$480 Budget to Upgrade my PC

[Durdy]

So I have $480 to spend to upgrade my pc, I prefer if they're on amazon.

AMD Quad-Core A6-3600 (2.1GHz), 8GB DDR3, 1TB HDD, AMD Radeon HD 6530D are my specs.


I want to upgrade my cpu or gpu, would I need a new motherboard and power supply?

 

[PSCO2007]

One of the biggest improvements is an SSD.

This is IMHO the best.

Amazon.com: Samsung 850 EVO 250GB 2.5-Inch SATA III Internal SSD (MZ-75E250B/AM): Electronics

I just keep my OS and games on it.

Everything else on a separate hdd.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

$480 should allow you to do quite a bit.

You could change platforms entirely:

New motherboard 110

New CPU: 200

New graphics card: 170

Something like that.

Probably continue to use existing RAM.

I'd probably do that rather than just get an SSD. You've got fairly weak CPU by today's standards--it scores 2795 on the Passmark CPU benchmark.

Scores of other CPUs for comparison:

PassMark - AMD A6-3600 APU - Price performance comparison

The Radeon 6530D video card scores 517 on the Passmark video benchmark. That's a pretty low score, but we don't know if more powerful graphics would help you. It depends on what you do with the PC.

Is gaming a primary purpose for this PC?

 

[PSCO2007]

I'd probably do that rather than just get an SSD

That suggestion was just a starting point.

 

[Durdy]

Is gaming a primary purpose for this PC?

Yes it is.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Typically, for a gaming PC the best bang for the buck is to improve the graphics capability, rather than CPU or hard drives. 8 GB of RAM should be enough.

I don't game, but if you list what games, resolution, and settings you want to use, maybe someone with gaming experience can make suggestions.

For $480, my guess would be that you'd want to upgrade more than just the graphics--perhaps the CPU as well. I don't know how much of a CPU upgrade you can make on that AMD socket.

For general purposes, an SSD would be the first upgrade I'd make, but I have heard that it has only a small impact on gaming. If this is ONLY a gaming PC, maybe an SSD upgrade would be wasted. We don't know how much non-gaming stuff you do. Or if you can adjust that $480 to maybe $550.

I'll let others with more gaming and AMD knowledge take over.

Give as much more detail as you can about how you use the PC.

 

[Solarstarshines]

Amazon.com: Buying Choices: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5-Inch SATA III Internal SSD (MZ-7TE120BW)


Amazon.com: Buying Choices: Gigabyte AMD Radeon R9 280 OC 3GB GDDR5 DVI/HDMI/2Mini Display Port PCI-Express Video Card GV-R928WF3OC-3GD

this should be around your budget keep your current cpu or upgrade i would do that you have a APU it's pretty solid i would actually get a SSD and a new GPU possibly a new PSU

Also this is the Highest APU you can upgrade too after that it's Athlons series i would just stick with A8 3870K Amazon.com: AMD A8-3870K APU with AMD Radeon 6550 HD Graphics 3.0GHz Unlocked Socket FM1 100W Quad-Core Processor - Retail - AD3870WNGXBOX: Computers & Accessories


So I would upgrade the CPU

A8-3870K

Samsung 840 EVO

GPU-R9280

New Psu maybe unless you already have a 500watt then you should be good and you can overclock the A8 unlocked Multiplier

So far with just this your Budget is $363.97 add about $50 in tax and shipping you could upgrade to a 250GB SSD and still be under $480 by just keeping the motherboard and ram and just installing a new CPU

 

[AddRAM]

New board and cpu, stay with AMD and it will be cheaper, you just might have enough left for an SSD.

SSD 850 EVO 2.5" SATA III 120GB | Samsung Solid State Drives

A good graphics card and PSU are gonna cost some bucks, so I would start saving for that after you upgrade.

I recommend EVGA or Corsair PSU`s at least 750 Watts.

EVGA - Products - EVGA SuperNOVA 750 G2 Power Supply - 220-G2-0750-XR

HX Series HX750 Power Supply â

And stick with an AMD card as Tommy recommends.

 

[Durdy]

Would it be possible for me to include two r90x if I had enough money? What about a fx 8350 CPU? Let me know all the parts I would need for this.

 

[Solarstarshines]

Would it be possible for me to include two r90x if I had enough money? What about a fx 8350 CPU? Let me know all the parts I would need for this.

If you are looking towards that kind of bang for the buck then give me a Number and will make a rig that will be up to what you are looking for if you could afford 2 R9290X then i would just go and build a 8370 FX sabertooth MB 16GB RAM 1x 980 or even 970 because a 970 will kill a 290x easily

By the way if you are curious why i said 8370 because they redid the L1 L2 Cache and better all around than a 8350 a little faster in much respects but pretty much the same chip different name