Gaming rig $400 confused about cpu+Mobo and Gpu

[Khaled Al Hamdan]

Hello everyone,

I am trying to upgrade my pc for the purpose of gaming my budget is $400 to $500, I play at 1080p. I want to play the new games at decent fps. I would like to have a full ATX motherboard and preferably overclockable. I want to try two SSDs in RAID 0 in the future.

My current rig:

CPU: E8600
GPU: HD 6790
RAM: HyperX T1 Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1600
Motherboard: Biostar G41D3
PSU: Antec TPQ-1200 1200W
HDD 1: Western Digital Black 750GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s
HDD 2: Western Digital WD Green 1TB 5400 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s

I have different options for CPU + Motherboard that I came up with:

Option 1:

• 
  AMD FX-8320 Vishera 8-Core 3.5GHz (4.0GHz Turbo) Socket AM3+ 125W - $150
  ASUS M5A99FX PRO R2.0 AM3+ AMD 990FX + SB950 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX -$130

Total: $280

Option 2:

• 
  Intel Core i5-4690K Devil's Canyon Quad-Core 3.5GHz LGA 1150-$235
  ASRock Z97 Extreme6 LGA 1150 Intel Z97 HDMI SATA -$165

Total: $400

These are the GPUs I am considring:

• 
  Sapphire Radeon R9 280X 3GB GDDR5-$283
  Sapphire Radeon R9 290 4GB GDDR5-$311
  SAPPHIRE TRI-X OC 100361-2SR Radeon R9 290X 4GB 512-Bit GDDR5 -$360

The main thing for me is gaming performance and reliability. I don't have any problem with power consumption or heat. I play games like Total War series, The Witcher 2, Arma 3 and Battlefield 4. Also, I do multitasking.

My thoughts: Cheaper CPU+Mobo and better GPU or more expensive CPU+Mobo and cheaper GPU?
My main question is what do i choose to be in the $400 to $450 budget or even $500.
After this upgrade I am planing to upgrade to SSD and a 16GB but that will happen after a while.

I took the prices from Newegg and Amazon.

Thanks Guys

 

[Raiin]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4440 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor ($174.61 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($41.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 280 3GB DUAL-X Video Card ($172.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $449.56
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-02-25 16:09 EST-0500

if you dont need the 8gb of Ram then switch out the r9 280 for a r9 290.

 

[Khaled Al Hamdan]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4440 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor ($174.61 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($41.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 280 3GB DUAL-X Video Card ($172.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $449.56
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-02-25 16:09 EST-0500

if you dont need the 8gb of Ram then switch out the r9 280 for a r9 290.

Thanks for the suggestion.

I don't need 8 GB ram for now.

However, I am concerned about the motherboard is it any good.

 

[logainofhades]

Overclocking really isn't worth the added cost. You do need at least H87/H97 for raid though. I would go this route, reuse your current ram, and buy a matching set, for 8gb.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4440 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor ($174.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($71.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 960 2GB Superclocked Video Card ($199.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $446.97
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-02-25 16:37 EST-0500

 

[Khaled Al Hamdan]

Overclocking really isn't worth the added cost. You do need at least H87/H97 for raid though. I would go this route, reuse your current ram, and buy a matching set, for 8gb.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4440 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor ($174.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($71.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 960 2GB Superclocked Video Card ($199.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $446.97
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-02-25 16:37 EST-0500

Is the GTX 960 comparable with the Sapphire Radeon R9 290 4GB GDDR5? is it more future proof as games requires more and more memory sizes?

 

[logainofhades]

If you can afford it, get it. The R9 290 is superior.

 

[Khaled Al Hamdan]

If you can afford it, get it. The R9 290 is superior.

Thanks

What about a used i5 2500k is it up to the task?

 

[logainofhades]

If you get it for a really good deal, yes, it is still a very good CPU, and overclocks nicely. I would pair it up with a Z77 extreme4.

 

[Khaled Al Hamdan]

I guess i will get the i5 4690k and a z97 asrock extreme4 motherboard. And try to get a used graphic card. Like 7970

 

[mdocod]

My thoughts: Cheaper CPU+Mobo and better GPU or more expensive CPU+Mobo and cheaper GPU?

Performance vs visual quality.

Clock for clock and all other things being equal, the i5 generates higher minimum FPS in compute intensive games than the FX-8320. While these 2 CPU's are remarkably similar in compute throughput in benchmarks, the arrangement of execution resources in the i5 is superior for real-time workload performance scaling.

In practice, more powerful GPU's manifest as the ability to run higher visual quality settings, they do not actually do anything for performance unless compared in artificially bound conditions. Any of the GPU's you have listed can play any game made at 60FPS continuous as long as they aren't otherwise bottle-necked. They will do so with slightly different visual quality settings, but it's important to understand that a GPU bound condition is soft and adjustable, so among mainstream gaming GPU's, there's no such thing as a true GPU "bottleneck" or a GPU that is "slow."

If performance is more important to you (maintaining constant smooth FPS), go with the i5.
If visual quality is more important to you, (running higher detail settings or higher resolution), go with the FX-8320, as it will afford you the opportunity to buy more visual quality.