AMD system upgrade questions

[SageMoonblade]

I am new to the forum and looking for some advice/help on upgrading my current system. I am by no means an expert on building but I know enough to be dangerous and get something running. This will be my sixth build in the last 12 years. What I currently have is out of date for the games I am running and some of the rendering software I am using. I have been monitering my CPU cores, memory and GPU usages while gaming and seeing my frame rates tank to about 10 FPS at times. The games are mostly single core users so my core number four is nearly maxed out constantly. I have also noted that I am using about 5 to 6 gb of  my 8 gb ram nearly constantly with it sometimes as high as 7gb. The GPU is often running between 50 and 60% capacity. So does it all need to be upgraded or are we bottlenecking somewhere? Is now even a good time to upgrade since I have been seeing rumors of new chipsets and CPUs coming from AMD late this year or early next year as well as direct X 12? I would like to stick with AMD if they can deliver the power I need. My budget is fairly flexible but spending $1000.00 on a cpu or gpu seems unreal to me. I would like to keep as much of my exisint hardware as possible. I know my Motherboard is lacking the ability to put out much needed power to the CPU socket so I am limited if I keep the board to 140w [thermal limit] or less. Replacing is far more appealing to overclocking and any parts I pull will become the basis of a new light duty home media server. I already have USB keyboard and mouse as well as a good moniter. If this was your issue what would you do to fix it and not blow crazy amounts of money?

 

Current system:

CPU:                AMD Phenom II X4 965 [guad core running 3.4 ghz]

Motherboard:   Biostar TA990FXE

Ram:                Gskill Sniper {DDR3 1866 mhz 2x4 gb]

GPU;                HD 5850 1 gb single card

OS;                  Windows 7 ultimate 64 bit

PSU;                Corsair 850 gold

Primary HDD;  Mushkin SSD [120 gb]

Other HDD;     WD 1 TB SATA

                       WD 1.5 TB SATA

[rmac52]

Your cpu isn't terrible. Unfortunately newer amd CPUs aren't greatly better at single threaded workloads. They are better but not as much as you would like for the price. I would get a good 990fx motherboard. Then get a better GPU at the end of the year. After nvidia launches the 900 series.

[tslammer99]

Hello Friend,

 

First question before spending time on this, you are saying you would like to use some of your current parts right? Well Things I can see are the following; PSU, All HDDs you currently have, and Ram. Here is a link of something similar I currently have, let me know what you think.

 

Also what kind of Case do you have?

 

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/6VJqNG

[SageMoonblade]

The case is an older gaming case that has been modified for better cooling. I have never had a cooling issue or space issue but I have been thinking about going from the mid to a full tower when I upgrade.

[tslammer99]

It's really your choice if you want to use a stock CPU cooler or an AIO water cooler. That build is almost future proof, but I think you don't have any intentions of OC right?

[SageMoonblade]

I would rather not oc if I could avoid it as I am not sure how long my current CPU or GPU would last under that strain though I do run an aftermarket cooler on my CPU, a cooler master part but I don't remember the part number right off nut it keeps the CPU running at only 40c under max load. I have really been watching the specs on this thing and reading what you guys have said and I am leaning toward doubling the ram and moving to a 4 gb GPU as well as a CPU upgrade so anyone have votes on what AMD GPU and CPU I should go with?