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Help picking parts to improve my gaming rig.

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  • Components
  • PC gaming
Last response: in Components
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November 15, 2013 8:45:36 AM

I'm trying to get the most performance as possible without having to spend that much. I use my desktop for gaming only(I own several computers). I'm only looking to play games at 60fps at 1920x1080 which is the max res of my screen(40 inch vizio hdtv). I feel like one or 2 of my components are holding me back from getting the most out of my system. Here is what I have:
FX 6300 -4.2ghz w/hyper 212 evo
MSI R9-280x -1120mhz core, memory untouched
8gb team 1333mhz ddr3 memory (8gbx2)
ASUS M5A97 R2.0
Toshiba 500gb 7200rpm hdd
SeaSonic S12II 520 Bronze 520W PSU
Cooler Master K280 (dual usb 3.0)
I know the r9 280x isn't at fault. CPU isn't the best but it is overclocked and would prefer not to replace it.
Should I upgrade to a better case?(One with more cooling options) Should I upgrade my ram to 1866mhz? Open to any suggestions. Thank you for your time.

More about : picking parts improve gaming rig

November 15, 2013 8:50:10 AM

This is a first for me I actually will say that you should upgrade your memory to 1866 with a good CL, is there any headroom left to OC the processor a bit more, if its the weakest link, every mhz you can get out of it will help. Your system should be fine, The weaklink is certainly either memory, or Processor, and it'll cost less to upgrade the memory :p  though that typhoon did jack up the price of memory (hopefully) temporarily
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November 15, 2013 8:51:28 AM

You should see a nice improvement with a better CPU, if your motherboard supports the 8350 that would probably be the cheapest upgrade path.

If not you may want to look into an intel i5/mobo combo. You may see a slight improvement with faster RAM but the CPU would give you much better performance than new RAM.
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November 15, 2013 8:52:22 AM

i would say the ram would give you a 5-10% increase if you go to at least 1600, maybe 12% at 1866. also might want to see about trying to OC the gpu. other than that not too much you can do with out upgrading to this or better.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
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November 15, 2013 8:55:16 AM

Supahos said:
This is a first for me I actually will say that you should upgrade your memory to 1866 with a good CL, is there any headroom left to OC the processor a bit more, if its the weakest link, every mhz you can get out of it will help. Your system should be fine, The weaklink is certainly either memory, or Processor, and it'll cost less to upgrade the memory :p  though that typhoon did jack up the price of memory (hopefully) temporarily

Unfortunately, not much room for additional oc'ing on the CPU. Anything over 4.2ghz required too much volts to get stable. Memory is still the same price here in Taiwan so I might give that a shot. I heard though that the difference was minimal(like 2-4fps) between 1333 and 1866 though.

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November 15, 2013 8:56:34 AM

Depending on the game that you will be playing, upgrading your RAM may or may not improve your performance. But on most games, you will see an average of 3% performance increase. What I would suggest is that you get an SSD. Getting an SSD will make your computer seem really really fast. Almost anything you click on your desktop will load instantly and your games will load significantly faster.
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November 15, 2013 8:57:43 AM

burdenbound said:
You should see a nice improvement with a better CPU, if your motherboard supports the 8350 that would probably be the cheapest upgrade path.

If not you may want to look into an intel i5/mobo combo. You may see a slight improvement with faster RAM but the CPU would give you much better performance than new RAM.

How about the 8320? I could overclock that up to a 8350. Would my psu be enough? I know I am kind of border-lining it with the r9 280x.

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November 15, 2013 8:59:16 AM

james77 said:
Depending on the game that you will be playing, upgrading your RAM may or may not improve your performance. But on most games, you will see an average of 3% performance increase. What I would suggest is that you get an SSD. Getting an SSD will make your computer seem really really fast. Almost anything you click on your desktop will load instantly and your games will load significantly faster.

I noticed you have the NZXT phantom 410, I was looking at it the other day. Would you recommend that case?
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November 15, 2013 8:59:52 AM

it will load faster but once running the ssd has no effect. best bet is to upgrade the ram or cpu. whichever you choose you should replace the other as soon as your budget allows. thats where you will see the best increase.
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November 15, 2013 9:01:33 AM

NormH said:
i would say the ram would give you a 5-10% increase if you go to at least 1600, maybe 12% at 1866. also might want to see about trying to OC the gpu. other than that not too much you can do with out upgrading to this or better.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Nice, thanks for the site but I don't think they send stuff here(Taipei). I will definitely go check out the ram over here though and see how much it will cost me. If I do get 8gb, should I scrap the 8gb 1333mhz I have or keep it in there for 16gb?
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November 15, 2013 9:01:33 AM

