Upgrading Motherboard in pre-built PC

Jorgeluis · Nov 1, 2013

My current PC is an HP Pavilion p7-1220 - http://bit.ly/16T72x2

I have upgraded the power supply to a generic 420 watt and have added an AMD HD 7770 GPU for gaming purposes. I believe that my computer is being bottlenecked due to my poor CPU (AMD A8 3820 Processor).

So, I am planning on upgrading my motherboard and CPU to something like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.1455437

I have a few questions though:

1) Would that CPU/Motherboard fix my bottlenecking?

2) Would that CPU/Motherboard fit and be compatible with my case and hardware?

3) If not, what would help me?

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

StarTrek2013 · Nov 1, 2013

If you are building a gaming rig, I would suggest buying a better GPU and maybe going for a cheaper processor depending on your budget. That should fix the bottlenecking if you are doing gaming. Spending the same amount of money on a GPU as the CPU is not wise when making a gaming build. All your hardware is compatible with it. The a8 is not that bad of a processor. You can crossfire it with your Radeon 7770 and make a pretty good gaming machine. That way you wouldn't need to buy a new mobo and cpu. It is entirely up to you.

StarTrek2013 · Nov 1, 2013

I would not also recommend Biostar. ASrock, Asus, and Gigabyte are always the three brands I recommend for mobos. Get a Gigabyte or an ASrock if you are tight on money. If you can afford it, get an Asus.

Jorgeluis · Nov 1, 2013

StarTrek2013 :

Thanks for the quick response.

So you are saying that I can crossfire my current CPU and GPU and get better performance? Because as it stands I could barely run the Battlefield 4 beta and my frames per second on DAYZ are pitiful. I do get a solid 60 fps on games like Skyrim and League of Legends however.

realchaos · Nov 1, 2013

Bad choice on the psu. A generic 420w psu is very low quality, and it will probably die fairly fast with a 7770 in there.
Anyways, I would try to build a new pc rather than upgrading that.
Those generic type of cases are hard to work with when building your own. You definitely need to replace the motherboard and processor if you don't want it to bottleneck the 7770. The HDD is fairly slow. The psu is extremely low quality.

Jorgeluis · Nov 1, 2013

realchaos :

Thanks for the feedback.

I would like to build a whole new computer but it really is not within my budget at the moment. I've had the 7770 running off of my psu for about a year now with no issues. Would crossfiring help me? Would it be safe?

StarTrek2013 · Nov 1, 2013

You should return the PSU and buy a better one. The CPU is fine. I would buy a better mobo for it. Here: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asrock-motherboard-970pro3r20 It should fit in your case. Here is a better PSU: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-power-supply-cx500m

StarTrek2013 · Nov 1, 2013

AMD fixed their drivers so it would be perfectly safe. Crossfiring it would improve performance, but not as much as replacing the mobo, cpu, and psu. The choice is up to you. I would go ahead and get a better PSU and save up and buy the mobo and cpu together as both are useless apart (FX-6300 is AM3+ whereas your current mobo is FM2) and you will want to know if one of them doesn't work.

Jorgeluis · Nov 1, 2013

StarTrek2013 :

I would like to try and crossfire my integrated graphics with my gpu. How would I go about doing this?

StarTrek2013 · Nov 1, 2013

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFAMmTDu_H0

Jorgeluis · Nov 1, 2013

I thought you could only crossfire APU's with GPU's up to the 6670..?

realchaos · Nov 1, 2013

Yes you can not dual gpu the iGPU and 7770. The 7770 is just far too powerful for it to dual gpu with an APU.
Do not grab a second 7770 to crossfire. If you want to crossfire, you'll need an expensive motherboard (~$100) that will crossfire correctly.
Can you tell us your budget for the upgrades?

StarTrek2013 · Nov 1, 2013

To be honest it would be better if you just got a new mobo and cpu. Even an Athlon plus the 7000 will offer a better performance than crossfiring with the a8.

realchaos · Nov 1, 2013

You can't crossfire the A8 with a 7770....

