Upgrading existing PC, need motherboard/CPU recommendations

[Stark]

TL;DR at the bottom if you're short on time.

 

Budget & Location: UK, so GBP (£). Budget somewhere around £200-£300. At a push, maybe up to £400. Have to have an exceptionally good reason to go much above that.

 

Aim: Gaming, work, and occasionally video capture and editing (although probably not often enough to consider this a primary aim). As for the 'type' of gaming... I'll be getting GTA V when it comes out and have already backed Star Citizen, and I'm planning on getting AC Unity and Far Cry 4 in the not too distant future, so make of that what you will. I'm not super stressed about having a machine that can run everything flawlessly on ultra extreme settings, but a stable 60fps on high-ish settings is what I'm hoping for at the least.

 

Monitor: One, 1600x900 @ 60hz. No plans to upgrade or add additional monitors.

 

Peripherals: N/A

 

Why?: I feel like my current setup's starting to get a little old to handle newer games, and will almost certainly struggle with the games I mentioned above.

 

So, here's my current setup.

 

Motherboard: Gigabyte 78LMT-S2P revision 5.0

Power supply: Corsair GS500 (500w)

Graphics: Asus Radeon HD 6850 1GB

Processor: AMD FX-4100

RAM: 2x4GB, generic brand

 

I had initially planned to only upgrade my GPU and CPU to an R9 280x and FX-8350 or FX-6350.

 

However, I realised that these require 125w, and my current motherboard supports a max of 95w. I also read that as far as phase counts go, 8+2 is recommended, whereas mine is 3+1.

 

All this led to the conclusion that I'll need to upgrade my motherboard, which then raises the question of Intel vs AMD, and suddenly it feels like I'm back to the drawing board.

 

Given my budget, I feel like I'd be better off getting another AMD motherboard, since Intel CPUs (while arguably performing better) tend to cost a lot more.

 

And I do not plan to overclock.

 

TL;DR: Intend to upgrade my existing system and use it mainly for playing current and future games on high-ish settings. Probably need to upgrade motherboard in order to install a decent GPU and CPU. Probably staying with AMD so that the CPU can remain within budget. Need recommendations within budget. Not overclocking.

 

~

 

EDIT: Now considering an R9 280, FX-8350 and Sabertooth 990FX. Is a Corsair GS500 enough to power this setup?

[Rebelattack]

First of all don't buy Unity at all till they fix the performance issues and maybe the same for FC4 although I enjoy that game the stuttering is pretty bad on it too. 

 

PCPartpicker is down and as I am one hour later then England and I gotta stand up in 6 hours I am not gonna wait. If intel 4460 with a decent Mobo don't know how much it leaves open for a GPU and otherwise FX8300/6300 are possible options although others might have other recommendations, with 500 W though I would try to go a GPU from nvidia to not kill your PSU as with high end AMD cards it might get really close especially in combo with a AMD CPU.

 

Edit: So these are a good CPU, MoBo combo: 

PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/KxfVD3

Price breakdown by merchant: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/KxfVD3/by_merchant/

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£130.94 @ Aria PC) 

Motherboard: ASRock H97 PRO4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  (£65.40 @ Scan.co.uk) 

Total: £196.34

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-11-24 23:04 GMT+0000

 

You could always go lower with a I3 dual core but most games are stopping to support dual cores so that is gonna be a problem. This leaves 100 Pounds for a GPU but that is really not enough if you are able to push it to 200 pounds you can look at R9 280(X) or a 760. I run a 760 it is good for most games but is gonna fall behind in the comming years.

[Stark]

 

First of all don't buy Unity at all till they fix the performance issues and maybe the same for FC4 although I enjoy that game the stuttering is pretty bad on it too. 

 

PCPartpicker is down and as I am one hour later then England and I gotta stand up in 6 hours I am not gonna wait. If intel 4460 with a decent Mobo don't know how much it leaves open for a GPU and otherwise FX8300/6300 are possible options although others might have other recommendations, with 500 W though I would try to go a GPU from nvidia to not kill your PSU as with high end AMD cards it might get really close especially in combo with a AMD CPU.

 

Edit: So these are a good CPU, MoBo combo: 

PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/KxfVD3

Price breakdown by merchant: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/KxfVD3/by_merchant/

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£130.94 @ Aria PC) 

Motherboard: ASRock H97 PRO4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  (£65.40 @ Scan.co.uk) 

Total: £196.34

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-11-24 23:04 GMT+0000

 

You could always go lower with a I3 dual core but most games are stopping to support dual cores so that is gonna be a problem. This leaves 100 Pounds for a GPU but that is really not enough if you are able to push it to 200 pounds you can look at R9 280(X) or a 760. I run a 760 it is good for most games but is gonna fall behind in the comming years.

 

Thanks for your suggestions, I'm a bit clueless as far as Intel hardware goes.

