Need good advice on upgrading my PC

[FuzzRocket9]

Hello again all. I've decided to upgrade my PC. I want to be able to keep some of the hardware that may still be relevant to keep prices low. I know I said I want a beastly PC, but I kinda would love it to be a budge build. Below are my specs:

 

Mother Board: Asus M4A88T-M AMD 880G/SB710; GbE, DDR3 1866OC; ATI HD 4250, Hybrid xFire; SATA3Gb/s
CPU: AMD Phenom II x2 560 Blk 3.3GHz Dual-Core (This allowed me to unlock to a Quad-Core)
2X RAM - DDR3 4GB 1600MHz Corsair (2X2GB)Dominator
GPU: PALIT GTX460 1GB Sonic GDDR5, Direct X11 SLI Ready
Power Supply: Thermaltake TR2 RX 650w, Ultra Quiet 140mm Fan, Single +12V Up to 44A

 

Now, for preferences, I'd love to just be able to run Skyrim at 60fps and keeping a high resolution. Currently, I can run 60fps, with fps drops come in cities and towns, and I can't keep any nice texture packs and adding Alternity's texture packs make very little difference in improvement, showing how my rig has aged. Another request is, I'd like to be able to also run any games that came out last year, well nevermind as I'm sure my current rig can run them all if they're console ports, but I'd like to run the PC exclusives nicely.

 

Thanks all. Let me know if you need any other information. About the Alienware Alpha, it was a bust. So I'll have to pass on it unless he fixes it and lowers the price some more so I don't get buyer's remorse, but that won't happen anytime soon.

 

Spending Budget: 400 USD plus 50 if I have to. Please if you could tell me exact model names for me to search. Links would be the best option, but you don't have to :). I'm very hesitant to upgrade, because I'm unsure what is compatible with my mobo and so on that I don't want to ruin anything.

 

Overclocking, I prefer not to. The more I read of how safe it is to OC, the more I feel it's not :) If it's already overclocked by the tech folks to a safe amount, then that's fine, so long as it's the best option for me.

Edited July 11, 2015 by FuzzRocket9

[Nozzer66]

With the PSU, I always over spec on them. Check what your graphics card is asking for at max load and then add a safety factor of about 20% on top of that. Whether you need to upgrade here will depend on how old the current one is and what it's had to drive in the past.

 

But that's just the Electronic Engineer in me showing out here. 

[Pretendeavor]

Yeah, shaders always wore down my GPU when playing Shogun 2 waaay back..

 

I'll get the Crucial RAM for sure, but not sure of the differences between 1600 and 1866. Speed is the difference, right?

It depends on their timings, 1866 isn't per definition faster than 1600. My personal experiences led me to believe faster RAM will help in Skyrim with CPU heavy tasks like drawing shadows in cluttered areas. I noticed an increase of about 2-3 FPS max in 'problematic' areas in JK's Cities after OC'ing my RAM from 1600 CAS 9(-9-9-24) to 1866 CAS 9(-10-9-27). In other games it might be negligible. At least, that's what 80% of the internet seems to agree on.

 

I've had it at 1866/10 before but the difference between that and 1600/9 was not very noticeable and not worth the OC imo. I feel that the comparison between 1600/8 and 1866/9 in your case might be similar to this. You could do some more research and compare (gaming) benchmarks.. Or you could just base it on the reviews (5/5 (67) for the 1866 set vs 4/5 (20) for the 1600 set) and go for the 1866. Orrrr get the 1600 and save yourself just enough for a 6-inch chicken & bacon ranch melt at Subway!

 

Anyway..

 

As for compatibility, you could search for a RAM compatibility list for your motherboard. However if the motherboard is fairly old, it might be that the list hasn't been updated in recent years and therefore doesn't include the two sets listed here.. I'd google the model names of your motherboard + these sets and see if any other people have tried this combo. I have no experience myself with installing RAM on a motherboard that doesn't officially have it listed as supported so I don't know how much of a risk it carries. If any.

 

Same goes for GPU compatibility. I recommend searching for and reading about these kind of things for yourself, even if you are a novice. Especially if you are a novice AND plan on building/replacing it all yourself. I've only built one system before in my life and replaced things only once or twice but I spent hours of reading before doing it and I'm glad I did!

[Greg]

You're right that the memory compatibility list from ASUS hasn't been updated in years, but Crucial.com does list this motherboard and shows it is compatible with 4GB DDR3 1866 (Crucial CT2594481) for $33.99 each from Crucial, $64.78 for a pair at Newegg, and $61.49 for a pair at Amazon.

 

For comparison, 4GB DDR3 1600 (Crucial CT3583176) is $31.99 each from Crucial, $59.99 for pair from Newegg, and unavailable from Amazon.

 

So, yeah, it's just about enough difference to get a small sandwich at Subway.

