Question Upgrading this system ..

Phaetos

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Jan 27, 2005
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I had built a VM server a few years ago and put it to pasture last year. My main gaming PC took a dump, so I brought it out of retirement and moved my 750Ti to it and made it my main PC. Attached is a few CPU-Z pics. I can't afford a total new PC, so I want to upgrade this CPU and RAM on what I've got. Currently an FX-6300 Unlocked Edition @ 95w, with 32GB of apparently some craptastic RAM. Yes, I will be upgrading the 750Ti as well. If I am reading the compatibility lists right for my MSI board, I can put an FX-8300 @ 95w in there and be good. I don't know what to do with the RAM though, I want to stick with 16GB or 32GB, I just like having extra headroom.
 

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Phaetos

Senior member
Jan 27, 2005
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I have no idea what cooler is on my current CPU, probably should upgrade that with the new CPU, recommendations on something decent as well.
 

VirtualLarry

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Aug 25, 2001
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Uhh, no offense, but the FX-series Bulldozer / Piledriver / Vishera CPUs, weren't even good in their prime. Don't waste your money upgrading that piece of.... history, to put it gently.

Save your money, if you want an upgrade, get this:

Ryzen R5 2600 CPU (6C/12T) $120 @ Newegg
B450 micro-ATX mobo, $65 (?) @ Newegg (doesn't matter what brand, much. MSI, ASRock, Asus, are good. Gigabyte, well, maybe.)
16GB kit of DDR4-3000 or 3200, $60 (seems like it's getting cheaper every day). You can get 32GB kits (2x16GB) for $120, name-brand like Crucial. If you wanted to "do it up". 64GB RGB kits of GSkill were ~$305 recently, but those sold out pretty quickly.

Then throw in your 750ti video card for the time being, and then get a GTX 1660 Super when they come out at the end of Oct., or maybe an AMD RX 5500 XT, sometime by the end of the year. (Or something more powerful, if you're a big-time gamer. Those are just the minimum I would recommend for a gaming rig these days.)

Edit: The Ryzen 2600 is probably 2x-3x faster than your FX-6300, to put it mildly. Especially for gaming purposes.

Edit: Ok, I'm going to make an exception. If you can find one used, an 8-core FX CPU, that's 95W, and under, say, $40-50, then sure, go for it. But don't spend any more than that, IMHO, because it's throwing good money after a "bad" (obsolete) platform.

And, honestly, I'm not sure that I'm aware of any modern PC games, that will refuse to play properly on an FX-6300, that will play properly, on an 8-core FX CPU. I'm not sure what you're gaining from this, realistically, other than a certain sort of peace-of-mind, that you "maxed out" your current platform.

My evaluation of this situation might be different, if you have an established Windows installation with a lot of programs or otherwise having a hassle doing a re-install on a new (updated B450) mobo. That would change things, and in that case, I would say, go for it, get whatever maxed-out CPU that you can for your mobo if you like. Just keep the price of the (new, replacement Ryzen system) in mind, when comparing options.
 
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Ranulf

Platinum Member
Jul 18, 2001
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Ram timings look fine to me, maybe not running at XMP speeds but that could be a mobo issue or 4 sticks(?) of 8gb being a problem.

First question, do you live near a Microcenter? If so, that makes it easy. Second is, what exactly is your budget? If it is under $100, I'd just save up or find a used RX570 gpu at most. I mean, you might be better off looking for refurb desktop systems that are faster.

Larry and Doc are correct, upgrading most DDR3 based systems are not worth the effort anymore. I game regularly on my fx8350 and while its quite playable for many things, I don't see how you'd get much of a difference going to an 8 core 8300 as both it and 6300 turbo to the same speed. I doubt that mobo can handle an 8350. 8300/8350 chips are also $70+ on ebay amazingly. 6300's are down to $20. Hell, I should buy one of those to swap out my Phenom 955 to retire it once and for all. No way are those 8300s worth that much unless you have to keep a system alive with the same specs.

If you have more of a budget and live near a Microcenter, buy one of their Ryzen deals on the R5 1600/2600 chips with a B450 mobo and ram is cheap again for decent speed/quality stuff.
 
