Phenom 9600 to Athlon x4 640 | CPU Bottleneck problems.

[bam2321]

Planning on upgrading from my Phenom 9600 to a Athlon x4 640, due to a bottleneck. I understand the possibility of the AM3 not fitting into the motherboard but I want to take the risk. I just need your feedback to if you think my Phenom is bottlenecking my GPU more then my slow memory or if I could get an even faster processor for cheap. my budget is around probably $120. If also you can find a motherboard - cpu - memory combo for that price that would be great but I'm not expecting that. Any help will be appreciated.

Around 70% CPU Usage on each core when I'm playing CS:GO.
About 30% GPU usage.
60% Physical Memory.

My specs:
ECS MCP61PM-GM
Phenom x4 9600
Sapphire Radeon 7770 Ghz Edition
6 Gigs of 333mhz memory
Phoenix Technologies | LTD 6.00 | 11/26/2007 | - BIOS

 

[Zircoben]

Planning on upgrading from my Phenom 9600 to a Athlon x4 640, due to a bottleneck. I understand the possibility of the AM3 not fitting into the motherboard but I want to take the risk. I just need your feedback to if you think my Phenom is bottlenecking my GPU more then my slow memory or if I could get an even faster processor for cheap. my budget is around probably $120. If also you can find a motherboard - cpu - memory combo for that price that would be great but I'm not expecting that. Any help will be appreciated.

My specs:
ECS MCP61PM-GM
Phenom x4 9600
Sapphire Radeon 7770 Ghz Edition
6 Gigs of 333mhz memory
Phoenix Technologies | LTD 6.00 | 11/26/2007 | - BIOS

This is by far your best bet.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 750K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($79.49 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A55M-HD2 Micro ATX FM2 Motherboard ($34.99 @ Micro Center)
Total: $114.48
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-06-03 15:08 EDT-0400)

That will be much faster than even the x4 640, and you should no bottleneck from the CPU.

Your RAM is ultra slow. Is it DDR2? Are you sure it isn't 1333?

 

[logainofhades]

Their ram is DDR2. The original Phenoms were AM2+/DDR2 chips. It appears that the motherboard is from an OEM gateway/acer system. Chances of any upgrade working are next to nothing. Your system is so old, it is time to start over and get a new one. You could reuse the GPU, HDD, and optical drive to save some money towards a new build. Probably the power supply as well, as I highly doubt the one that came with that system was sufficient for an HD 7770. I would go with something like this, if budget is kinda low.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i3-4150 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor ($118.48 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 PRO4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($89.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Sniper 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($71.10 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair SPEC-01 RED ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ TigerDirect)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $419.54
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-06-03 15:22 EDT-0400)

 

[damric]

Planning on upgrading from my Phenom 9600 to a Athlon x4 640, due to a bottleneck. I understand the possibility of the AM3 not fitting into the motherboard but I want to take the risk. I just need your feedback to if you think my Phenom is bottlenecking my GPU more then my slow memory or if I could get an even faster processor for cheap. my budget is around probably $120. If also you can find a motherboard - cpu - memory combo for that price that would be great but I'm not expecting that. Any help will be appreciated.

Around 70% CPU Usage on each core when I'm playing CS:GO.
About 30% GPU usage.
60% Physical Memory.

My specs:
ECS MCP61PM-GM
Phenom x4 9600
Sapphire Radeon 7770 Ghz Edition
6 Gigs of 333mhz memory
Phoenix Technologies | LTD 6.00 | 11/26/2007 | - BIOS

I would normall say yes get the Athlon II, but...

That motherboard came out of a pre-built PC like a DELL. It has no BIOS update to allow it to function with the Athlon II, so sorry it's out of the question.

If you still want an upgrade on the cheap, the FM2 Athlons are pretty good. Unfortunately you will need a new motherboard and new RAM.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 760K 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor ($84.73 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock FM2A75M Pro4+ Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard ($59.49 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Trident X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2400 Memory ($76.50 @ Newegg)
Total: $220.72
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-06-03 15:20 EDT-0400)

 

[bgunner]

The Athlon II X4 640 WILL NOT work in your current board. AM3 socket CPU's need a AM3 or AM3+ socket motherboard for them to work in.

If you are looking to upgrade I suggest you wait a little longer and save some more money for the Upgrade. You can build a really cheap PC and save some money by using some existing parts like Case, PSU, HDD, GPU. This would leave you buying a CPU, MB and Ram with a cost of around $250 if you use a Athlon 750K and a cheap FM2+ MB.

