Pc upgrading problems (current/only build)

[oolex]

Hello, I am thinking of upgrading my pc, because my motherboard and CPU are kind of lacking, even though I only built it in late March.

I currently have

-Windows 10 pro
-Cryrorig H7 CPU cooler
-crucial MX 250gb 6gb/s SSD
-Firecuda 2tb HDD
-AMD Athlon x4 860K processor
-1x8gb ddr3
-2x2gb ddr3 (I can only use 1 because my mobo only has 2 slots)
-2048MB ATI AMD Radeon R7 200 Series (MSI)
-EVGA 650 gold+ semi-modular power supply
-ASRock FM2A58M-VG3+ R2.0
-corsair 400c case
(everything brand new except for mobo, cpu and gpu) Got everything from Amazon, except used parts.

I am already having problems, because the motherboard doesn't have any USB3.0 headers/ ports so I cannot use the 2 USB 3.0 ports at the front of the case, and I don't have any USB 3.0. in the back of the motherboard.

I want to get more ddr3 ram, not get new ddr4, and hopefully get a new motherboard/CPU because I find that many of my games are running on fairly high settings with almost no problems. I feel like my CPU is bottlenecking many of my games...

So I was wondering if I should get an upgrade of motherboard and CPU.
(I only have a budget of maximum 700 and I don't work/have a job.)

Thank you for your help in advance.

 

[maxtechniche]

I would suggest getting newer motherboards that support DDR4. You should look into Ryzen 2nd Gen CPU's. With the budget you have, you could easily upgrade the base of your computer.

 

[oolex]

I would suggest getting newer motherboards that support DDR4. You should look into Ryzen 2nd Gen CPU's. With the budget you have, you could easily upgrade the base of your computer.

What do you mean by base of the computer? In addition, I can upgrade my PC later, but I'm just worried about the USB 3.0 problem...

 

[maxtechniche]

I think I meant to say barebones, but what I mean is the CPU, MOBO, and RAM.
Pretty much all motherboards these days come with USB 3.0 ports. Just make sure to check before you buy.

 

[oolex]

I think I meant to say barebones, but what I mean is the CPU, MOBO, and RAM.
Pretty much all motherboards these days come with USB 3.0 ports. Just make sure to check before you buy.

Can you recommend a full/regular ATX mobo that supports ddr3 and has USB 3.0? with a matching cpu?

 

[maxtechniche]

It wouldn't be worth it to get a new CPU for that motherboard socket.

 

[oolex]

It wouldn't be worth it to get a new CPU for that motherboard socket.

I was thinking of getting a new mobo and cpu and use the ddr3 ram? is that possible?

 

[maxtechniche]

Yes, it is possible, but I personally wouldn't recommend that. You could look at PCPartPicker.com and search for motherboards that support DDR3 and USB 3.0

 

[oolex]

Yes, it is possible, but I personally wouldn't recommend that. You could look at PCPartPicker.com and search for motherboards that support DDR3 and USB 3.0

why wouldn't you recommend it? and there are many results, I put the search filter for ddr3 and onboard USB 3.0 headers and there 7 pages of results...

And I don't plan on upgrading my ram anytime soon, and ddr4 is quite pricey...

 

[maxtechniche]

Because there is no upgrade path. You'll have to buy new parts anyway, so why not make em newish?

 

[Eximo]

You don't really have enough DDR3 to justify re-using it. 16GB is about the cut-off there. Beside, if you do that, then you have a nearly useless motherboard and CPU. At least now they could be used as the core of a simple web browser or multimedia PC.

Buying more DDR3 is going to be roughly has expensive as buying DDR4.

The best you could do with DDR3 is get an Intel 4th generation system. Z97/Z87/H97/H87/H81/B85 would be your chipsets. I recommend the H97 or Z97. The only worthwhile CPUs would be i5s and i7s: i7-4770/i7-4771/i7-4772/i7-4770k/i7-4790/i7-4790k or i5-4430/4440/4460/4570/4590/4670/4690/4670k/4690k

These are still relatively expensive today. Though you can get whole used office PCs for between $250 and $400 loaded with i5s and i7s and 8GB of memory or more.

But expect to pay about $100-200 for just a CPU if you buy it that way. Motherboards are a little difficult, so it might make sense to seek out someone selling a motherboard/CPU/memory set.

Which is where we come back to just buying new. More than equivalent to an 4th gen i5 is the i3-8100. Still a quad core and you can use the savings for more DDR4 memory. Or you can go ahead and get the i5-8400 which gets you six cores rather than four.

That or a Ryzen build with 6cores 12 threads. Or a quad core Ryzen APU with graphics equal to most of the AMD 200 series cards.

 

[oolex]

Because there is no upgrade path. You'll have to buy new parts anyway, so why not make em newish?

I guess so... But like I said earlier, I am doing fine... for now. Thanks for your help and advice!

 

[oolex]

You don't really have enough DDR3 to justify re-using it. 16GB is about the cut-off there. Beside, if you do that, then you have a nearly useless motherboard and CPU. At least now they could be used as the core of a simple web browser or multimedia PC.

Buying more DDR3 is going to be roughly has expensive as buying DDR4.

The best you could do with DDR3 is get an Intel 4th generation system. Z97/Z87/H97/H87/H81/B85 would be your chipsets. I recommend the H97 or Z97. The only worthwhile CPUs would be i5s and i7s: i7-4770/i7-4771/i7-4772/i7-4770k/i7-4790/i7-4790k or i5-4430/4440/4460/4570/4590/4670/4690/4670k/4690k

These are still relatively expensive today. Though you can get whole used office PCs for between $250 and $400 loaded with i5s and i7s and 8GB of memory or more.

But expect to pay about $100-200 for just a CPU if you buy it that way. Motherboards are a little difficult, so it might make sense to seek out someone selling a motherboard/CPU/memory set.

Which is where we come back to just buying new. More than equivalent to an 4th gen i5 is the i3-8100. Still a quad core and you can use the savings for more DDR4 memory. Or you can go ahead and get the i5-8400 which gets you six cores rather than four.

That or a Ryzen build with 6cores 12 threads. Or a quad core Ryzen APU with graphics equal to most of the AMD 200 series cards.

Thank you for your advice, and I decided that I'm just going to wait, and upgrade a bit later on.. Thanks for the great help though! thank you!