy to go to around £250 I think. I really have no idea when it comes to motherboards tbh, so often find it hard to judge the difference between two at quite different prices!
 
What I found was that its only worth getting a 990 motherboard if you want more than one Graphics card and heavy overclocking, I'm going for a 970 chipset as I will be staying with a single card and a minor overclock

Be wary of the Gigabyte boards as only certain revisions fully support Piledriver out of the box, I'm getting a Gigabyte board but unfortunately OcUK don't sell the one I'm getting so cant link you to it
 
The Sabertooth is the 2nd best AMD board there is in terms of stability, high overclocking, etc. The 970 EVO R2.0 is the best budget all rounder that can manage very good overclocks, but it has limited Crossfire support and no official SLI support.
 
Relentless81 said:
Be wary of the Gigabyte boards as only certain revisions fully support Piledriver out of the box, I'm getting a Gigabyte board but unfortunately OcUK don't sell the one I'm getting so cant link you to it
Click to expand...

Tbh, in 10+ years, I have only ever used an Asus motherboard, so as that is what I know, I shall almost certainly be getting one again....never had any problems anyway, and I have made good use of some of the features in the past.

I'm not sure I will ever run more than one graphics card tbh. Crossfire issues seem to crop up very often, and I generally prefer to stick to one fast card as opposed to run two. Though saying that, I only got a new card last time because I wanted more V-Ram, but the 7950 has 3gb already, so crossfire in a few years time might not be such a bad idea!
 
Relentless81 said:
What I found was that its only worth getting a 990 motherboard if you want more than one Graphics card and heavy overclocking, I'm going for a 970 chipset as I will be staying with a single card and a minor overclock

Be wary of the Gigabyte boards as only certain revisions fully support Piledriver out of the box, I'm getting a Gigabyte board but unfortunately OcUK don't sell the one I'm getting so cant link you to it
Click to expand...

if op keeps his current cpu and flashes to latest bios,then the piledriver should work on all gigabyte boards

that's if its the same socket? no idea on amd:(
 
The board doesn't support PD unfortunately. And it's not ideal to run PD on 700/800 series boards anyway as they weren't designed for them, they often can't run them reliably at stock let alone overclocked.
 
teppic said:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 AMD 990FX (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £139.99
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-8 Eight Core 8320 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £110.99
Total : £250.98 (includes shipping : FREE).

Click to expand...


I think this looks about right for me then. Though I don't know if it might be worth it(or possible) to go for the 8350 over the 8320, and still find a good motherboard that will come to £250?

Otherwise I will probably get this combo tomorrow
 
Pighardia said:
I think this looks about right for me then. Though I don't know if it might be worth it(or possible) to go for the 8350 over the 8320, and still find a good motherboard that will come to £250?

Otherwise I will probably get this combo tomorrow
Click to expand...

The 8320 and 8350 will both pretty much always reach 4.5-4.6GHz, and they're identical in terms of design. To reach ~5GHz then I'd go for the Sabertooth and 8350, but you're going to need a decent cooler (e.g. H100 or high end air) for that.

There's also an Asus 990FX Pro board that's a little cheaper, it's got full Crossfire/SLI support and is almost as good as the Sabertooth.
 
That's the one. I'm sure Gibbo might be willing to knock £10 off it too, though it's showing as out of stock. It supports 16x16x in Crossfire/SLI and it has a better power/thermal design for higher overclocking than the cheaper 970 one.
 
All arrived today. I went for the Sabretooth and the 8320(Sabretooth is sexy as hell!).

Unfortunately, I wasn't as prepared as I thought....I removed my mb, and everything connected, but when I had removed the cpu, I went to reach for my box with all my TP/remover/cleaner in it, and I couldn't find it anywhere! I have had to stick the stock heatsink on for now, and will change it at some point during the week. It is incredibly loud though!
 
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