So this is my current build:
-ASUS F2A55-M LK PLUS FM2 AMD A55 (Hudson D2)
-AMD A4-5300 Trinity 3.4GHz (3.6GHz Turbo) Socket FM2 65W Dual-Core Desktop APU with DirectX 11 Graphic AMD Radeon HD 7480D AD5300OKHJBOX
-Western Digital WD Blue WD2500AAKX 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
-Rosewill R103A Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case with 350W Power Supply
-2 x G.SKILL Value 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333
This was my first build I put together a little over 3 years ago and my intro into multiple core processors. I had built this on a budget with the mind set of gaming with it (I never cared for playing on the highest graphic setting, just wanted to play smoothly) and picked the APU for the "better then on board" graphics so I could save a bit of cash on the graphics card at that time. With the shared RAM I had bumped it up to 8gb and seemed to get a little better performance fps wise so I've been happy with it since honestly. I had always planned on upgrading, some part of it but have just put it off. Now I'm to the point where I don't even know where to head next. Pretty much I'm at a point of trying to get the best bang for my buck but so far behind on tech that I'm not sure which I would benefit from the most. So without rambling on anymore here are the questions I've ran into.
1. Upgrade my APU. Since it seems AMD has already moved on to FM2+ Sockets, My best FM2 choice would seem to be the A10-6800k 4.1 quad. It would be much faster then the CPU I am running now and the graphics would also be a step up. Looking at this http://cpuboss.com/cpus/AMD-A4-5300-vs-AMD-A10-6800K it looks like I would be pretty well off going this route.
2. Adding more RAM. Since the RAM is shared, and I did get a higher fps performance going from 4 to 8, why not try going to 16? My board can take 32 but I really don't want to spend $120 a stick on 16s. What I can't remember is how the APU shares it's RAM and if there is a cap on how much it would use. I've also thought about doing the A10 and going up to 16gb of RAM. That would put me a bit higher then I wanted to spend but hey, tax season and all. G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 This is what I was considering.
3. Add a dedicated Graphics Card. This graphics wise is probably the best route to take if I was wanting to bump up fps, and graphics settings but I no longer know what to look for in a card. I also run into the problem the with a 350W PS I would probably have to upgrade that as well. Just clicking through I picked the Radeon HD 6450 and Newegg's PS Calculator recommended 366W. So would I be safe? I also just ran it with the A10 APU and it looks like I would need to get a new PS anyway...
4. The last resort would be dropping the FM2 Socket and upgrading to a new Mobo. If I went FM2+ I could, or I should be able to just transfer everything over and put off upgrading again for a while. I thought I read that FM2+ will take FM2 chips, but not the other way around because of pin count.
So these are the questions I am hoping someone can help me with. Believe me thank you for your time regardless, I know I kind of make a wall of text there. I want to say again I am not a big time gamer, at least not any more. I don't need to run on ultra settings, I will never need (although I want) a triple monitor set up nor will I ever over clock a system or need my pc to be anything more then fan cooled. I would just like to give what I have a little more oomph and wake her back up agian.
-ASUS F2A55-M LK PLUS FM2 AMD A55 (Hudson D2)
-AMD A4-5300 Trinity 3.4GHz (3.6GHz Turbo) Socket FM2 65W Dual-Core Desktop APU with DirectX 11 Graphic AMD Radeon HD 7480D AD5300OKHJBOX
-Western Digital WD Blue WD2500AAKX 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
-Rosewill R103A Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case with 350W Power Supply
-2 x G.SKILL Value 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333
This was my first build I put together a little over 3 years ago and my intro into multiple core processors. I had built this on a budget with the mind set of gaming with it (I never cared for playing on the highest graphic setting, just wanted to play smoothly) and picked the APU for the "better then on board" graphics so I could save a bit of cash on the graphics card at that time. With the shared RAM I had bumped it up to 8gb and seemed to get a little better performance fps wise so I've been happy with it since honestly. I had always planned on upgrading, some part of it but have just put it off. Now I'm to the point where I don't even know where to head next. Pretty much I'm at a point of trying to get the best bang for my buck but so far behind on tech that I'm not sure which I would benefit from the most. So without rambling on anymore here are the questions I've ran into.
1. Upgrade my APU. Since it seems AMD has already moved on to FM2+ Sockets, My best FM2 choice would seem to be the A10-6800k 4.1 quad. It would be much faster then the CPU I am running now and the graphics would also be a step up. Looking at this http://cpuboss.com/cpus/AMD-A4-5300-vs-AMD-A10-6800K it looks like I would be pretty well off going this route.
2. Adding more RAM. Since the RAM is shared, and I did get a higher fps performance going from 4 to 8, why not try going to 16? My board can take 32 but I really don't want to spend $120 a stick on 16s. What I can't remember is how the APU shares it's RAM and if there is a cap on how much it would use. I've also thought about doing the A10 and going up to 16gb of RAM. That would put me a bit higher then I wanted to spend but hey, tax season and all. G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 This is what I was considering.
3. Add a dedicated Graphics Card. This graphics wise is probably the best route to take if I was wanting to bump up fps, and graphics settings but I no longer know what to look for in a card. I also run into the problem the with a 350W PS I would probably have to upgrade that as well. Just clicking through I picked the Radeon HD 6450 and Newegg's PS Calculator recommended 366W. So would I be safe? I also just ran it with the A10 APU and it looks like I would need to get a new PS anyway...
4. The last resort would be dropping the FM2 Socket and upgrading to a new Mobo. If I went FM2+ I could, or I should be able to just transfer everything over and put off upgrading again for a while. I thought I read that FM2+ will take FM2 chips, but not the other way around because of pin count.
So these are the questions I am hoping someone can help me with. Believe me thank you for your time regardless, I know I kind of make a wall of text there. I want to say again I am not a big time gamer, at least not any more. I don't need to run on ultra settings, I will never need (although I want) a triple monitor set up nor will I ever over clock a system or need my pc to be anything more then fan cooled. I would just like to give what I have a little more oomph and wake her back up agian.