Where to start with upgrading my rig? (Gaming purposes)

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Josh5890

Josh5890

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Nov 24, 2009
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I can tell my gaming rig is starting to get really old. Playing Black Ops 3 is a bit of a struggle for me. I want to start upgrading slowly but I'm not sure what is my biggest needs are. These are my current specs.

Asus M4A785TD-V
AMD Phenom II x4 965 3.40 GHz
AMD Raedon 6970
650W PSU
8 GB Ram DDR3
Windows 7 64bit
500Gb HDD (Other files)
2 TB HDD (All my games)
DVD Drive

The Ram, OS, PSU, and HDD are fine for the time going forward. I plan on upgrading my disc drive eventually too since the one I have is the oldest component in my rig. I'm looking to spend around $40-$50 on that. The case also needs an upgrade since it is pretty small. compared to standard cases today. I'm not looking to spend more than $60 since I don't need anything flashy.

My big question marks are the top 3. Since my CPU is getting older, I figure it is going to need replacement by nest year in order to play new games going forward. I've always been an ASUS/AMD person for my mobo and CPU thanks to the budget prices. I'm looking to spend around $300 for the combo. Should I at least consider intel or is my budget too small for any decent return.

The GCU I have no idea how much I want to spend. I want something that will last me a good 4 years at least since I go for longevity. I would like to think that I can hold onto my 6970 for a little longer and update the mobo/cpu first. I think I want to spend $300 on my next graphics card.

Thoughts on where I should start? I appreciate any insight.
 
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Well, one thing you can do is upgrade the Motherboard, Graphics Card, and case without upgrading your CPU. Then you can save and get a better AM3+ socket CPU and still be able to use the same RAM and everything. Or you can do it all at once. For CPU i would recommend an 8320 for AMD, which you can swap your phenom II later on for and put the extra towards anything you want, or an i5 4460 on intel's side. For motherboard on intels side the MSI pc mate lineup is a good cheap motherboard group, though with an i5 4460 it comes real close to the edge of your budget. I assume you are in the US so:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130779&cm_re=z97-_-13-130-779-_-Product...
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EM98xXkillerXx

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graphics card then CPU. I would reccomend intel, even if they arent cheap sometimes. You can get an i3 6100 (skylake) and high mhz ram and not bottleneck your graphics card as much.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3G-7bfPG2dE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSU0UWFCa1Y
I used to have a phenom x6 1045t and now i have an i7 4790k. What i have now is the exact opposite of what i recommend however cause of how expensive an i7 is and how little the performance increase is. If you don't want to go skylake get an i5 4460 or so. You can go AMD for the CPU however if you go for a really high end CPU like the 9590, make sure you READ THE REVIEWS OF THE MOTHERBOARD. Trust me, I almost made that mistake. If you do go AMD try for an 8320, you will need to upgrade your motherboard no matter what which is why i recommend going for an intel skylake CPU. Then if you want you can upgrade to an i5, i7, whatever you want so long as you get a z170 motherboard.
OK, cases
This is hard as it is mostly preference, so tell me your case budget.
 
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Josh5890

Josh5890

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Like I said I don't need anything fancy. As long as I can fit a disc drive and a few HDD's along with having good cable management then I'm happy. My big thing is that my current case is a good 10 years old. It is smaller than current cases of today so the space is greatly missed. This is around my budget. I don't want to spend too much more.

http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Carbide-SPEC-02-Gaming-CC-9011051-WW/dp/B00I0MKMG2/ref=sr_1_2?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1447034262&sr=1-2&refinements=p_n_feature_keywords_browse-bin%3A6570425011

Also as far as motherobards are concerned, I would like my next mobo to use DDR3 ram since I could just use the sticks I currently have. Gotta save where I can.
 
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EM98xXkillerXx

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Jun 2, 2015
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Well, one thing you can do is upgrade the Motherboard, Graphics Card, and case without upgrading your CPU. Then you can save and get a better AM3+ socket CPU and still be able to use the same RAM and everything. Or you can do it all at once. For CPU i would recommend an 8320 for AMD, which you can swap your phenom II later on for and put the extra towards anything you want, or an i5 4460 on intel's side. For motherboard on intels side the MSI pc mate lineup is a good cheap motherboard group, though with an i5 4460 it comes real close to the edge of your budget. I assume you are in the US so:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130779&cm_re=z97-_-13-130-779-_-Product
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117302&cm_re=Intel_Core_i5-4460-_-19-117-302-_-Product
And for AMD:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113285
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130679

and for GPU the gtx 970/980 are good cards, the r9 380/390 are also good (all $300 price range), though if you want NVIDIA I would recommend you wait out until their Pascal line of graphics cards is released.

Case wise, the one you have picked is pretty good. Some other choices are:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119233&cm_re=Cooler_Master_HAF_912-_-11-119-233-_-Product
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811352026&cm_re=fractal_design-_-11-352-026-_-Product
 
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Josh5890

Josh5890

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Nov 24, 2009
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Well I'm going to do some more research and think about it, since I'm not upgrading until closer to Christmas. Maybe if I can get a Black Friday deal I will bite early. Or heck maybe a Christmas present. :)

Either way, thank you for the advice.
 
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