 

How would you say the i5-4460 compares to the FX-8350? I know clock speed isn't everything, but I feel it's somewhat more significant when I won't be overclocking. The 8350 has a stock of 4.0GHz as opposed to the 4460's 3.2GHz. Also the 8350 apparently has a larger L2 cache as well (though admittedly I'm not sure how much that will affect things). And both are a very similar price.

 

On the AMD side of things I've been thinking FX-8350, R9 280 (not 280x) and an Asus Sabertooth 990FX, which just falls inside of the top end of my budget. Any thoughts on that setup? And would the Corsair GS500 that I currently have be enough to support that?

[Rebelattack]

Thanks for your suggestions, I'm a bit clueless as far as Intel hardware goes.

How would you say the i5-4460 compares to the FX-8350? I know clock speed isn't everything, but I feel it's somewhat more significant when I won't be overclocking. The 8350 has a stock of 4.0GHz as opposed to the 4460's 3.2GHz. Also the 8350 apparently has a larger L2 cache as well (though admittedly I'm not sure how much that will affect things). And both are a very similar price.

On the AMD side of things I've been thinking FX-8350, R9 280 (not 280x) and an Asus Sabertooth 990FX, which just falls inside of the top end of my budget. Any thoughts on that setup? And would the Corsair GS500 that I currently have be enough to support that?

Yeah well you can't really overclock the 4460 anyway and maybe on this budget. With a 990 bord you can still overclock it and the 8350 is fine too yeah and same for AMD GPU on a lower budget it might just be better to go AMD as intel and nVidia are just higher priced. I cant tell you about if it fits just measure the case and look at the size of the new components.

[Stark]

Yeah well you can't really overclock the 4460 anyway and maybe on this budget. With a 990 bord you can still overclock it and the 8350 is fine too yeah and same for AMD GPU on a lower budget it might just be better to go AMD as intel and nVidia are just higher priced. I cant tell you about if it fits just measure the case and look at the size of the new components.

I'm not concerned about the physical size of the hardware, I mean will 500 watts be enough to safely power the setup I outlined?

No sense in getting a new PSU if I don't need to do, but at the same time I want to make sure I've got enough wattage.

[Rebelattack]

I'm not concerned about the physical size of the hardware, I mean will 500 watts be enough to safely power the setup I outlined?

No sense in getting a new PSU if I don't need to do, but at the same time I want to make sure I've got enough wattage.

Oh lol my bad i thought it was the name of the case , well possibly, but the 8350 can pull 160 W when working so that is a lot and with the GPU you might be pushing it. I picked a random 280 and the fx 8350 and it then tells you estimated wattage (395W in your case) but this is what is on the label so the CPU might pull more and in another benchmark it did ~160W under load. GPU probably has the max of 270 W but if it pulls more it is gonna be really close. Recommended is 550.

This is as far as my knowledge goes I am not a electrical engineer and cant precisely tell you if you will manage. You have 4 options:

1) go for what you have found and buy a cheap, but goog quality 600-650 W PSU.

2) get a intel CPU instead to reduce wattage

3) look at a GTX750ti to reduce wattage. (Chose a random 750ti and estimated went down too 255 W)

4) find out online with a calculator if it is possible and play a bit on risk D: .

[Stark]

Oh lol my bad i thought it was the name of the case , well possibly, but the 8350 can pull 160 W when working so that is a lot and with the GPU you might be pushing it. I picked a random 280 and the fx 8350 and it then tells you estimated wattage (395W in your case) but this is what is on the label so the CPU might pull more and in another benchmark it did ~160W under load. GPU probably has the max of 270 W but if it pulls more it is gonna be really close. Recommended is 550.

This is as far as my knowledge goes I am not a electrical engineer and cant precisely tell you if you will manage. You have 4 options:

1) go for what you have found and buy a cheap, but goog quality 600-650 W PSU.

2) get a intel CPU instead to reduce wattage

3) look at a GTX750ti to reduce wattage. (Chose a random 750ti and estimated went down too 255 W)

4) find out online with a calculator if it is possible and play a bit on risk D: .

I tried that eXtreme PSU calculator and got somewhere around 440-460w minimum and something like 500-515w recommended. Considering I'm not overclocking and considering I'm not planning on pushing the hardware too hard I think I'll stick with the PSU I have and consider upgrading it down the line if I run into problems. Since it's a good brand then if it does ever overload or short out then it shouldn't take anything else down with it.

[Rebelattack]

I tried that eXtreme PSU calculator and got somewhere around 440-460w minimum and something like 500-515w recommended. Considering I'm not overclocking and considering I'm not planning on pushing the hardware too hard I think I'll stick with the PSU I have and consider upgrading it down the line if I run into problems. Since it's a good brand then if it does ever overload or short out then it shouldn't take anything else down with it.

 

If it is a good brand this doesn't mean it won't take out more then alone the PSU when you go over the voltage. A good brand PSU doesn't die under it and have certain certificates that they where tested on this and that they have a certain rating to them. Again it is your choice and there is a big chance you will have no problems but me personally wouldn't risk a lot of expensive hardware on one component.