If your heart is set on upgrading accent hardware then get a set of PC2-6400 @800MHz Ram and try to OC the system a bit.


For those that have posed and plan to post here is the specs of that motherboard, http://www.pc-specs.com/mobo/ECS/ECS_MCP61PM-GM/1456

 

[damric]

The Athlon II X4 640 WILL NOT work in your current board. AM3 socket CPU's need a AM3 or AM3+ socket motherboard for them to work in.

Actually they do work on AM2+ motherboards and even some AM2, but OP's motherboard is a DELL OEM with locked BIOS and no updates.

Here is my Phenom II on AM2+ 4.1GHz

 

[bam2321]

Planning on upgrading from my Phenom 9600 to a Athlon x4 640, due to a bottleneck. I understand the possibility of the AM3 not fitting into the motherboard but I want to take the risk. I just need your feedback to if you think my Phenom is bottlenecking my GPU more then my slow memory or if I could get an even faster processor for cheap. my budget is around probably $120. If also you can find a motherboard - cpu - memory combo for that price that would be great but I'm not expecting that. Any help will be appreciated.

My specs:
ECS MCP61PM-GM
Phenom x4 9600
Sapphire Radeon 7770 Ghz Edition
6 Gigs of 333mhz memory
Phoenix Technologies | LTD 6.00 | 11/26/2007 | - BIOS

This is by far your best bet.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 750K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($79.49 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A55M-HD2 Micro ATX FM2 Motherboard ($34.99 @ Micro Center)
Total: $114.48
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-06-03 15:08 EDT-0400)

That will be much faster than even the x4 640, and you should no bottleneck from the CPU.

Your RAM is ultra slow. Is it DDR2? Are you sure it isn't 1333?

It is 333Mhz xD. I'm gonna follow your advice since that looks pretty cheap, I'll raise the budget a little for a RAM upgrade. Thanks.

 

[logainofhades]

Planning on upgrading from my Phenom 9600 to a Athlon x4 640, due to a bottleneck. I understand the possibility of the AM3 not fitting into the motherboard but I want to take the risk. I just need your feedback to if you think my Phenom is bottlenecking my GPU more then my slow memory or if I could get an even faster processor for cheap. my budget is around probably $120. If also you can find a motherboard - cpu - memory combo for that price that would be great but I'm not expecting that. Any help will be appreciated.

Around 70% CPU Usage on each core when I'm playing CS:GO.
About 30% GPU usage.
60% Physical Memory.

My specs:
ECS MCP61PM-GM
Phenom x4 9600
Sapphire Radeon 7770 Ghz Edition
6 Gigs of 333mhz memory
Phoenix Technologies | LTD 6.00 | 11/26/2007 | - BIOS

I would normall say yes get the Athlon II, but...

That motherboard came out of a pre-built PC like a DELL. It has no BIOS update to allow it to function with the Athlon II, so sorry it's out of the question.

If you still want an upgrade on the cheap, the FM2 Athlons are pretty good. Unfortunately you will need a new motherboard and new RAM.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 760K 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor ($84.73 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock FM2A75M Pro4+ Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard ($59.49 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Trident X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2400 Memory ($76.50 @ Newegg)
Total: $220.72
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-06-03 15:20 EDT-0400)

Add in case and windows copy as well. OEM cases are normally proprietary. Only OEM I have ever seen not use them are older Emachines. Theirs appears to be a gateway/acer board. I don't really recommend FM2/FM2+ due to the letdown known as Kaveri. I don't expect we shall see much improvements on the APU side from AMD anytime soon. An i3 with H97 at least gives an upgrade path to broadwell.

 

[damric]

Planning on upgrading from my Phenom 9600 to a Athlon x4 640, due to a bottleneck. I understand the possibility of the AM3 not fitting into the motherboard but I want to take the risk. I just need your feedback to if you think my Phenom is bottlenecking my GPU more then my slow memory or if I could get an even faster processor for cheap. my budget is around probably $120. If also you can find a motherboard - cpu - memory combo for that price that would be great but I'm not expecting that. Any help will be appreciated.

Around 70% CPU Usage on each core when I'm playing CS:GO.
About 30% GPU usage.
60% Physical Memory.

My specs:
ECS MCP61PM-GM
Phenom x4 9600
Sapphire Radeon 7770 Ghz Edition
6 Gigs of 333mhz memory
Phoenix Technologies | LTD 6.00 | 11/26/2007 | - BIOS

I would normall say yes get the Athlon II, but...