Jorgeluis · Nov 1, 2013

realchaos :

I'd like to keep it around $200-$400

StarTrek2013 · Nov 1, 2013

How is this: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1mJts

realchaos · Nov 1, 2013

When changing motherboards, you'll need to reinstall the OS which means re-buying Windows.
Additionally, sometimes working with those generic case can be extremely hard when changing motherboards.

Here's something I would do:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: MSI 970A-G43 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($59.99 @ Microcenter)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.99 @ Microcenter)
Case: NZXT Source 210 Elite (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($41.56 @ Mwave)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($48.99 @ NCIX US)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 - OEM (64-bit) ($96.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $417.50
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-11-01 21:22 EDT-0400)

New case so it's a lot easier to work with. You'll also get better airflow.
New psu because you want a high quality psu.
New processor and motherboard. The FX-6300 is much stronger than your A8.
Included faster HDD as your main drive and an OS since you need to reinstall it.

StarTrek2013 · Nov 1, 2013

He doesn't need a new HDD... And MSI mobos are not good. They have had way too many problems in the past for me to consider them. If your version of Windows is an OEM, then realchaos is right about having to buy a new copy of windows. If you do want to buy a new case, NZXT sells a better case than the Source 210 for a couple bucks more known as the Tempest 210: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146084

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($119.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock 970 EXTREME4 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($48.99 @ NCIX US)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 - OEM (64-bit) ($96.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $350.95
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-11-01 21:49 EDT-0400)

realchaos · Nov 1, 2013

His current HDD is 5900rpm and sata 3gb/s. That's really slow. OP will definitely want a new one.
MSI boards aren't necessarily bad. They're fine if you don't plan to overclock.

StarTrek2013 · Nov 2, 2013

He isn't going to notice that much of a difference with the two different rpms. The main parts that will affect his gaming performance is the ram, CPU, GPU, mobo (depending on whether he is going to oc or not), and the PSU. 8gb of ram, a FX-6300, Radeon 7770, ASRock Extreme 4, and XFX 550W 80 Plus Bronze Certified PSU should suffice for him. He already has the GPU and the ram. If after purchasing the CPU, mobo, PSU, and OS, he has money left over that he wants to spend on a HDD then that is his choice but that money has better places to go such as into a CPU cooler or a decent keyboard.

realchaos · Nov 2, 2013

5900rpm is a little bit faster than laptop HDDs, and those take forever to load. Additionally, the fact that it's aged for a long time means that it's even slower. OP can definitely use his old HDD as a storage drive though.

Jorgeluis · Nov 3, 2013

realchaos :

When changing motherboards, you'll need to reinstall the OS which means re-buying Windows.
Additionally, sometimes working with those generic case can be extremely hard when changing motherboards.

Here's something I would do:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: MSI 970A-G43 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($59.99 @ Microcenter)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.99 @ Microcenter)
Case: NZXT Source 210 Elite (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($41.56 @ Mwave)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($48.99 @ NCIX US)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 - OEM (64-bit) ($96.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $417.50
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-11-01 21:22 EDT-0400)

New case so it's a lot easier to work with. You'll also get better airflow.
New psu because you want a high quality psu.
New processor and motherboard. The FX-6300 is much stronger than your A8.
Included faster HDD as your main drive and an OS since you need to reinstall it.

Thanks so much for the help I'm thinking this is the route I will take. With the a 550 psu would I also be able to upgrade my gpu later on or would I need more wattage?

realchaos · Nov 3, 2013

The XFX 550w is a great quality psu and large enough to handle any single gpu system. So yes, you can upgrade your gpu and it will still be fine.

Jorgeluis · Nov 3, 2013

realchaos :

Ok, thanks for the help. Greatly appreciate it.

StarTrek2013 · Nov 3, 2013

I agree with realchaos about the XFX 550w. It is an excellent PSU, I generally use it in all my builds.

Upgrading Motherboard in pre-built PC

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