need some upgrade ideals

[reg1985]

hi guys im new here and been thinking about doing some upgrades to my current build which i built this year 2013.
Im caught in the middle of computer gaming or just sticking with consoles thats why i dont have a top of the line gpu i do my gaming on xbox 360(xbox one may get one).
here are my specs any recommendations will be great im only looking to add maybe 500.00 more into this build well here are my specs

cpu: amd fx8350
motherboard: asus m5a97 r2.0
ram : kingston 16gb ddr3 1333mhz
graphics card : nvidia geforce gt630
hdd : 120gb ss samsung, 2tb seagate hdd
I mainly burn dvds using convertxtodvd and xbox 360 backups and of course web browser,never gamed on a pc but thinking about it

 

[coozie7]

How much are you thinking about it? (in Dollars).
Right now, the system already has more than enough graphical power.
And speaking of power-can you post the PSU specs? The more powerful the video card, the more power it'll need to work.

 

[reg1985]

yes its a lsp ultra 550w atx

 

[reg1985]

depending on what i need no more than 500.00 us dollars

 

[Jaxem]

You're way down on GPU power to do any real gaming, if you can add 500 to the build, get a r9-290 or a gtx 770 to get an awesome experience (i'd suggest the 290). If you're going to do this just sell the consoles (or keep for gaming with friends) and commit, i tried to string along my 360 for a while after getting into PC gaming and dividing up games and parts you buy between them is a good way to waste money. PC gaming has much better graphics (hardware dependent of course), the games go on much deep sales, and it's a PC, so it's good for things besides gaming, keeping upgrades from being a single purpose purchase.

 

[reg1985]

no im going to keep my 360 for games that wont come to pc and im still deciding on going all out on a gpu or get xbox one,im leaning more to getting the gpu ive seen plenty on tigerdirect around 170-300.00

 

[reg1985]

thats a nice gpu you recommended i think i will go with one of those

 

[coozie7]

Assuming a single 1080 monitor and about $300 budget, to play at medium/ultra settings you'll need to aim somewhere between the HD7850/GTX650Ti Boost (medium/high) and the HD7970/R9 280/GTX770 (high/very high/Ultra): http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/gaming-graphics-card-review,review-32803-7.html for 1080 play anything stronger is really not required.
Pretty well all high end AMD cards with single fan coolers tend to run hot and noisy so I would advise you to leave them alone.
Right now AMD has a lot of 'old' stock (HD7xxx cards) still floating around they are directly equivalent to their 'new' R9 replacements in terms of performance, so I'd say you should opt for the cheapest within your required performance tier.
My AMD choice would be a HD7950 or R9 270.
Nvidia cards are less power hungry and produce less heat than their AMD competitors so single fan reference coolers can handle the heat without excessive noise. Also, Nvidia has a little trick called PhysX, (google it) this is only available for Nvidia cards and only certain games support it but your MB has dual PCI-E slots so you could use the GT630 as a co-processor to handle the PhysX calculations if you go for an Nvidia card.
Top Nvidia choice: GTX760/GTX770.
Also, take the side panel off and see how many PCI-E leads the power supply has, all of these cards will need at least dual 6 pin PCI-E leads to run and the higher end cards will need 1x6 and 1x8 pin leads. If it does not have enough leads, it should be replaced with a higher quality unit that does.

 

[reg1985]

ok guys im going with the hd 7950 (299.99) gpu, is it worth upgrading to ddr3 1600 from 1333?? right now my ram is 16gb 1333mhz, and do i need more power or the one i have is fine?? im only running one monitor 1080p

 

[a1blaster]

ok guys im going with the hd 7950 (299.99) gpu, is it worth upgrading to ddr3 1600 from 1333?? right now my ram is 16gb 1333mhz, and do i need more power or the one i have is fine?? im only running one monitor 1080p

1333 and 1600 has no difference in terms of fps...1333 still very good until 2015..

 

[reg1985]

cool i was just trying to make it future proof atleast for the next couple of years so i will stick with the 16 gb i have now until then, next question i have is about overclocking i tried it watching youtube videos and my pc wouldnt start so i had to take out the lil fuse so it could reset, ive heard about ppl overclocking the fx8350 to like 4.2 ghz etc... im interested in overclocking as well but dont know where to start. i have cpu-z installed but dont know what to look for in it

 

[a1blaster]

just look for guides and tutorials

 

[reg1985]

ok thank you

 

[coozie7]

ER...Which fuse? If the power supply uses a old style fuse for protection you urgently need to change it for something better protected.
There are some useful articles on the Toms Overclocking Forum, otherwise just Google something like 'AMD FX overclocking'.