What to Upgrade ?

I have a lot of components that will need upgrading on my PC over the next few months. I built my PC last year, my first build when I had pretty much no knowledge of what I was doing, learnt as I went. So naturally I made a few bad choices. So below is My current Rig

PC Case - Sumvision Nemesis

Motherboard - Asus M5A78l/USB3.0

CPU - AMD FX-8350

CPU Cooler - Phanteks PHDC-12DX

GPU - AMD 7850 HD

PSU - Powercool 750W 80+

RAM - Corsair XMS3 8GB (4gb x 2)

So I'm happy with my case, CPU and RAM, there are issues with the other components.

The Motherboard is not the best from what I have read, it might even throttle the CPU

My CPU cooler struggles to keep my idle temps below 40 degrees, and load goes just over 60 degrees. I think that is too warm for a good air cooler. My CPU and heatsink are seated correctly and thermal paste is done right, it took me several attempts but I know its now done correctly.

My GPU is good for now, but can no longer max out games so I will need to upgrade sooner rather than later, I'm looking forward to playing GTA 5 maxed out and the 7850 will lack the power. I have made a GPU thread before and nearly bought a R9 290(based of recommendations in the thread) but my cars fuel pump broke in that same week costing me £350 so I couldn't afford it.

Finally my PSU has been great, but I'm aware the brand are unknown so it probably is not a true 750w.

So, can some of you give me your opinions on the following

1. Is it worth me getting a new motherboard

2. Will a all in 1 liquid cooler for my 8350 be enough, something like a Corsair H60.

3. Would you trust that PSU when I eventually upgrade to a more power hungry GPU

4. Should I look at a Nvidia GPU instead, AMD drivers lately have sucked with compatibility problems.

5. Are my CPU temps too high, it can go higher when the room is hot, would an all in 1 liquid cooler give better results. eg Corsair H60.

1.Nope

2.Yes

3.Should be fine

4.I think drivers are fine on both way.

5.Temps seem fine.

@thehig1:

1. I think your motherboard is fine. It supports up to 8gb of ram, which is enough for gaming.

2. I do not have much experience with liquid cooling, but if you are concerned about your temps, then a Hyper 212 may help.

3. No comment

4. I would wait until the end of the year to see what Nvidia's 800 series looks like. I would expect the prices of current cards to drop once the 800 series is released.

5. Search for the CPU's max temp

@MonsieurX: My issue with AMD drivers is Football Manager and FSX, I keep having to roll back to last years drivers or those games to work properly. Then update again to make games like Watch Dogs work properly.

What I do now when I play football Manager is take out the 7850 and boot the system using the integrated Radeon 3000, as football manager is basically just text.

I'm happy about motherboard, didn't really want to change that if I don't need to, and ill get a corsiar H60, or an Antec Kuhler 650.

My current CPU cooler got damaged slightly in a fire a few weeks ago.

Fire was caused by an extension wire I bought to extend the length of the cable that goes from the PSU to the motherboard as it barley reached without it. Well that wire set a light and the fire spread to the fans on that cooler damaging one of the blades and getting a lot of soot in the heatsink..

That PSU is not well known and it does have two 12v rails, and other things about it that scream low quality. I would change it out with a known quality brand. It may be the reason for that fire of yours. Ive seen mediocre psu melt and or scorch wires and connectors in the past. I would as soon as possible look at getting a good psu something like this LINK

Change the cpu cooler, and just replace the GPU to a Nvidia GTX 760 it will be an upgrade for you while removing all your aggravating issues with those AMD drivers

Wow! That is scary. I would definitely seek a new PSU. I always recommend Corsair PSU's

I have a Hiper 630W in another PC I no longer use, does that PSU look any better it would cost me nothing to throw that in for now if its a better qaulity PSU.

Those temps seem fine to me, nothing alarming.

I have tons of experience with no-name PSU's. Built at least 4 different PCs using the cheapest power supply I could find on Newegg. One power supply died after 3 years and had to be swapped out for a new one, but that's more or less the extent of problems I've had with no-name PSU's. It's nice and brings peace of mind to have a more reputable PSU, but it's not necessary. The odds of catastrophe are very, very low - it will most likely just not last forever.

If you are not in a hurry, you should wait till 13th august.

Will the GTX 880 Be Announced at Gamescom?

We might prolly have GTX880/870/860 announced and GTX860 should be a great upgrade to you (I read somewhere that GTX860 would have around 2500 cores).

