Upgrading motherboard, CPU, and RAM

[teslonelf]

I've been out of the parts game for about 5 years now, so I don't know what brands are good anymore, and I've forgotten a lot of what I'm looking for in parts, so I decided to ask for some help.

My computer was built 5 years ago with no upgrades excluding a new graphics card and a blu-ray writer.

Current parts:
Gigabyte MA790FX-UD5P
AMD Phenom 9950 Black Edition
2x2GB OCZ 1066 DDR2
Thermaltake 1000W TR2
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD6870 (8 months old)
Seagate 500GB 7200RPM (System Drive)
3x Seagate 1.5TB 7200RPM
HP DVD1040 DVD+/-RW LightScribe
LG SuperMulti BR-RW LightScribe
Acer V223w 22" 1680x1050

I want to upgrade my motherboard, CPU, and RAM. I used to be very brand loyal, but at this point I'm just looking for what will give me the best performance, for the longest amount of time, for less than 500-600. While my brand preferences are Gigabyte for MB, AMD for CPU, and OCZ for RAM, I'm willing to go outside these for better, longer-lasting performance.

The computer is used for gaming and internet browsing for the most part, I am also writing a book on it.

If I forgot to mention anything, ask me and I'll give you the details.

 

[tracerbullet]

My simple approach is to check reviews. Assuming you know the parts and roughly know the specs, I check reviews next. If one item has 1,000 reviews and a 2 star rating, I'll skip it in favor of the one with 5 stars and 3,000 reviews. Within reason I'll even take a slightly more expensive part if I get a warm fuzzy feeling it'll perform and not break. Sounds too simple perhaps but it's worked well for me.

Other than those three items, will you keep everything else? What do you do w/ the PC and what's your budget? You won't get good answers w/ out some more info.

Is there something you're looking to do better than you do now, or do you just have the bug? Sometimes the best answer is to leave it the hell alone.

Some more RAM, an O/S upgrade to use it, and an SSD can make almost any machine feel new. Perhaps a video card upgrade if you game. Maybe the board and chip are fine?

 

[frozentundra123456]

I've been out of the parts game for about 5 years now, so I don't know what brands are good anymore, and I've forgotten a lot of what I'm looking for in parts, so I decided to ask for some help.

My computer was built 5 years ago with no upgrades excluding a new graphics card and a blu-ray writer.

Current parts:
Gigabyte MA790FX-UD5P
AMD Phenom 9950 Black Edition
2x2GB OCZ 1066 DDR2
Thermaltake 1000W TR2
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD6870 (8 months old)
Seagate 500GB 7200RPM (System Drive)
3x Seagate 1.5TB 7200RPM
HP DVD1040 DVD+/-RW LightScribe
LG SuperMulti BR-RW LightScribe
Acer V223w 22" 1680x1050

I want to upgrade my motherboard, CPU, and RAM. I used to be very brand loyal, but at this point I'm just looking for what will give me the best performance, for the longest amount of time, for less than 500-600. While my brand preferences are Gigabyte for MB, AMD for CPU, and OCZ for RAM, I'm willing to go outside these for better, longer-lasting performance.

The computer is used for gaming and internet browsing for the most part, I am also writing a book on it.

If I forgot to mention anything, ask me and I'll give you the details.

Not sure what to suggest. Your current sysem does not seem that bad if you overclock the cpu. My first suggestion actually would be to upgrade the monitor. My suggestion for upgrading CPU and GPU would be 3570k and maybe HD7870. I dont know that much about motherboards, so I will let someone else suggest one. But honestly, I would think the system that you have would be pretty adequate for 1680x1050.

 

[Torn Mind]

OCZ is no longer in the RAM business. For RAM, I like G.Skill because it's often sold at cheaper prices ($19.99 for a pair of 1333 MHz 2 GB sticks) yet I still get quality.

If you want best performance for the longest time, then a core i5 3570k(Ivy Bridge) or i5-2500k(Sandy Bridge) pair up with a Z77 mobo is the way to go for your purposes.

I am not too versed in graphics cards so I let those in the know tell you whether an upgrade in that is necessary.

I never had an SSD, but by the anecdotes of those who have used them, the improvement in computing experience is very high to the point they'd never go back to using a mechnical hard drive as the system drive. But beware, SSDs have their reliability issues too.

 

[mfenn]

OCZ doesn't make RAM anymore (mostly because it turned to crap and nobody bought it) and AMD doesn't have a competitive CPU in the price range you're looking at. Here's what I'd do on your budget:

i5 3570K $215
ASRock Z77 Pro3 $95
Samsung DDR3 1600 8GB $35
Crucial M4 128GB $110 - replace system drive with this
Total: $455

This will give you a very substantial performance boost over an original Phenom and mechanical drive when it comes to general usage.