Partial upgrade for Brothers PC.

[BboyDfresh]

So I think it's time to upgrade my brother's HP e9170c. I plan to reuse some parts such as the hard drive, and the RAM. I also have some spare parts from my previous builds that he could use.

Here's what I have:

http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/CgcxQ7

Budget: $300, there's really only a motherboard, CPU, and GPU needed.

He doesn't mind playing games at medium settings, he also will be playing on a 720p monitor. The most graphically intensive program he has is GTA IV and Sleeping Dogs (I believe that Sleeping Dogs is optimized for Radeon.)

 

[pasow]

can you pleas provide information on what the present computers CPU and GPU are? it would be helpful in judging an upgrade.

 

[davidarad02]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3P ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($71.98 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 270 2GB Dual-X Video Card ($129.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $290.96
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-15 10:27 EDT-0400

if you have a little more cash to spend, a r9 280 would be a worthy upgrade.

 

[BboyDfresh]

can you pleas provide information on what the present computers CPU and GPU are? it would be helpful in judging an upgrade.

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200
GPU: Radeon 4350 I think
Mobo is some generic motherboard.

 

[davidarad02]

btw, iv'e noticed that you chose so-dimm ram in the pcpartpicker link. why is that? is that a mistake, or is it really using so-dimm's (btw if you didn't know, dimm's are the regular long sticks, and so-dimms are the shorter ones, usually used for very small computers or laptops)

 

[JasonL265]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3P ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($71.98 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 270 2GB Dual-X Video Card ($129.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $290.96
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-15 10:27 EDT-0400

if you have a little more cash to spend, a r9 280 would be a worthy upgrade.

This is probably the best option with your $300 budget, the FX-6300 and an R9 200 series GPU will provide you the best bang for your buck. Motherboard is more interchangeable, as long as its has the right socket, supports overclocking and is from a reputable maker like Asus, Asrock, MSI and Gigabyte.

 

[BboyDfresh]

btw, iv'e noticed that you chose so-dimm ram in the pcpartpicker link. why is that? is that a mistake, or is it really using so-dimm's (btw if you didn't know, dimm's are the regular long sticks, and so-dimms are the shorter ones, usually used for very small computers or laptops)

I'm just reusing the RAM in the old HP computer, but I can't find the model, so I chose a random RAM on part picker.

 

[TNT27]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3P ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($71.98 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 270 2GB Dual-X Video Card ($129.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $290.96
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-15 10:27 EDT-0400

if you have a little more cash to spend, a r9 280 would be a worthy upgrade.

This is probably the best option with your $300 budget, the FX-6300 and an R9 200 series GPU will provide you the best bang for your buck. Motherboard is more interchangeable, as long as its has the right socket, supports overclocking and is from a reputable maker like Asus, Asrock, MSI and Gigabyte.

This build, only swap ther mobo for the gigabyte 970 ud3p, much better board for overclocking, and will push this chip to its limits.

the r9 270 is a great card, same silicon as 270x, just clocked lower, so I highly recommend overclocking the gpu to 270x speeds for a free performance boost.

 

[BboyDfresh]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3P ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($71.98 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 270 2GB Dual-X Video Card ($129.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $290.96
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-15 10:27 EDT-0400

if you have a little more cash to spend, a r9 280 would be a worthy upgrade.

Unfortunately, this goes over my budget. In Canada it costs $427

 

[davidarad02]

does your memory look like this:
http://imgur.com/I7t7Yqg
or this:
http://imgur.com/2PIA5xs

 

[davidarad02]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3P ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($71.98 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 270 2GB Dual-X Video Card ($129.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $290.96
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-15 10:27 EDT-0400

if you have a little more cash to spend, a r9 280 would be a worthy upgrade.

Unfortunately, this goes over my budget. In Canada it costs $427

oh. you didn't mention that you are canadian. well then. this is also good:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 860K 3.7GHz Quad-Core Processor ($87.43 @ DirectCanada)
Motherboard: Asus A88XM-E Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard ($72.00 @ Vuugo)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon R7 260X 2GB Video Card ($136.98 @ Newegg Canada)
Total: $296.41
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-15 10:45 EDT-0400

 

[BboyDfresh]

does your memory look like this:
http://imgur.com/I7t7Yqg
or this:
http://imgur.com/2PIA5xs

Looks like the first one, looks nothing like the second.

 

[TNT27]

Personally id get the g3258 over the athlon, and the mobo+cpu will be cheaper, yet perform better in gaming. Also oc very easily on stock cooler.

and get r9 270 with the savings.

Be sure your psu is enough to handle it, or you might have to drop in performance to a 750ti

 

[davidarad02]

Personally id get the g3258 over the athlon, and the mobo+cpu will be cheaper, yet perform better in gaming. Also oc very easily on stock cooler.

and get r9 270 with the savings.

Be sure your psu is enough to handle it, or you might have to drop in performance to a 750ti

im no AMD fanboy, but the g3258 setup costs the same as the 860k, and it has less support for future games that require a quad core just to work.

 

[BboyDfresh]

Personally id get the g3258 over the athlon, and the mobo+cpu will be cheaper, yet perform better in gaming. Also oc very easily on stock cooler.

and get r9 270 with the savings.

Be sure your psu is enough to handle it, or you might have to drop in performance to a 750ti

How's this?

http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/D73wXL

 

[davidarad02]

Personally id get the g3258 over the athlon, and the mobo+cpu will be cheaper, yet perform better in gaming. Also oc very easily on stock cooler.

and get r9 270 with the savings.

Be sure your psu is enough to handle it, or you might have to drop in performance to a 750ti

How's this?

http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/D73wXL

it's good, but at the end of the day, the quad core design will be better in the long run, as I guess that you want your PC to last for a long time, and not need to upgrade it 2 years down the road, when you run out of new games to play. also, the GPU is the same, so FPS difference wont be as big.

 

[TNT27]

with 20$ promo PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor ($84.90 @ DirectCanada)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($57.80 @ DirectCanada)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Superclocked Video Card ($159.99 @ NCIX)
Total: $302.69
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-15 11:19 EDT-0400
gets you a slightly better gpu, uses less power, much more powerful cpu for games right now, though that can change when dx12 becomes mainstream, we never know.

All I know is I have this cpu, and im getting into same league of FPS as i3/i5/i7 in almost every title out there.

One game I cant play is Dragon Age Inquisition, but mods moving the heavy thread to core 0/1 allows it to run easily.

12$ more you can throw in a r9 270, which is a huge performance leap.