Recommendations for upgrading gaming PC?

[eyeneedhalp]

Specs:
■Motherboard - BIOSTAR Group A960D+ (CPU 1)
■CPU - AMD FX-6300 Vishera 32nm Technology
■Graphics - HP w2207 (1680x1050@60Hz)
1024MB ATI AMD Radeon HD 7700 Series (MSI)
■Ram - 8.00GB Single-Channel DDR3



While I feel all of it needs a bit of an upgrade, I was wondering where I should start. I plan on getting a new piece each month for the next few, and would like performance over aesthetics to start. I know that the motherboard has overheating issues, and was hoping for an upgrade within the 200usd range. Quick search for them and found this list from PC Gamer, but I don't know if the type of motherboard would conflict/work better with the other upgrades I would need. Pretty much, I've been out of the techie world for way too long and don't want to get stuff that wont work smoothly together.

For processors I was thinking of the AMD FX-8320 or Intel Core i5-6500 from the Best CPUs of 2016 list from this site. I think I might be interested in trying to overclock once I get the hang of things again. Although the AMD can be adjusted to a range of frequencies will the shelf life be long enough to not hate myself for buying it in a few months?

Ram is easy, and I'm embarrassed with what I have. My old build from 9 years ago had more -__-

This list is mostly so I keep the ideas in mind instead of just putting it off further. Thank you for reading and any advice you have!

 

[SkyMembrane]

An MSI Z170 Krait Gaming with an I5-6600k and 16GB of DDR4 RAM could give your system a kick. For you GPU, since you plan on upgrading every month for a while, I would suggest that you wait for the new NVidia's PASCAL series, because it will be using HBM2 (High-bandwidth memory V.2) and what was announced looks very promising. If NVidia follows the predictions, Pascal should be announced and release around March or April, which is still soon enough. If you don't want to wait, a GTX970 is a great bang for the buck and it doesn't require that much power.

 

[bicycle_repair_man]

I'd start with the GPU, then the motherboard and CPU in one fell swoop.

If you plan on keeping your monitor then a GTX 950 may suffice; what games are you hoping to play?

I would recommend that you avoid AMD for now as their CPUs are apparently being replaced this year and they'll be on a new socket.

With regards to overclocking, it will only offer a better gaming performance if the CPU is bottlenecked. With an i5, you're unlikely to find yourself in this situation, so overclocking is somewhat moot. Overclocking can be very beneficial in terms of productivity, however. Processing HD video or multiple RAW photos is considerably faster.

 

[eyeneedhalp]

I'd start with the GPU, then the motherboard and CPU in one fell swoop.

If you plan on keeping your monitor then a GTX 950 may suffice; what games are you hoping to play?

I would recommend that you avoid AMD for now as their CPUs are apparently being replaced this year and they'll be on a new socket.

With regards to overclocking, it will only offer a better gaming performance if the CPU is bottlenecked. With an i5, you're unlikely to find yourself in this situation, so overclocking is somewhat moot. Overclocking can be very beneficial in terms of productivity, however. Processing HD video or multiple RAW photos is considerably faster.

I'm hoping to play Tom Clancy's: The Division if Ubisoft does a decent job porting it. I mostly game with my ps4, but started with pc games and miss the sensitivity of the mouse and keyboard. Since this game is mostly cover to cover based, I'd also prefer to play with a bit more mature crowd and that's generally harder to find on consoles.

I'm thinking I'm going to go with the MSI z170, i5, upgrade memory, and get the GTX 950. Think that I'll probably use the old parts and some spare stuff for a work pony and then upgrade to the PASCAL when it comes out so the 950 will still be useful.

Thanks for the tip to avoid AMD! They're last update actually impressed me and made me like them, sooo... I was leaning in that direction.

As for the GTX 950, I see four different options. Which is the one? I'm guessing the FTW model in case I ever hit that bottleneck threshold. And with the DDR4 ram upgrade, does brand really matter?

Actually just came into a bit more than I thought I was going to, so I think I'm going to upgrade it all this next month too!

 

[SkyMembrane]

For your questions, here are my recommendations based on my personal experience.

For the RAM, no. The brand doesn't really matter. I would recommend that you do get a model with heat spreaders and at least 2400Mhz stock, so that upgrading to DDR4 is worth it. Certain brands have RAM modules that are easier to overclock though, but if you're not interested in that, you'd pay a premium for no good reason by going for them.

For the GTX950, go for a model that has a good cooler on it and isn't too expensive, since you're going to upgrade it fairly soon. Right now, Newegg has a pretty good price on the EVGA SC ACX 2.0 model. I have a GTX 970 with ACX 2.0 and that cooler is impressive.

https://pcpartpicker.com/part/evga-video-card-02gp42956kr