in the market for the PC upgrades. budget is $500, but would rather not hit that limit.

current specs:
CPU: AMD FX-4100 Quad-Core (apparently a dual core with hyperthreading, i think)
RAM: 8gb
Drive: 500gb HDD and a 250 HDD
Video card: GeForce GTX 760
Mobo: GA-M68MT-S2

Im guessing an SSD would be an obvious choice. But ive been thinking about upgrading the CPU and mobo too. Mainly because ive felt that the cpu is bottlenecking my Graphics card. And if i want to upgrade to the latest graphics card also, I cant let that happen.

so what would be some good upgrades?

We want better graphics for computer. But western technology is slow and clogged up with information. So we CRUSH puny computer with GLORIOUS RUSSIAN GUN!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdL7B4UI1tE

Try reddit/r/buildapc and pcpartpicker for a ton of help on this topic.

spend whole budget on cooling fans

Mutisija said:
spend whole budget on cooling fans

Ah yes! The Peoples' Fans of GLORIOUS LIBERATION!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdL7B4UI1tE

Okay no, but seriously I don't know much about computers but I know a guy who knows. I gotta ask him about this stuff.
He also knows how to harvest certain parts without wrecking a hard drive and then selling those parts.
Wait, you only got 8 GIGS of RAM? I gotta whole TERABYTE! And then some!

It depends on what you are doing with it. If you're gaming you're obviously going to want to invest in a good video card, but there's some other things you can do to keep it optimal.

• SSD: As you've already mentioned, this is a huge bump in performance for general day-to-day stuff. My recommendation is to get a moderate size one for the OS/apps and keep all your media on another drive (external or otherwise).
• Invest in a good cooling system. Also even if you aren't swapping out the CPU, I'd check to make sure your thermal paste is adequate and not drying out.
• RAM: I tend to go for 16 GB because I'm notorious for needing to have dozens of tabs, VM, Atom, etc. open, but ymmv. Depending on what you do with your computer, you may be running low on RAM. When you run out of RAM, the computer starts paging to disk, which can easily affect performance if it's being done continuously.

TruckNutz said:
Okay no, but seriously I don't know much about computers but I know a guy who knows. I gotta ask him about this stuff.
He also knows how to harvest certain parts without wrecking a hard drive and then selling those parts.
Wait, you only got 8 GIGS of RAM? I gotta whole TERABYTE! And then some!

I'm pretty sure you can't use a terrabyte of ram. You're thinking memory or storage. Probably. Maybe I know less than I think I do. Point is, 8G of RAM is pretty damn powerful anyways. A 32bit computer can only use a maxiumum of 4, so you're already doubling what it can do.

This is a rough estimate. Quality parts and performance considerations will push the prices higher and require some shopping. Prices pulled from newegg, mostly, so assumes USD.

Latest Intel quad core: $200
Cheapo motherboard: $80
DDR4 RAM 8GB: $30
DDR4 RAM 16GB: $70
SSD ~250GB: $60
SSD ~500GB: $120
GPU (970 or 390): $300

abadbird said:
This is a rough estimate. Quality parts and performance considerations will push the prices higher and require some shopping. Prices pulled from newegg, mostly, so assumes USD.

Latest Intel quad core: $200
Cheapo motherboard: $80
DDR4 RAM 8GB: $30
DDR4 RAM 16GB: $70
SSD ~250GB: $60
SSD ~500GB: $120
GPU (970 or 390): $300

I wouldn't recommend any cheap motherboard. Get a good one from Asus or Gigabyte. Msi and Asrock are apparently pretty good too though.

As for the GPU, since he (she?) already uses AMD, I'd go with the 390. (it's more powerful than the 970 by a bit)

Since he already uses AMD, once again, I'd go with either an Athlon CPU or an Athlon APU. The APUs are pretty nice since they combine 2-4 CPU cores plus 2-4 GPU cores on the one processor. I believe you can CrossFire them to get all of APU's graphics power in addition to the 390's GPU. (Mind you, the A10 APUs can already run most games on medium at 1080p so that's a pretty big boost!)

