AMD CPU or GPU upgrade

[tophatmenis]

Hello all, i have a budget of around £150 (including delivery) and was wondering what i should upgrade my cpu or gpu with. I currently have AMD FX-8320 and AMD R9 200, my motherboard is M5A78L-M/USB3. I am a casual "ish" gamer who primarily plays simulators but dabble in FPS now and then.

Thank you in advance for any suggestions.

 

[noobwithpc]

I think you have good specs and upgrade will not be worth it. You can't get better GPU or CPU for 150. You can get better cooler and thermal paste (if you don't have good ones now) for your CPU and overclock it and overclock GPU too. Buy some fans to case for better airflow after overclocking. If you have less then 8 GB of ram then buy more ram. This will be better than buying new components.

 

[tophatmenis]

Thanks for the advice, any suggestions on decent fans?

 

[sizzling]

You won't be overclocking with your motherboard. It can struggle with 125w CPU's at stock speeds so I wouldn't waste money there.

What exact gpu do you have? R9 200 is a series and not a specific model. Should be something like 260/270/280/290 and might have an X in the name.

 

[tophatmenis]

Hello, how do i find out which specific model i have, as device manager just shows R9 200 series.

 

[noobwithpc]

Oh yes, I forgot to check the motherboard (sorry, I was tired). It seems you can't overclock on any mATX motherboard for AM3+. But even if not, you still can buy better cooling and thermal paste, it increases the life of CPU and gets bit better performance. Good thermal pastes for good price are ARCTIC MX-2 and MX-4.
Since I don't know what case you have, I can't suggest you CPU cooler, because I don't know if it will fit inside.
You can find how to see what video card model you have there: http://support.amd.com/en-us/kb-articles/Pages/HowtoidentifythemodelofanATIgraphicscard.aspx#DID And please tell what case you have too.

 

[tophatmenis]

I have an R9 270 GPU and an X11 gaming case

 

[noobwithpc]

Good cooler is Cooler Master Hyper T4. If you want to spend more on cooling, you can go with Cooler Master Seidon 120V V3 Plus, which is very good water cooling for its price.

 

[tophatmenis]

Do you have any other recommendations, for under £50, saying that these two fans mentioned do have good reviews 😀