Need help upgrading CPU

Hey all. My computer is around 3 years old now and with Star Wars: the old republic, its getting a little slow. Ive got some questions before i go spending alot of money upgrading components. I have a PNY Geforce GTX 560 Ti graphic card(one thing ive upgraded within the past 6 months), AMD athlon 64 dual core 3.00 ghz processor, 4gigs of ram, ASUSTeK Computer INC. M3A32-MVP DELUXE motherboard and 700watt psu. Now when i play SWToR i play it on low settings due to it just running the smoothest. Though i still only get around 25fps average. It will spike from 10-40fps depending on the location and whats going on. I figured with this card i should be getting a good bit more, does the processor or memory have to do wtih framerate too? As well as low fps, the load times are pretty slow too. The game itself and internet(general task loading). I was thinking of upgrading the processor but have no idea what would be a good one to get, as well as motherbaord compatibility. Any suggestions on where to start? Thinking of processors in the $200-$300 range.

to get a quad core and keep your current mobo, your going to have to go with an old phenom or athlon chip, theyve been out of production for years so your going to have to buy second hand...

or you can buy a new mobo, and a phenom II x4 chip... that should give better preformance, and if you go am3+ you can upgrade to newer processors when they come out

motherboard if u want to change because you have a very good mobo but not future proof and what i gave here this would be

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 128514#top $154.99

and

processer

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 03934#top- $169.99

this would give u a little more boost

if u r not thinking to change the mobo u should get an amd phenom ii x6 1100t it will work with ur mobo but dont get the amd phenom ii x4 980be it would not be compatible with ur mobo and u should check the hard disk speed because its low transfer can cause u because when i was building my pc and i didn't checked the hard drive and it was working a little bit slow because of the transfer rate but dont worry if u have an good hard drive.

if u have a microcenter near u can get a phenom x4 970 for $139

I would love a new computer. Though with only a limited amount of money i was only really looking into targeted upgrades, ones that would make the biggest difference.

Yea i was unaware id need new RAM with then other 2. Ive only got about $300 or so right now.

Normally i would be fine with either. However that 300 i have is in best buy gift cards unfortunatly. (thanks Christmas for the limitation)

US

wow thats excellent. More help than i expected, i appreciate it very much. Which would you suggest? I havnt heard of FX processors, they're reliable? And about how big of a performance increase would you say.

Oh another question. What case are you using right now?

Im very average when it comes to computer tech, so i wont be overclocking, or any of that advanced stuff. So the simpler the better, just obvisouly want good performance. The case is an alienware aoura. Originally bought from them few years back,so the case is gigantic and can hold anything.

Great. Now you said that the mobo is the limiting factor in the bundle you suggested. If i were to spend little bit more money on a better one, what would you suggest?(with ram as well) What would be the + and - of each? Also how are these components installation wise.

Oh and if you dont mind, can you suggest an intel setup please? Id like to see the price/performance difference.

to get another mobo youd be over your budget. This mobo is incredibly cheap and it actually isnt so bad. Youd just have to replace it if youre thinking of going with 1600 mhz ram or sli. But other than that it suits your purposes fine.

nah not really, just aslong as you keep yourself grounded youd be fine.

For intel.
I just finished buidling my brothers pc with one of the best processors, the i5 2500k. Since you dont need the graphics card, case, or psu.
So itd be around 500 ish
maybe 400

www.bestbuy.com/site/Intel%26%2317 [...] &cp=1&lp=3

This processor

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Intel+ [...] &cp=1&lp=1

this motherboard

And the same ram linked above

Youre not that much over actually

totally feasiable.

You are correct.

if you want to buy a new board too then go with intel board, intel cpu and 1600mhz ddr3 ram (really cheap)

if you want to be with amd only, then phenom 2 x4 970 is the best to go with, no need to buy new board, amd fx are junk phenom 2 x4 are best in amd,
and you can spend extra money for a ssd.

Also fps does not depend on hard disk, a faster hdd will only decrease loading time of game.

And 4gb of ram is enough, for 8gb ram you will need a 64bit window, so stay with 4gb of ram if you have only 32bit window, and extra ram will not increase fps

Thats real good to know about the RAM. I was gonna get more just for speeds sake. So 4g is all i need then. However, 1333mhz or 1600mhz. What is the significant differences between them? And the intel board that was suggested only supported 1333mhz if i saw correctly, so id need a better mobo, right?

Been getting alot of great info from you all, much kudos. One last thing on my mind is the mobo installation. I was looking into it a little bit last night and it sounds as if you need to do some software/os updating when you reboot with the new board. What all is involved? I can do simple things but i dont want to take a risk of screwing up with something this important.

To be honest, i am not completly sure. I just did a quick search "whats involved when install a new motherboard" and got a few links to forums talking about something to do with OS. The one guy was upgrading from xp to 7 i think so that doesnt concern me. Anyways, so i can just pop it in my case, hook everything up and start the pc and be set?

I have never tried it like that. Best bet to get everything working properly though is to do a clean re-install of your operating system.

There's a chance for some software conflicts between different vendors and chipsets if the operating system doesn't handle the change very well.

Yes, I meant the drivers etc. specific for the new motherboard.

It will also have to uninstall the old drivers. Windows 7 might handle the transition fairly well. But the last time I changed motherboards without upgrading the operating system it was a problem. Mind you that was when Windows ME was still considered new . Anyway, just replacing the motherboard and installing correct drivers is an option. The operating system can be re-installed afterwards if any problems arise.

So i talked with a geek squad tech at best buy real quick and he said the same thing, that its best to do a clean OS install when changing the mobo since im going from an AMD to intel. I bought the computer originally through alienware and the only disks i see are support and a recovery disk. I dont want to reformat my hard drive or do anything of that nature, just switch over to new mobo/processor. Ill need actual windows os disks? Whats te best way to go about this.


Just took a look at microsoft website. Ive got windows vista home premium right now and it says i can simply upgrade to windows 7 for $120, saving all my files already on the hdd. Is that an option after installing the new components? Or do i need the OS when booting the system for the 1st time after a mobo upgrade.

Hmm. His system is OEM though. I haven't tinkered much with OEM systems so I'm not sure how those work. Aren't OEMs using customised windows installations tailored for their hardware or something (+some unnecessary bloatware)? Could that pose some problems for just "plug 'n' play" motherboard replacement compared to retail version of Windows?