[SOLVED] I need a cpu/mb/ram

Dec 26, 2019
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I have an FX8320, old board and 32gb of dd3 ram. I have a $300 budget and am looking to upgrade. Is it possible to take a step out of the dark into the light with my current budget?
 
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WildCard999

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Solution

WildCard999

Titan
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My SSD and 1080 (I know that seems ancient now) will benefit greatly from this wont they? Also, I have a 650 watt power supply, that should be fine as well?
GTX 1080? If so it's still an excellent GPU and considering the 2700 (or 2600 if you want to save a little bit more money) has much better performance per core you should see a decent increase in gaming performance, especially for those CPU heavy titles.

Which PSU model exactly?
 
Dec 26, 2019
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Yeah GTX 1080 8gb Founders Edition(Actually don't know what that means haha) Not sure of the name of the PSU to be honest, it came with a Cyberpower PC I bought in 2016.
 
Dec 26, 2019
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Well, I will put that on my next upgrade list after I get these other things taken care of haha. Thanks so much for your input, I will be ordering these parts next week. I will post the full specs and experiences here after I get it up and running :D
 

WildCard999

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Well, I will put that on my next upgrade list after I get these other things taken care of haha. Thanks so much for your input, I will be ordering these parts next week. I will post the full specs and experiences here after I get it up and running :D
Sounds good, make sure to do a clean install of Windows as well since your replacing the motherboard. Also with AMD Ryzen memory speeds make a big impact with gaming so make sure it's the 2x8gb kit @3200mhz. I recently did a build with that motherboard and it's excellent for the price, make sure the memory is in slots A2/B2 (2/4) and then go into the BIOS and enable XMP as this will run the memory at the correct voltage, speed & timings.
 
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Dec 26, 2019
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I ordered these exact parts on the 31st. I should get them between the 6th and the 9th. I am very excited and I appreciate the help. I cannot wait to report back the results, thanks again :D
 
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Dec 26, 2019
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Okay, I will try to make this as short as possible haha.

The CPU was easy enough to install, as were the other components for the new board. I got it all together, got power to it and then went back and added my SSD, there's where the issues came in. I have been working on and building computers since around 1993 and even though parts get better, faster and more efficient, the basics have mostly stayed the same. But, about 9 or so years ago, my health failed me, I had a massive heart attack 4 arteries, 3 100% closed and one was 99%. Long story short, I had a quad bypass and now am deep in the middle of Congestive Heart Failure. Because of these issues, I quit dealing with working on a PC. I started getting pre-built systems so I could just game and not worry.

Because of this, I had never had the opportunity to work on a system with UEFI BIOS, I only knew Legacy. When trying to do a clean install of Windows on my SSD, I ran into one issue after another (Your PC has ran into a problem and needs to be restarted) most of them gave codes and so on. Getting the drive set to even put Windows on was tough because of a GPT issue, which is something else I had never ran into.

What should have taken a couple hours at most, went on to be a 9 hour event. I eventually went to bed, got up this morning and restarted haha. But, I finally got it up and running. I haven't had a chance to tweak it, so I haven't bench marked anything yet, but I can already see the difference, which is a huge difference. I haven't installed a single game yet, but I am already excited. Before I shut my last system down, I ran several benchmarks and saved the scores. My plan today is to run those same ones and compare before I do any overclocking or tweaking. I will post the results, along with my full system specs for any who may be interested.

Lastly, thanks for your help and guidance, with all the new tech, I wouldn't have known where to start, that's why I came here. I really appreciate everything and even after I post my scores, I plan on sticking around and getting to know everyone and hang out with this amazing community. Thanks again :D
 
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Dec 26, 2019
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One thing, I can't get the PC to boot with ram in the a2/b2 slots, it will however in a1/b1. I used xmp and have them set at 3200, but when I look at them with CPUZ it shows 1064.1 Is this just like the 'resting' speed (Not sure what to call it) and will ramp up when needed, or have I screwed it up somehow? Also, as for overclocking the cpu, I get how to manually change the speed, but the whole voltage thing is over my head. Is there a resource somewhere to help me understand this, or anyone here know about it? Thanks again for all the help

ASRock B450M Pro4
Ryzen 7 2700
16gb Duel Channel DDR4
GTX 1080 8gb
1TB Crucial SSD

 
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WildCard999

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Weird it's showing 1064 (DDR=Double Data Rate) so it appears be running at 2133. A2/B2 is the recommended configuration per the motherboard manual. This may require a BIOS update on the motherboard, just be careful doing so as going to the newest from an old update could brick the motherboard. Best way to do so is to check the newer updates and if there is a requirement then grab that first before getting the new update.
 
