Upgrades For An Old PC

[PlatinumSun]

https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-990XA-UD3-rev-1x#ov

I don't know much about ye olde CPU's. What would be the best CPU I can get for this thing?

And is it even compatible with SSD's? As this is in my friends PC and he has of late been having some issues.

It says 2000+ mhz. Does that mean I could get 2666 for it?

[Ghost Robertson]

No you can only have DDR3 at 1866Mhz there not much point on going further, Also there's no M.2 slot so you need a sata SSD

Also the pci-e slots are v 2.0 so anything above a GTX 1060 would be a bit of a waste.

Tbh a 10 series i3 cpu/mobo/ram upgrade might be a better or just a new computer altogether.

[nullable]

Originalmente postado por Obama In Vietnam:

https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-990XA-UD3-rev-1x#ov

I don't know much about ye olde CPU's. What would be the best CPU I can get for this thing?

I guess the AMD FX 9590, although the AMD FX 8350 was very common and there's not a huge difference between them.

Originalmente postado por Obama In Vietnam:

And is it even compatible with SSD's? As this is in my friends PC and he has of late been having some issues.

Sure, it's got SATAIII ports, SSD's are commonly used in SATA, that's the only requirement. I had a SSD in my i5 2500k and that's from the same generation as those AM3+/FX CPU's.

You can put them into older SATAII systems also, even at half speed SSD's are a lot faster than HDDs.

Originalmente postado por Obama In Vietnam:

It says 2000+ mhz. Does that mean I could get 2666 for it?

Dual Channel DDR3 2000+ MHz
Delivering native support for DDR3 memory up to 2000MHz, GIGABYTE Ultra Durable 3 series motherboards allow users to easily reach higher memory frequencies at lower voltages; achieving higher memory performance with lower power consumption to run even the most memory intensive applications such as high-definition video and 3D games with ease.

If your question is, can you put DDR4 2666 in those DDR3 slots, the answer is no. DDR3 and DDR4 aren't compatible.

I'm also not aware of DDR3 being rated that high, but who knows probably some excessively clocked enthusiast sticks somewhere. My concern would be diminishing returns and limited availability. It would be a lot of fuss for nothing over an incremental difference in a 10 year old system. DDR3 1600, 1866, or 2133 would be more than sufficient anyway.

[Ghost Robertson]

Well any sata SSD will be fine but some have better TBW (terrabytes written) and different read/write speeds, Also some of them have software that allows a larger old drive to transfer to a smaller SSD (like samsung)

TBW is basically how long it can live, Read/write speeds, I'd look for anything 400Mb/s up and being able to move to a small drive would be ok if you're moving software from a 1TB drive to a 500GB drive (as long as you don't have more data than 500GB).

[emoticorpse]

When you install do it off cd/dvd

[_I_]

there are some ddr3 kits at 2000-3200
https://pcpartpicker.com/products/memory/#U=3&S=2000,5100&sort=price&page=1

but ddr4 2133 is much slower due to the higher timings on ddr4

but as for upgrading the fx build, start over with a new build

fx cpus were outdated even when new, first gen i5 core performance, slower ipc vs pii/aii cpus
their module design was poor, 2 'core' parts sharing l1,l2 cache and single fpu, fx8-9 was basically a quad with ht

hopefully you got a check from amd for false advertising
https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2019/8/28/20837336/amd-12-million-false-advertising-class-action-lawsuit-bulldozer-chips

[Bad 💀 Motha]

If you are still on ANY AMD system prior to Ryzen; it's really time to just turn that into a legacy gaming PC, or just retire it. It won't run any modern games in the last few years very well at all.

Why would you upgrade it and waste anymore money on it.
Instead set aside that $ towards an entirely new modern day build.
If you must re-use your old drives and GPU, sure go right ahead. Just ensure to always have at least one SSD in the system at the least to house OS + Apps. And to have at least 16GB minimum RAM.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Then I would try to get around a 1tb ssd. They usually on-sale for around $99. Any 5400rpm hdd is just for loose file storage and is too slow even for running some games off of.

If his PSU is years old, replace that too. A modern PC should have a decent PSU with modern plugs and specs. Nothing older then 2017/2018 PSU models unless maybe it was already a decent gold certified psu.

The only things work keeping for now is maybe the hdd and gpu. The rest should be modern hardware such as, at a minimum... Intel 8th gen cpu or better -or- AMD Ryzen 3600 or better, at least one ssd, a freshly made USB flash drive (8gb minimum size) with latest version of Win10 64bit. On the new board you should clean install Win10 onto the new ssd. Once at the desktop you can backup any files he needs off the old hdd onto the ssd. Then do a full disk wipe to the old hdd and then use that as secondary storage. Loose files you backed up can then be copied back to the hdd. This way you rid the hdd of his old OS.