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Phaetos

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Jan 27, 2005
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Sadly, no Microcenter around here. If you look at the screenshots, that is what I normally play, the icons. Though recently I have started using the MS GamePass for PC and those are much newer and more resource hogging games, like Stellaris(literally takes 4 mins to load to the main menu), Forza Horizon 4, Gears 5. Those take some time to get going, which may be more of a factor of the 750Ti.
 

scannall

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Jan 1, 2012
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Sadly, no Microcenter around here. If you look at the screenshots, that is what I normally play, the icons. Though recently I have started using the MS GamePass for PC and those are much newer and more resource hogging games, like Stellaris(literally takes 4 mins to load to the main menu), Forza Horizon 4, Gears 5. Those take some time to get going, which may be more of a factor of the 750Ti.
For now anyway, I'd just upgrade the video to something like an RX570. And a small SSD for your long loading games. Those are by far the biggest bang for your buck. Upgrading that 6300 would provide negligible at best performance increases. And in the future, you can buy a new system a piece at a time as you can afford the bits, and bring the video card and SSD into whatever new system you end up piecing together.
 

NTMBK

Lifer
Nov 14, 2011
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The main problem with the FX chips in games is low per-core performance, and moving from a 6300 to an 8300 won't do much to fix that. You could improve game load times by buying a big SSD to load from, but there's not much point buying a SATA SSD for that system when your next system will have M.2.

I think that you are best off just upgrading the GPU for now, and saving up to upgrade to a newer platform.
 

VirtualLarry

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Aug 25, 2001
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No way are those 8300s worth that much unless you have to keep a system alive with the same specs.
Maybe they have value for Windows 7 holdouts? AM3+ can run XP, Windows Vista, 7, and 10.

The main problem with the FX chips in games is low per-core performance, and moving from a 6300 to an 8300 won't do much to fix that.

This is true. Also why I think that it would be pointless to go from 6 cores to 8 cores, on an AM3+/FX platform.

I second or third the idea of getting an RX 570, even used for $100 or less. (Although, when they're available new for $120, hard to pass those up too. I think that I might have seen XFX (a good make of RX 570 card, just sold two of mine last month, they looked nearly new after two years), 8GB models, for $130 on ebay, "New".

If you want some longevity, get the 8GB card, or if you want to do some mining on it. (Can do ETH, Grin, a bunch of stuff, LyraV3.)
 

VirtualLarry

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Why not buy a used Sandy Bridge/Ivy Bridge used combo? Could get that cheap and have a much faster system.
Not a bad idea, but if I were in the market for a used / refurb PC, I would aim for nothing less than a Haswell-era PC. Sandy/Ivy are old, and most won't get Meltdown / Spectre BIOS fixes. If this is a purely gaming rig, that may not matter (and you may want to use InSpectre to disable the Windows' fixes for greater performance.)

I've seen Haswell non-overclockable quad-core PCs, refurb, for under $200 or just above. I would shoot for under $300 at least, 8GB of RAM minimum. Better yet, if you can get a tower that will take a non-LP GPU, 16GB of DDR3, and an SSD (add your own HDD, should be easy with a tower, hopefully the seller includes one HDD caddy with the rig.)

This was a recent deal, it's sold out now, but if you can snag something like this, that wouldn't be bad. It might be harder to find in a true tower and a bit more expensive.

You can also get "Refurbished Gaming PCs", from branded refurbishers, on ebay, that take Haswell towers, put in a GTX 1050 or 1650, fill up the RAM, and sell them as gaming PCs, for $400-500 or so.
 
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Thunder 57

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Uhh, no offense, but the FX-series Bulldozer / Piledriver / Vishera CPUs, weren't even good in their prime. Don't waste your money upgrading that piece of.... history, to put it gently.

That line reminded me of a scene from "Down Periscope", an underrated movie IMO. It's a complete piece of ...

Why not buy a used Sandy Bridge/Ivy Bridge used combo? Could get that cheap and have a much faster system.

Because that would be another dead end platform.

Not a bad idea, but if I were in the market for a used / refurb PC, I would aim for nothing less than a Haswell-era PC...

Also, Sandy/Ivy don't have AVX2.

I would say get an RX 570 now and an AM4 system when money permits.
 
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Phaetos

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Jan 27, 2005
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For now anyway, I'd just upgrade the video to something like an RX570. And a small SSD for your long loading games. Those are by far the biggest bang for your buck. Upgrading that 6300 would provide negligible at best performance increases. And in the future, you can buy a new system a piece at a time as you can afford the bits, and bring the video card and SSD into whatever new system you end up piecing together.

well, I have the os running off an sad, but it’s only 120GB Samsung gotten about a year ago. These games are crossing 80GB easy for install. It’s ridiculous. All games are running off a WD Blue 1TB, not ideal but “run what you brung”.

Maybe just upgrading the storage SSD and vid will be more of a boost. Would replacing the RAM with less sticks of better speed make any difference? Negligible probably?
 

