Looking for upgrade possibilities for system

[thespotlite]

Hello everyone!
It's about that time of the year, and I want to see what I can do to my machine to make it bigger, better, and faster! In the end, I'd like to be able to play Skyrim with ENB mods maxed out. I'll get a big upgrade for one component or upgrade here and there...whatever will give me the best outcome. Thanks!

Motherboard: Biostar HI-FI A85W
CPU: AMD FM2 A10-5800k 3.8GHZ
GPU: Radeon 7770 GHz Edition
RAM: 4GB DDR3
PSU: 600W (Not sure of the brand or other specs. The guy at the computer store said it fit my budget. Box is red, black, and white and says "Stability Power; Intel P4 & AMD CPU Full Support.)
OS: W7
HDD: 1TB

EXTRA INFO BELOW:
APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: This week
BUDGET RANGE: $100-$350
USAGE: Gaming. Mostly Borderlands 2, Skyrim, and Battlefield 4
PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: Doesn't matter
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA
OVERCLOCKING: Sure. Don't know how to do it now, but I might want to later on
SLI OR CROSSFIRE: Sorry, not sure on this

 

[Tradesman1]

I'd go a better GPU and get the RAM up to 8GB - maybe GSkill Sniper in 1866/9 2x4GB $85 and a Asus GTX 760 about $255

 

[Quest_Skyrim]

Why do you need an APU when you are going for a discrete video card? Athlon X4 760K (it is the same as an APU without iGPU) at 3.8 GHz would save you some money compared to A10-5800 (same speed).

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=760k&N=-1&isNodeId=1

Another option would be to go to the newest Kavari (APU that came out in January), but then you must make sure your mainboard support FM2+ socket. It have a little bit better performance then those older gen of A10 and Athlon which is based on Richland core and will perform better in with the integrated video (which you could use for a while until you saved up money for a stronger discrete GPU). Look for benchmarks on both Skyrim and A10-7850K (Kavari) to get a feeling of what it will mean to go that path in upgrade.

As Skyrim is one of those game (older game engine) that is not that well supported for multicore/threading it is better to get an Intel based CPU, so I would advice you to take a look at benchmarks and make up your own mind for what is the best option even with a limited budget. With APU you will need faster RAM as both system and video make use of the same RAM. With a discrete GPU it has its own RAM (video RAM or VRAM) and don't need that kind of speed for CPU in normal cases. (As always it better you do your own research on this in Tom's hardware section.)

For video card you will have like tradesman said, from nVidia GTX 760 or from AMD R9 270X or the better 280X if you can afford it. It is VERY important to have high quality PSU, so don't buy this BS from a sales person that might or might not anything more then how to sell your a computer system. Mid range to high end GPU will need dedicated rail from PSU and you will have to take into account for enough with power if you change GPU or anything else that might draw more power, but don't go overboard as power efficiency is the key to a silent system. 80 plus or better would tell you how good a PSU are at efficiency, but that could also be a marketing trick, so you need to look around at Newsegg for comments on how well their PSU performed and benchmarks. You will need a PSU that can deliver enough power to your system and especially video card. Do you plan on going Crossfire or SLI in the future? SLI/Crossfire is the technology two or more video card is used to work together for better performance. It is an easy way to "upgrade", but not always the best and will need a PSU that can support the power demand from those cards. If you have enough Watt in real efficient it would be possible to make such upgrade with only adding a video card in the future or upgrade to a more power demanding one without buying a new PSU. Make use of wiki if you don't know what SLI/Crossfire [=Xfire] is and search Internet to learn more aboout pro and cons.


Don't forget to get a case that will have good ventilation with silent fans to keep sound level down from you components.

I would also suggest that you will go with Windows 8.1 instead both for latest DirectX (important part for video card support in games) as it is connected to Windows version and that you will probably be able to stay longer on that then Windows 7 as Windows 9 is soon its way.