Suggested CPU Upgrade

JonnySniiper · Nov 25, 2013

Hello all.

I am looking to make some PC upgrades as I built it at the beginning of the year on a budget.

My current specs are:

CPU: AMD Phenom II 965 Black Edition 3.4GHz
Graphics: XFX HD 7850 2GB
Mother Board: ASUS M5A97 R 2.0 (AM3+)
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 1600mhz 16GB DDR3

I'm mainly looking into upgrading my Graphics Card to the AMD R9 280x and am open to suggestions for a CPU Upgrade (anything that will fit a AM3+socket).

I'd rather not upgrade anything else at the moment and would much prefer not to overclock.

My main worry is getting a CPU that will limit the performance of the R9 280x.

Any and all assistance will be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

GhosT_Hv · Nov 25, 2013

AMD FX 6300 would be a good choice for this.

Beezy · Nov 25, 2013

JonnySniiper :

depending on your budget and purposes you should get an fx-6300 or fx-8350. The six core will be better for gaming and is cheaper, but if you want to do a lot of gaming and multitasking at the sime time the extra two cores might suit you there. kinda just depends..either way both overclock well, so that leaves you room for tweaking in any event

ps. i have that mobo and its frikkin great with overcloking, im at a stable 4.3 ghz on my amd fx 6300 and i play all game on high/ultra with a dual monitor setup

dextermat · Nov 25, 2013

+1 ghost_hv

AMD FX 6300

JonnySniiper · Nov 25, 2013

Beezy :

Brilliant, thanks a lot.

The 6300 also consumes less power I assume? Also, I should have mentioned that I am running two 1080p monitors with the hopes of a third in the future.

Will the 6300 be a noticable upgrade from the 965 BE that I currently have?

This is a gaming machine so it will be heavily used for gaming. Which Graphics card do you use if you don't mind me asking?

Darkresurrection · Nov 25, 2013

JonnySniiper :

Beezy :

Brilliant, thanks a lot.

The 6300 also consumes less power I assume? Also, I should have mentioned that I am running two 1080p monitors with the hopes of a third in the future.

Will the 6300 be a noticable upgrade from the 965 BE that I currently have?

This is a gaming machine so it will be heavily used for gaming. Which Graphics card do you use if you don't mind me asking?

What is your budget, everything is dependent on your budget, how much do you want to spend!?

GhosT_Hv · Nov 25, 2013

dextermat :

JonnySniiper · Nov 25, 2013

Darkresurrection :

JonnySniiper :

Beezy :

Brilliant, thanks a lot.

The 6300 also consumes less power I assume? Also, I should have mentioned that I am running two 1080p monitors with the hopes of a third in the future.

Will the 6300 be a noticable upgrade from the 965 BE that I currently have?

This is a gaming machine so it will be heavily used for gaming. Which Graphics card do you use if you don't mind me asking?

What is your budget, everything is dependent on your budget, how much do you want to spend!?

Well I'm trying to keep it between £300-400 for the CPU and the Graphics Card. Currently doing research to decide which version of the R9 280x I want.

andweb · Nov 25, 2013

JonnySniiper :

Darkresurrection :

JonnySniiper :

What is your budget, everything is dependent on your budget, how much do you want to spend!?

Well I'm trying to keep it between £300-400 for the CPU and the Graphics Card. Currently doing research to decide which version of the R9 280x I want.

JonnySniiper · Nov 25, 2013

Darkresurrection :

JonnySniiper :

Beezy :

Brilliant, thanks a lot.

The 6300 also consumes less power I assume? Also, I should have mentioned that I am running two 1080p monitors with the hopes of a third in the future.

Will the 6300 be a noticable upgrade from the 965 BE that I currently have?

This is a gaming machine so it will be heavily used for gaming. Which Graphics card do you use if you don't mind me asking?

What is your budget, everything is dependent on your budget, how much do you want to spend!?

So around £100

andweb · Nov 25, 2013

To get the answer to your question take a look at the CPU hierarchy chart that Tom's provide. You'll see your 965BE is at the same level as the 6300. The advice given is that you won't see any real performance boost unless you jump at least two tiers. For gaming the 965 is easily as good as the 6300, I went from a 955be to a 6300 and saw no appreciable difference in performance (in fact there was a slight drop in fps in some games).
Your money may be better spent on the best GPU you can get, Max your ram out, get 64 bit OS and for the single best upgrade you can do get a SSD for your rig and hold off on the CPU upgrade for now.
If you really want to upgrade then jump to a 8350.

Beezy · Nov 25, 2013

JonnySniiper :

Yes it will be a noticeable considerable upgrade. And for the price you cant go wrong honestly. The multiple monitors is going to depend largely on your GPU though. If you plan on doing different things on each monitor like gaming on one, youtube on the other, and music player and documents on the third monitor, all at the same time, then more cores and a good GPU would likely be your best route. yes the 6300 consumes less power.

Youll want something like a 770/780/780ti, or he 280x or the next step up if you can afford it

NOTE* I assume youll overclock a bit. DEF go for the 8350 if you can afford it. My thinking is even if your cpu outperforms a 6300 core for core, but overclocked with those 2 extra cores gears you towards the future as games are starting to utilize more cores!

JonnySniiper · Nov 26, 2013

Beezy :

JonnySniiper :

Yes it will be a noticeable considerable upgrade. And for the price you cant go wrong honestly. The multiple monitors is going to depend largely on your GPU though. If you plan on doing different things on each monitor like gaming on one, youtube on the other, and music player and documents on the third monitor, all at the same time, then more cores and a good GPU would likely be your best route. yes the 6300 consumes less power.

