Worth while upgrade?

[Raynor772]

So with the addition of a AMD Phenom II X4 970 Black Edition CPU with the stock cooler and no overclocks on anything, this is my current pc.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/4yscFT

I'm considering upgrading the cpu to a FX-8350 Black Edition coupled with a Corsair h100i cooler. I want to know if that's worth it. I'm not looking to SLI in the near future. I'm not that well versed on the nitty gritty of performance specs, so if there's anything better you guys can suggest for around $300 I'd be glad to hear it. Also the monitor is an old(?) HP w2207.

 

[Gam3r01]

Whats up with the 3 different drives?
That aside, there are several things I would recommend looking into.

You should look into a new processor, as the Phenom with bottleneck pretty heavily.
A SSD would be a valuable addition to the build.
Corsairs CX lineup uses cheap capacitors that tend to fail often. I wouldnt replace it if you are trying to save money, but most of them will go out eventually.

I would recommend making the switch to an intel CPU+MOBO, as it will give you the best performance upgrade compared to the 8320.
If you want to save money you could go for the FX processor and grab an SSD instead. However, know that motherboard lacks VRM heatsinks, meaning OCing becomes harder on the board.

 

[Demosthenest]

I would most definetly upgrade the cpu. Are you going to overclock? Does your motherboard suport it? What motherboard do you have? If you are not overclocking, a cheap air cooler like the cooler amster 212 evo should do the job at a much lower price.

 

[Raynor772]

About the drives, I was going to say that the 500GB is my OS, and I've been playing my games off the 3TB one, just now realizing it's the slowest drive. Eventually I will over clock, but not until I learn more about it. The motherboard is in the build link, an ASUS m5a97 Le r2.0. I've always stuck with AMD, more familiarity than preference, what Intel mobo and Cpu would you suggest for $300 max?

 

[Gam3r01]

This would be good under 300, it is a locked CPU however, but it will perform better than an AMD cpu with an OC

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($185.88 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Asus H97-PLUS ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($95.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $281.87
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-10 15:10 EST-0500

 

[Demosthenest]

This is a bit more expensive but it's overclockable.
PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/LjPJmG
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/LjPJmG/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($219.88 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: MSI Z97 PC MATE ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $299.87
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-10 15:18 EST-0500

 

[Gam3r01]

I dont like the PC mate motherboards, and there arent any quality Z97 boards under 80 dollars (to keep it under 300)

 

[Raynor772]

So I know next to nothing about comparing these things real performance, but Passmark Cpu benchmarks show mine around 4000... the fx-8350 at 9000 but the i5 you showed is only around 7200... that's only 1.5x as good compared to 2x with amd, where I could water cool and over clock the fx for the same price.

 

[Gam3r01]

Passmark does not represent gaming performance.
There is no AMD processor even on the same tier as the i5s
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106-5.html

 

[Demosthenest]

So I know next to nothing about comparing these things real performance, but Passmark Cpu benchmarks show mine around 4000... the fx-8350 at 9000 but the i5 you showed is only around 7200... that's only 1.5x as good compared to 2x with amd, where I could water cool and over clock the fx for the same price.

Raynor, even the worst i5 is better than the fx 8350 at gaming.

 

[Raynor772]

Ah, well see I said I didn't know, now I do, thanks for the info : ).