Thinking of switching motherboards for a new CPU

[Jengallan]

honestly i want a new cpu as my current one if lagging behind, not sure if i should keep going with my current motherboard though. So I'm asking what are the main differences in the Gigabyte F2A55M-HD2 Motherboard FM2 socket, and the ASUS AMD AM3+ 760G 2*DDR3 8*USB2.0 GBE LAN Micro-ATX MOTHERBOARD, like would there be any problem if i switch over with a new cpu for the new socket, I'm also open to any other advice if there is a similar but better upgrade choice i could take

 

[xFeaRDom]

Main differences, the FM2 socket is at the end of its road, and has been for a while, yet AM3+ is the most recent AMD socket, I believe.

Do you have a budget in mind as I can assist you on this.

 

[Jengallan]

300€ is my budget.I use my PC for gaming and want to get back into being able to play more current games with a respectable FPS.

 

[xFeaRDom]

300€ is my budget.I use my PC for gaming and want to get back into being able to play more current games with a respectable FPS.

What country are you currently living in, to get a more estimated budget, as some countries its cheaper and so on.

 

[Jengallan]

Ireland, although I buy from amazon. Also i could bump up the budget to 350€.

 

[xFeaRDom]

Ireland, although I buy from amazon.

Alright, fair enough 😛 Was expecting like Germany or something but that makes it easier on me :lol:

So you use Amazon.co.uk right?

Would you prefer 8GB of RAM or 16GB?

Also, how much RAM do you currently have?

 

[Jengallan]

Well i was looking at the AMD FX8320 8 core and the ASUS AMD AM3+ 760G 2*DDR3 8*USB2.0 GBE LAN Micro-ATX MOTHERBOARD as a reasonable upgrade, just as long as its a good upgrade for my money and wont break everything, also i have no sound card and use the nvidia gt640 just to give you some specs

 

[gdmaclew]

Am I correct in assuming that you will not be using a discrete graphics card?

 

[xFeaRDom]

Well i was looking at the AMD FX8320 8 core and the ASUS AMD AM3+ 760G 2*DDR3 8*USB2.0 GBE LAN Micro-ATX MOTHERBOARD as a reasonable upgrade, just as long as its a good upgrade for my money and wont break everything, also i have no sound card and use the nvidia gt640 just to give you some specs

For about £300 you can get quite a good upgrade:

PCPartPicker part list: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/DvXvd6
Price breakdown by merchant: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/DvXvd6/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor (£189.99 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Asus H81M-PLUS Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£49.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £239.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-11-29 14:09 GMT+0000

There's also this for a bit extra:

PCPartPicker part list: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/TKzZgs
Price breakdown by merchant: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/TKzZgs/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i5-6400 2.7GHz Quad-Core Processor (£170.99 @ Novatech)
Motherboard: MSI H110M Gaming Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£59.99 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (£49.64 @ Ebuyer)
Total: £280.62
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-11-29 14:10 GMT+0000

This allows a greater upgrade path, with it being the LGA1151 Socket, you can upgrade to an i5-6500, 6600, or 6700, if you wish to overclock you'd have to change motherboard again, but this allows a good upgrade path in the future.

With the first build, you can re-use the RAM in your current build.

Edit: You can also drop the i5-6400 to an i3-6100, and that gives you some extra money, so if you save up a bit extra you can purchase a GTX 1050 or GTX 1050Ti to upgrade your GPU.

 

[Jengallan]

i dont really mind the ram, a good balance of price and value would be perfect

 

[xFeaRDom]

i dont really mind the ram, a good balance of price and value would be perfect

Fair enough, take a look at the 3 options above, note that both the i3-6100 and i5-6400 have the greater upgrade path, but the 6400 goes over your £250 budget, which is around 300 euros I believe. The i3-6100 allows you to keep a bit of extra money to purchase a GPU such as the GTX 1050/1050Ti in the near future, that will also boost your performance.

 

[Jengallan]

well shit, thats amazing, i may go with the one with the ram as i have 8 gbs here, but i wasnt expecting such help, one more thing though, i wont have any flak from upgrading with these parts would i? like i have no sound card currently but would i need one if i go this path?

 

[xFeaRDom]

well shit, thats amazing, i may go with the one with the ram as i have 8 gbs here, but i wasnt expecting such help, one more thing though, i wont have any flak from upgrading with these parts would i? like i have no sound card currently but would i need one if i go this path?

Note, that if you go for the 4590, you can re-use your RAM, and if you go for the other 2, you'll get brand new DDR4 RAM, so your DDR3 RAM will not be able to be used.

You don't need a sound card, as these motherboards have sound built into them, so you can just plug it into the back/front depending if you use headphones/speakers and where your personal preference is when connecting them.

My recommendation would be to go for the i3-6100 build, and then save up for a 1050 Ti, then you'll be able to game at some decent FPS, and later on you could upgrade to an i5-6500 or something similar

 

[Jengallan]

well i have a lead on my own for a GPU that will hold me over so im not too focused on that right now, but ill go for the path with the DDR4 ram thank you so much for you help

 

[xFeaRDom]

well i have a lead on my own for a GPU that will hold me over so im not too focused on that right now, but ill go for the path with the DDR4 ram thank you so much for you help

No worries, note that the GPU upgrade will make your computer feel brand new again, bringing some good FPS and settings

Have a great day!

- Dom.