That motherboard came out of a pre-built PC like a DELL. It has no BIOS update to allow it to function with the Athlon II, so sorry it's out of the question.

If you still want an upgrade on the cheap, the FM2 Athlons are pretty good. Unfortunately you will need a new motherboard and new RAM.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 760K 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor ($84.73 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock FM2A75M Pro4+ Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard ($59.49 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Trident X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2400 Memory ($76.50 @ Newegg)
Total: $220.72
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-06-03 15:20 EDT-0400)

Add in case and windows copy as well. OEM cases are normally proprietary. Only OEM I have ever seen not use them are older Emachines. Theirs appears to be a gateway/acer board. I don't really recommend FM2/FM2+ due to the letdown known as Kaveri. I don't expect we shall see much improvements on the APU side from AMD anytime soon. An i3 with H97 at least gives an upgrade path to broadwell.

Yeah really add another Benjamin unless you can get a discount student copy.

 

[bam2321]

Planning on upgrading from my Phenom 9600 to a Athlon x4 640, due to a bottleneck. I understand the possibility of the AM3 not fitting into the motherboard but I want to take the risk. I just need your feedback to if you think my Phenom is bottlenecking my GPU more then my slow memory or if I could get an even faster processor for cheap. my budget is around probably $120. If also you can find a motherboard - cpu - memory combo for that price that would be great but I'm not expecting that. Any help will be appreciated.

Around 70% CPU Usage on each core when I'm playing CS:GO.
About 30% GPU usage.
60% Physical Memory.

My specs:
ECS MCP61PM-GM
Phenom x4 9600
Sapphire Radeon 7770 Ghz Edition
6 Gigs of 333mhz memory
Phoenix Technologies | LTD 6.00 | 11/26/2007 | - BIOS

I would normall say yes get the Athlon II, but...

That motherboard came out of a pre-built PC like a DELL. It has no BIOS update to allow it to function with the Athlon II, so sorry it's out of the question.

If you still want an upgrade on the cheap, the FM2 Athlons are pretty good. Unfortunately you will need a new motherboard and new RAM.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 760K 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor ($84.73 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock FM2A75M Pro4+ Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard ($59.49 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Trident X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2400 Memory ($76.50 @ Newegg)
Total: $220.72
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-06-03 15:20 EDT-0400)

Add in case and windows copy as well. OEM cases are normally proprietary. Only OEM I have ever seen not use them are older Emachines. Theirs appears to be a gateway/acer board. I don't really recommend FM2/FM2+ due to the letdown known as Kaveri. I don't expect we shall see much improvements on the APU side from AMD anytime soon. An i3 with H97 at least gives an upgrade path to broadwell.

Yeah really add another Benjamin unless you can get a discount student copy.

So what if I get what he put on there + a case and carry over my HDD from my current PC, won't that work out?
Edit: Plus a PSU because I don't believe 400W is enough.

 

[damric]

Planning on upgrading from my Phenom 9600 to a Athlon x4 640, due to a bottleneck. I understand the possibility of the AM3 not fitting into the motherboard but I want to take the risk. I just need your feedback to if you think my Phenom is bottlenecking my GPU more then my slow memory or if I could get an even faster processor for cheap. my budget is around probably $120. If also you can find a motherboard - cpu - memory combo for that price that would be great but I'm not expecting that. Any help will be appreciated.

Around 70% CPU Usage on each core when I'm playing CS:GO.
About 30% GPU usage.
60% Physical Memory.

My specs:
ECS MCP61PM-GM
Phenom x4 9600
Sapphire Radeon 7770 Ghz Edition
6 Gigs of 333mhz memory
Phoenix Technologies | LTD 6.00 | 11/26/2007 | - BIOS

I would normall say yes get the Athlon II, but...

That motherboard came out of a pre-built PC like a DELL. It has no BIOS update to allow it to function with the Athlon II, so sorry it's out of the question.

If you still want an upgrade on the cheap, the FM2 Athlons are pretty good. Unfortunately you will need a new motherboard and new RAM.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 760K 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor ($84.73 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock FM2A75M Pro4+ Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard ($59.49 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Trident X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2400 Memory ($76.50 @ Newegg)
Total: $220.72
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-06-03 15:20 EDT-0400)

Add in case and windows copy as well. OEM cases are normally proprietary. Only OEM I have ever seen not use them are older Emachines. Theirs appears to be a gateway/acer board. I don't really recommend FM2/FM2+ due to the letdown known as Kaveri. I don't expect we shall see much improvements on the APU side from AMD anytime soon. An i3 with H97 at least gives an upgrade path to broadwell.

