Thoughts and concerns for new build

[Skynet928]

Hey all, I want to upgrade my pc but not sure what to get or if this would be an upgrade at all.

My current specs
Intel Q9550
4 GIG DDR2 Memory I think 800 mhz
4 Hard Drives, all western digital, 7200 RPM HDD 1 tera
Gigabyte mobo
BFG Nvidia GTX 260 Maxcore 55 OC'd edition
750W Ultra X-4 PSU

I want to reuse all the parts except for the ones I'm replacing. I'm upgrading a little at a time. Here are the list of parts I wanted to use to replace them. What i want is for them all to be an upgrade from what I already have.

GIGABYTE GA-970A-D3 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

EVGA 01G-P3-1464-KR GeForce GTX 560 SE (Fermi) 1GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

AMD FX-4100 Zambezi 3.6GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) Socket AM3+ 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor FD4100WMGUSBX

PNY Optima 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model MD8192KD3-1333

I feel as if they may or may not be an upgrade from my current specs. May I have the public opinion and suggestions to parts you think would help me? I wanted to keep the cost low which is why I chose these parts.

 

[robthatguyx]

id go with 1600mhz ram other than that i see no problems. not that the ram is an issue tho

 

[Skynet928]

The reason I ask is cause I was looking at benchmarks that they did and sometimes my parts outperformed this stuff but I'm not sure if they were fair or whatnot. Like one of the benchmarks told me that my old cpu is better than my new one. Is this true?

 

[maui67]

I am a big AMD fan, but I would concur that the parts you selected would not be a major upgrade, if any. I couldn't really find anything comparing the FX-4100 and Q9550, but I did find this that compares the FX-8150 to the Q9550:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/50?vs=434

If you want to upgrade and stick with AMD then I would suggest an FX 8120/8150. Otherwise, go with an Intel i5 build.

What will you be using the computer for and do you have a set budget?

 

[Outlander_04]

what do you use your computer for?

If its just gaming then just upgrade the graphics card . It deends on the resolution of your monitor , but if you dont upgrade everything then you could afford a much better graphics card . Possibly a Radeon 7950

 

[Skynet928]

Well, heres the thing. My mobo is not that great. It has its issues. It has issues booting up with my 260 but not with any other card. I tried the 260 in other comps and they didn't have an issue with it. So that kinda explains why I want to change mobos if that helps. that and its a dual bios, one is dead and two of my four ram slots are dead.

I mainly want to use this computer for gaming purposes and my budget is not that hot. The lower the better but I am not gonna say no to more expensive parts. Don't want to spend this money for a downgrade you know.

 

[Outlander_04]

changing the graphics card solves that issue

and you dont ned more RAM for gaming

 

[Skynet928]

changing the graphics card solves that issue

and you dont ned more RAM for gaming

Yeah but the issue that I have is this. Is my psu barely able to handle it? Is my GPU not playing well?

The only thing I can say is this. I don't like to reboot cause sometimes the system will hang. No matter the version of windows, and yes, all legit. Example. Loads everytime. After windows symbol, goes to black screen, even on clean install, and hangs. May boot into windows then no problems even under heaviest load, or may just stick there forever, in that case, just restart and flip the coin again. It will boot eventually, it just takes a while. I also used an ATI and an Nvidia 9600gt and no issues, it just the 260 that gives me crap

 

[Outlander_04]

I stopped buying nVidia graphics cards about 5 years ago . I have never been able to sell one second hand . They all died in service . Since then I have bought 3 Radeons and sold two in working condition when I upgraded .
And it could be that the video card BIOS is what causes your computer to hang

Your psu should be easily good enough . 750 watts is overkill

 

[Skynet928]

The way I see it, that could be the problem. My idiot ex roomate burned it out by overclocking it when I told him not to. I took the card and put it in the oven with the top off cause I read it on a forum. Let it bake and sure enough it started working. As I type I am using said card that he burned out. I notice that it takes the computer about 2-3 seconds to display a splash screen when I boot with any other card but it takes about 10 - 15 seconds with my gtx 260 before it shows anything

 

[Skynet928]

I stopped buying nVidia graphics cards about 5 years ago . I have never been able to sell one second hand . They all died in service . Since then I have bought 3 Radeons and sold two in working condition when I upgraded .
And it could be that the video card BIOS is what causes your computer to hang

Your psu should be easily good enough . 750 watts is overkill

Also, along with my previous statements, I know I said I tested it on other computers but at the same time they might of just gotten lucky cause I did have a point in time where I was booting up just fine to the point that I thought the problem was solved and then it started doing the same thing again with the hanging. I am not gonna lie thou, I have been working with computer systems for years but I didn't know that the gpu had a bios in it.

 

[robthatguyx]

i did not know that aswell

 

[Skynet928]

i did not know that aswell

Did not know what?

 

[robthatguyx]

that gpus themselfs have a bios

 

[Skynet928]

As far as I'm concerned, I looked into it and it gave me back a few results saying that they do have bios on them but they are tuned to the card itself, You don't mess with it unless you REALLY REALLY know what you're doing.