AMD System Upgrade

So... I was a PC gamer in the 90's, but then got caught up in the console era, and have only recently returned to the fold of PC Godhood ;-) I have built my machine on a shoestring budget, and come out with a FM2 system, that is entry level, but I didn't expect more from a machine costing less than £150.00(236.87USD) so now I'm going to upgrade. I'm getting a R7 250 OC 2GB DDR3 GPU for x-mas, and am looking to upgrade to FM3.

The Question is... is it as simple as swapping out the MOBO and CPU(my ram is pretty good actually, so I'll keep that) and then updating all the drivers on my Hard drive?

Any help would be great.

Cheers guys

Rico

Post your current build!

AM3+, not FM3 lol.

For the most part, its just a mobo and CPU swap, yes.

CPU: AMD A4-4020 APU

GPU: MSI AMD Radeon HD 5450

MOBO: Gigabyte GA-F2A78M-DS2

RAM: Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit

 

hoping to upgrade to:-

CPU: AMD Piledriver FX-4 Quad Core 4300

MOBO: Gigabyte 970A-DS3P AMD 970A

GPU: MSI Radeon R7 250 OC 2048MB GDDR3

I figured same brands would make driver management easier. And sorry, yes AM3+ :-D

Well to be honest you are better off upgrading to a 860K and stick with the current FM2+ motherboard you have. It does not make much sense to me to purchase a while new motherboard and cpu when just purchasing a cpu will be much cheaper.

EDIT:

With the bit of money from not purchasing that motherboard you could put it towards a better graphics card.

Thanks, I was thinking more along the lines of "future proofing" and I had heard that "Piledriver" gave better performance in gaming.

The Trinity/Richland parts are based on Piledriver, as with the Kaveri parts (860K or A10-7850K) are based on Steam Roller architecture.

Yeah, just update the UEFI/Bios and pick up an 860k.  The FX-4300 performs about the same as a 750k/760k/860k.

Try picking up something like an R9 270/270X?  That's a pretty decent budget graphics card.

Yes but the Athlons lack of L3 cache. so keep that in mind.

That's a tough one in my opinion, I would shave off some budget to spend more on a GPU. What about an Intel option with the Anniversary Edition and a very cheap B or H chipset mobo? That would free up some budget for an R9 270 maybe?

I'm not a big fan of the Athlons, like Angel said, they feel a bit like Core2-era CPU's because they lack cache, but they're nevertheless a feasible option if you don't feel like spending a lot.

6300 is one sale for 89 and a 270 or x.

Thank you all for your comments. As I said, my GPU is going to be a christmas present, so I'm not going to mess my family about with that really, but I will look at R9 in the future. As for the rest, I'll give it some thought. Thanks for your help guys.