What upgrade shall I do?

Gravy_Man · Aug 24, 2017

hello there lads what shall I change on my PC? below is my Rig(PC Build)
OS: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
CPU: AMD FX-8320 @ 3.5GHz (Cooler : CoolerMaster Hyper 212 EVO)
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8.00GB(2x4) Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 1600MHz
Motherboard: Gigabyte Technology 970A-UD3P
GPU: MSI GTX 960 4GB
Monitor: LG 22MP47D-P 21.5'' IPS LED FULL HD
SSD: 250GB Samsung SSD 850 EVO
HDD: 1TB Western Digital WD10EZEX-00BN5A0 & 500GB Seagate ST350041
PSU: XFX Pro 550Watt Core Edition

What I didn't mention was my case Zalman Z3 and I think to buy a new and of course a better one
and I have in my mind Phanteks Eclipse P400 Tempered Glass this specific one because it has space and I want to do some decent good looking cable management and I want your opinions. What I also want is to tell me if its gonna fit CPU Cooler (CoolerMaster Hyper 212 EVO)
I want to thank you for your time!
If u have anything better please do tell I'm open minded, also keep in mind that I want to a new game that is coming out this Octomber and its Destiny 2(Don't hate jk), that's all

ARICH5 · Aug 24, 2017

there has been many [what can i upgrade] questions latley regarding the amd fx chip. it is poor. a fast 3rd gen i7 and a gtx 960 will be faster.
gtx 970's are bottlenecking in dx12 games.

Rdslw · Aug 24, 2017

Quite solid setup you have there.
I see 3 things that MAY be good for you:
CPU, RAM, HDD.
Depending on your $ I would go with 3 tiers:
1.LOW: I would add ram maybe, 12 or 16 gigs never hurt, with 4c/8t I think multitasking is what you want, and this means RAM

2.Med: Ryzen MBO, R1600 and 8 GB ram. -- much faster 6/12 and ddr4.
3.High Ryzen MBO, R1700 and 16 G ram.

----------
If you need storage I would go with 2 TB hitachi and push those 2 into external HDD's (or just 500 Gb as external and 2+1 TB storage)

Shektron · Aug 24, 2017

Depending on your budget, you should either upgrade the CPU+Mobo+RAM, or the CPU+Mobo+RAM+GPU. Get a Ryzen 5 1600, B350 motherboard, 16 GB of DDR4 RAM at 2666 MHz, and a GTX 1060 6 GB if upgrading the GPU. That should get you 60 FPS at high/ultra settings at 1080p in every current game. Won't need to upgrade the CPU for quite a while, and you can upgrade the GPU when it's performance feels inadequate.

The GTX 960 will still play at 1080p, but you'll have to turn down the settings in most games still, so a GPU upgrade for 1080p 60 FPS at high/ultra is also required. If you are content with the current FPS with the 960, then you can still keep it, until its performance becomes unsatisfactory to you.

The main focus is to get a current gen CPU, with better performance and longevity. The FX series is no longer adequate for running games.

ARICH5 · Aug 24, 2017

and a larger 60mhz monitor may be in your future.

spdragoo · Aug 24, 2017

Gravy_Man :

It depends on what games you're playing right now, what games you plan to add to your library in the near future, & what your monitor setup is (# of monitors, resolution, refresh rate, etc.).

Your system is nearly identical to mine (see signature), but my primary monitor is limited to 1600x900/60Hz resolutions (I think some of the lower resolutions might go to 75Hz, but they might not use the 16:9 aspect ratio), & my secondary "monitor" is actually an older LCD TV (limited to 1366x768 resolution), so I use it to extend my normal desktop but don't use it for gaming (very handy for having AMD Overdrive & MSI Afterburner up to monitor CPU/GPU temperatures while gaming). I have a mix of older & fairly new games, but it has no trouble delivering 50-60FPS on pretty high quality levels in DiRT 4, Fallout 4, Overwatch, & BF4 (the newest games I play), & it laughs at the older games like Halo:CE (by far the game I play the most), Starcraft II, & StarCraft/Brood War (just bought the Remastered Edition last week).

As a comparison, our systems have the same CPU, same amount of RAM (although yours runs slightly faster), similar storage, but my GPU is slightly better (1 tier up, http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gpu-hierarchy,4388.html).

So, whether or not you should upgrade, & what should be upgraded, will depend a lot on your needs:

■ If you're having some problems with game performance, it would be helpful to know a) which games you're having trouble with, & b) identifying if there're any thermal throttling issues. If you're just having some issues with operating temps, I would recommend making sure you have all of your case fans spots filled, & consider maybe replacing the thermal paste and/or cooler for your CPU. That would be the cheapest fix, running you maybe $50-100 USD tops.
■ If your temperatures are fine, then again depending on your games you may just need a GPU upgrade. The GTX 1060 6GB model would be a nice, solid upgrade -- currently it's recommended for Full HD gaming (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-gpus,4380.html), & it's a 2-tier upgrade from your 960. If they were in stock, you could also consider the RX 480/580, as they literally trade blows with the GTX 1060 (depending on the game & DirectX 12/Vulkan support). Yes, I know that the FX series CPUs aren't the greatest...but for most games out there, they're able to at least provide "acceptable" performance (i.e. 60+ FPS with the right GPU at 1080p). Heck, in Overwatch with the right GPU they can easily clear 100+ FPS on Ultra...something your current monitor can't even display.
■ If you plan to replace your monitor with a newer model, either for a higher resolution (1440p) or higher refresh rate (120-144Hz or higher), then you're also looking at a much more significant GPU upgrade. At the very least, you'll want a GTX 1070 (current recommended GPU), although the non-TI 1080 models are apparently running for the same price & are much more powerful. With that kind of upgrade, though, you're probably looking for a CPU & motherboard upgrade as well. Given how the performance & prices are looking right now, a nice Ryzen 5 build will be cheaper & roughly as powerful as any Skylake/Kaby Lake Core i5 build (& may even give nearly the performance of a Core i7 build in some games). You'll need new DDR4 RAM for a new Intel or AMD build, however; make sure you get at least 16GB, & if it's a Ryzen build make sure it's at least DDR4-3000 RAM (Ryzen systems seem to benefit more from the faster RAM).

