[molish]

Hi all! I came here because I wasn't getting very helpful info anywhere else. I started a thread on this on reddit and tomshardware and got nowhere. Maybe you kind folks here could answer a question...

 

I've got a combo machine I picked up parts for last year. Got the Motherboard and CPU in a little combo sale and I kinda figured the motherboard was junky I planned on upgrading anyway so I figured why not? Here is the rig now as it stands...

 

Processor: AMD FX-8350 Black ed 8 core 4.0Ghz

Motherboard: ASUSTek M5A78L-M LX Plus

RAM: 8Gig DDR3-1600 (2 4gig chips)

HD1: Kingston 128Gig SSD

HD2: WD 500gig 7200rpm

Video Card: Geforce GTX 570 HD 1280Mem

OS: Windows 8 x64

Basic case and powersupply. I can get the specs on those two if it's necessary.

 

I know the main choke points are that video card and I figured the mother board. 

Here is what I want to upgrade with

 

 

Mother Board: 

GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD3 AM3+ AMD 990FX + SB950 6 x SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard 

Price 115$

 

 

RAM:

G.SKILL Ares Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-1600C10D-16GAO

Price 94$

 

 

Video Card:

SAPPHIRE 100362-3L Radeon R9 290 4GB 512-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 CrossFireX Support Tri-X OC Version (UEFI) Video Card

Price 270$

 

 

Extra HDD:

Kingston SSDNow V300 Series SV300S37A/120G 2.5" 120GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Price 60$

 

 

 

Is this motherboard worth it? Should I just go with the RAM/Video card/HDD upgrade and leave it out? I would think things like FSB, NB, and SB speeds would make a noticeable difference especially with the other upgrades. 

 

What are your thoughts? Is the Motherboard that big of an upgrade from my old one?

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 molish 

Can you give a little more info please.

What is the main use for the system, gaming?   Workstation, Photo/video/sound?  What level, occasional, enthusiast. pro?

will you be doing any CPU overclocking?

Basic case and powersupply. I can get the specs on those two if it's necessary.

Yes please. 

 

MB compare, > http://motherboards....E-GA-990FXA-UD3

[iammykyl]

 molish 

Can you give a little more info please.

What is the main use for the system, gaming?   Workstation, Photo/video/sound?  What level, occasional, enthusiast. pro?

will you be doing any CPU overclocking?

Basic case and powersupply. I can get the specs on those two if it's necessary.

Yes please. 

 

MB compare, > http://motherboards....E-GA-990FXA-UD3

[molish]

This will be mostly a gaming rig. I'll get power supply in case specs when I get home tonight. I would just like to be able to run grand theft auto 5 and Skyrim on Ultra. Maybe even run Witcher 3 on ultra.

 

no overclocking, my system runs pretty warm normally so ill stay away from it. Just for gaming at 1080 res.

[iammykyl]

Thanks for the update.

A RAM upgrade would make no difference to gaming performance, 8GB is more than enough, any extra will just site there doing nothing.

MB.  Your existing board only has SATA 3Gb/s, so you will not reach the potential speed of a SSD.   No USB 3.0 or eSATA.  Lower spec sound.   Lower spec caps and less power phases. meaning potential OC is limited. Other differences don't impact gaming performance.   If you do decide a MB upgrade, consider an Asrock, > http://www.newegg.co...131-851:$$$$$$$

 

You must also consider that changing the MB will mean purchasing a new OS if you have an OEM licence version, it is not transferable to a different MB once it is installed.

 

You have a second SSD listed, what do you intend to use it for? 

[iammykyl]

Not heard from you for a while.   Have you decided on your parts or started the build?   Do you need any more help.   An update would be appreciated.

 

Thanks.