CPU and Mobo Upgrade

SmokeyTheBull

Hey guys,

I'm planning on upgrading my CPU and switching to Intel because my poor Athlon II X3 just isnt really cutting it for modern games, so I need to pick up a new mobo as well. I have about 250-280 to spend and was thinking of the i5 4460 (179,73 on hwv) and a MSI H97 PC Mate (78,74 € on hwvs).

Is this the best value for money I can get? I've run them both through geizhals. Any more savings I could make would be the start of an SSD fund

Dravokivich

You may need new RAM depending on how old that old build of yours is.

Was it DDR2 in that?

You'll need to check out DDR3 now.

SmokeyTheBull

Nah it's ok, I've been making gradual updates over the past few months to my rig, I've upgraded to the following:

-RAM: 2 X HyperX FURY Series 4GB DDR3 1333MHz
-GPU: Sapphire r9 280 dual-x
-PSU: Seasonic M12II Bronze 620w

TerrorFirmer

If you don't mind a no-frills motherboard (which to be honest, works for the vast majority of people), you can save a good bit by just getting a basic H81 motherboard. Other than that though there's not much room for savings, it's a good choice. The only other option would be to switch to H81 and an i3, which would allow you to buy a 120gb SSD for the same money. Would still be a titanic upgrade over your old X3 and gaming performance on the i3 is still generally excellent.

SmokeyTheBull

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

If you don't mind a no-frills motherboard (which to be honest, works for the vast majority of people), you can save a good bit by just getting a basic H81 motherboard. Other than that though there's not much room for savings, it's a good choice. The only other option would be to switch to H81 and an i3, which would allow you to buy a 120gb SSD for the same money. Would still be a titanic upgrade over your old X3 and gaming performance on the i3 is still generally excellent.

Well after all this I'm hoping that I wont need to look at upgrading for 3-4 years, and I think its probably worth to spend a bit more now, and wait another month or two to pick up an SSD.

The thing I liked about this mobo is the 4 RAM slots which during my very quick look, seemed less common on cheaper boards. I just ran ASRock H97M Pro4 mATX through geizhals and it comes out a euro cheaper along with having two more USB 3.0 which I'd consider a good benefit so I'm thinking of going with that now.

I'm not super up to date on ATX vs mATX, does it just really come down to size/form factor?

SterlingArcher

SmokeyTheBull wrote: »

Well after all this I'm hoping that I wont need to look at upgrading for 3-4 years, and I think its probably worth to spend a bit more now, and wait another month or two to pick up an SSD.

The thing I liked about this mobo is the 4 RAM slots which during my very quick look, seemed less common on cheaper boards. I just ran ASRock H97M Pro4 mATX through geizhals and it comes out a euro cheaper along with having two more USB 3.0 which I'd consider a good benefit so I'm thinking of going with that now.

I'm not super up to date on ATX vs mATX, does it just really come down to size/form factor?

Size, few bits less. Nothing life changing for gaming.

Looked around other day see if there any bundles along your line but nothing worthwhile . You're doing your homework.

As noted you could go for a 50 euro range board. If you really need to.