A Couple Questions

[blubnugget]

Hey.

I recently bought a cheap $500 gaming pc. It can run games on low but I wouldn't even call it a "gaming" pc. There is a no returns policy so I have to make the best out of it. I have the money but I don't have the knowledge. I've done some research and I am going to probably replace the APU (A8 5600k) with a new CPU and GPU. I will upgrade the PSU for the new parts but the memory and the hard drive are fine. I was thinking of getting an AMD fx 8350 and a Gigabyte r9 280x. I know this is a big upgrade so I wanted input on these parts. Do you like their performance? If so, what does it do best? If not, for what reasons and which parts do you recommend in a similar price range?
I also need a mouse. Any thoughts on the Corsair Vengeance. It seems well-priced and quite functional.

Thanks

 

[bgunner]

The FX 8350 will Not work in the motherboard you have. The motherboard you have is a FM2+ socket and teh FX 8350 is a AM3+ socket so the two are incompatible. You may want to look into the Athlon 760k instead this "should" work in your board. Keep your memory and HDD. Pick up a good GPU and a good quality built PSU.

 

[Calculatron]

Well, if you currently are using an A8-5600k, that means you have at least an FM2 board. Can you confirm the make/model of your motherboard?

Regardless, just simply investing in a discrete GPU will give you the biggest, most noticeable boost in performance. With anything else, you'll have a steep degree of diminishing returns.

 

[blubnugget]

The FX 8350 will Not work in the motherboard you have. The motherboard you have is a FM2+ socket and teh FX 8350 is a AM3+ socket so the two are incompatible. You may want to look into the Athlon 760k instead this "should" work in your board. Keep your memory and HDD. Pick up a good GPU and a good quality built PSU.

I checked, my motherboard does in fact have a FM2+ socket. Should I consider a new motherboard or go with the lesser CPU? As I said I have the money for it but I just wanna get the best for it. I am afraid that if I don't get a good enough CPU, my GPU will not run at its best. I really am into the GPU I already picked out and I want it to perform at the best of its ability.

 

[Calculatron]

^
What Bgunner said. The Athlon 760K is pretty much the best CPU you can get for that motherboard and socket. Depending on how good the board is, you can overclock to help minimize any bottleneck, but with an R9 280X, you still may have some when running some very intensive games at ultra settings. They'll still be playable, though.

I, personally, have an FX-8320 that is overclocked to 4.4 ghz and I use, coincidentally, an R9 280X (HiS Turbo Boost). I can play all games on ultra settings at 1080p, without issues. The closest I have come to having frame rate drops was playing Metro 2033: Last Light with Ultra Settings at 1080p, during intensive fight scenes.