Upgrade Advice

[fantolay]

Hello guys, I've been out of the computer building game for a long time now. I have a computer I built a while ago that I would like to upgrade so that it can handle games like Battlefield 4 and Titanfall on highest settings.

My current components are as follows:

CPU: AMD Athlon II X4 630 (overclocked, running at 2.8GHz)
Motherboard: BIOSTAR A785G3
Memory: 4GB DDR3
Graphics: GeForce 9800 GTX+

So clearly this is a dated system. I was thinking about upgrading to the XFX Radeon R9 280X Double D 3GB GDDR5 for my video card. Then I was thinking my CPU will probably bottleneck me and prevent me from running ultra on the newer games even with that video card. However, my motherboard is an old socket, AM3 I believe. So I can't really upgrade my CPU without upgrading my motherboard.

So it looks like I basically have to build a completely new computer instead of upgrading this one because my motherboard is holding me back.

Anyone have any suggestions?

 

[Ken g6]

So it looks like I basically have to build a completely new computer instead of upgrading this one because my motherboard is holding me back.

Anyone have any suggestions?

Yep, you need a new mobo, CPU, GPU, probably new or more RAM, and likely a new PSU. (What is the PSU and how old is it?)

Suggestions: Start with [thread=80121]these questions[/thread], and maybe look at [thread=2192841]this build[/thread].

 

[fantolay]

Thanks- too much money. I'm just going to buy an Xbox One or PS4

 

[Ken g6]

You didn't answer the questions!

We have [thread=2381565]low-end builds too[/thread].

Now that I look at your mobo, it's socket AM3, so you could get an FX processor. Need answers to those questions before suggesting which.

But also realize that you don't get "highest settings" on a low budget. Even a PS4 only plays at "high" settings, not "ultra".

 

[fantolay]

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.

Gaming. Playing Titanfall and Battlefield 4 on Ultra. If it can do this it can do whatever else I might throw at it.

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread
$500

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.
United States


5. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc.
Nope.

6. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.

Hard drives. 1tb and then 500gb. Western digitals. Not SSD.
500W Cooler Master PSU
Monitors, keyboard/mouse/peripherals, tower case.

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.
Most likely no overclocking.

8. What resolution, not monitor size, will you be using?
1920x1080 dual monitor. Tri monitor if video card supports. Will only run the game on one monitor and use others for fb and shit.

9. WHEN do you plan to build it?
Note that it is usually not cost or time effective to choose your build more than a month before you actually plan to be using it.

Now.

X. Do you need to purchase any software to go with the system, such as Windows or Blu Ray playback software?
nope

 

[Ken g6]

OK, try this:

- Keep your mobo. AM3 will work, though more RAM slots would be nice.
- Keep as much of your RAM as will fit.
- Drop your PSU. Cooler Master isn't great.

Add these parts:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor ($139.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: A-Data XPG V1.0 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($34.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 280X 3GB Black Edition Double Dissipation Video Card ($279.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($26.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $481.96
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-05-31 17:28 EDT-0400)

And I'd suggest overclocking that 8320 a little. Most of them should be able to get to 8350 speed, since they're basically the same chip, but for $50 less.

The 4GB stick gets you either 6GB or 8GB, depending on what you had before. Either should work OK.

 

[lehtv]

CPU: AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor ($139.99 @ Amazon)

FX are not supported
http://www.biostar.com.tw/app/en/mb/introduction.php?S_ID=459#cpu

I'd drop the R9 280X down to a 280 and go with Intel.

XFX R9 280 $200 AR
i5-4570 + Gigabyte B85M-D2V $245 AR
2x4GB DDR3-1600 $65
XFX 550W $27 AR AP

= $537 AR AP

Then sell the old gear. The CPU, RAM and motherboard are easy to sell as a bundle with the CPU and RAM already installed.

What to expect in BF4: http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2014/05/19/amd-radeon-r9-280-review-feat-xfx/4
So you won't get perfect frames on Ultra. If you run it with Mantle, you'll get a slight bump in framerates (mostly in otherwise CPU limited scenarios, i.e. minimum framerates will improve), but still not enough to maintain 60 fps. You'll have to drop some settings to High, but judging by my experience in BF3, the difference visual quality between High and Ultra is (almost) indistinguishable for many settings.

 

[mikeyJo]

Thanks- too much money. I'm just going to buy an Xbox One or PS4

go and buy PS4

 

[Ken g6]

FX are not supported
http://www.biostar.com.tw/app/en/mb/introduction.php?S_ID=459#cpu

I find that impossible to believe. It's AM3. AM3 is always forward-compatible to AM3+. Unless they ignored it when updating BIOSes.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

I'd drop the R9 280X down to a 280 and go with Intel.

XFX R9 280 $200 AR
i5-4570 + Gigabyte B85M-D2V $245 AR
2x4GB DDR3-1600 $65
XFX 550W $27 AR AP

= $537 AR AP

Looks good. Although you can get along just fine with a basic H81 board, the H81 just has a few less SATA3 ports and USB3 ports.

I find that impossible to believe. It's AM3. AM3 is always forward-compatible to AM3+. Unless they ignored it when updating BIOSes.

FX requires new AGESA code to run. Unfortunately a lot of manufacturers did just that with lower-end boards... :|

 

[lehtv]

Looks good. Although you can get along just fine with a basic H81 board, the H81 just has a few less SATA3 ports and USB3 ports.

True, but there isn't any H81 board that's better value than the B85 board in the combo, at least I didn't find one

 

[Insert_Nickname]

True, but there isn't any H81 board that's better value than the B85 board in the combo, at least I didn't find one

Since the combo was listed as unavailable when I clicked the link, I just thought I'd mention the H81 if there isn't a decent combo available.

 

[lehtv]

Oh I see. Better to buy them separately then. The motherboard still has a promo for a few hours, and it's actually better than the combo discount:
GA-B85M-D2V $41 AR AP

 

[mfenn]

I find that impossible to believe. It's AM3. AM3 is always forward-compatible to AM3+. Unless they ignored it when updating BIOSes.

Not sure why it's impossible to believe. Lehtv even linked the CPU support list. For a low end board, they might decided that it simply wasn't worth the engineering resources to update the BIOS and and do validation (that's the expensive part).