old newbie upgrade

[fbergman]

Need to upgrade my pc. Its a few years old and struggling with Fallout 4. Figured going forward it will be necessary to have more robust hardware. Definitely looking to upgrade both CPU and Video card. Current motherboard is Gigabyte 970A-D3. Current CPU is AMD 8120 3.1 8 core and current video is GeForce GTX 560. I am thinking about replacing the with a AMD FX-8350 and Geforce GTX 960. I am most curious as to what steps are necessary other than the actual hardware replacement. Plug and play or more to it? Re install Windows? I've simple hardware replacements before, but never the CPU. Also, stock CPU fan or upgrade that as well? Thanks for any suggestions or input.

 

[WildCard999]

As long as your not replacing the MB you shouldn't have to reinstall Windows. IMO I don't think upgrading your CPU to the 8350 is worth it, I would replace the CPU cooler with a aftermarket cooler like the Cryorig H7 (or something similar) and safely overclock it as much as possible. Then with the money you save not buying a new CPU you could probably get the GTX 970 4gb (or R9 390 8gb) which is a huge performance increase over the GTX 960.

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

since you are upgrading your CPU along the same platform it should be an easy plug & play scenario there. maybe want to update your motherboard chipset drivers & BIOS if any are available.

with the GPU it is pretty much the same situation from GTX 500 to GTX 900. here though I would uninstall all Nvidia packages and reinstall the latest drivers + Nvidia Control Panel from nvidia.com. there are features available for 900 series that may do well with a fresh install.

for the 8350 i would recommend a good aftermarket air cooler. then a good overclock as these can handle it pretty well. my 8350 ran at a good 4.8GHz with a CM 212 Evo & 2x 120mm fans. never passed 60°C with heavy gaming.
if the 8120 is a Black Edition and you can get it overclocked to ~4.4GHz, then you are probably just as well off keeping it. get the aftermarket cooler first and see how it does before going for the 8350.

 

[fbergman]

Thanks for the answers guys. I have never overclocked, always a bit scared to try. But think it is time for me to learn something about it. Will give it a harder look.