Yeah really add another Benjamin unless you can get a discount student copy.

So what if I get what he put on there + a case and carry over my HDD from my current PC, won't that work out?

As soon as Windows sees a new motherboard, it invalidates the OEM license. It is possible sometimes to call Microsoft and re-activate it.

A good 450W will be plenty to push that GPU.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 760K 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor ($84.73 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock FM2A75M Pro4+ Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard ($59.49 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Trident X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2400 Memory ($76.50 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($61.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $282.70
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-06-03 15:39 EDT-0400)

 

[bgunner]

The Athlon II X4 640 WILL NOT work in your current board. AM3 socket CPU's need a AM3 or AM3+ socket motherboard for them to work in.

Actually they do work on AM2+ motherboards and even some AM2, but OP's motherboard is a DELL OEM with locked BIOS and no updates.

Here is my Phenom II on AM2+ 4.1GHz

I to have a AM2+ motherboard is stated in my sig running the Athlon II x4 640 But trying to find a new AM2+ board is extremely hard not to mention expensive now.

Some acers also, like the aspire, use a standard mounting plate in their cases. This allows for the case to be reused. Dell was the major one to be notorious for there proprietary crap like the CPU power connector. Because of the standards that have been put on Motherboards all plugs and pins are all wired the same now. Even if you do not have the proper wireing configuration you can usually find a diagram and change the wire pinning.

 

[bam2321]

I just need: Motherboard, RAM, CPU, Case and possibly a new PSU. Can someone pick me the cheapest possible parts that I would notice improvement with? I don't need to run BF4 on Ultra 120 FPS, I just want to be capable of getting a decent FPS in Counter Strike Global Offensive while streaming. I feel bad for asking you guys to do it for me but I don't understand much about motherboards etc.

 

[damric]

Added case

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 760K 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor ($84.73 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock FM2A75M Pro4+ Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard ($59.49 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Trident X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2400 Memory ($76.50 @ Newegg)
Case: Cougar Archon ATX Mid Tower Case ($39.99 @ Mwave)
Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($61.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $322.69
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-06-03 15:48 EDT-0400)

 

[bam2321]

Added case

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 760K 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor ($84.73 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock FM2A75M Pro4+ Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard ($59.49 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Trident X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2400 Memory ($76.50 @ Newegg)
Case: Cougar Archon ATX Mid Tower Case ($39.99 @ Mwave)
Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($61.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $322.69
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-06-03 15:48 EDT-0400)

So if I would get this and take my current GPU and HDD out of my PC and put it into here, the OS wouldn't work. I've never built a PC only upgraded and my PC is a Gateway - GM5664. Can someone walk me through how it works?

 

[damric]

All you will need is a Phills Head screwdriver.

The case I linked has a lot of quick connects, so it should be pretty easy. You will never buy a desktop again after you see how easy this is.

The tedious part to me is installing a new OS. Speaking of that, would you also want to put your new OS on a Solid State Drive? The Crucial 120GB is only $70 right now. SSD can make even cheap computer feel very quick.

 

[logainofhades]

Wish H91 boards would come out already. Difficult to meet budgets with expensive H97 boards.....

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i3-4130 3.4GHz Dual-Core Processor ($118.29 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($49.98 @ OutletPC)
Memory: G.Skill Sniper 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($71.10 @ Newegg)
Case: Thermaltake Versa H22 ATX Mid Tower Case ($33.03 @ Mwave)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($48.91 @ Amazon)
Total: $321.31
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-06-03 16:00 EDT-0400)

 

[bam2321]

Probably $350 would be my budget and I don't think 120 GB would be enough memory for me. Just a question, would a cracked version of windows on a USB boot device work? Just a question :3.

 

[Zircoben]

All you will need is a Phills Head screwdriver.

The case I linked has a lot of quick connects, so it should be pretty easy. You will never buy a desktop again after you see how easy this is.

The tedious part to me is installing a new OS. Speaking of that, would you also want to put your new OS on a Solid State Drive? The Crucial 120GB is only $70 right now. SSD can make even cheap computer feel very quick.

You probably don't need that expensive or good of a PSU.