Gravy_Man · Aug 25, 2017

spdragoo :

Gravy_Man :

It depends on what games you're playing right now, what games you plan to add to your library in the near future, & what your monitor setup is (# of monitors, resolution, refresh rate, etc.).

Your system is nearly identical to mine (see signature), but my primary monitor is limited to 1600x900/60Hz resolutions (I think some of the lower resolutions might go to 75Hz, but they might not use the 16:9 aspect ratio), & my secondary "monitor" is actually an older LCD TV (limited to 1366x768 resolution), so I use it to extend my normal desktop but don't use it for gaming (very handy for having AMD Overdrive & MSI Afterburner up to monitor CPU/GPU temperatures while gaming). I have a mix of older & fairly new games, but it has no trouble delivering 50-60FPS on pretty high quality levels in DiRT 4, Fallout 4, Overwatch, & BF4 (the newest games I play), & it laughs at the older games like Halo:CE (by far the game I play the most), Starcraft II, & StarCraft/Brood War (just bought the Remastered Edition last week).

As a comparison, our systems have the same CPU, same amount of RAM (although yours runs slightly faster), similar storage, but my GPU is slightly better (1 tier up, http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gpu-hierarchy,4388.html).

So, whether or not you should upgrade, & what should be upgraded, will depend a lot on your needs:

■ If you're having some problems with game performance, it would be helpful to know a) which games you're having trouble with, & b) identifying if there're any thermal throttling issues. If you're just having some issues with operating temps, I would recommend making sure you have all of your case fans spots filled, & consider maybe replacing the thermal paste and/or cooler for your CPU. That would be the cheapest fix, running you maybe $50-100 USD tops.
■ If your temperatures are fine, then again depending on your games you may just need a GPU upgrade. The GTX 1060 6GB model would be a nice, solid upgrade -- currently it's recommended for Full HD gaming (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-gpus,4380.html), & it's a 2-tier upgrade from your 960. If they were in stock, you could also consider the RX 480/580, as they literally trade blows with the GTX 1060 (depending on the game & DirectX 12/Vulkan support). Yes, I know that the FX series CPUs aren't the greatest...but for most games out there, they're able to at least provide "acceptable" performance (i.e. 60+ FPS with the right GPU at 1080p). Heck, in Overwatch with the right GPU they can easily clear 100+ FPS on Ultra...something your current monitor can't even display.
■ If you plan to replace your monitor with a newer model, either for a higher resolution (1440p) or higher refresh rate (120-144Hz or higher), then you're also looking at a much more significant GPU upgrade. At the very least, you'll want a GTX 1070 (current recommended GPU), although the non-TI 1080 models are apparently running for the same price & are much more powerful. With that kind of upgrade, though, you're probably looking for a CPU & motherboard upgrade as well. Given how the performance & prices are looking right now, a nice Ryzen 5 build will be cheaper & roughly as powerful as any Skylake/Kaby Lake Core i5 build (& may even give nearly the performance of a Core i7 build in some games). You'll need new DDR4 RAM for a new Intel or AMD build, however; make sure you get at least 16GB, & if it's a Ryzen build make sure it's at least DDR4-3000 RAM (Ryzen systems seem to benefit more from the faster RAM).

Hey there mate all the things you said were helpfull but the upgrade I was focused to make it was my case because I want some decent cable management and I don't want the cables being 'pushed' to be connected to SSD and HDD I also want to be plainty of space for cables so it wont disconnect from SSD and I have to re-install windows 10(SSD is were my Windows and my system is booting) so that is the mention reason for upgrading to a case I want to have some space.
I'm also focused on that specific case (Phanteks Eclipse P400 Tempered Glass) because a friend of mine is having it and he is feeling so great with his choise and he suggested it to buy for me. What he didn't told me was if my Mobo and CPU-Cooler is fiting nice (CoolerMaster Hyper 212 EVO) so if u can help me out with that I would so appreciate it.
I think Cable management is very important, all tho if u have some other case to suggest me sure go ahead but what can u tell me for that one?
Thanks for you time!

Shektron · Aug 25, 2017

The Phanteks P400 is very good for easy cable management. Your motherboard will fit inside the case perfectly fine, and the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo will also fit just fine. The case supports coolers upto 160 mm, and the Hyper 212 Evo is a 159 mm cooler. Might look a little bit sketchy, but it'll fit just fine. You can check out the photos of the linked build below, he has used the same case and cooler:

https://pcpartpicker.com/b/x9GG3C

Gravy_Man · Aug 26, 2017

Shektron :

Thanks a lot man that really helped a lot so how much u think that would cost? do u have any link?

Shektron · Aug 27, 2017

Gravy_Man :

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_5_12?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=phanteks+eclipse+p400s+tempered+glass&sprefix=eclipse+p400%2Caps%2C335&crid=3566WNP1YLODT

All of these are variants of the same case, so get whatever you feel like getting.

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What upgrade shall I do?

Gravy_Man

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spdragoo

ARICH5

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Rdslw

Honorable

Shektron

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ARICH5

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spdragoo

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Gravy_Man

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Shektron

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Gravy_Man

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Shektron

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