520w psu is enough for almost any build unless you have 2 gpu's you should be fine. if not you can get a 600w for around 30-40 dollars if you find a decent sale.
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November 15, 2013 9:04:29 AM

you want to match ram speed or you will only run as fast as the slowest one. get a 8gb kit (2x4gb) at 1600 or 1866 speed. gskill makes a great inexpensive kit. (ripjaws series) or (aries series) cas latency of 9 or less would be great.
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November 15, 2013 9:07:09 AM

NormH said:
you want to match ram speed or you will only run as fast as the slowest one. get a 8gb kit (2x4gb) at 1600 or 1866 speed. gskill makes a great inexpensive kit. (ripjaws series) or (aries series) cas latency of 9 or less would be great.

How about team or kingston? They are kinda big here in Taiwan ;) 

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November 15, 2013 9:08:40 AM

tensai27 said:
NormH said:
you want to match ram speed or you will only run as fast as the slowest one. get a 8gb kit (2x4gb) at 1600 or 1866 speed. gskill makes a great inexpensive kit. (ripjaws series) or (aries series) cas latency of 9 or less would be great.

How about team or kingston? They are kinda big here in Taiwan ;) 



Both would do the job
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November 15, 2013 9:09:04 AM

Yeah you are pretty close to the edge on the PSU, I would think the difference wouldn't be enough to tip you over the edge but it would be pretty close to that. Kind of up to you on that. I think going from 1333 @ cl9 to 1866 @cl9 would provide a bit more than 3% (maybe 5% in some cases) most of those 1333vs1600vs1866 tests I have seen ran the 1333 under cl9 (standard)
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November 15, 2013 9:10:44 AM

tensai27 said:
james77 said:
Depending on the game that you will be playing, upgrading your RAM may or may not improve your performance. But on most games, you will see an average of 3% performance increase. What I would suggest is that you get an SSD. Getting an SSD will make your computer seem really really fast. Almost anything you click on your desktop will load instantly and your games will load significantly faster.

I noticed you have the NZXT phantom 410, I was looking at it the other day. Would you recommend that case?


Yes, I would recommend the case because of it's looks. I haven't really tried putting overclocked parts in my case except for the Video Card. Still, it remains quiet and cold.
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November 15, 2013 9:11:55 AM

Supahos said:
Yeah you are pretty close to the edge on the PSU, I would think the difference wouldn't be enough to tip you over the edge but it would be pretty close to that. Kind of up to you on that. I think going from 1333 @ cl9 to 1866 @cl9 would provide a bit more than 3% (maybe 5% in some cases) most of those 1333vs1600vs1866 tests I have seen ran the 1333 under cl9 (standard)

Yeah, the tests I have seen showed the same. So anything I can do to improve performance? To be honest it's just the fps drops that bother me. I have no problem hitting 60fps on most games at ultra with the r9 280x but when it dips to 45 it's just irritating.
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November 15, 2013 9:14:05 AM

tensai27 said:
Supahos said:
Yeah you are pretty close to the edge on the PSU, I would think the difference wouldn't be enough to tip you over the edge but it would be pretty close to that. Kind of up to you on that. I think going from 1333 @ cl9 to 1866 @cl9 would provide a bit more than 3% (maybe 5% in some cases) most of those 1333vs1600vs1866 tests I have seen ran the 1333 under cl9 (standard)

Yeah, the tests I have seen showed the same. So anything I can do to improve performance? To be honest it's just the fps drops that bother me. I have no problem hitting 60fps on most games at ultra with the r9 280x but when it dips to 45 it's just irritating.


It's the processor.
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November 15, 2013 9:14:13 AM

james77 said:
tensai27 said:
james77 said:
Depending on the game that you will be playing, upgrading your RAM may or may not improve your performance. But on most games, you will see an average of 3% performance increase. What I would suggest is that you get an SSD. Getting an SSD will make your computer seem really really fast. Almost anything you click on your desktop will load instantly and your games will load significantly faster.

I noticed you have the NZXT phantom 410, I was looking at it the other day. Would you recommend that case?


Yes, I would recommend the case because of it's looks. I haven't really tried putting overclocked parts in my case except for the Video Card. Still, it remains quiet and cold.

