What should I do to upgrade my custom pc?Ram,cpu cooler? Question on Overclocking as

[DiamondRyce]

I recently went to AMD's Fan Day in San Francisco. I got for free for standing in line for like 5 hours

1. A8-5600k apu processor http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...irtualParent=1

2. ASRock FM2A85X Extreme4-M http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157342

I have already put this in my custom pc I made back in the beginnning of January. And I love the performance boost since I am crossfiring with a HD6670 in it compared to what I had before.

My question is on overclocking and adding more ram. Can I overclock with the stock cpu cooler or am I recommended to get a cpu cooler? Also what kind of ram is recommmended on a apu build like this?

What is recommended for a $50-70 budget right now?

Cpu cooler first or increasing ram to 8GB?

If possible, are there low profile cpu coolers, I want to put one in my Couagar Spike case.

This is my current rig right now.

Custom PC SpecsCPU: Intel Celeron G540 CPU 2.50 GHZ GPU: GIGABYTE GV-R667D3-1GI Radeon HD 6670 Motherboard: MSI H61M-E33 (W8)PSU: Cooler Master eXtreme Power Plus 500wRAM: Corsair 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1333 MHz (PC3 10666)Computer Case: COUGAR Spike Black Steel / Plastic MicroATX Mini Tower Gaming Case


Thanks in advance for any replies.

 

[2timer]

As far as I know, no current game bottlenecks on 4GB of RAM. Even a multi-threaded FPS like BF3 doesn't need but 4GB.

Spending money on an aftermarket cooler doesn't make much sense, given that your CPU doesn't overclock, and a dual-core Sandy Bridge doesn't put off much heat, anyways.

Honestly, if I had your rig, I would invest in a faster CPU like this Pentium G860. You get an extra 5 mHz and 1MB L3 cache for about $30 more, which can add 10-15 FPS in many games.

 

[frozentundra123456]

As far as I know, no current game bottlenecks on 4GB of RAM. Even a multi-threaded FPS like BF3 doesn't need but 4GB.

Spending money on an aftermarket cooler doesn't make much sense, given that your CPU doesn't overclock, and a dual-core Sandy Bridge doesn't put off much heat, anyways.

Honestly, if I had your rig, I would invest in a faster CPU like this Pentium G860. You get an extra 5 mHz and 1MB L3 cache for about $30 more, which can add 10-15 FPS in many games.

He was referring to overclocking the APU he got for free, not the celeron. The best thing to do to enhance APU performance in to have fast ram in dual channel mode.

OP, what are you using the computer for?

If you are interested in gaming, and have some money to spend, my first upgrade would be a more powerful discrete card such as a HD7770 or 7850, in preference to a custom cooler or more than 4gb of ram, assuming what you have now is dual channel and reasonably fast.
If you only have 1 x 4gb, it might be worth it to add a second 4gb module to get dual channel mode.

 

[Torn Mind]

Pour money into the GPU first. The 7790 is an interesting choice if you decide to liquidate your parts.

 

[frozentundra123456]

Pour money into the GPU first. The 7790 is an interesting choice if you decide to liquidate your parts.

Agreed, the 7790 is an interesting card. However, since it is new and the 7770 and 7850 are older cards, it might be possible to find a good sale on the 7770 or 7850.

It might be possible to find a 1gb 7850 very close in price to the 7790 right now.

 

[DiamondRyce]

He was referring to overclocking the APU he got for free, not the celeron. The best thing to do to enhance APU performance in to have fast ram in dual channel mode.

OP, what are you using the computer for?

If you are interested in gaming, and have some money to spend, my first upgrade would be a more powerful discrete card such as a HD7770 or 7850, in preference to a custom cooler or more than 4gb of ram, assuming what you have now is dual channel and reasonably fast.
If you only have 1 x 4gb, it might be worth it to add a second 4gb module to get dual channel mode.

I already have a HD 6670 as my video card and I am not going to buy another video card until a while and my free apu can crossfire with the 6670. I game only on a 32 Samsung that only supports up to 720p. On Windows I can go to 1080p but it looks horrible on the screen.
As for the ram I am running in a dual channel right now for a total 4GB of ram but only at 1333mhz.

Games I play right now, Borderlands 2, CS:GO, GTA 4, Crysis 2,
I am also wanting to play ps2 games via pcsx2 mostly FFX,GT3,Maybe GT4

 

[frozentundra123456]

I already have a HD 6670 as my video card and I am not going to buy another video card until a while and my free apu can crossfire with the 6670. I game only on a 32 Samsung that only supports up to 720p. On Windows I can go to 1080p but it looks horrible on the screen.
As for the ram I am running in a dual channel right now for a total 4GB of ram but only at 1333mhz.

Games I play right now, Borderlands 2, CS:GO, GTA 4, Crysis 2,
I am also wanting to play ps2 games via pcsx2 mostly FFX,GT3,Maybe GT4

What do you mean you can go to 1080p? I don't think you can force 1080p on a 720p TV. No offence meant, but crossfire is not magic. A low end discrete card plus an igp will be lucky to come close to 7750 levels on the few games in which it works best. If you just want to experiment with the system, you can do that. But from a pure performance standpoint, it makes no sense to purchase expensive ram and a custom cooler when you can buy a discrete card (hd7770) for the same cost and will have much better performance than you can hope to get from the apu and a 6670.

 

[DiamondRyce]

What do you mean you can go to 1080p? I don't think you can force 1080p on a 720p TV. No offence meant, but crossfire is not magic. A low end discrete card plus an igp will be lucky to come close to 7750 levels on the few games in which it works best. If you just want to experiment with the system, you can do that. But from a pure performance standpoint, it makes no sense to purchase expensive ram and a custom cooler when you can buy a discrete card (hd7770) for the same cost and will have much better performance than you can hope to get from the apu and a 6670.

When on windows and on the screen resolution window the recommended screen resolution is 1336 x768 but for some reason I can move the slider up to 1920 x 1080 but like I said it looks horrible. I can give better screenshots later this week probably friday as I am not near my custom pc at all this week.

 

[mfenn]

What do you mean you can go to 1080p? I don't think you can force 1080p on a 720p TV. No offence meant, but crossfire is not magic. A low end discrete card plus an igp will be lucky to come close to 7750 levels on the few games in which it works best. If you just want to experiment with the system, you can do that. But from a pure performance standpoint, it makes no sense to purchase expensive ram and a custom cooler when you can buy a discrete card (hd7770) for the same cost and will have much better performance than you can hope to get from the apu and a 6670.

Agree. Spending money on fancy RAM or coolers in an attempt to make the APU IGP faster makes no sense when you could spend that same money on a better discrete GPU.