[Owscar8]

I have some extra money on my paycheck and I have been wanting to do some upgrading.

I want to upgrade my CPU and motherboard.

Currently using:
CPU: AMD Phenom II X3 (unlocked to X4) @ 3.5GHz
MoBo: ASUS M4A78T-E
GPU: ASUS 7850 overclocked
RAM: 4GB Corsair DDR3
PSU: Cooler Master 550w
Case: Antec 1100
Heatsink: 212+
HDD: 128GB SSD and a 500GB HDD

What do you guys think I should do? Budget of $250

[Evilan]

Heres just a thought:

i3-2120:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115077 ($125)
ASRock Extreme4: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157293 ($115)

There would be a nominal performance upgrade.

[QuikKill]

I don't think it would be worth it to upgrade the cpu/mobo with that budget. What you have now isn't bad, and should be able to hold you off. The price of your budget is the price for only a cpu that would be worth getting. I say save up.

[Evilan]

I agree with what Quikkill is saying. If you can, scrounge up $350 total so you can invest in an i5-3570k instead of a dual core. Otherwise your graphics card and cpu are pretty solid.

[Leystryku]

Get a better mainboard.
I would say get a ASUS-M5A99x.
Then later if you have money again, you could upgrade your CPU to AMD FX-8150.

[Owscar8]

Yeah, I was thinking of just saving it for a 3570k.

I was looking at a 3550 and some low-end ASRock motherboard but saving seems like a better route unless someone finds a really good deal.

[DrBreen]

Evilan posted:

I agree with what Quikkill is saying. If you can, scrounge up $350 total so you can invest in an i5-3570k instead of a dual core. Otherwise your graphics card and cpu are pretty solid.

Are you kidding me that Phenom is bottlenecking the 7850

It gets 5% better performance than my C2D E6550 (AT STOCK SPEEEEDS)

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/289?vs=24 look at the improvement with the proc you mentioned, slightly diferent models but only clock speeds

If you can get an even better cpu than the i3, you'll get more out of your 7850

(okay those benches are just to give you an idea you didn't specify the phenom model)

[QuikKill]

But it's unlocked and overclocked. So it's not as bad as you think.

[Evilan]

DrBreen posted:

Are you kidding me that Phenom is bottlenecking the 7850

It gets 5% better performance than my C2D E6550 (AT STOCK SPEEEEDS)

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/289?vs=24 look at the improvement with the proc you mentioned, slightly diferent models but only clock speeds

If you can get an even better cpu than the i3, you'll get more out of your 7850

(okay those benches are just to give you an idea you didn't specify the phenom model)

It's a minor bottleneck if anything. It's mostly the architecture of the older cpu model and mobo that is holding back performance. He also mentioned it does have 4 unlocked cores and it is overclocked. I would compare it similarly to a Q9xxx which only minorly bottlenecks modern gpus.

So like QuikKill said, it is only a minor loss in performance. Still an i3 would be a significant upgrade, but an i5 is reasonably in sight. He may as well live with what he has until he can get the money for a major upgrade.

[Owscar8]

Yeah, I'll save up for when I can get a Z77 with a 3570K

Just got a raise so it won't be long