Looking to upgrade gaming Rig, some expert advice would be greatly appreciated

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Ahmed Mahfuz Talukder

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May 25, 2015
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hello there people of the forums! I hope all who read this are well and good.
So, straight to the point: I have a computer I bought for my 16th birthday and that was 4 years ago. The computer is looking a bit dated for my liking and I wish to upgrade it to something better.

I have not dabbled in custom built computers till now, but have decided to buy components this time as opposed to getting a completely new one from pc world and wasting cash. The primary purpose of my PC is for gaming and rendering videos (of the gaming) for YouTube :D

So, I'll list my specs, and was hoping you guys have got some advice on how to properly upgrade my computer as without this advice im a blind man in the dark. Im talking motherboard to RAM, i really have no idea what im doing, so some expert advice would be greatly appreciated.

My situation Is a bit unique in the sense that I already got myself a fairly high end graphics card, and im not sure how to upgrade everything else accordingly, although having this new graphics card means I have something to build everything else around. The idea is that I want everything to be as optimised as possible, trying to keep any component from bottlenecking/outperforming any other component. Price is not something im limited by (hopefully). Rather, I want nothing to be out of my new graphics card's league or too far below it.

Thanks in advance, and have a great day.

If you require any other information about my rig, please do not hesitate to ask. :)

New graphics card: NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 960.
The rest of my rig:
AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Processor
64-Bit OS
8GB of RAM
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium
1 TB Hard drive
500W Cooler Mater PSU
Liquid cooler for CPU (came with the ready made build 4 years ago)
I can find the motherboard's name if really needed, but I did not state it here as im almost sure I need to change the CPU which means (i assume but ofc im no expert) I need to change the motherboard too.

I posted this in the components section of the forum, and have been advised to go for the following upgrades, do you guys think this is the best option for me?

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/amd-fx-8350-black-editio...
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/240gb-kingston-ssdnow-v3...
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/620w-seasonic-evo-full-m...
Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3 ATX Motherboard
 
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Ok Go

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May 23, 2015
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it's a fine upgrade choice.
but i'm suggesting that you should try and use your old PSU with the new hardware and see how it holds up with the new upgrade. on stock setting your PSU still has quite a bit of headroom.
if with your old PSU you feel that you cant have a stable enough juice while overclocking then the new PSU is justified.
i'm saying this because your new proc has the same power req as your old proc, and 960 chips are very efficient.
in my book coolermaster's PSU line is very2 robust and has honest amperage with stable voltage in all rail on peak load.
 
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B3H1NDu

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I would

Go with the FX-8350, or if you are in no rush, wait for the skylake to drop, which could result in price drops on the newer Intel stuff. I use the FX-8350, and it's great. Because it is so much better value for money, you can dump your savings where it'll make a bigger impact.

I wouldn't go with an SSD, as it dosen't really make a massive difference at the end of the day, and I would only recommend if you are looking at buying higher teir graphics cards and water-cooled i7s, that's how far the line it is in terms of performance impact.

Your PSU might be OK, but I would go with the seasonic, and maybe even a higher wattage one (like 850 watts) so you won't ever need to buy a new one again (unless you go nutso with SLI). But if you don't think you'll ever use too teir graphics cards, and other demanding hardware the 620 will be great.

The general rule of thumb is to save where you can and dump it on the graphics card, and if you are doing YouTube... please don't make it horrible, and I recommend using Nvidia ShadowPlay for recording, it's amazing.

Good luck whatever you decide and most of all, have fun.
 
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Ahmed Mahfuz Talukder

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May 25, 2015
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thanks, I will perhaps get the SSD firs then. As i said, im no expert so how would I know exactly if my PSU is "holding up". Is there some sort of software I can use to monitor how the PSU is doing?
 
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Ahmed Mahfuz Talukder

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thanks for the reply. The problem is, my computer seems to be running pretty slow these days. Everyone says "your PC is still good/plenty so wait for mew processors" etc and that's great, but I find games like battlefield 4 lagging (25 FPS) and games like Total War: Rome 2 dropping to 17FPS at times even on high settings (2 settings lower than top and the game is 1.5 years old). It makes me wonder, perhaps there is some software/hardware issue slowing the computer down? as if my hardware is so satisfactory already, it doesn't seem to show when running games. And yes, I did try using shadowplay, but once again, as I said, seem to be running into freezing/ framerate drops on game recordings. My channel is here if you want to see what i've been up to with the recording.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOOaunzXzsiOdvmqcqMO_Eg

I would appreciate some help for looking into how I can find out what is causing bad performance on my computer in it's current setup. Thanks.

