Next recommended upgrade?

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eXcelletrix

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Mar 12, 2014
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Hey guys! I've recently bought a new GPU, R7 370 4GB, so having a little extra cash, I'm thinking what to buy next. My PC is probably one of the weaker ones here, seeing what monsters people can afford. :D

My current specs:

Mobo: ASRock A790 GMH/128M
GPU: MSI AMD Radeon R7 370 4GB
CPU: AMD Phenom II x4 940 Black Edition (Hyper Evo 212 Cooler)
RAM: 4x2 GB DDR2
PSU: Corsair 750W
Case: Thermaltake V4 Black Edition
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM
OS: Win7 64Bit

What would be your next upgrade?
Would I benefit more from a new SSD or CPU maybe?
Can AM3+ CPUs work on AM3 Mobos?
I will get 7.1 headphones, will I need a sound card for that or anything?

I am mainy looking to improve the PC for gaming. Playing mainly Rome Total War 2, but I'm play a lot of other games as well, mobas, rpgs, fps, mmos..
I would say I can afford another upgrade up to 200 euros, if anyone can recommend an upgrade for less, that would be awesome! :)

Thanks in advance!
 
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mason marnell@1457018692

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The only reason to get an SSD is to decrease overall loading times, it usually has little or no effect on games(unless recording). Normally I would suggest an AM3+ CPU for a cheap upgrade but you would have to buy a new motherboard and ram, so I would really recommend upping your budget a little to get an i5, as most MMOs and FPSs mostly use CPU. (I live in America so I'm going to list the parts in U.S. dollars):
http://www.amazon.com/Intel-i5-4590-BX80646I54590-Processor-Cache/dp/B00J2LIFBY/
http://www.amazon.com/Gigabyte-Intel-USB3-0-Motherboard-GA-H81M-H/dp/B00I6DLKCA/
http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-Ballistix-PC3-12800-BLS2KIT4G3D1609DS1S00-BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00/dp/B006WAGGUK/
It comes out to $285(260 Euros), but I think it's well worth it. You could also sell your old parts to get some money back, but whatever you think. If you wanted to get an SSD for a really cheap overall speed boost they are pretty cheap, but I would go for the CPU.
 
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eXcelletrix

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Can you explain me how is that CPU a big upgrade compared to mine? I know little about CPUs but, they're both 4 cores and the i5 you linked only has 0.3 GHz more? I was looking at some AMD CPUs that are (maybe) compatible with my Mobo with 3,7-4GHz, also quad core.
Thanks for the response and advice, I'll check out those links now.
 
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eXcelletrix

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Didn't know that. The CPU you recommended is like 265 usd here, which is quite over what I planned to spend as I want to be able to upgrade other parts soon as well. The CPU alone is more expensive than all 3 components you suggested. Is that CPU you linked new or used?
Found this AMD Athlon™ X4 Quad-Core 860K, 3.70GHz BOX Black edition 28nm CPU for 98 usd. It has a lot of good reviews and people presented OC settings up to 4.4 GHz.
Is it worth a buy? I don't expect to play everything on high/ultra settings, just want a small upgrade as I see the current CPU is struggling.
I swear if someone was to open a shop and order from Amazon and sell it here, in less than a year he'd be a millionaire. The prices are so different, I'm amazed how cheap stuff is on Amazon! :s
 
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mason marnell@1457018692

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I didn't realize it was that high over there. That CPU is the next best budget CPU, but I'm torn on whether to tell you to buy it because it says it is an fm2+ CPU but your motherboard says it can support the x4 series. You might want to make another thread about the compatibility between them.
 
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eXcelletrix

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Yeah, thanks for the suggestions though. I managed to safely overclock mine to 3,4 GHz for now. Gonna monitor it for a day and go up to 3,8 as many people say it's possible to do with an aftermarket cooler. It's good that you suggested me these, because if the prices drop or they do some sales for Xmas I might grab something. :)
 
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ohiou_grad_2006

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You might grab a good cooler like the cooler master hyper 212 evo, if you wanted to get an ssd you can get a 240gb relatively cheap. So you could have that for a boot drive and overclock the cpu like you are saying.

As far as upgrades for cpu, keep saving. Amd is supposed to release a new line of cpus this year, so you may save your money and see if they are any good or at that time go for the i5 system.
 
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ohiou_grad_2006

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True, but if he can overclock to 3.4 or 3.8 I'd think holding out may not be bad. I don't know if they'll be on time with it, but don't think they can wait too long given bulldozer. Performance wise, I'd almost hesitate with the Athlon. Sure it's a good chip, but if he goes that route, then I doubt many other cpus are going to be coming out for that.

I wonder about an i3? That souks likely be a nice upgrade.
 
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mason marnell@1457018692

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I'm not saying Zen is bad, but AMD has basically one chance for redemption in the CPU department, so I'd imagine it will take slightly longer than planned. i3s are good CPUs but are beginning to get phased out due to multi threading in games. I would make an i3 build but I don't know the exact budget since the UK is different.
 
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eXcelletrix

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Yeah, as I said earlier, I'm actually talking to a friend from the UK to start shipping me some PC parts to re-sell. I think even with paying taxes on the border control, I'll still profit from it, but not all packages will be checked, so somewhere more, somewhere less. The prices are insanely different.
i7 6700k is about the same price in your country as 4k's are here.
AMD will have to do now, slower or not, mine didn't betray me for like 7 years or so, not sure. And just now it started to feel weak when Witcher 3 came out, even though I'm not playing on low details, mostly med to high with 2-3 ultra settings.
Can't seem to OC it over 3,4k GHz, as I get BSoD-s. Cranked the voltage up as well but no matter what, above 3,4 it just isn't stable. Temps are fine, but keep getting "A clock interrupt was not received on a secondary processor." above anything than 3,4.
 
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eXcelletrix

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Found this http://bit.ly/1HSdO6t CPU and good reviews about it. People say they OC it to 4,4 GHz with the stock cooler, but it overheats during intense gaming, so I suppose my Evo 212 would do the job. It's FM2+ so I think my mobo supports it, as to the FX one it's AM3+, not sure my mobo supports it, it only mentions AM3.
 
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eXcelletrix

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Yeah I'm in a big dilemma now, can't make my mind and pick a thing. Thought there's no game that uses more than 4 cores? If it's true, aren't the extra cores kinda useless, unless you're running a lot of stuff in the background?
 
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ohiou_grad_2006

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Well the thing is about that, games are going to start getting more multithreaded. Look up about direct x12. Supposedly as more games are developed using that, the load is going to be split across cores a bit more. So the 8 core might be a better benefit as you can have more running simultaneously.

You can talk about am3+ being a dead socket, but I think fm2+ is effectively the same boat. So in that case id grab the 8 core and overclock. Sure direct x12 may not make the chips magically better, but hopefully spreads the lead out to where they are performing well for a while.
 
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