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Oddly enough, after the update, I was able to get the ram working in the number 2 slots and now it shows 1596.2. Would this be the correct overclock. Also, after googling for a bit, I found out how to set the voltage per overclock, I now have it stable at 4.0ghz. Thanks again for your help :D

KoNOONr.png
 
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Yeah I am not big into it either, just going with that boost thing in the BIOS. One of the reasons I like this CPU is the flexibility of the CPU. Everything seems to be running great, so far, I couldn't be happier.
 
Dec 26, 2019
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Well, I only overclocked the CPU and I did so slightly under the boost rating, just to be safe. Once I moved the ram to A2/B2 and got it to work, I loaded the XMP profile which took it where it needed to be. I've never overclocked ram, I would screw something up for sure. I also have never overclocked the graphics card, I don't have the money to replace it if I mess something up lol. I did stress tests and benchmarks once I got everything working and it seems to be fine. The temps never got out of hand, there were no lock ups or anything. My plan is to buy 16gb more ram and a case next month to finish it off. Maybe one day I will get a newer graphics card, but as of right now, the 1080 is amazing in 1080 with graphics cranked to the max and does pretty good at 4K.
 

WildCard999

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The 1080 is a great card, before I had to sell my old system I had a 1080 ti for 2560x1080P gaming and it was beyond overkill although I did buy the GPU for VR as well. With Nvidia GPU boost there's little reason to manually overclock as you could realistically could just up the power limit above 100% and create a custom fan curve and let the Nvidia GPU Boost do it's thing. The only think I manually overclock are CPU's and I'm better with Intel then AMD.
 
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I've never really fooled much with overclocking, but this board makes it so easy to do. I spent a day stress testing to make sure the temps were right and there were no conflicts. I am not sure what the Nvidia Boost is, but I am going to check into it for sure. I would love to get more out of my card without the danger of hurting something. That's why I never overclocked a GPU, to expensive for me to take a chance on destroying it haha.
 

WildCard999

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I've never really fooled much with overclocking, but this board makes it so easy to do. I spent a day stress testing to make sure the temps were right and there were no conflicts. I am not sure what the Nvidia Boost is, but I am going to check into it for sure. I would love to get more out of my card without the danger of hurting something. That's why I never overclocked a GPU, to expensive for me to take a chance on destroying it haha.
The gains depend on the game but for most the 5-7 FPS average increase really isn't worth the risk especially on a higher end GPU. Now if your extremely limited on budget and that overclock, for example, pushes you from 27 to 35 FPS then it could be well worth it.
 
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Dec 26, 2019
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I am pretty happy with where I am at now to be honest. The parts that I purchased increased everything across the board. Frame rates jumped exponentially, example - Far Cry 5 on the 8320 in 4k the fps were in the mid to low 20s, I did much better in 1080 somewhere around 45 to 50 fps but, the new rig pushed 4k to a tad over or around 60, with 1080 hitting around 119fps. I think I am at a solid place right now but, 2020 maybe the year I have to step it up. I have a feeling with new consoles on the horizon, PC games will also make some sort of jump. Also (Side note) things like video editing are so much better now, seems like my rig handles the tasks much easier and far more efficient, and I have you to thank for that my friend :D
 
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Dec 26, 2019
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One other thing, if you don't mind me aggravating you further hehe. What's the deal with MSI Afterburner? Would it benefit me any to install this? I see a lot of post in favor of it, but just unsure of it's actual value.
 

WildCard999

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MSI Afterburner is a good program for basic to advanced overclocking or even good for monitoring hardware although for the CPU AMD Ryzen Master is what you want for your CPU. HWmonitor is accurate for Ryzen temps but doesn’t report the boost speeds right. As an example it said my Ryzen 2600 got up to 5.5ghz which is impossible in my setup.
 
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I did not know about Ryzen Master. I was using the clock control from the bios and the reports from there, but I bet this would help me keep an eye on everything without going back to the bios to see. Man, I have learned so much here in such a short time. I have been missing out haha. Thank you again!