[A&A]

For an upgrade of this machine, I don't see much logic using this motherboard because Fx CPUs are not very good nowdays even if you can buy it first hand they are still expensive

[nullable]

Originalmente postado por PFC Wilbury 29ID:

I am well aware DDR3 and 4 are incompatible. I have generally found old DDR3 RAM to be dirt cheap wherever I happen to look. So I thought why not treat my friend to some cheap upgrades. But we have done some talking and I am just going to get him a new MOBO RAM and CPU, and reuse the GPU and PSU. And a new case his is probably more than 12 years.

Sure DDR3 is cheap. And you can get 2400Mhz DDR3 sticks pretty easily it seems like and they're not that expensive. The performance over 2133 is negligible and I don't expect that will change if we're talking 2666 either. Just not worth fussing over. Pretty much any 2x8GB sticks will work IMO.

Worst case is you go overboard on the RAM and the motherboard just runs it at a lower maximum speed that it actually supports. 2666 RAM will run just fine at 2133 if that's all the motherboard can do. I'm sure you can good around specifically to see what people have done with that board though.

Originalmente postado por PFC Wilbury 29ID:

His system as of late has just been starting to chug and it seems like its ram going kaput which is why I thought about getting new RAM (Which is cheap) and while I am at it the best CPU for the socket (I imagine its cheap for its age)

What leads you t believe poor system performance is his RAM going kaput? Between not enough RAM, or having to hit the disk a lot and the disk is slow, that will drag system performance down a lot. He might not replacement RAM at all, he might just need more RAM and a SSD.

I mean you can always do some tests on the RAM. At the moment you seem to be making assumptions that mediocre performance is an indicator of component failure. If his RAM were failing I'd kinda of expect he'd be experiencing a lot of blue screens and instability. I wouldn't expect his RAM to be running noticeably slower...

Originalmente postado por PFC Wilbury 29ID:

and an SSD as he just has a 5400 HDD which is way to slow these days.

Aye, the disk is usually the slowest part of the system and the part people think doesn't matter. They don't realize how often you hit the disk and speeding that up by a factor of ten or a hundred, depending is going to have a big impact on performance.

I knew a guy who put a SSD in an old core 2 duo laptop and was shocked at the difference. Speeding up disk performance is nothing to sneeze at.

[GOD RAYS ON ULTRA™]

Originalmente postado por PFC Wilbury 29ID:

https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-990XA-UD3-rev-1x#ov

I don't know much about ye olde CPU's.

The CPU for that chipset will be very expensive and outdated. You can get a cheap b560 or even a 510 motherboard and a core i-3 10105f combined with ddr4 3200mhz for just a little more than purchasing a CPU alone for that 990fx. You would just need a graphic card, power and SSD.

Or you could get a b550 or even a cheap 520 motherboard along with a 5600g with integrated graphics. You could stick it inside a cheap mini-tower (some come with tiny built-in psu) and make a stealth pc. I'm tempted to make one; just a tiny thing on my desk no bigger than a router :) with ddr4, ssd, powerful integrated graphics.
Cheers

[Masque]

PFC Wilbury, around here you should just ask, plainly, "What is the furthest I can push this motherboard, and only this motherboard, without getting a new motherboard, cost being no factor?"

Otherwise you'll only get answers that tell you not to. Better to just say that, and even go so far as to pretend you're doing it for Retro Enthusiast reasons.

Not trying to rag on people here, but it's true. If you don't want opinions on whether you *should* upgrade a particular motherboard, it's best to say that right up front.

Contrary to the opinions of many experts on these august forums a couple of years ago, I have pushed my z97 Intel board as far as it can go, and i am perfectly happy, even if the experts think I'm an idiot, and many certainly do, because I didn't take their advice when I asked how far I could push this motherboard.
----
A SATA SSD will be the upgrade that you'll notice the most here. In many ways, installing the OS on that will make the PC feel like it's a few generations newer than it really is. I can offer no advice on what the best CPU is for an AMD motherboard.

[GamerXtreme]

You should look at the cpu support list which is here https://www.gigabyte.com/Ajax/SupportFunction/Getcpulist?Type=Product&Value=3901. If you get the FX-8370 which is like the best for that motherboard you can get good performance in games.

The FX-8370 will give you good performance with a good gpu.

[emoticorpse]

what cpu do you currently have for it? if you have one? I recently put together my m5a99fx motherboard pc and got it running. I messed up my 8350 but busting off some of the pins and so I had to revert to a 6300 I didn't even remember I had lying around. I'm still not sure where it came from because I don't remember ever buying a 6300.

[_I_]

Originalmente postado por GamerFan12:

You should look at the cpu support list which is here https://www.gigabyte.com/Ajax/SupportFunction/Getcpulist?Type=Product&Value=3901. If you get the FX-8370 which is like the best for that motherboard you can get good performance in games.

The FX-8370 will give you good performance with a good gpu.

do not do this
its a lateral move at best, still weaker than a current i3 or pengium g cpu
https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i3-10100-vs-AMD-FX-9590/4075vs1812

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Getting more ram and an ssd isn't a bad idea. Just know what no AM3 cpu will hold up well when playing modern games that are more demanding of being in need of a modern cpu that can handle it properly. Of course gpu plays a role as well.