What to upgrade?

[Prtsr]

I have:

Gigabyte GA-MA78LMT-US2H
AMD Athlon II x2 Dual core 245
HIS Radeon HD 5770

I'm looking to upgrade with a budget of £150-200, but I'm unsure of what will work well with what, so any suggestions of what to upgrade would be great thanks

 

[N00bbuilder79]

What do you use your system for? Do you have a HDD or SSD?

 

[RJC]

SSD upgrade is a good option or a better gpu & psu.

 

[Prtsr]

I use it for everything really including a bit of gaming.
HDD currently, but I'm looking at getting a SSD with a separate budget

 

[stulid]

Your motherboard supports 125W CPU's.

http://www.gigabyte.com/support-downloads/cpu-support-popup.aspx?pid=3375

So a AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition,

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-244-AM&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=1943


And a SSD.


Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £89.99
(£74.99) £89.99
(£74.99)
OCZ Vertex 60GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive (OCZSSD2-1VTX60G) £74.99
(£62.49) £74.99
(£62.49)
Sub Total : £137.48
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £8.00
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £29.10
Total : £174.58

 

[Jordan97]

Definitely an SSD. They truly are an upgrade worth having. Was stuck with a standard 7200RPM for so long. Bought an SSD and was truly blown away!

 

[Prtsr]

Thanks very much.

So, is my motherboard ok? I was thinking that maybe that would need upgrading first.

 

[stulid]

Its ok, it supports higher wattage/powerful CPU's which a lot of the cheap boards dont.

If you want a really fast SSD, then this is at the top of your budget,

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-008-CR

Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
Crucial RealSSD M4 64GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive £99.98
(£83.32) £99.98
(£83.32)
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £89.99
(£74.99) £89.99
(£74.99)
Sub Total : £158.31
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £8.00
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £33.26
Total : £199.57


You will just be stuck maxing out the SATA2.0 connection speed with it until you upgrade your motherboard.

 

[Prtsr]

Thanks for that mate, I think I'll go for those 2 then!

 

[stulid]

There is another option,

Change the motherboard for one that is AM3+ to support the new Bulldozer CPU'S, this board also includes SATA3.0 and USB3.0

Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
Crucial RealSSD M4 64GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive £99.98
(£83.32) £99.98
(£83.32)
Gigabyte 990XA-UD3 AMD 990X (Socket AM3+) DDR3 PCI-Express ATX Motherboard £89.99
(£74.99) £89.99
(£74.99)
Sub Total : £158.31
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £33.56
Total : £201.37

And the board supports Crossfire and SLI

There is also two more AM3+ boards that have SATA3.0 and USb3.0 here, but no crossfire etc.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-464-AS&groupid=701&catid=1903&subcat=1782
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-465-AS&groupid=701&catid=1903&subcat=1782

 

[Prtsr]

That is also very tempting. Thanks for the suggestions, I'll have to have a look and let you know what I decide on.