Need Help Figuring Things Out

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swilds

swilds

Commendable
Jul 5, 2016
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I am on a low budget because of my camera gear I got a few months ago and a wonderful wife looking over my shopping shoulder.

I have an old Compaq SR5237CL with:
ASUS M2N68-LA (IVY8) motherboard.
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ at 2511 MHz (board won't better CPU)
4 GB RAM (board won't go higher)
250GB HHD
1TB HHD
No video card
250W PSU
Windows 10 Pro

What I am thinking about is replacing the MB, CPU, RAM, and PSU. I would like to be able to get a new case in the future along with a $200 range video card at some time. I would like a CPU that can be upgraded at some time too. I am into Photoshop right now but am an old PS3 gamer at heart. (62 years old). I will get back into the gaming when I retire in two years. By the way, I was #18 in the world in Watchdogs last year.

The parts I am leaning towards are:
Pentium G3258 ( I want to try some overclocking)
Gigabyte GA-Z97MX-Gaming 5
G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-2133
Corsair CXM 450W 80+ Bronze

The MB allows for more RAM in the future, higher speed RAM, and i3, i5 or i7 upgrades. The RAM is the same price as 1600 MHz.

Is this the best route in my situation or is there a better AMD setup that would accomplish the same thing?

The parts are in the $265 range right now on PCPartPicker.

Thanks
 
Solution
Barty1884
Depends on your uses.

I didn't get a build predominantly for photoshop from your original post, which will take advantage of more cores & increased RAM.
An FX6300 + 16GB would actually be a good call for your needs.

You're likely currently seeing lags from the CPU itself (being a dual core itself) and the pentium would give minor improvements (being newer & faster)

The i3 is a Dual Core, but has hyper-threading - essentially 4 'logical' cores.

For gaming a newer i3 will outperform an FX..... for photoshop, the FX is one of the few situations in 2016 where it makes some sense.
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Barty1884

Barty1884

Retired Moderator
Apr 16, 2015
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It really depends how bad you want to try overclocking...

The Pentium really limits what you can play - some newer titles won't even run on a dual core.

I'd suggest this being a better use of ~$265

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor ($110.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H110M-HDS Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($51.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($34.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Rosewill 550W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($64.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $262.95
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-08-22 23:43 EDT-0400

The i3 is a quality CPU. The PSU is quality & gives enough headroom to drop in almost any GPU and go from there.

16GB is unnecessary, especially on a budget. Of course, no overclocking though....

If you can push the budget to nearer $300 you can have an AMD option that
*will allow overclocking (although you'd need a cooler)
*includes a GPU for some light(ish) gaming
*includes a decent enough PSU - it's far from the best, but it'll run an 880K + 750TI

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 880K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($83.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock A88M-G/3.1 Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard ($67.88 @ OutletPC)
Memory: Silicon Power 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($32.94 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Video Card ($94.89 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: EVGA 430W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply ($20.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $300.68
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-08-22 23:45 EDT-0400
 
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swilds

swilds

Commendable
Jul 5, 2016
37
0
1,540
Thanks for the response Barty. The reason I was going with 16 GB RAM was because everything I have seen says that for Photoshop 16GB is the sweet spot. Mine is running on only 4 Gb but it lags and takes forever to do some operations. Some things won't process at all.

If I got the Core i3-6100, wouldn't I still be in the same boat as the G3258 and still have a dual core processor?

For $20 more would it be wise to go with the FX6300?
 
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Barty1884

Barty1884

Retired Moderator
Apr 16, 2015
22,250
1,350
108,740
Depends on your uses.

I didn't get a build predominantly for photoshop from your original post, which will take advantage of more cores & increased RAM.
An FX6300 + 16GB would actually be a good call for your needs.

You're likely currently seeing lags from the CPU itself (being a dual core itself) and the pentium would give minor improvements (being newer & faster)

The i3 is a Dual Core, but has hyper-threading - essentially 4 'logical' cores.

For gaming a newer i3 will outperform an FX..... for photoshop, the FX is one of the few situations in 2016 where it makes some sense.
 
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