Youll want something like a 770/780/780ti, or he 280x or the next step up if you can afford it

NOTE* I assume youll overclock a bit. DEF go for the 8350 if you can afford it. My thinking is even if your cpu outperforms a 6300 core for core, but overclocked with those 2 extra cores gears you towards the future as games are starting to utilize more cores!

I'm going for the 8320, however, I hear that it is very power consuming. Do you think I will need a larger PSU than 750w considering I'm running a 1tb HDD (Will be installing more in the future) one optical drive and 5 case fans?

Beezy · Nov 26, 2013

JonnySniiper :

Beezy :

JonnySniiper :

Yes it will be a noticeable considerable upgrade. And for the price you cant go wrong honestly. The multiple monitors is going to depend largely on your GPU though. If you plan on doing different things on each monitor like gaming on one, youtube on the other, and music player and documents on the third monitor, all at the same time, then more cores and a good GPU would likely be your best route. yes the 6300 consumes less power.

Youll want something like a 770/780/780ti, or he 280x or the next step up if you can afford it

NOTE* I assume youll overclock a bit. DEF go for the 8350 if you can afford it. My thinking is even if your cpu outperforms a 6300 core for core, but overclocked with those 2 extra cores gears you towards the future as games are starting to utilize more cores!

I'm going for the 8320, however, I hear that it is very power consuming. Do you think I will need a larger PSU than 750w considering I'm running a 1tb HDD (Will be installing more in the future) one optical drive and 5 case fans?

they did a report on amd vs intel and yes amds draw more power, but they hooked it up to a kilowatt hour reader and youll pay maybe 30$ extra a year in power consumption costs. I on the other hand dont keep my PC on all the time, so i dont even worry

JonnySniiper · Nov 26, 2013

Beezy :

JonnySniiper :

Beezy :

I'm going for the 8320, however, I hear that it is very power consuming. Do you think I will need a larger PSU than 750w considering I'm running a 1tb HDD (Will be installing more in the future) one optical drive and 5 case fans?

they did a report on amd vs intel and yes amds draw more power, but they hooked it up to a kilowatt hour reader and youll pay maybe 30$ extra a year in power consumption costs. I on the other hand dont keep my PC on all the time, so i dont even worry

It's not the price of the power that I'm concerned about. It's whether or not my power supply can handle it.

Beezy · Nov 26, 2013

JonnySniiper :

Beezy :

JonnySniiper :

Beezy :

I'm going for the 8320, however, I hear that it is very power consuming. Do you think I will need a larger PSU than 750w considering I'm running a 1tb HDD (Will be installing more in the future) one optical drive and 5 case fans?

they did a report on amd vs intel and yes amds draw more power, but they hooked it up to a kilowatt hour reader and youll pay maybe 30$ extra a year in power consumption costs. I on the other hand dont keep my PC on all the time, so i dont even worry

It's not the price of the power that I'm concerned about. It's whether or not my power supply can handle it.

What is ur psu and gpu?

JonnySniiper · Nov 26, 2013

Beezy :

I'm getting a r9 280x and I have a 750w corsair psu

andweb · Dec 8, 2013

JonnySniiper :

Beezy :

JonnySniiper :

Yes it will be a noticeable considerable upgrade. And for the price you cant go wrong honestly. The multiple monitors is going to depend largely on your GPU though. If you plan on doing different things on each monitor like gaming on one, youtube on the other, and music player and documents on the third monitor, all at the same time, then more cores and a good GPU would likely be your best route. yes the 6300 consumes less power.

Youll want something like a 770/780/780ti, or he 280x or the next step up if you can afford it

NOTE* I assume youll overclock a bit. DEF go for the 8350 if you can afford it. My thinking is even if your cpu outperforms a 6300 core for core, but overclocked with those 2 extra cores gears you towards the future as games are starting to utilize more cores!

I'm going for the 8320, however, I hear that it is very power consuming. Do you think I will need a larger PSU than 750w considering I'm running a 1tb HDD (Will be installing more in the future) one optical drive and 5 case fans?

andweb · Dec 8, 2013

750watt PSU should be fine, I run a 8350 with a gtx 660 2 HDD & 1 ssd on a good 500w PSU not issues

Beezy · Dec 8, 2013

andweb :

JonnySniiper :

Beezy :

JonnySniiper :

Yes it will be a noticeable considerable upgrade. And for the price you cant go wrong honestly. The multiple monitors is going to depend largely on your GPU though. If you plan on doing different things on each monitor like gaming on one, youtube on the other, and music player and documents on the third monitor, all at the same time, then more cores and a good GPU would likely be your best route. yes the 6300 consumes less power.

Youll want something like a 770/780/780ti, or he 280x or the next step up if you can afford it

NOTE* I assume youll overclock a bit. DEF go for the 8350 if you can afford it. My thinking is even if your cpu outperforms a 6300 core for core, but overclocked with those 2 extra cores gears you towards the future as games are starting to utilize more cores!

I'm going for the 8320, however, I hear that it is very power consuming. Do you think I will need a larger PSU than 750w considering I'm running a 1tb HDD (Will be installing more in the future) one optical drive and 5 case fans?

agree w andweb. unless you plan on a second GPU 750 watt is plenty

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