upgrade advice

[markshields]

i currently have an AMD 8350 with a hyper 212 evo on a GIGABYTE GA-970A-UD3P but i want to upgrade, i will have around £350 or $440ish for you american fellows.

i am looking for a cpu, motherboard and probably ram as i currently use DDR3. maybe an SSD as a boot drive if i have enough left over, so what would you guys recomend?

it would mostly be used for gaming but some music production and general college work (essays and maybe spreadsheets) 

i could also do with some info on formatting my current HHD as i have very little knowledge of what this does (will i lose all my files and have to reinstall all my games ect.)

thank you kind beings for your time 

[themctipers]

get ssd

then after that, ditch that aging system with no upgrade path to a shiny ryzen 5

[Guest]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£245.80 @ Alza) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H81M-S2H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  (£39.84 @ Aria PC) 
Storage: SK hynix SL308 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£50.96 @ Ebuyer) 
Total: £336.60
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-04-22 17:09 BST+0100

[Tiwaz]

2 minutes ago, markshields said:

i currently have an AMD 8350 with a hyper 212 evo but i want to upgrade on a GIGABYTE GA-970A-UD3P, i will have around £350 or $440ish for you american fellows.

i am looking for a cpu, motherboard and probably ram as i currently use DDR3. maybe an SSD as a boot drive if i have enough left over, so what would you guys recomend?

it would mostly be used for gaming but some music production and general college work (essays and maybe spreadsheets) 

i could also do with some info on formatting my current HHD as i have very little knowledge of what this does (will i lose all my files and have to reinstall all my games ect.)

thank you kind beings for your time 

you could reuse the hyper 212 evo if you have the intel mounts and use it with better thermal paste (Arctix mx4 e.g.) on a intel plattform. If SSD is important then I would probably go for something like an i5 6600k with one of the cheaper z170/z270(if that works) motherboards and there should be money left for a 250GB SSD. You can get a better cooler down the road, but the i5 is so efficient i guarantee u can get instantly +200 mhz at least with that cooler

[EPPHO]

I would get some B350 mobo, Ryzen 5 1400 and 8GB of DDR4 RAM.

[tom_w141]

@markshields

 

This will out perform the Xeon, you get 6c/12t. A current platform that is guaranteed for minimum of 4 years and you get to step up to DDR4 RAM. The only downside is ofc you have to buy some DDR4 RAM...

 

Even still <£500 for a brand new platform, CPU, fast compatible RAM and an SSD (albeit a small one) is not a bad deal at all.  

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor  (£209.99 @ Amazon UK) 
Motherboard: ASRock Fatal1ty AB350 Gaming K4 ATX AM4 Motherboard  (£103.04 @ More Computers) 
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  (£116.35 @ Amazon UK) 
Storage: SK hynix SL308 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£50.96 @ Ebuyer) 
Total: £480.34
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-04-22 17:16 BST+0100

 

 

Closer to budget option:

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 1500X 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£179.99 @ Amazon UK) 
Motherboard: ASRock Fatal1ty AB350 Gaming K4 ATX AM4 Motherboard  (£103.04 @ More Computers) 
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 Memory  (£59.80 @ Aria PC) 
Storage: SK hynix SL308 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£50.96 @ Ebuyer) 
Total: £393.79
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-04-22 17:44 BST+0100

 

EDIT: And how you can recommend an old 2014 xeon is beyond me... What poor advice smh  Here is TWO current xeons getting whooped:

 

 

 

[tom_w141]

9 minutes ago, frozeNNN said:

I would get some B350 mobo, Ryzen 5 1400 and 8GB of DDR4 RAM.

Ryzen R5 1400 is a bit of dud for numerous reasons. 1500X is the lowest you should go in the R5 lineup, with the sweet spot being that 1600 6c/12t beast for less than an i5 4c/4t

[EPPHO]

2 minutes ago, tom_w141 said:

Ryzen R5 1400 is a bit of dud for numerous reasons.

I don't see them (reasons). I would recommend R7 1800x to be honest but as you can see he has £350 available.

[tom_w141]

1 minute ago, frozeNNN said:

I don't see them (reasons). I would recommend R7 1800x to be honest but as you can see he has £350 available.

My friend thought the same.

 

His 1800X caps out at 4GHz

 

My 1700 caps out at 4GHz.

 

Our performance is the same and im £160 richer (more like £180-190 if you factor in that I got a stock cooler included and he didn't)  Its about smart purchasing.

 

Issues with 1400:

 

Comes with a poorer stock cooler and has half the L3 cache. The price difference is £20 and you get 2x L3 cache. better stock clocks and a much better cooler with the 1500X. 

[EPPHO]

Just now, tom_w141 said:

My friend thought the same.

 

His 1800X caps out at 4GHz

 

My 1700 caps out at 4GHz.

 

Our performance is the same and im £160 richer (more like £180-190 if you factor in that I got a stock cooler included and he didn't)  Its about smart purchasing.

 

Issues with 1400:

 

Comes with a poorer stock cooler and has half the L3 cache. The price difference is £20 and you get 2x L3 cache. better stock clocks and a much better cooler with the 1500X. 

1400 can hit 4GHz with stock cooler and has same performance as 1500x. 20$ richer

[tom_w141]

Just now, frozeNNN said:

1400 can hit 4GHz with stock cooler and has same performance as 1500x. 20$ richer

Show me.

[EPPHO]

Just now, tom_w141 said:

Show me.

google.com

[tom_w141]

Just now, frozeNNN said:

google.com

Thats what I thought. Don't make claims without evidence to back it up

[EPPHO]

Just now, tom_w141 said:

Thats what I thought. Don't make claims without evidence to back it up

Just too busy

[tom_w141]

2 minutes ago, frozeNNN said:

Just too busy

Lmao but got plenty of time to post on forums... Just admit you were wrong  

 

I however am not too busy and do have google:

 

Watch and also note the pinned comment:

 

While it is possible it is still not recommended. £/$20 is still very very worth it for the L3 cache increase, higher stock clocks and a better cooler.

[EPPHO]

1 minute ago, tom_w141 said:

Lmao but got plenty of time to post on forums... Just admit you were wrong  

 

I however am not too busy and do have google:

 

Watch and also note the pinned comment:

 

While it is possible it is still not recommended. This OC was also not stable.

Give the original poster extra money so he can buy your recommendation  

[tom_w141]

2 minutes ago, frozeNNN said:

Give the original poster extra money so he can buy your recommendation  

His PC isn't broken it is called saving.

 

Better to wait a little longer and spend a little more for something that will far exceed his other options at this price. He could by all means drop the 1600 down to a 1500X if he really wants to, I was merely arguing the 1400 is a bad buy when the 1500X is priced so closely.

[EPPHO]

Just now, tom_w141 said:

His PC isn't broken it is called saving.

 

Better to wait a little longer and spend a little for something that will far exceed his other options at this price. He could by all means drop the 1600 down to a 1500X if he really wants to, I was merely arguing the 1400 is bad buy when the 1500X is priced so closely.

I would suggest 1700 over 1600. It's better buy,save extra money  LOL

[tom_w141]

2 minutes ago, frozeNNN said:

I would suggest 1700 over 1600. It's better buy,save extra money  LOL

You are being silly now so i'm done and will go back to trying to help the OP. Enjoy the rest of your day.