Processor/motherboard/RAM/Video card upgrade
Well I'll start off saying my budget is upwards to $450. Will be mainly for gaming.
My current options to put me under a $450 cap are these.
Newegg.com - ASUS M5A97 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS (ASUS M5A97 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS)
Newegg.com - CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B (CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B)
Newegg.com - AMD FX-4100 Zambezi 3.6GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) Socket AM3+ 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor FD4100WMGUSBX (AMD FX-4100 Zambezi 3.6GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) Socket AM3+ 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor FD4100WMGUSBX)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150515 (XFX Double D HD-685X-ZDFC Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity)
I prefer AMD over Intel/NVIDIA, but I am willing to swap for NVIDIA graphics. I'm using a 500W processor, case will fit anything up to 10.7 x 8.3 x 2.8 (in inches) for Graphics cards.
Anything I can upgrade, swap out etc would be greatly appreciated if someone told me. From what I saw this would be the best for my budget, and I'm willing to use tigerdirect alongside newegg for parts. Cheers.
Definitely an okay budget build but I would recommend you lurk Slickdeals for a week or so to find a better deal on a higher-end gfx card.
An Intel i3 2100/ASRock H77 Pro 3 combo is a better idea if gaming is your main priority.
Then again you can OC a phenom as well.
Everyone's hoping Win8 will improve bulldozer's performance, I doubt it. AMD already released patches for Win7, but that little effect on the performance.
Right clock speed is everything.