Old motherboard problem.

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s1d3k1ck

s1d3k1ck

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Hi, I am Robert and I have a quite old PC that I've tried to upgrade since 2 years ago. I upgraded part by part and left behind the mobo and the CPU. Now, the CPU is okay but the mobo itself is a mess. It's a old Foxconn low budget mobo that came in the pc that Ive bought in 2008. It started making trouble since 2010 when I couldn't link an internet cable in it so I nedded to buy a separate Network card from TP link. Then, some USB ports stopped working randomly and it wouldnt install new divecies connected in them. Theeeeen, two of the SATA II ports stopped working, then the third, and the last one remained with the only HDD that I have in my PC. A few weeks back, just a normal day, I powered up my antiquity and it just froze. Couldn't boot, everything just stopped. No button working, front buttons on the case didnt work so I shut the PSU down. Tried again, then worked. I was browsing the web for the problem then... bam. Froze again. I tried to run the PC multiple times and sometimes it froze when booting, sometimes in Windows during diffrent applications running. I have tested my HDD at a friend's PC and it runs like wind, being a 1 tb SATA III WD Caviar blue with a 64 MB buffer and outta' the factory in august 2013. I gave up, being broke and hoped for my father to lend me some cash for new mobo and CPU minding an upgrade but he has his hard life as well. I popped my old IDE 40 gig maxtor HDD in and guess what. It works but sometimes it freezes like that SATA connection did. It freezes like twice a week and its not that bad. The bad thing is its just 40 freaking gigabytes. Less than my phone. So I basically do nothing on it. Just today an idea rose in my head. I plugged the SATA III drive in and it works as a secondary HDD. I ran some games and other apps and music from it and there were, ehem, is, no problem. Now... may I ask... what in the heck is going on? I tried setting the sata drive as primary and it freezes as usually. About the upgrade... I mind buying an Asrock mobo and an AMD quad core Phenom x4 965 BE and some DDR III RAM at nearly $400. Money is quite a problem until I get a job this summer plus that I am a mere student in 11th grade. Thanks a lot.
 
Solution
Brunostako
First, 965 BE and FX-8350 have similar socket but not the same, the Phenom is AM3 and the FX is AM3+. AM3+ is backward compatible with AM3, so make sure you pick a AM3+ socket motherboard. If you want it to be inexpensive take one with the 970 chipset which is a legitimate AM3+ chipset.

Second, the CPU in a gaming rig must be strong enough to not bottleneck the GPU, that doesn't mean it has to be an i7, but just fast enough. Anything beyond that is CPU power and money wasted.

Third, the FM2/FM2+ platform has one of the best value, it brings USB 3.0, many SATA 3 ports, PCI-Ex 3.0 (on FM2+ APUs), among others at low prices and good quality. So, unless you have or you're planing to have a high end GPU, you will be good with this platform.
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s1d3k1ck

s1d3k1ck

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Regarding that I have found that the Phenom II X4 is the best CPU in its price range, but I might look up more reviews and other stuff like that before buyng. I never buy without knowing a lot about the product :D
 
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Brunostako

Brunostako

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Yes, it's still a good CPU. But AM3 socket is too old already, you can get better features with new CPUs and motherboards, also more efficiency. If you spend your money on that CPU and motherboard, you're wasting it because you won't be able to upgrade it, AM3/AM3+ are dead sockets.
 
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s1d3k1ck

s1d3k1ck

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I thought about a far future upgrade and I caught the FX-8350 in my sight which is a pretty powerful CPU and its on the same socket. Frankly, I don't need more than that doesnt matter if its and old socket. Even if the market is evolving, at FHD the hard part stays on the graphics card not on the CPU. A lot of friends tell me about Haswell i5's that are more powerful per core but they dont understand that I am resource limited. But I don't want to get into all that until I fix this problem.
 
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Brunostako

Brunostako

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Dec 16, 2013
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First, 965 BE and FX-8350 have similar socket but not the same, the Phenom is AM3 and the FX is AM3+. AM3+ is backward compatible with AM3, so make sure you pick a AM3+ socket motherboard. If you want it to be inexpensive take one with the 970 chipset which is a legitimate AM3+ chipset.

Second, the CPU in a gaming rig must be strong enough to not bottleneck the GPU, that doesn't mean it has to be an i7, but just fast enough. Anything beyond that is CPU power and money wasted.

Third, the FM2/FM2+ platform has one of the best value, it brings USB 3.0, many SATA 3 ports, PCI-Ex 3.0 (on FM2+ APUs), among others at low prices and good quality. So, unless you have or you're planing to have a high end GPU, you will be good with this platform.
 
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Solution
s1d3k1ck

s1d3k1ck

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Feb 20, 2014
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Thanks for the replies.. I was thinking exactly at a 970 mobo which is the ASRock 970 Extreme 4. I know about the compatibility problem about the sockets. Now, let's say that I will get the Athlon X4 760. What motherboard and ram would you recommend to me?
 
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Brunostako

Brunostako

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I can't recommend a specific motherboard, all are good, but the best brands are Asus and Gigabyte. And you must look for a motherboard with the A78 chipset or the A88X (don't use the A55). For the RAM is also not hard, choose a good brand and buy a pair of 4GB 1600 MHz CL9. RAM beyond that frequency has almost no impact in gaming because you will use a discrete GPU, i guess.
 
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Brunostako

Brunostako

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Check these parts as an example of prices you can get:

CPU: Athlon X4 760K = $90 USD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113348

MoBo:
1. ASRock FM2A78M-HD+ = $53 USD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157482

2. MSI A78M-E45 = $65 USD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130747

RAM: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB Kit (2x4GB) 1600 MHz CL9 = $76 USD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148544

Here you have a great system for less that $220 USD.

If your budget was $400 USD, you have enough money left for a good GTX 750 Ti = $140 USD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487024
 
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s1d3k1ck

s1d3k1ck

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OK thanks a lot for the item list. I checked out the prices of all those components and in my country they have added at least 20 bucks and thats the first motherboard. The GPU is found at 226 $ without shipping. FML .-.
 
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s1d3k1ck

s1d3k1ck

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Sorry about not updating. I managed to get myself an AMD FX-6300, 4 gigs 2x2 of Corsair vengeance RAM, and an ASRock 970 Extreme 3 r2.0 motherboard. It runs everything smoothly and its very fast. This Christmas I'll be getting a graphics card.
 
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Brunostako

Brunostako

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Great.
FX-6300 is a awesome CPU, i still consider it to be old, but that doesn't take out its awesomeness. Haha!
At the moment of this post (June) AMD hadn't cut its CPU prices.

With that CPU you could run a R9 270X (or nvidia equivalent) without the risk of bottlenecks and the R9 270X also has discounts at some retailers.
 
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