Upgrading a Budget gaming build

[wowaddict276]

Hi guys, sorry if i am posting in the wrong section but i didnt know where else to put it.
About a year ago, i built a budget gaming build. Its working great so far but ii have decided i want to upgrade its overall performance. I only want to spend about $450 on this if its possible. I would like to boost up ram too. Also i know that there will probably not be a cpu upgrade only so i will need to get a new MoBo too. Heres my current hardware:

DVD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6827136177
Case- HEC Blitz Black Steel Edition ATX Mid Tower: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811121096
HDD- SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD502HJ 500GB 7200 RPM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6822152181
MOBO- ASRock M3A770DE AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157176
WI-FI Adapter- Linksys WMP600N: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6833124342
Video Card- SAPPHIRE 100315L Radeon HD 6850 1GB: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102908
Power Supply- Antec EarthWatts EA-500D Green 500W: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371035
Ram- Mushkin Enhanced Essentials 4GB: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168201467488
Processor- AMD Athlon II X3 450 Rana 3.2GHz: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103886
OS- Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit 1-Pack for System Builders - OEM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6832116754


thanks in advance for all your help!

 

[rmiiirusty]

First of all what is it that you want out of your upgrade, are you looking for faster boot times , faster processing , better graphics more versatile connectivity,overclocking ... Do you want to stick with amd or upgrade to intel? either way , as you probably already know ,you will probably have to reload your windows and maybe make a call to microsoft for varification as your new mobo will be recognised as a different system.
Windows doesn't seem to like the whole system changed out from under it LOL.
It looks like you already have some good parts like the hard drive ,case and power supply.

Personally I would get an i5 2500k processor, and a z68 1155 socket mobo, and ram, and ssd
My system has
Asus maximus iv gene-z microatx $169.00 newegg or amazon
intel i5-2500k quad c processor $214.00 newegg or Amazon
crucial ballistics sport 1600 ddr3 2x4g(8g) $45.00 newegg or amazon
total $428.00

If you live close to a micro center they sell this processor for $179.00 and have it on sale right now for $149.00 but it is in store pick up only.

I would stick with the gpu as it seems sufficient, If you really wanted to you could pick up another one and go crossfire This board supports it.
Also if you really want to boost your boot and game launch speeds this board has smart drive technology allowing you to use a small ssd like 30-60 gigs to load your O.S. on and then will use the rest of the drive as a cache while still allowing you to use your hdd as your master. My computer starts from a cold boot to win7 logon in around 18 seconds and once you play a game a time or two it seems to load in no time because of the cache. go to new egg and look up this board and you will see that it is loaded with features.

Quote: If you don't have time to do it right the first time , How will you ever find time to go back and fix it?!?!

 

[etk]

I would just replace the cpu with a 955 and add another 6850 in crossfire and be done with it. The crossfire won't scale the best with one of the cards in 4X, but it's not as big as a deal as people make it out to be.

 

[acerace]

Yeah, I agree with etk. Upgrade your CPU to 955 and upgrade the GPU to 6950 if you don't want to crossfire.

 

[wowaddict276]

i have decided to go with what rmiiirusty said because i am more interested in boosting the processing speed and memory than the graphics. Upgrading to intel looks good too. I also might throw in some silenced fans because my machine is very loud right now. Thanks again for all the help!