Gaming PC Upgrade

[slap_chappie]

Hi,

I have recently purchased a new gaming PC and have the following specs:

Asrock 990FX Extreme 3 Motherboard
AMD FX-8350 CPU @ 4.2 ghz (stock cooler)
8GB Kingston Fury X @ 1,866mhz
2 x 1TB HDD @ 7,200RPM
2 x Radeon 290 4gb @ 1100 / 1300 in Crossfire

Averaging 98fps on Unigine Heaven, 60-70FPS on Crysis 3 and 145 FPS on Tomb Raider Benchmark.

My question is, what more can I do to up the benchmark and scores? I don't particularly want to purchase an i7 4770k as it'll cost around £350 for the cpu and cheapo motherboard - this has been a suggestion echoed multiple times. Is this the only upgrade available to me? I haven't been into PC gaming until I bought this PC for £850 about a month ago and am slowly building up my knowledge after almost a decade of being 'out of the loop'. Any suggestions would be gratefully received.

 

[Beezy]

Overclock the FX 8350 with a high quality cooler like Noctua DH 15 or Phanteks high end units with two fans. I would avoid liquid coolers. What is the Power Supply Unit?

 

[GRUxTSAR]

Your CPU... Your poor CPU. You should NEVER overclock with the stock cooler. Grab an NH-D14 and take it to 4.5Ghz

 

[Delroy Monjo]

Unigine 3.0 or 4.0? If that's ver 4.0 that's a GREAT FPS but you don't mention what settings you are running which means nothing. What monitor an resolution, what game settings?
Important stuff to know.

 

[slap_chappie]

Hi,

Beezy, it's a 1250 watt seasonic.

Delroy, its 4.0, max everything possible at 1080p.

I was looking at a coolermaster 212? Would that be safer than the current oc stock cpu mess i have now? 6 case fans are keeping cpu at around 55 -60 at max load. slightly unstable though....

 

[Beezy]

Hi,

Beezy, it's a 1250 watt seasonic.

Delroy, its 4.0, max everything possible at 1080p.

I was looking at a coolermaster 212? Would that be safer than the current oc stock cpu mess i have now? 6 case fans are keeping cpu at around 55 -60 at max load. slightly unstable though....

Expect up to 4.6/4.7 probably with the 212, if youre chip is a quality chip. With the Noctua DH 15 or High end Phanteks you could hit 5.0Ghz or more depending on the chip.

For the price the 212 EVO is great.

 

[Delroy Monjo]

Sorry, slap_chappie, I didn't notice the 2X Radeon 290's. Even with a bit more oc up to say. 4.7GHz, I doubt you would see more than a 2% or 3% boost in FPS at best.