Upgrade CPU or CPU + Mobo

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TheLG
Posts: 41
Joined: Mon Jan 13, 2014 5:22 pm
Location: Iowa, USA
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So I'm sitting here, debating with myself as to what I should upgrade.

Currently Have
CPU: AMD Phenom II x4 965
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-970A-D3

I originally built this PC in May 2012 and it's been going strong ever since. Last December I started having random crashes when I would run a game/video that also had audio playing. After talking to numerous people we determined it was something to do with the audio chipset; I sent the board into Gigabyte and they replaced the physical chipset as well as updated the BIOS, and this has seemed to fix my problem for the most part, but I have had a few crashes since then very similar to those before.

I'm currently looking to upgrade to either an AMD FX 6300 so I can keep my current mobo (cheaper option) or upgrade both to hopefully avoid any future crashes all together, and am considering an i5-3470 and an ASRock H77M Micro ATX mobo. I will not be OCing the CPU and will never have dual GPUs so I don't necessarily need a Z77 chipset mobo.

I am leaning towards a new CPU and mobo entirely just to more "future-proof" myself, but I appreciate all arguments for or against the change.

Relevant links (parts in consideration)
FX 6300 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819113286
i5-3470 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819115234
ASRock H77M - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813157303

Other parts (for w/e reason)
GPU: Sapphire Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition (model: 100354OC-2L)
PSU: Corsair TX 650W 80+ Bronze (model: CMPSU-650W)
Ram: Patriot Gamer 2 series 2x4GB DDR3 1600

I want to keep this under $250 as well (or w/e the i5 + mobo cost is depending on mobo price). :D

Edit: I would also consider maybe an i3-3220 + mobo or i3-4130 + mobo as well. I don't necessarily need the power of the i5, as the most intensive thing I will do is gaming and even then I don't need to be running at 60+ fps all the time; being in the 30-40fps is perfectly fine with me.

Thanks in advance for any advice! o/
Dream on little dreamer.
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TheLG
Posts: 41
Joined: Mon Jan 13, 2014 5:22 pm
Location: Iowa, USA
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So I think I'm leaning most towards the i5-3470. Anyone have suggestions on a motherboard for it? After some more reading I still think I'd be fine with a H77 board, but if there are suggestions of cheap/good enough Z77 boards, I still may go with them.
Dream on little dreamer.
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Ashardis
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Ehm, why choose the i5-3XXX instead of i5-4xxx Haswell series? There's not much of a price diff, lower wattage and if you want newer tech base, it's win-win!
I would go for cheap B85 chipset or better (not H81) mobo :)
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TheLG
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Location: Iowa, USA
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The "equivalent" to the 3470 in the Haswell gen would be the 4430 right? And from nearly every site I've looked around on, they say to get the 3470. I'll look into the B85 boards though, but I just looked at some prices again and the 4570 is only $10 more than the 3470, which isn't bad at all.
Dream on little dreamer.
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Ashardis
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Haswell has significantly lower power consumption on chipset/cpu (for those long browsing/watching Cohh sessions) and a lot of newer tech integrated into the chipset instead of on external add-on chips (SATA3x6, USB3.0x8) - the cheapo H81 Haswell chipset has NOT got PCI-E 3.0, while B85 n upwards do.
You can find the pricing info aswell, and there might be lower prices idd on the 1156 stuff coz of clearance sales, so it might be worthwhile just for that!
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TheLG
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Location: Iowa, USA
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Yeah, I just did some more reading and didn't realize Haswell was that much of a change with moving more tech onto the cpu itself as opposed to the board. Decided I'll go with an i5-4570 and one of these two boards:
Gigabyte GA-B85-HD3 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813128629
ASRock H87M Pro4 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813157384

My current mobo is a Gigabyte and I've had a couple (solvable) problems with it in the time I've owned it. Two friends of mine who built their PCs are the same time with ASrock boards instead (near identical overall build as well) have had no issues whatsoever, and these builds were almost 2 years ago now.
Currently leaning more towards the ASRock board.

Any other insight?
Dream on little dreamer.
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H3ll0J3ll0
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I think that you should go for the asrock, i think gigabyte as a brand is a more quality brand but the asrock got h87 which i find superior to the b85. h87 is z87 without overclocking and you cant do 3 cards + cf/sli but you can do two
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