Looking to upgrade my gaming rig, what should i go for? $250 budget (CPU, RAM, Graphics Card, Hard Drive...)

Colin12132

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I'm trying to figure out what to upgrade next for my gaming rig, my budget is $250 and I'm looking to get the biggest bang for my buck.

System Specs:

Motherboard: ASRock 970 Extreme3 R2.0
CPU: AMD Fx-6300 (6-Core, 3.5Ghz)
RAM: Corsair Vengeance Blue 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600MHz
Hard Drive: Western Digital Black 1TB 64Mb Cache 7200RPM
Graphics Card: Nvidia Geforce Gtx 650 Ti 1Gb
Os: Windows 8 x64

If you need to know anything else just ask! I'm trying to build the best gaming rig i can (over time) and im just trying to figure out what to upgrade next, And maybe explain why you think i should upgrade that certain part? I'm also looking to change back to windows 7 after the upgrade if that changes anything.

Thanks in advance!

Colin
 

Colin12132

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Can I afford all of that with a $250 budget? And why do i need another HDD, couldent I use that money for another part?

Thanks for the quick answers guys!
 

M0j0jojo

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GTX 750 Ti will play all the new games on Ultra, i really recommend getting a r9 280 or r9 280x, that will certainly improve the performance in gaming. Everything else in ur current build seem fine
 

Colin12132

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Im looking at the r9 270x's right now, can you reccomend a certain brand, im looking on canada computers as that is the closest computer store to me.
 

Colin12132

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What would the equivalent of the 270x be on the nvidia side? I've always liked nvidia cards and was wondering if one of them would do the same?
 

Colin12132

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So are the 270x and the 660 pretty much the same in terms of preformance?

And how much of a difference will the 660 show over my 650ti?
 

srSheepdog

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Honestly, it depends on which games you play. MMO games tend to need processing power over graphics, while most other games would benefit from a stronger GPU.

My thoughts:
Motherboard: ASRock 970 Extreme3 R2.0 (sell for around $60)
CPU: AMD Fx-6300 (6-Core, 3.5Ghz) (sell for around $100)
RAM: Corsair Vengeance Blue 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600MHz (keep)
Hard Drive: Western Digital Black 1TB 64Mb Cache 7200RPM (keep)
Graphics Card: Nvidia Geforce Gtx 650 Ti 1Gb (sell for around $90)

Now we have about $500 to play with.
FX-8350 New-180, Used-150
GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD3 New-130, Used-95

Depending on whether you went new or used on the above, you now have between $190 and $260 for a GPU
$190 - R9 270X
$260 - GTX 760
or
Used GTX 670 or R9 280X
 

Colin12132

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Thanks for the idea man! Im not really looking to sell though because im going to add any parts i replace to another computer of mine. I do have an xbox360 and a nexus 7 (2013) that im looking to sell so that should give me enough to get a new gpu, cpu and mobo!
 

srSheepdog

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I've become a huge fan of the used market. I built my kids' gaming PC using entirely used parts, and it's been rock solid. eBay will have a lot of variety, but higher prices. Craigslist can offer some real steals, as long as you are willing to wait for the right parts to show up and/or are flexible about which parts you want to add.

Another upside to looking on craigslist: you get to see how completely deluded some folks are about their four-generations-old "super high-end gaming pc" that they are trying to sell for twice what it would cost to buy a similar-spec new system...LOL But like I said, there are some listings on the opposite end of the spectrum that are total steals.