Markfw

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May 16, 2002
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well, I have the os running off an sad, but it’s only 120GB Samsung gotten about a year ago. These games are crossing 80GB easy for install. It’s ridiculous. All games are running off a WD Blue 1TB, not ideal but “run what you brung”.

Maybe just upgrading the storage SSD and vid will be more of a boost. Would replacing the RAM with less sticks of better speed make any difference? Negligible probably?
SSD is everything. Forget the ram, unless you don;t have enough.
 
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scannall

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well, I have the os running off an sad, but it’s only 120GB Samsung gotten about a year ago. These games are crossing 80GB easy for install. It’s ridiculous. All games are running off a WD Blue 1TB, not ideal but “run what you brung”.

Maybe just upgrading the storage SSD and vid will be more of a boost. Would replacing the RAM with less sticks of better speed make any difference? Negligible probably?
Your ram is fine. You might get a bit faster in benchmarks, but you wouldn't notice a difference when actually using your computer. Just do the video card first. Then the SSD next. After that just pick up a bit at a time when you have the money, and spot a super sale. By this time next year, you'll be in a new computer.
 

Markfw

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May 16, 2002
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Your ram is fine. You might get a bit faster in benchmarks, but you wouldn't notice a difference when actually using your computer. Just do the video card first. Then the SSD next. After that just pick up a bit at a time when you have the money, and spot a super sale. By this time next year, you'll be in a new computer.
When he can get a 960 gig ssd for $80, I say that goes first, then the video card


and a little over $200 for the video card. For about $300, this would take his system light years from where it is.(gtx 1660)

 
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VirtualLarry

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If you wanted to go cheaper, there's current a GTX 1660 (non-ti, sadly) for $175 on ebay right now, buy it now, claims it's in great condition. (I have no affiliation with the seller, in fact, in a few days, once the banks open, I was thinking of purchasing it myself.)

Also, @Justinbaileyman mentioned he might have a GTX 1660 ti for sale in the future.
 

Phaetos

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Jan 27, 2005
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Ok, the consensus is a SSD to migrate apps/games to and a vid card.
SSD I can find myself as long as it’s sata. Vid card is a bit troublesome. Most are saying a 1660, which is fine I really like nVidia products anyway but the power is my issue. My current PNY 750Ti doesn’t require a power connection. Pretty sure the PSU in there is somewhere between 330w and 400w and I know it uses modular cables, and I don’t know what I did with the leftovers from the original install. Also pretty sure it doesn’t have a 6-pin or 8-pin power connector.
 

scannall

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Ok, the consensus is a SSD to migrate apps/games to and a vid card.
SSD I can find myself as long as it’s sata. Vid card is a bit troublesome. Most are saying a 1660, which is fine I really like nVidia products anyway but the power is my issue. My current PNY 750Ti doesn’t require a power connection. Pretty sure the PSU in there is somewhere between 330w and 400w and I know it uses modular cables, and I don’t know what I did with the leftovers from the original install. Also pretty sure it doesn’t have a 6-pin or 8-pin power connector.
Some of the 1650's don't require a power plug. And most of the 1050's don't. Both are a HUGE upgrade from what you have. Different worlds really.
 
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Thunder 57

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Aug 19, 2007
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Ok, the consensus is a SSD to migrate apps/games to and a vid card.
SSD I can find myself as long as it’s sata. Vid card is a bit troublesome. Most are saying a 1660, which is fine I really like nVidia products anyway but the power is my issue. My current PNY 750Ti doesn’t require a power connection. Pretty sure the PSU in there is somewhere between 330w and 400w and I know it uses modular cables, and I don’t know what I did with the leftovers from the original install. Also pretty sure it doesn’t have a 6-pin or 8-pin power connector.

I think some 1650's are available that do not require an external power connection. That PSU sounds ...bad though to be honest. That will almost certainly need to be replaced regardless.
 
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mopardude87

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So now I’m up to psu, SSD and video. This is a bottomless rabbit hole,isn’t it? Lol

If me i would just go with a 1650 and be done with it. Given i had bottleneck issues with a 8350 and a gtx960 even when i try to keep closer to settings that allow 60fps minimums in games like GTA V i prob wouldn't even go pass a 1050ti. It was a odd juggling act trying to keep my settings from dropping me under 60fps while the 8350 was already doing that on its own at times.
 

DrMrLordX

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I think you'll be okay with that EVGA unit. Again, just make sure it has the connectors you want. It has two 6+2 PCIe connectors, so that's good enough for any single-card config.