RIG upgrade, looking for extra opinions

[J-a-c-o-b]

Afternoon/Morning fellow OC3Ders,

I'm looking to upgrade my RIG on ideally a £550 budget (£600 the absolute max)

Current Spec:

AMD FX 6200 Intending to replace, seems to be acting up, can't see core temps on HWmonitor
Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3P
Corsair Force GT 90GB
Powercolor 5750 1GB needs upgrading!!
2x4GB Corsair XMS3 1600MHz
1TB Samsung SpinPoint
Some random 320GB HDD
Powercool 550W Intending to replace, it's loud as fuck on full load

More Info

It would help if the GPU was compatible with a full-cover block, as I intend to water cool in the next year or so. I am no huge gamer, don't have the time. Although from May I have 4 months off from Uni, so wouldn't mind getting some game time in. Would like to play at high to ultra settings with at least 50 FPS at 1080P. Lastly, I'll be looking at cclonline.com and/or scan.co.uk

My thoughts already

I'm personally looking at a FX-8350, I'm sure most will agree. Can't upgrade the motherboard as that was a gift.

I'm looking for a 280x, 290 (non-reference obviously). Mainly so I can mine away from my PC. Throw me some options here!

Also thinking a Corsair RM 650 will be ideal, due to the absolute silence (550 would work, but the 650 is only £3-£5 more expensive. Open to other options. May also get myself some of the individually sleeved cables eventually that are available.

Conclusion

So with that all in mind I suppose the GPU is the most essential upgrade to decide on (280x, 290), and as said before the FX-8350 is the most obvious CPU upgrade. As for a PSU, I have my eyes on the RM series either the 550 or 650. Plus the individually sleeved cables are a bonus which I shall take advantage of in due time.

Cheers in advance guys sorry for the long read

J-a-c-o-b

 

[tinytomlogan]

Go carefull if you plan on overclocking, the CPU draws so much power it can actually kill the power regs on a cheap board.

You have been warned.

 

[J-a-c-o-b]

I found that out the hard way, I never actually overclocked with the board I listed there, I've had my new board since Christmas. I infact OC'd that chip with a GA-970A-DS3 which suffered from what you said. So I got one with 8+2 rather than 4+1

 

[tinytomlogan]

The best board for big clocks on the 8150 and 8350 is the Gigabyte UD7

I actually killed the Asus Crosshair 5 with the 8150

 

[barnsley]

The more expensive the AMD motherboard, the better the 8350 will OC.
Get an 8350, a rm 650 and a 770. Mining on a single gpu is basically pointless.

 

[Squidlorock]

I think you have the right idea tbh. The cpu and gpu upgrade with a nice psu. That motherboard is a new version (old one was the ud3) that adds LLC to it, for the money it's pretty good for a 970 board, i have been reading up on it abit&some people have got about 4.5ish oc with it being 8+2 power phases. Personally i would go with the 8320 and oc that to 8350 level or above (4.5ish) if you have a nice chip/stability. The mobo is pretty much in the top 2 of the 970 chipsets (The other being the m5a97 evo) One nice thing is Gigabyte has a uk RMA service and pretty good turnaround usually.

I think you pretty much have it down to what you need, i would personally go with the 8320, a gpu that you want/can afford (280x or + etc...) and a decent quality psu. If you got the 8320 you could possibly grab an ssd (or a nice cpu cooler) depending on if you wanted/needed it! Hope it helps man!

 

[Wraith]

A lot of the earlier UD3's

were recalled as Gigabyte released the (Rev 1.0 "Black") boards mid last year which rectified the "Heat" issues seen with the octo-cores. Like TTL suggested though you'd benefit greatly from a UD7

 

[Squidlorock]

Yea, i think they attempted to fix it with the newer version (with the added p on the end) From what i've read people seem to have a decent oc on both the 6300/8320. That was the main reason i was reading up on it, seeing what they had done to address it (the heatsinks/vrms are now screwed in etc.. rather than plastic clipped) Atm is seems like a pretty good 970 board, probably not for like 5ghz etc... but a moderate oc. The main issues i was reading about it was no linux support and the bios being a bit clunky. It is a fairly new version of the board, so was tricky finding alot of info on it, but there is alot more now rather than 3 newegg reviews (that didn't tell me what cpu or oc they were using! )

I'll try to find a piccy of the new version...

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4717#ov

 

[eXile6]

Specs look good mate, I would suggest going for a nvidia card (770 or something of the sort) but that is up to you. I have the RM650 too its so quiet!

 

[J-a-c-o-b]

Wow, thanks for all the help peeps. I personally would love a UD7. Problem is my current board was a Christmas gift so I can't really, plus I'm not going to be pushing a CPU far enough to need a board as high-end as that. All I'm going to do is get a 8320 and clock that to a 8350, saving myself £25 there.

As for the heat issue. My previous board was a GA-970A-DS3 and my new one is a GA-970A-UD3P. I personally wouldn't say the problem was entirely fixed, but it has helped. I will say though that the only heatsink that isn't roasting to the touch is the southbridge, at idle that is. (well having itunes and several google chrome tabs open)

Personally I feel I'm going to go for an Asus DirectCU II 290 for £330 it's a good price at Scan. Either that or it'll be the Gigabyte Windforce for £335. I'm not really into Nvidia enough. I've had AMD before and I'm happy enough with them, so I'd prefer to stay there, if you get me drift. I don't pay any electric bills or rent whatsoever so it would be nice to get myself a bitcoin or two for this time next year to be able to watercool this lot, just for the fun of it and the looks. Not after clockspeeds.

Currently I have a Coolermaster TX3 (not the EVO). I've got a second fan on that too. Seems I'll be watercooling in a year or so, I'm not gonna bother changing it. Although I need a few more fans due to my terrible airflow.

Seems I haven't mentioned my case, please look in my signature.

Cheers guys