Upgrading, advice appreciated

[iced_tea]

Approximate Purchase Date: Next month

Budget Range: up to around £400

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming yo

Are you buying a monitor: No

Parts to Upgrade: CPU, RAM, MOBO, GFX, potentially harddrive

Do you need to buy OS: Yes

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: newegg seem to have the best prices?

Location: England

Parts Preferences: None really

Overclocking: Probably, have a fan sitting around for it

SLI or Crossfire: Probably not

Your Monitor Resolution: 1680x1050

Additional Comments/why upgrade: Will be using old case and PSU, HDD as well if it's going to work alright with the rest, these are as follows:

Antec 900
Corsair HX 520W
Samsung HD502IJ (500GB SATA)

I've not much desire for multi monitor business, I have a T.V. I like to move web pages over to using the extend or duplicate function but that's about it. I suppose it would be nice to know that in the future, I would be able to purchase another monitor and have the hardware to run applications on both well.

I'd like to know that the build will serve me for a good 5 years before having to generally turn settings below medium/high, my current has lasted 8 years which I think is pretty good but it really struggles now.

Will the HDD drag down performance if I don't upgrade it?

Here are the parts I've come up with, would like to know if there's anything I should be aware of that I being quite unknowledgable (was my brother who built it for me those years ago I just watched lol) might not realise! I have a vague recollection of timings and clock speeds, need to brush up on it.

AMD FX-8350
http://www.newegg.com/global/uk/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113284&cm_re=fx_8350-_-19-113-284-_-Product

GIGABYTE GA-990FX
http://www.newegg.com/global/uk/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128886&cm_re=990Fx-_-13-128-886-_-Product

Crucial Ballistix Sport 1x8GB 1600mhz
http://www.newegg.com/global/uk/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148540&cm_re=crucial_ballistix_sport_8gb-_-20-148-540-_-Product

MSI Radeon R7 370
http://www.newegg.com/global/uk/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127886&cm_re=radeon-_-14-127-886-_-Product


If I need a far higher budget to future proof the build then I'll just have to be happy with being able to run current games well, otherwise if chucking in an extra £50, maybe £100 all in all will be more than worth the paper I would definitely like to know how! Is there a better choice for RAM?

 

[Outlander_04]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (£168.99 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: MSI H170 Gaming M3 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£88.99 @ More Computers)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (£39.05 @ More Computers)
Video Card: Asus Radeon R7 370 2GB Video Card (£118.77 @ Ebuyer)
Total: £415.80
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-03-18 22:25 GMT+0000

a chance to move to the latest 14 nm technology and use way less power

 

[X79]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£186.99 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: MSI Z97 PC MATE ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£64.99 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury White 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£29.49 @ Ebuyer)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 960 2GB Superclocked Video Card (£158.99 @ Ebuyer)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 OEM (64-bit) (£59.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £500.45
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-03-18 23:33 GMT+0000

This build is better because:

- You said you needed an OS. So an OS is included in the price. Which the last guy didn't include.
- Outlanders build is good and is the most modern, but this one sacrifices some of that, for lower pricing, to allow for better components.
- Superior GPU to the R7 370
- Dual-channel RAM instead of just 1 stick of single-channel RAM
- An i5 CPU which can also be overclocked, unlike Outlanders CPU and i5s are around the same or better than FX-8350

An HDD can definitely drag down performance. Perhaps most notably load times. Which is why people often put games onto
SSDs, which are a faster kind of HDD. For a normal HDD, you want it to run at 7200RPM and not less.
Even though this build has a 2 generation old CPU, it won't matter much, because the differences in performance between
the newest one and this one, aren't that big. So I'm confident this CPU and build will give you a pretty decent run for your money.
I would've put in a GTX 970 ideally, but that would further blow the budget, when Windows already takes up a substantial part.
You can also run multiple monitors with this; although if they're VGA, it won't run. This card is too modern for that. Instead
it has a wealth of other ports, right from HDMI to DVI-I. So check your current monitor to make sure it has HDMI at least.

As you can see, that's BF4 at over the minimum of 30FPS, at ultra settings. So it's quite powerful. That's at 1920 x 1080p too, which means
it's actually higher than the resolution you listed as having. So if you run that same game at your resolution, you'll get even better
performance. Resolution makes a big difference in how much FPS you get. I think you'll be able to play many newer titles
at or around medium to high settings; especially if you stick to below 1920 x 1080, also known as Full HD.

If I take away Windows and don't count it into the budget and instead add a GTX 970

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£186.99 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: MSI Z97 PC MATE ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£64.99 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury White 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£29.49 @ Ebuyer)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card (£264.98 @ Novatech)
Total: £546.45
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-03-18 23:48 GMT+0000

Then that's what you get. All in all though, the first build is quite solid and if you need an HDD, they're pretty cheap.

 

[iced_tea]

Thank you both! Will have to think about saving a fair bit more by the looks of things, I appreciate taking a harder hit now will save me effort and money in the long run. However, would the 8350 not be on par wth the i5s when oc'ed? (and the i5 stock) or is it more about the generation of chip potentially holding back future upgrades?

 

[X79]

I wouldn't recommend you think about the future so much, because it's quite uncertain in a variety of ways. Just get what you need
now; that's often best in my experience. Without wanting to start a debate... In general the FX-8350 is at the same level as the i5.
You won't necessarily feel any difference with an OC on either CPU.