8GB of DDR3 or DDR4 RAM is my reccomendation, though it really depends on what motherboard you get. Truth is, the differences between DDR3 and DDR4 are minimal at the least unless you do memory intensive tasks (and no gaming does not count).

Definitely get an SSD, but also get a standard hard drive too. Get a reliable one such as the Samsung 850 Evo and not some cheap brand. I'd recommend 120GB or 250GB depending on how many "core" apps you have that will actually benefit from SSD storage. The rest (including your porn) should go on a 1 or 2TB hard drive. But whatever you do, *do not* buy a crappy cheap brand SSD! Read reviews first.

Now, of course you can reuse your old hard drives too, or even keep the old computer as a spare--heck maybe even donate it to a school or charity!

Oh wait sorry I didn't even read the post properly! You only want upgrades, so go with a 380 or 390 GPU and/or an SSD.

At least my above post can help when you go building a new PC haha

Get a 250gb SSD, either a SanDisk Extreme for the 10 year warranty, or a Samsung 850 for a slightly better performance but only 5 years warranty. The difference in the price will be a couple bucks at most and hover around 85$.

A r8 380 with 4gb will set you back 200 but is a very decent upgrade.

You definitely need to upgrade your Mainboard, the cpu you're using isn't even fully supported and you should run a couple benchmarks (like linback) and see how it compares to other people with the same cpu. It might well be that your Mainboard bottlenecks the cpu.
Otherwise grab a FX-6350 (~120$) and a fitting Mainboard.

Furrin_Gok said:
A 32bit computer can only use a maxiumum of 4, so you're already doubling what it can do.

If you're using Windows server or Linux/OS X, then this isn't actually true. A 4GB limit is set on 32bit (non-server) versions of Windows due to them not supporting PAE (apparently related to driver compatibility issues), however Linux/OS X both allow up to 64 GB of memory on 32bit OS's (though only 4GB max per process).

1: CASE (TOWER)

[OPTION 1]

Corsair Spec-02 Mid Tower ----------------------------- 59.99

http://www.frys.com/product/8052054

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=27307

[OPTION 2]

Atec GTX 500

2: MOTHERBOARD:

MSI 970-GAMING AM3+ AMD
6X SATA 6gb/s ports ----------------------------------- 79.99 (re-look up)

http://www.frys.com/product/7028571

3: PROCESSOR:

AMD FX-8320 Eight Core AM3+ Processor 3.5 - 4ghz ------ 149.99
((125 Watt))

http://www.frys.com/product/7355934

4: HEAT SINK:

Cooler Master Seidon 120M Water Cooler ---------------- 69.99
((3.6 Watt))

http://www.frys.com/product/7862209

5: VIDEO CARD:

ASUS RADEON R9 270x ---------------------------------- 219.99 (re-look up)
Direct CU II Top 2GB GDDR5 PCIe
((175 Watt ~ relook up))

http://www.frys.com/product/7551676

6: OS DRIVE - SSD

Corsair 120GB Force Series GT ------------------------- 139.97
(SSD) CSSD-F120GBGT-BK

http://www.frys.com/product/6701895

7: HARD DISK DRIVE

Western Digital Red 3 TB, ------------------------- 149.99
Internal, 7200 RPM, 3.5 inch (WD30EFRX)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Western-Digital-Red-NAS-3TB-Internal-3-5-WD30EFRX-Hard-Drive-/320988009345

8: FANS....

3 x Cooljag Everflow High Performance Fans ------------ 45.00

($15 each - one for CPU Cooler, one for System, one for Top).

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/5879/fan-294/Cooljag_Everflow_120mm_x_25mm_9-Blade_PWM_Fan_R121225BU.html

^rig I was planning on putting together for my bf.

Also, holy crap.... Western Digital RE4 (2TB) got crazy cheap...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/WESTERN-DIGITAL-RE4-WD2002FYPS-2TB-SATA-3-Gb-s-7200RPM-64-MB-3-5-HARD-DRIVE-/221946413938?hash=item33ad098372:g:Bu0AAOSwG-1WvM4n

I messaged the seller and confirmed with them that these will pass the S.M.A.R.T. test (the thing in Speedfan that tells you the health and life expectancy of hard drives).