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Question

Motherboard and CPU

Jan 16, 2015 1:56PM PST

I am looking to upgrade my MOBO and CPU. I just installed a GTX 750 Ti graphics card in my OEM hp a6700y. I am looking for some recommendations for a relatively inexpensive board and CPU I do some light gaming and I mean "LIGHT" any thoughts? I was considering the MSI 970A-G43 solely based off of good reviews and was recommended the FX 6350 CPU.

Discussion is locked

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Answer
That's going to cost more than you suspect.
Jan 16, 2015 2:53PM PST

The OEM license of Windows dies with the mobo change so why not go with the GPU and save a lot of time and money?
Bob

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Motherboard and cpu
Jan 16, 2015 11:32PM PST

I was told as long as I don't change hard drives windows should stay installed. After installing my new graphics card I was told it may bottleneck my cpu and changing mobo and cpu would greater my computer's performance, so I was told.

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You were told?
Jan 17, 2015 1:11AM PST

But you did test it out?

If you are satisfy after the test then it doesn't matter if bottle neck exist.

Replacing mobo maybe an issue with that hp box, although I am not 100% sure. 15" heights box would be a tight if it fits at all. This is like building a NEW computer. You are not just upgrading an old computer.

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Sorry, someone mislead you on both counts.
Jan 17, 2015 1:18AM PST

I guess you need proof.

1. The CPU is rarely the GPU bottleneck. For example:
"Our tests demonstrate fairly little difference between a $225 LGA 1155 Core i5-2500K and a $1000 LGA 2011 Core i7-3960X, even when three-way graphics card configurations are involved. It turns out that memory bandwidth and PCIe throughput don't hold back the performance of existing Sandy Bridge-based machines. "
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106-4.html
Your HP has a mid range Quad core CPU. I would not change that.

2. You only have a 750 GPU. It's not going to be helped much by another CPU change.
There are reviews showing game results (FPS) and frankly I'd change that to one on THIS LIST:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107.html

3. The OEM Windows license dies with the motherboard. It's on the web, example at:
https://www.google.com/search?q=windows+license+dies+with+motherboard&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

4. There's the HP OEM license and then we have "OEM" licenses. The HP one will die on a motherboard change. The OEM that we could buy is not the one that came with the HP so you would know if you have that.
Bob

PS. Bottom line? Get a better GPU, max out the RAM, consider a SSD.

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Here's your MAX CPU upgrade
Jan 17, 2015 2:39AM PST
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Answer
Maybe another CPU or more RAM ... see below
Jan 16, 2015 7:46PM PST

Phenom X4 9150e

Processor upgrade information Socket type: AM2+

Motherboard supports the following processor upgrades:

Phenom with Quad Core (Agena) technology (AM2+) up to 9600 (up to 95 watt TDP)
Athlon64 X2 with Dual Core technology up to 5600+ (up to 89 watt TDP)
Athlon64 less than 4000+
Sempron less than 3800+

Memory 4 GB

Memory upgrade information
Dual channel memory architecture
Four 240-pin DDR2 DIMM sockets
Supported DIMM types:
PC2-5300 (667 MHz)
PC2-6400 (800 MHz)
Non-ECC memory only, unbuffered
Supports 2GB DDR2 DIMMs
Supports up to 8 GB on 64 bit PCs
Supports up to 4 GB* on 32 bit PCs
32 bit PCs cannot address a full 4.0 GB of memory.

VAPCMD

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Answer
Keep it simple and cheap
Jan 16, 2015 11:53PM PST

Verify the machine functions with the new gpu.

Now spend some time removing all that unneeded background stuff that's running.

Cost?....free
Just takes some time to figure out what's needed and what you can toss.

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Answer
Just something to think about.
Jan 17, 2015 2:30AM PST

I don't know how much you can get for the MSI board and FX cpu, but take a look at the AMD/Suse here. A860k is only slightly below the FX-6300 in performance. Of course the case issue still exist (reminder) plus other things everyone talk about here..

http://www.frys.com/ads/page36