That case is pretty huge, even if it is a good one. If we are going with a MicroATX motherboard, we might as well get a smaller case. I have the Cooler Master N200 and it is excellent:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 750K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($79.49 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A55M-HD2 Micro ATX FM2 Motherboard ($34.99 @ Micro Center)
Memory: G.Skill NS Series 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($34.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.43 @ OutletPC)
Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($34.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA 430W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply ($24.99 @ Micro Center)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $353.86
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-06-03 16:05 EDT-0400)

 

[Zircoben]

Probably $350 would be my budget and I don't think 120 GB would be enough memory for me. Just a question, would a cracked version of windows on a USB boot device work? Just a question :3.

Do you still have the COA on your old box? You probably could semi-legally use a cracked version.

 

[bam2321]

All you will need is a Phills Head screwdriver.

The case I linked has a lot of quick connects, so it should be pretty easy. You will never buy a desktop again after you see how easy this is.

The tedious part to me is installing a new OS. Speaking of that, would you also want to put your new OS on a Solid State Drive? The Crucial 120GB is only $70 right now. SSD can make even cheap computer feel very quick.

You probably don't need that expensive or good of a PSU.

That case is pretty huge, even if it is a good one. If we are going with a MicroATX motherboard, we might as well get a smaller case. I have the Cooler Master N200 and it is excellent:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 750K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($79.49 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A55M-HD2 Micro ATX FM2 Motherboard ($34.99 @ Micro Center)
Memory: G.Skill NS Series 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($34.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.43 @ OutletPC)
Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($34.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA 430W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply ($24.99 @ Micro Center)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $353.86
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-06-03 16:05 EDT-0400)

Probably $350 would be my budget and I don't think 120 GB would be enough memory for me. Just a question, would a cracked version of windows on a USB boot device work? Just a question :3.

Do you still have the COA on your old box? You probably could semi-legally use a cracked version.

Nope, I recently upgraded from Windows Vista to 7 though with just a USB. Sounds like your can't do the same for a fresh PC? Might of been legal, possibly not :3. - Not aware of what rules this forum has on pirating etc.

 

[Zircoben]

All you will need is a Phills Head screwdriver.

The case I linked has a lot of quick connects, so it should be pretty easy. You will never buy a desktop again after you see how easy this is.

The tedious part to me is installing a new OS. Speaking of that, would you also want to put your new OS on a Solid State Drive? The Crucial 120GB is only $70 right now. SSD can make even cheap computer feel very quick.

You probably don't need that expensive or good of a PSU.

That case is pretty huge, even if it is a good one. If we are going with a MicroATX motherboard, we might as well get a smaller case. I have the Cooler Master N200 and it is excellent:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 750K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($79.49 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A55M-HD2 Micro ATX FM2 Motherboard ($34.99 @ Micro Center)
Memory: G.Skill NS Series 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($34.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.43 @ OutletPC)
Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($34.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA 430W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply ($24.99 @ Micro Center)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $353.86
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-06-03 16:05 EDT-0400)

Probably $350 would be my budget and I don't think 120 GB would be enough memory for me. Just a question, would a cracked version of windows on a USB boot device work? Just a question :3.

Do you still have the COA on your old box? You probably could semi-legally use a cracked version.

Nope, I recently upgraded from Windows Vista to 7 though with just a USB. Sounds like your can't do the same for a fresh PC?

You can use upgrade media to install clean, that's what I did with 8. Windows then asked for my appropriate Windows 7 key though after.

I would just buy Windows 8.1 legally. It's not worth jumping through everything, and in all respects, give Microsoft the money they rightfully deserve.

 

[bam2321]

But the money struggle is real right now, family probably can't even afford this for me but I'm just preparing for the future. Also, I'm gonna get Windows 7. I respect Windows and all but I don't like to spend money when I can get something cheaper or free.

 

[bam2321]

https://www.g2a.com/microsoft-windows-7-professional-32-64-bit-global.html

Is this just a upgrade or could something like this work?

 

[Zircoben]

But the money struggle is real right now, family probably can't even afford this for me but I'm just preparing for the future. Also, I'm gonna get Windows 7. I respect Windows and all but I don't like to spend money when I can get something cheaper or free.

Have you tried Linux? Just use this: http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop

You can use it legally until you can afford Windows.

You could always try sticking your old HDD in your new computer and booting it up to see if Windows works right.

In that case, all you will need is this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 750K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($79.49 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A55M-HD2 Micro ATX FM2 Motherboard ($34.99 @ Micro Center)
Memory: G.Skill NS Series 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($34.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($34.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA 430W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply ($24.99 @ Micro Center)
Total: $209.45
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-06-03 16:20 EDT-0400)