FX 8350 upgrade

[AlexNovember]

I'm currently running an Athlon II X4 640, Radeon HD 7770, 8GB of G.Skill Ripjaw RAM, 120GB SSD and 1TB HDD and my motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3, no cooling system other than the stock heatsinks and Windows 8.1. I'm working towards being able to run The Division well, because I feel like that would keep me up to date for at least a couple years.. What I was looking at was upgrading my CPU to the FX 8350 and the GPU to Radeon R9 280 or 290. I have a pretty strict amount of money I can spend.. Mostly looking to spend about $200. What would be the best choice?

 

[Redneck5439]

I'm hoping that the $200 is for the processor and not processor and GPU, because that's not going to happen. I would highly recommend going to the FX 8370 over the FX 8350. The 8370 has performance tweaks that make it more efficient and give it a slight overall performance increase (clock per clock) over the FX 8350. The FX 8370 has roughly 7% better performance than the FX 8350, plus the 8370 has the very best binning AMD offers so you are going to be able to hit higher overclocks at lower Vcore than any other FX processor. Going to either the FX 8350 or the FX 8370 you are going to need better than stock cooling. I would recommend the H7 as the best budget aftermarket cooler. I would also suggest going for a Sapphire R9 290 Tri-X. They have great cooling and factory overclocking, its a great GPU. An upgrade to FX 8370 and R9 290 Tri-X will keep you gaming for at least the life span of the current consoles (Xbone and PS4).

 

[AlexNovember]

I'm hoping that the $200 is for the processor and not processor and GPU, because that's not going to happen. I would highly recommend going to the FX 8370 over the FX 8350. The 8370 has performance tweaks that make it more efficient and give it a slight overall performance increase (clock per clock) over the FX 8350. The FX 8370 has roughly 7% better performance than the FX 8350, plus the 8370 has the very best binning AMD offers so you are going to be able to hit higher overclocks at lower Vcore than any other FX processor. Going to either the FX 8350 or the FX 8370 you are going to need better than stock cooling. I would recommend the H7 as the best budget aftermarket cooler. I would also suggest going for a Sapphire R9 290 Tri-X. They have great cooling and factory overclocking, its a great GPU. An upgrade to FX 8370 and R9 290 Tri-X will keep you gaming for at least the life span of the current consoles (Xbone and PS4).

Thanks for the info about the H7, it IS really cheap. $200 is for both together, unfortunately, and that is really pushing it as it is. I've been checking eBay, and I could get both for about that on eBay.

 

[madmatt30]

On the 78lmt your best option by far is a fx 6300, an aftermarket cooler & a 4.2ghz overclock.
You'll essentially get better performance from an oc 6300 than a stock clocked 8350 with a lot less stress on the motherboard

 

[AlexNovember]

On the 78lmt your best option by far is a fx 6300, an aftermarket cooler & a 4.2ghz overclock.
You'll essentially get better performance from an oc 6300 than a stock clocked 8350 with a lot less stress on the motherboard

Would they harm my motherboard?

 

[madmatt30]

The 78lmt can manage an 8 core - just.
The 6300+ a decent cooler should cost less though , run faster & cooler once over clocked & at least match the 8350 (no game uses more than 4 threads to any realistic expense) so the 6 cores are enough.
But yes - if you can get an 8320/8350 cheaper than a 6300 it will work on your board.

 

[AlexNovember]

The 78lmt can manage an 8 core - just.
The 6300+ a decent cooler should cost less though , run faster & cooler once over clocked & at least match the 8350 (no game uses more than 4 threads to any realistic expense) so the 6 cores are enough.
But yes - if you can get an 8320/8350 cheaper than a 6300 it will work on your board.

I haven't OCd my CPU or GPU.. Does the amount of performance gained outweigh the risk of burning out the part?