Upgrade Suggestions for CPU/PSU

[Corenality]

It's that time of year again. My system's been faring pretty well for the most part since the last upgrade, but with more recent games its really starting to show its age.
Below is my current setup:

Ati HD7770 1GB
AMD Athlon II x2 260 Regor 3.2Ghz
Biostar TA880GB+ Mobo
Bestec ATX-300-12Z 300W PSU
500Gb HDD (don't recall the brand name)
Ripjaws 2x2Gb DDR3 1600 RAM

I mainly play Source Engine games, so in that respect this system hasn't had many issues. However, when the action starts to get hectic, my frames start to drop pretty substantially no matter what graphic settings I have them on.

It's pretty clear that it's a cpu bottleneck, although a cpu upgrade would also require a new PSU as well. I honestly didn't think this system would run, considering my PSU didn't even have a 6 pin connector for my 7770.

I've originally considered upgrading to an fx-6300 until I realized that my motherboard only supports AM3 processors, and not the AM3+ the new bulldozer series requires. And no bios update is going to change that.

So the best I could get out of this mobo is a phenom II processor, though it's a discontinued series and I'm having trouble trying to find one at a good price. The best I could find was this on Newegg:

AMD Phenom II X4 970 Black Edition Deneb 3.5GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Desktop Processor HDZ970FBGMBOX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103894

But I feel even that price is a bit steep for a processor that's over three years old. I would be much more content buying a 965 BE for $100 if I could find one.

What would be a good cpu/PSU upgrade for my system within $150-$200 (I'd prefer closer to $150). I'm not talking about maxing out Crysis or BF3 or anything, just enough so that the games I play stay consistently at 60fps in intense action regardless of how low I set them.

Any suggestions are appreciated.

[Soylent_Merchant]

Rove の投稿を引用：

Here is a package with PSU, Case, CPU & Motherboard:
Base Total: $282.95
Promo Discounts: -$25.00
Mail-in Rebates: -$30.00
Total: $227.95
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1p3Rf

Unfortunately it's slightly over your budget but it's the best I can do.

Also some prices went up as the discounts, rebates and prices changed, I had to switch to a $5 more expensive PSU.

I hope this package in within your reach. If you can get the money together this is what I'd do.

Why biostar they have low quality mobo's and he already has the parts hes just adding a case, he got the 6300 with the mobo at like 130

[Corenality]

Sounds good. Its weird how much has to be replaced just for a cpu upgrade. Pretty much the same situation a couple years back when I tried to swap out a p4 for an Athlon II. At least from this point on it should be fairly straightforward upgrading individual parts.

[Soylent_Merchant]

Team♥Dead の投稿を引用：

Sounds good. Its weird how much has to be replaced just for a cpu upgrade. Pretty much the same situation a couple years back when I tried to swap out a p4 for an Athlon II. At least from this point on it should be fairly straightforward upgrading individual parts.

Yeah youre good have fun and good luck

[Rove]

shobhit550 の投稿を引用：

Why biostar they have low quality mobo's and he already has the parts hes just adding a case, he got the 6300 with the mobo at like 130

He does? How do you know? You two friends? I didn't see that in any other posts.

What motherboard did he get for total $130 including the FX 6300?

I'm sure it was worse than the Biostar board I recommended as I don't know where you could get a socket AM3+ 970 chipset motherboard with support for 140w CPUs for that price. If he got one of the 780g chipset ones I think that was a mistake.

That Biostar board looks like a good medium-level board to me and supports 140w CPUs.

[Soylent_Merchant]

Rove の投稿を引用：

shobhit550 の投稿を引用：

Why biostar they have low quality mobo's and he already has the parts hes just adding a case, he got the 6300 with the mobo at like 130

He does? How do you know? You two friends? I didn't see that in any other posts.

What motherboard did he get for total $130 including the FX 6300?

I'm sure it was worse than the Biostar board I recommended as I don't know where you could get a socket AM3+ 970 chipset motherboard with support for 140w CPUs for that price. If he got one of the 780g chipset ones I think that was a mistake.

That Biostar board looks like a good medium-level board to me and supports 140w CPUs.

He provided a link with bundles Rove calm down...
steam://openurl/http://www.microcenter.com/site/products/amd_bundles.aspx

[Rove]

I saw that, but he never said that he actually bought one.

OP I recommend against buying any chipset less than 970 for a FX 6300.

The cheapest bundle with AMD FX 6300 + 970 chipset motherboard is $160 with the MSI board. It looks good and it's a little cheaper than what I recommended first. Take it if you want, that MSI 970A-G46 or the Biostar TA970 are both good mid-level boards with very similar features and the MSI is cheaper.

[Corenality]

Rove の投稿を引用：

I saw that, but he never said that he actually bought one.

OP I recommend against buying any chipset less than 970 for a FX 6300.

The cheapest bundle with AMD FX 6300 + 970 chipset motherboard is $160 with the MSI board. It looks good and it's a little cheaper than what I recommended first. Take it if you want, that MSI 970A-G46 or the Biostar TA970 are both good mid-level boards with very similar features and the MSI is cheaper.

Since I don't plan to overclock, I'm probably gonna go for the Biostar 970TA. I have a biostar board in my current system and it hasn't caused me any problems.

Edit: I've decided to go with the PSU that Rove suggested, but instead of the Biostar mobo and case I found a decent Gigabyte Micro-atx board:

GIGABYTE GA-78LMT-USB3 AM3+ AMD 760G USB 3.0 HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128565

Even though i'm not going to overclock, it has a 4+1 power phase and its heatsinked, just like the Biostar board. I also read quite a few positive reviews about users who got it working with fx-6300's. This way I can keep my old case until I can save up some more money to purchase a nicer one along with some other parts when the time comes around again.

Final edit: I've (finally) decided to bite the bullet and purchase the entire combo suggested by Rove. Turns out chipsets that aren't 900 series have to go through bios updates in order to work with fx-series processors. Even though I can just plug in my Athlon II for the update, I don't want to take any chances.