[Spock]

Dunno about crucial, I always got G.Skill. With G.Skill it used to be that all the clock and timing configurations have the same chips anyways. There was a list at Xtremesystems that showed which version numbers where which chip and then you could look at the OC results. Maybe there is something similar for Crucial.

 

Also note that AMD CPUs are more sensitive to timing then Intel CPUs. That means more clock at relaxed timings isn't better for AMD. Try to find 7-7-7-x, 20<x<29 timing ram.

 

Lastly, ram memory bandwidth isn't that important for most applications, they mostly bottleneck on other stuff.

 

[edit]

I did a little checking on newegg, it was a pain because you cannot sort ram by cl ratings. I found a decent cl 8 g.skill ram (cl is short for cas latency):

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231445

If you really don't want to overclock that one seems fine. You can even try to apply the latency configuration of this one in the bios and see if it's stable (no overclocking, just reduce the latency):

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231308

They are probably the same chip anyway, I got that RAM in a 3x2 gb configuration at 1.45 GHz.

 

You might also want to check ebay, as many people think they have to upgrade to 16gb. G.Skill has livelong guarantee anyway.

 

Upgrading to 8GB using a set of four 2GB DDR3 1600 SIMMs runs about $100 and is an excellent investment if you're using a 64-bit operating system because it allows ENBoost to offload a lot of meshes, textures, and so forth into a separate process.

If you don't have quad channel on your CPU/Mobo, that is a very bad investment because using just two dimms with dual channel is faster and cheaper then using four.

Edited July 18, 2015 by Spock

[FuzzRocket9]

Thanks again everyone and Spock too, awesome advice!

 

Now I neec help with an SSD. Can I pick out the best that I like, or does it have to match with my Mobo too? I'm thinking of grabbing that Samsung 850 Evo and I see oyu gotta have the right cables for the best transfer speed, which I'll need to do some research on. I thought it would be easy plug and play, but I should make sure I have the right cables. I probably have to buy them, right? The mobo doesn't have them waiting? I do have a bunch of loose cables tied up in my rig

 

This is my other question about SSDs. Can I run my OS through my HDD and have my SSD shown on my list of drives to run my games, is that how it work? That's what I assumed, but I watched a video where the guy cloned his HDD to his SSD which made me scratch my head. Didn't think of doing that. I thought SSDs work like an external storage drive and you just put stuff in it without needing to install an OS into it. Shows how rookish I am, sorry guys ><.

Edited July 18, 2015 by FuzzRocket9

[TechAngel85]

SSDs work just like any hard drive. You can install what you want on them. For the fastest speeds, I recommend installing your OS and games on the SSD and use your HDD for all other storage. The only thing to worry about for connections is to make sure all the speeds match. If you have 6gb/s (SATA III) on your mobo, then your drive and cable should be SATA III as well so that you get the max speed available.

[Greg]

For all intents and purposes as far as the motherboard and operating system is concerned, an SSD is nothing more than a really fast hard drive. There are some differences obviously, but Windows 7 and later handle these differences automatically so you don't need to worry about it.

 

The Samsung 850 Evo is an excellent choice and is one (if not the) fastest SSDs available at a reasonable price. If you motherboard supports SATA III, pick up a SATA III cable to go with it; otherwise, a standard SATA II cable is fine.

 

EDIT: I almost forgot... if your case does not support 2.5-inch drives, pick up a 2.5 to 3.5-inch mounting kit to go with the SSD. See the "Frequently Bought Together"  on the Amazon page for an example of the mounting kit ($6.99) and SATA III cable ($4.25).

[phazer11]

SATA cables don't make a difference. SATA II cables perform at the same speed as SATA III cables this has been proven by tests by reviewers as well as through my own experimentation (which included me cutting open the cables for fun to see if they were structured differently).

 

As for which SSD to get I'd recommend Crucial MX200 (or M4) or Samsung EVO since you're on a budget. The 500GB versions seem to be the most bang for the buck atm from a cursory glance.

AS for RAM you don't get much of anything out of higher RAM speed or timings anymore, used to be it was a noticeable increase but it's so small now with modern cpu's it's not worth it. IIRC the most bang of the buck are at 1600 MHZ. I'd recommend either G.Skill Sniper or Trident or a set of corsair ram. I'd have to check more to give more advice. G.Skill usually uses either Hynix or Samsung chips in them IIRC, the Samsung ones are usually better but it's a lotto.

 

I can look into this some more in the morning and help you put something together on PCparts picker. Do you live in the US? And what is the max price again $350-450?

[Spock]

There is only one cable for all Sata standards. The Sata cable standard is so overrated (meaning rating in a technical context), just get the cheapest you can or an old one from a friend. I remember a video where people connected old sata cables across several meters and they would still achieve the maximum sata III controller speed.

 

Afaik this is not the case for HDMI cables btw.