Upgrading Motherboard and Processor under $500 (30000-35000 INR)

[Pushparaaj]

Hi,

Cpu upgrade for workstation and gaming ..

Here is my current specfication

AMD FX- 8120 Eight-Core with 3.1Ghz Processor (current - lyk to upgrade),
M5A88-M Motherboard (current - lyk to upgrade),
500 GB WD Hard Disk
12GB RAM
Sapphire AMD/ATI Radeon R9 270X 2GB Graphic Card
Corsair 550W PSU..


I would lyk to upgrade mainly my motherboard and processor with rest of the properties in it (Hardisk can be an additional upgrade).. I am using it for workstation (3dsmax, Maya, Mudbox and other designing tools) with some gaming.. Please help me out with best spec to boost my cpu under $500..




Thanks in advance

 

[FD2Raptor]

The pick to boost your cpu:

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B85M-D3H : 6.499 INR @ Amazon India
CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230v3 3.3-3.7Ghz : 25.000 INR @ Amazon India

Totaling : 31.499 INR

or Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4-3.8Ghz : 25.499 INR @ Amazon India (+499 INR)

The Xeon E3 would perform better than the FX (in the comparison is the Xeon E3 1225v3 which has 4 less threads, and run at lower clock speed than either the 1230v3 or the 1231v3).

As far as I understand, 3dsmax, Maya, Mudbox could also reap great benefits from a better graphic card. Therefore, depends on what you're unhappy about your current system, something like a GTX 1060 may be what you want instead:

Palit GTX 1060 6GB Super JetStream : 27,500 INR + 125 INR Delivery charge @ @ Amazon India

 

[Pushparaaj]

Thanks for your valuable answer...

Actually i forget to mention a note... 6 months back i have purchased Radeon R9 270X 2GB Graphic Card, 8GB DDR3 Vengeance Ram and Corsair 550W PSU for my cpu.. Now unfortunately i am having a problem with my motherboard, so i have planned to purchase a motherboard which should be compatible with my existing properties.. Instead of buying same old motherboard i would lyk to buy a best motherboard for my existing spec..


As my processor is getting old i am afford to buy a new processor in advance..


Is it worth to continue old spec with some advance motherboard and processor ???
or to go for new specification??

 

[FD2Raptor]

To tell the truth, with that information, I'd say just replace the MB and wait till the end of 2016, beginning of 2017 when the next round of Intel/AMD CPU/chipsets/MB would hit. Even if their pricing could be out of your budget, their presence should help lowering the price of current gen hardware giving you a better cost-to-performance ratio.

 

[Pushparaaj]

I love that.. But at the same time i have my projects on pending.. I cannot wait until 2017 starts.. I need to replace my motherboard as soon as possible.. For that can you suggest me with some higher motherboard than my failed M5A88M motherboard...???

 

[FD2Raptor]

Then I suppose you can get the MSI 970 Gaming (INR 8,299; it is the last one available at Amazon) which is known to work even with the higher clocked 8370 4Ghz.

 

[Pushparaaj]

Thank you Raptor

But still i want to clarify with some other motherboards like Asus M5A97 and Asus 970 Pro Gaming/AURA... Whats the difference between these two motherboards and msi 970.. Which one has best spec and quality.. Price doesnt matter for me with these motherboard, but it should have some long life and quality..

 

[FD2Raptor]

The Asus M5A97 versions that have heatsink over its VRM is workable with the FX-8120; the BIOS tends to automatically apply some amount of overclock to the CPU however, so you'd need to check to make sure that it won't overdo it for your cooling setup (since all M5A97 are only 4+1 power phase, they aren't really designed to provide power to OCed 8cores FX).

Both the ASUS 970 PRO GAMING/AURA and the MSI 970 Gaming have sufficiently powerful power delivery system to support 8cores FX. If the ASUS is available at around the MSI price then it's the better choice. If not, the MSI is the better buy.

The Pro Gaming Aura has RGB LED, Intel LAN chip (with lower CPU utilization during networked activities and slightly superior max data rate), USB3.1 (PCIe 2x lanes 10gbps), a M2 slot (only PCIe 2.0 x4 though, half-speed compare to those in high end Intel Z97/H170/Z170/X99 solution), the additional fan header for liquid cooling solution for CPU, all chassis fan headers are the 4pin type.

The MSI lacked the LED, use the Killer E2205 LAN chip instead (comes with its own software to automatically manage networked applications priority), it doesn't have USB3.1 but only 2x USB 3.0 (5gbps; both have 6xUSB 2.0), it neither has the M2 slot nor the extra CPU fan header for liquid cooling solution, and two of its chassis fan headers are 3pin type (won't automatically adjust speed).

It may sound like the ASUS is completely better, but really, a lot of its features are more fluff type and may only barely affect you one way or the other. Add to the fact that this AM3+ platform is at a dead end, paying too much for a MB of this platform is really not recommended, so unless those things that the 970 ProGaming/Aura has that the 970 Gaming has-not are things that you know you need (or as I said earlier, the 970 ProGamingAura is priced competitively with the 970Gaming), otherwise, it's much smarter spending to go for the 970 Gaming instead.

 

[Pushparaaj]

Comes to quality and manufacturing which is better??? MSI 970 or Asus 970 PRO GAMING/AURA?? And Which has long life and low failures???

 

[FD2Raptor]

They'll both have about the same lifespan given the same cooling setup. The 8cores FX are a big heat producer, if your case have sufficient ventilation and the CPU is equipped with a good top-down cooler to help cool down the VRMs of these board, they're gonna be living for quite some time (exception for PSU failure, power outage or lightning strike, etc... which can shorten or outright kill PC component/s).