 
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i used a program called HWmonitor to read about hardware voltages. it's not super accurate, but it's good enough for non proffesional(assuming the motherboard's voltage sensors is not faulty that is).
 
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B3H1NDu

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Your PSU WILL hold up because it is a cooler master and you should be well within its limits, my PSU reccomendation was that if you start to get more power hungry cards you wouldn't have to upgrade the PSU again. I still wouldn't get the SSD, as that money, and what you have saved by keeping your old PSU should be enough to get you a better graphics card, but then the graphics card might need more power. But the new PC build you are looking at should have the same power requirements as your old one.
 
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B3H1NDu

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You should make a new thread once you have all of your new hardware.

Best of luck.

 
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Ahmed Mahfuz Talukder

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May I ask why I would need a new graphics card? I had a radeon 5770 with this build for 4 years and recently aquired a GTX960. surely that outclasses everything else in my rig, so I should upgrade everything else so GPU is not bottlenecked right? Or have I missed something?

 
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synphul

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I'd say it's your cpu/gpu holding you back on those games. An ssd will be a waste especially if you're on a budget since it won't improve fps at all. I'm not familiar with total war 2 so I did a search for performance benchmarks. I'm sure there are other sources, but I came across a tw2 forum post where quite a bit of benchmarking was done with various cpu's and gpu's. The conclusion was "AMD processors are literally not usable for Total War:
It is an frightening fact but according to the CPU benchmarks we have already enough evidence that AMD CPUs can hardly handle Total War, so even you have a good graphics card, when it comes to melee and blobs and you are zooming in the scene you will face a massive FPS drop." Taking it with a grain of salt, fair enough to say that tw2 is greatly improved on stronger cores rather than multiple weaker cores which is a disadvantage to amd cpu's.

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?612381-The-TWC-Total-War-Benchmark-thread-compare-your-real-TW-performance

Here are some bf4 gpu benchmarks for the 960. About 2/3 the fps as a gtx 970.
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2015/01/22/nvidia-geforce-gtx-960-review-feat-asus/5

Looking at your cpu and gpu usage will help identify the problem. Try lowering your resolution and settings, if fps greatly improve then your gpu is holding you back. If your cpu is at full usage and there's only a slight improvement lowering quality settings and resolution then your cpu is bottlenecking you. If I had to give an educated guess, that cpu/gpu combo is just struggling to play demanding games. Maybe turning down some of the eye candy in the game's settings will help.
 
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synphul

synphul

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You mentioned having a 5770 for 4 yrs until just recently. The 5770 is barely faster than an hd 4850 which barely held up for gaming in my system 18mo ago. I'm currently using a 7850 which I know is mid grade gpu falling behind in several benchmarks. The gtx 960 keeps even and passes it up depending on the game but paired with an i5 I'm getting decent frames (50-70fps @ 1600x1200) in crysis 2 and 3, fc3, cod ghosts etc. In order of priority, I'd say cpu/mobo, then gpu and only if you still have room in your budget worry about an ssd.
 
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B3H1NDu

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I completely agree with your posts. You should listen to this guy.

honestly you can't really expect amazing performance with a sweet spot graphics card, especially if it is the 2gb variant, which it sounds like it is. If your games will only run on Intel, then you have no choice, really there isn't too much of a difference between a i5 or a 8350 if you are gaming, and the more efficient Intel architecture could give you more overclocking headway, and if you are youtubing, you might want to (for now) downgrade to 720p for everything (playing, recording, rendering). Also I use a 750ti sometimes, and I have never had any problems with ShadowPlay, although I do have it recording at 720p 30fps 25bit, which helps a lot. A new cpu is in order, but don't even think about ssds until you have at least a nice 970 or equivalent gpu.

 
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Ahmed Mahfuz Talukder

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May 25, 2015
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thanks for all you answers, I truly appreciate the quit and detailed response. For now, I think im going to follow the general advice which seems to be "you comp is fine for games, wait for better processor architecture development then grap a intel chip when price drops"
THen, i shall hopefully pick up a intel processor and a motherboard to go with it, and I shall save the SSD for later. the GTX960 that I have is indeed a 2GB version, but that is one thing im not changing (as I just bought it xD)

Thanks again, and I hope you all get on well with everything :)

PS. things atm are going fine. I have some YouTube let's plays out, and have been rendering in 1080p, and while recording, even with settings mostly on Ultra, im getting 40+ FPS most of the time :D Check it out here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYmH6LAjvwo&index=3&list=PL1WsYgnjAE7XCzt5p4TKo-doyhygs6K6T
 
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