Updating my computer build

[The Bad Guy]

6 years ago I had a tremendous amount of help in completing my first computer build. Computer has ran mostly great for 6 years, but I wanted to see if it was worth upgrading my processor, motherboard and graphics card.

Below is what I purchased. I do light gaming, a lot of videos/photos, personal computing and lots of word processing.

Since I'm not real knowledgeable about what is compatible with what, I wanted to solicit the gurus on here for advice.

Here is a screen shot of what I currently have in the computer. I'm not looking to spend a ton to upgrade, but I'm sure a lot has changed in 6 years that I'm not aware of.

Thanks in advance for any help.

[The Bad Guy]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

Go to www.crucial.com. They have an app that will scan your computer and provide a list of compatible RAM.

That said, I wouldn't recommend purchasing RAM for a 6 year old motherboard. That thing might blow at any second, leaving you with RAM that isn't compatible with the latest generation of boards.

As much as you probably don't want to do it, I'd suggest biting the bullet and purchasing a new board, processor, RAM and SSD. I see no reason why you can't use your current graphics card.

Good advice.

I saw Buck's recommendation for a mother board. Since I'm not doing much gaming at all on my PC, is there any other recommendations?

I'll be making this purchase probably around Black Friday, so I have some time to get what I need.

[loochy]

Originally Posted by scho63

This is an incorrect statement

About 5 months ago I bought the Samsung 850 EVO V-NAND SSD 250 GB and swapped it into my HP Pavillion g6 with Windows 10.

Transferring over all the files was easy with the Samsung online tool.

The difference in boot up from my old POS drive is about 15-20x faster, maybe more. I also doubled my RAM.

The only issue I have is that my computer runs a little hot now and I may need to upgrade the fan.

Damn dude, do you have enough CP tabs open? Wtf?

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by The Bad Guy

Good advice.

I saw Buck's recommendation for a mother board. Since I'm not doing much gaming at all on my PC, is there any other recommendations?

I'll be making this purchase probably around Black Friday, so I have some time to get what I need.

I wish I could be of further assistance but I've never owned or built an AMD rig - Intel only.

That said, Gigabyte produces the most reliable boards out there these days (IME, anyway) so I'd stick with them, if possible.

As I mentioned earlier, Amazon has amazing deals with free shipping and even moreso on Black Friday. Good luck!

[The Bad Guy]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

I wish I could be of further assistance but I've never owned or built an AMD rig - Intel only.

That said, Gigabyte produces the most reliable boards out there these days (IME, anyway) so I'd stick with them, if possible.

As I mentioned earlier, Amazon has amazing deals with free shipping and even moreso on Black Friday. Good luck!

Yep - that's where I plan on buying from.

[Buck]

Originally Posted by scho63

This is an incorrect statement

About 5 months ago I bought the Samsung 850 EVO V-NAND SSD 250 GB and swapped it into my HP Pavillion g6 with Windows 10.

Transferring over all the files was easy with the Samsung online tool.

The difference in boot up from my old POS drive is about 15-20x faster, maybe more. I also doubled my RAM.

The only issue I have is that my computer runs a little hot now and I may need to upgrade the fan.

Very strange. I did a clean install, and it didn't work. I was using an 850 EVO that was 480 or 500 GB though. Maybe it was that one specifically.

[Buck]

TBG, what kind of gaming do you want to be doing on this? Your video card is super low end, but if you're playing games that don't tax your system, then you can do better with the other components to make your PC better.

[hometeam]

Originally Posted by The Bad Guy

Would this RAM work with my current MB?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00J8E8Y5C...ing=UTF8&psc=1

You gotta get off the RAM train.

Its not going to make any discernible difference really.

SSD, CPU will be your biggest upgrades

[The Bad Guy]

Originally Posted by Buck

TBG, what kind of gaming do you want to be doing on this? Your video card is super low end, but if you're playing games that don't tax your system, then you can do better with the other components to make your PC better.

Next to no gaming. Did some about 5 years ago, but nothing major.

I do a ton of paperwork on this PC and need it to load fast, access fast, and transfer fast.

[The Bad Guy]

Originally Posted by hometeam

You gotta get off the RAM train.

Its not going to make any discernible difference really.

SSD, CPU will be your biggest upgrades

I only currently have 4GB installed Ram. I'd like to get to 16 if I'm replacing the CPU and MB.

