Gaming Pc Upgrade Help

okay so chrsitmas is coming up and i really want to beef up my rig the only thing is i cant decide whether i should swap my fx 4100 for a 8320 and do a watercooling loop or put in another GTX 650 Ti Boost. Would up[grading something else be better. Thanks in advance.

 

MY pc specs right now

fx 4100

asus  MB M5A97 R1.0

2X 4GB Gskill Ripjawas Ram 

Corsair CX600 power supply

EVGA GTX 650 Ti Boost

Samsung evo 840 120GB ssd

Ocz 120GB ssd

 

You need to upgrade your CPU before adding the 650 ti boost. You may bottleneck them otherwise. Other wise I think something like an h100i would be a good water cooling solution because those cards and the CPU would be an expensive closed loop. 

first of all: that mobo will not handle SLI very well. none of the 970 chipset mobo's do( because of PCIE bandwidth). so while adding another 650ti will be ace for saving money it wont do very well performance wise. second: A custom loop can be quite expensive and you could just wait and save up to do a loop down the road and get the essentials covered first.                                                                                                           Third: another downside to that motherboard, if your going to be overclocking with a custom loop you could probably get to 4.8ghz or 4.6 easy with room to spare temperatures wise BUT.... the motherboard would not handle those voltages and would most likely cause the cpu to throttle and could potentially damage it.         SO... i dont really know what my solution would be but id reccomend ( if you can) upgrading that motherboard to an Asus M5A99FX PRO R2.0 - It is a fair priced motherboard with all the features you will need such as 2x PCI express x16 SLI ready lanes and is more than capable of handling high voltages while remaining cool. and then upgrading to the 8320 and the SLI  and remaining on air. OORR you could just upgrade the gpu to something like a 270x/280x or a 770 and the cpu to a 6300 with a 120mm closed loop rad or something. it really depends on your budget get back to us with that and we may be able to further help you.

Thankbyou for the replys. I think I will go with the new MB and CPU with cooler. I just got the graphics card this summer so I'm not really looking to replace. I was talking about a closed loop bit any suggestions that are a good single 120 because my case is not large. 

Now that I would have to replace the MB too would I be better off getting an i5 and MB?

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6530/closing-the-loop-contained-liquidcoolers-from-corsair-and-nzxt-compared/5

Check out this article on Anandtech. You should be able to decide. Be sure to read the conclusions and if you decide to go for any 120mm rad ( probably h80i), Having it configured in push,pull will definitely be worth the price of an extra static pressure optimised fan. If not keep it configured in pull as it often gives slightly better results while not getting tons of dust trapped in the rad.

Hope I was of help :)

for next gen gaming There is absolutely no need to spend that extra cash on an i5 upgrade. Those 6/8 cores overclocked will easily equal an i5 and in some cases ( bf4 especially ) will equal an i7 while saving you alot of money. if you feel the need or just really love intel sure go ahead but I cant give you too much help as i can be a bit of a amd fanboy alot of the time. For an i5 a 4670k would be the best bet, though it does tend to run quite hot.

thank you for the help.

your in a bit of a situation that i personally would not like to be in. If you want a new gpu you'll need a new cpu so it doesnt bottleneck and if you want sli you'll need to upgrade the mobo and cpu and then the gpu and both are probably expensive as each other so... i really can not answer the original question

glad to be of use :)

well i am glad you said that because i was thinking like a bit of a noob. now i really need to decide between intel and AMD. i really like the technology Intel has in their MBs. Seems a little more future proof too.

i have to agree but for me the cpu 8 core future proofing from a 8320 that costs so much less and which i have in my own rig is the better option PERSONALLY but it may not be for others. I currently have a 8320 and sapphire 280x toxic both overclocked with an ASUS sabertooth motherboard in a gaming machine which was my first complete build ( last month) and also have a workstation pc which was custom pre made with a 6300 and a msi mobo but i upgraded to a 2500k with an old h100 and Asus P8Z68-V ages ago with a 660. both pc's are cool and fast but ive somehow changed my mind about amd and the products that i have from amd always seem to be the best options. especially for gaming

just remember for your cpu you dont Really need to go with water my 8320 was running 4.6 on a 212 evo in pushpull. Payday came though and I shopped around for a cooler master seidon 240m in pull config with some fancy Noctua NT-H1 thermal paste. im now running at 4.8 and the temps are exactly the same. on Prime95 the max temp on any core after 2 hours of running without fail was 58 im currently on 1.4v and am very pleased :)

so the M5A99FX PRO R2.0 would be the best MB for price? and if i did do air cooling because i dont really feel comfortable overclocking or feel it necessary, which would you recommend also any good small atx cases that also feel large inside for like $80 and under?


also found used sabertooths for 130 on amazon if that would be better?

 

my personal exp with my sabertooth i cannot fault. if you really want the best the asus maximus is there but if you want to save that $50 the sabertooth is a dream. It really is the same as the pro but has minor changes extrernally. the only other difference is the better build quality. Dont think that cause the sabertooth has better build quality it will be better for you because chances are it wont. save that 30$ to buy a cooler. If your really wanting that sabertooth on amazon, just make sure theres nothing wrong with it for him to be selling it.

now... for the air cooler there are alot of reasonable options but to me there are 3 main ones. Coolermaster, Be quiet! and the noctua range of aircoolers.

If you want the price to performance, the cooler master 212 evo is the way to go. it's probably the most popular aircooler. it comes with one fan but if you have a spare case fan lying around, stick it on for push pull and double its cooling power. the 212 evo is quite large and the fan may obstruct your ram ( if its as tall as corsair vengeance) but you can push the fan up slightly and all should be fine. 

Be quiet offer good performance while retaining nice aesthetics and low noise level but will cost slightly more. Something like the Be Quiet! Shadow rock 2 http://www.scan.co.uk/products/be-quiet!-shadow-rock-2-cpu-cooler-with-120mm-silentwing-pwm-silent-fan-for-intel-and-amd-cpus ( sorry dont have any american sites) is cheap cheerful and built to last. Here is a video review if you dont believe me.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qm-Tc3iEPzA

And now noctua. I like to think of noctua's approach as 'the bigger,the better' and to be honest its completely true. there coolers are big. And because of this the cooling performance is just as big. Aswell as having the best static pressure fans on the market there actual heatsinks work really well and i would say are the best money can buy. Which brings me on to the fact that they also cost that quite a bit extra . This is by far the cooler to beat (if you have the space) http://www.scan.co.uk/products/noctua-nh-d14-dual-radiator-x6-heat-pipe-quiet-cpu-cooler-with-2-x-fans

For case reccomendation i can't really help. im a midi tower sort of guy and just buy what i like. In my case (pun) i own a Corsair Vengeance C70 gunmetal black with the new corsair AF120 white led fans its perfect for me and i really love all products made by corsair. ive found they all have so much quality and dont make you want to puke when you see the price tag ( with the exception of the 900D)

I hope someone else can help with your case problems but i have enjoyed telling you of my experience and reccomendations

forgot to add this comparison link :P 

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6830/cpu-air-cooler-roundup-six-coolers-from-noctua-silverstone-and-cooler-master/4

it doesnt include the be quiet! cooler but gives you an idea of the others and what else is on the market

thank you so much. i thought i knew a lot about computers before. lol. i was looking for opinions and thats what i got so i will be looking around at Mb more closely. Thanks again