It sparked some interest because of a recent price drop over here. Seemed real spacious and had lots more cooling options. What kind of temps do you get with your oc'd gpu?
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November 15, 2013 9:17:07 AM

should even out the spikes
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November 15, 2013 9:18:13 AM

burdenbound said:
tensai27 said:
Supahos said:
Yeah you are pretty close to the edge on the PSU, I would think the difference wouldn't be enough to tip you over the edge but it would be pretty close to that. Kind of up to you on that. I think going from 1333 @ cl9 to 1866 @cl9 would provide a bit more than 3% (maybe 5% in some cases) most of those 1333vs1600vs1866 tests I have seen ran the 1333 under cl9 (standard)

Yeah, the tests I have seen showed the same. So anything I can do to improve performance? To be honest it's just the fps drops that bother me. I have no problem hitting 60fps on most games at ultra with the r9 280x but when it dips to 45 it's just irritating.


It's the processor.

Figured as much but was hoping not. I guess I could suck it up and get the 8320 and oc that. But my psu is a concern. I don't really want to get another PSU because I just bought this one 2 months ago and Power supplies are really over priced here for some reason. I have my NB set to 2200mhz and I think I might be able to get that higher. Maybe try oc'ing that to 2400-2600mhz?

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November 15, 2013 9:18:34 AM

but really the fx-8320 OC'ed will fix it and you can still upgrade the ram later
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November 15, 2013 9:20:20 AM

So pretty much to sum it up, CPU and ram right? What if I tried overclocking the NB and HT more on my CPU and upgraded to faster ram? Would that even out my fps? That is preferable since my psu is border-lining it and it's cheaper obviously.
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November 15, 2013 9:22:52 AM

for sure. also the difference in processors is 30w so if you can get a used 550w or 600w it would be fine. be sure its rated 80+bronze.
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November 15, 2013 9:24:28 AM

NormH said:
for sure. also the difference in processors is 30w so if you can get a used 550w or 600w it would be fine. be sure its rated 80+bronze.

Unfortunately though since I just got this thing(PSU), getting a new one isn't that attractive of an option.
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November 15, 2013 9:29:09 AM

How much power would you say I am using up all together(estimated) with all my components? btw cpu is running at 1.39v, gpu voltage is left at stock.
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November 15, 2013 9:36:39 AM

i looked into it using a site and it says a 450w psu would be fine so i think you are ok
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November 15, 2013 9:42:55 AM

NormH said:
i looked into it using a site and it says a 450w psu would be fine so i think you are ok

What site did you use?

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November 15, 2013 9:56:26 AM

Tried it and got 443w for my build plus the fx 8350. Would I be better off getting the 8350 and not overclocking or the 8320 and oc'ing it with my psu?
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November 15, 2013 9:58:14 AM

no single gpu system will ever need 700w my brothers system uses a 600w and has an i7 with 2 gtx 660ti gpu's, 2 1tb hdds, 2 dvd drives, and runs a 3 monitor set up. (liquid cooled of course.)
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November 15, 2013 10:01:57 AM

NormH said:
no single gpu system will ever need 700w my brothers system uses a 600w and has an i7 with 2 gtx 660ti gpu's, 2 1tb hdds, 2 dvd drives, and runs a 3 monitor set up. (liquid cooled of course.)

Well in that case I should be fine. I only have 1 hdd, no optical drive, and a single gpu. Although I think you are right, I will leave this topic open to discussion if anyone else has anything to add. It's 2am here and gonna call it a night for now but thank you and everyone else who helped.
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November 16, 2013 1:14:49 AM

Well, I'm back. This is the memory that I have by the way http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY...( I have 2 of them)
I'm currently stress testing to get my nb and ht stable at 2400mhz but it seems to be failing no matter how much voltage I throw at it. Currently testing with the NB voltage up to 1.28v. It failed at 1.27 almost 2 hours in on occt. How high should I go before it gets dangerous? I'm trying to oc the nb and ht to see if this improves performance before going out and buying a new cpu(I have only had the fx 6300 for 4 months).
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November 16, 2013 8:15:28 AM

im not totally sure about the safe OC parameters. but keep a close eye on your temps
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November 16, 2013 9:41:15 AM

thanks, gave up on overclocking the NB though. Saw no difference in performance once I got it stable. I also started another thread and it seems that the amd fx 6300 and 8320 are pretty much the same in performance except for games that use 8 cores. Not sure if the 8320 will get rid of my fps drops completely. Maybe I should just get the ram and the cpu instead of one or the other. Or possibly there is something better on amd's product line that works with my motherboard. Looking into it....
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November 17, 2013 2:40:16 PM

I would like to thank everyone who posted on here for their time and help. I have solved the problem by enabling HTPC mode in bios. FPS drops are gone and performance is solid.
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!