[hometeam]

Originally Posted by The Bad Guy

I only currently have 4GB installed Ram. I'd like to get to 16 if I'm replacing the CPU and MB.

I was thinking you where keeping those.

That being said then, the RAM upgrade is fine, but most people dont need more than 8. I mean if you are going bigger budget and are going to do RAM heavy stuff like video editing or live encoding then maybe.

8 should be fine and save you a couple bucks. If you are dead set on it, it wont hurt.

[kccrow]

This would be my recommendation for your needs, for what it's worth.

AMD A10-7890K APU (Quad-Core 4.1 GHz FM2+ 95W Radeon R7 Graphics) $148.99
MSI Radeon R7 250 GPU (2GB 128-Bit PCI Express 3.0x16 w/CrossFireX Support) $62.99
ASUS A88XM-A (FM2+ Bolton D4 MicroATX Motherboard) $74.99
G.Skill Sniper 8GB (2x4GB DDR3 2400 SDRAM) $54.99
PNY CS1311 240GB SATAIII SSD $73.34
Total $415.30 all through Newegg
Here's PCPartspicker: http://pcpartpicker.com/list/yqCVBP

Set up Radeon Dual-Graphics, which uses the APU integrated R7 chip and the dedicated R7 card in a Crossfire setup to increase graphics performance.

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by kccrow

This would be my recommendation for your needs, for what it's worth.

AMD A10-7890K APU (Quad-Core 4.1 GHz FM2+ 95W Radeon R7 Graphics) $148.99
MSI Radeon R7 250 GPU (2GB 128-Bit PCI Express 3.0x16 w/CrossFireX Support) $62.99
ASUS A88XM-A (FM2+ Bolton D4 MicroATX Motherboard) $74.99
G.Skill Sniper 8GB (2x4GB DDR3 2400 SDRAM) $54.99
PNY CS1311 240GB SATAIII SSD $73.34
Total $415.30 all through Newegg
Here's PCPartspicker: http://pcpartpicker.com/list/yqCVBP

Set up Radeon Dual-Graphics, which uses the APU integrated R7 chip and the dedicated R7 card in a Crossfire setup to increase graphics performance.

I'll never purchase ASUS again.

Their failure rate is like 40%. It's a waste of time.

[kccrow]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

I'll never purchase ASUS again.

Their failure rate is like 40%. It's a waste of time.

Interesting. I've never had one DOA and never had one last less than 7 years. Their failure rate is among the lowest in the industry, and usually is the lowest. Spouting off with 40% is ridiculous when a good portion of their boards are under 3%. If you were talking ASRock, I'd be more inclined to believe you. When I checked rates a year ago or so, they were over 10% while ASUS was under 2%. Appears they must have had some problems as they have always been solid.

Edit: Any board between MSI, ASUS, Gigabyte, and ASRock should be pretty good (with all routinely having sub 3% failure rates), unless you're building a server then you might want to look at Intel or SuperMicro...

[The Bad Guy]

Originally Posted by kccrow

This would be my recommendation for your needs, for what it's worth.

AMD A10-7890K APU (Quad-Core 4.1 GHz FM2+ 95W Radeon R7 Graphics) $148.99
MSI Radeon R7 250 GPU (2GB 128-Bit PCI Express 3.0x16 w/CrossFireX Support) $62.99
ASUS A88XM-A (FM2+ Bolton D4 MicroATX Motherboard) $74.99
G.Skill Sniper 8GB (2x4GB DDR3 2400 SDRAM) $54.99
PNY CS1311 240GB SATAIII SSD $73.34
Total $415.30 all through Newegg
Here's PCPartspicker: http://pcpartpicker.com/list/yqCVBP

Set up Radeon Dual-Graphics, which uses the APU integrated R7 chip and the dedicated R7 card in a Crossfire setup to increase graphics performance.

Thanks for this. I'm probably going to stick with Gigabyte for my MB since I had success with this one, but everything else looks good.

[patteeu]

I'll leave it to others to recommend mobos and other internal components. I want to recommend a mechanical keyboard with brown switches. If you type a lot, it really makes a difference, IMO. I love the way it feels.

I have this one, but there are lots of different brands at different price points. If you live near Micro Center in Overland Park, you can go in the store and feel the different types of mechanical switches in case Brown isn't the one for you.