And I agree with @04dcarraher that PSU(Powercool 750W 80+) is of unknown quality so if you change your GPU spare some $$ to a better quality PSU (like a Corsair/Antec/EVGA/XFX/Seasonic etc etc).

ps: The Hiper Type M 630w is suprisingly good quality. Its OEM is Channel Well Tech (CWT), which is one of the best OEM in PSUs, building many great PSUs (pe: Corsair's old HXxxx with 7y warranty was CWT).

Actually its a decent psu , your fine in that department johnnyguru gave that psu a 9/10

So do you think it's wise for me to put that hiper 630 psu into my rig instead of the power cool 750w.

I'll do that when I get home tonight, I do suspect my fire might have been caused by my psu spiking an burning out that extension wire.

Yes use that hiper 630w much better then that 750w psu

I see only 1 upgrade needed, GPU GTX760 or above or R9 280 or above

@04dcarraher: so I bought that power cool psu for £60 back in November. ...when I already had a better quality psu anyway (I'd completely forgotten about it) also I just though higher wattage meant better, back then I never knew that dodgy brand psu can cause such trouble

Well if I were you, I would do these things:

1st change the PSU back to the superior Hipe Type -M 630w.

2nd wait till 13th august and till gamescom ends (I think its only 3-5 days long).

3rd if they announce GTX8xx seires, I would aim for one GTX8xx (GTX860 mostly).

4th if they don't announce anything I would go for a GTX760/GTX770.

ps: Before they even announce that with gamescom, I already noticed and said that Nvidia has stop being competitive in the $100-$400 segment. AMD has lower their prices and they have better offers at these prices. The only logical explanation was that they will release new GPUs and then they will adjust the prices in order to be competitive... Then after a few days the rumor about gamescom and GTX8xx started...

Dont worry about it everyone back in day thought higher was better. You learn something new everyday.

@Coseniath: thanks I'll do juSt that. It looks like a winner.

Either the 860 will be a beast, or if it's too expensive it'd likely the price of the 770 will come down a bit.

I'll also get an antec kulher 650, I can get one for £60 in a store by mine.

My cpu cooler did take a little beating from the fire, so its good idea I replace it.

The Hiper PSU I had lying around is in picture below, its actaully a 530W PSU but its peak load is 630W. JonnyGuru only rated this a 7 and a 6 for perfomance. jonnyGuruReview.

Is this still better than my powercool 750W, Its looking best bet is to get a new decent PSU as soon as I can, this Hiper unit is also 7 years old.

Good news though, I added just one case to my rig, (on the top) and these were my temps 10 mins after boot up

Well an one eyed person will always be better than a blind person but I think you should take a new PSU.

The type M 530watt is made by andyson which is not so well known...

A new good branded $50-$60 PSU will be more than enough to power your PC and your future GPU :).

@Coseniath: yeah ill stick with my power cool until Wednesday when i get I'm paid and upgrade then.

There is a corsair 750w for £70 in maplin ill get.

Looking at my temps now I won't bother with a new cooler :)

-128C? Oo I didnt know that you had internet in Pluto... :P

Yeah your temps are fine. And choosing a Corsair PSU is one of the best choices. :)

haha yeah that's some good cooling.

Its a sensor error I think, when I use HW monitor it reads a +128C.

Corsair 750W - its actually £69.99 in store I'll be getting that when I'm paid.

Maplin have put the price of it back to £79.99 now.

I intend to crossfire 7850 as well, I got lucky and got a £7850 really dam cheap at a computer fair.

THIS PSU

OR THIS

are they both high quality, and which is better value ?

XFX pro is abit better quality

Both are equal in quality so pick one, I'd go with EVGA because I love their GPUs but that's a whole different thing, I used to have XFX GPU as well so - doesn't say anything XD

The EVGA is called "SuperNova" the name is so cool I'll have to order that one based off that alone :) Asuming the quality difference between them is negligible.

It seems to be from what I can find online and what you guys said

Ended up buying the XFX PSU, very happy with it, the unit weighs a ton compared to my Powercool unit, a sign of better quality I guess. It runs quiet and my PC temps have dropped. They must have dropped indirectly, I assume my new PC is not generating as much heat as the older one.

Anyway I've put the old garbage PSU on eBAY to see what money I can get, take a look at my description, I have tried to be honest as I can about the unit. I really don't want a complaint its set their PC on fire within an hour or two.

My old Powercool PSU

Next on my hit list will be my GPU, eyeing up a 280x or GTX 770 now confident my PSU is solid.

GTX 770 4GB or R9 280X are excellent choices.

I would wait it out and see what Nvidia and AMD comes out with within the month or so

+1.

We are waiting from AMD to release Tonga GPUs and from Nvidia to release a whole new lin of Maxwell based GTX8xx.

Hopefully Nvidia will announce the new GPUs during gamescom. Propably a paperlaunch too.