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Motherboard & cpu recommendations needed
My motherboard finally crapped out on me. I've slowly been replacing parts for 5 years and thi8s was the last time. The hard drive, video card, and power supply have all been updated within 1-2 years. I'm looking for some budget friendly options for a student.
Games I play the most: Smite, DCUO, WildStar, FFXIV
Looking to spend under $300 ideally for new parts.
EDIT: current stuff in the rig
Thermaltake power supply (unknown wattage)
Nvidia GTX 650 ti boost
Gigabyte board GA-790XTA-UD4
AMD Phenom II X4 965
Comments
Since you already have a decent graphics card, I'd recommend the i5-3350P, It's a great processor and I use it in one of my gaming PC's at home. It's a little bit less expensive because it doesn't have built in video, which you won't need anyway.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116782
As far as a motherboard for it, for a less expensive option to save you money and still get a good board, I'd recommend going gigabyte. I have had good experiences with them over the years in budget gaming PC's.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128555&cm_re=LGA_1155-_-13-128-555-_-Product
Currently Playing: ESO and FFXIV
Have played: You name it
If you mention rose tinted glasses, you better be referring to Mitch Hedberg.
What's your budget, and what's the model of that 1000W power supply. "Student budget" means a lot of different things to different people.
Just because it's "1000W" doesn't mean it's good, and there is a non-zero chance that it's bad, and it just happened to blow up your existing motherboard.
Also, motherboard replacements - I will say that will most likely require a new Windows license. As a student, you have options though.
That isn't any less expensive than the Haswell equivalent, which would let you get the updated Z97 chipset motherboard (Ivy/Sandy won't) for roughly the same price. And since you can't overclock it, the big advantage of Ivy Bridge over Haswell is pretty well lost going that way.
That... and it's still a lot more expensive than an AMD option. The go-to budget build is usually a FX-6300, which is around $50 less than your Ivy Bridge you've linked, is overclockable, and the motherboards tend to be $20-30 less expensive on average as well.
I will agree that Gigabyte is a good brand. I'd also recommend Asus and MSI. The worst you can do with these 3 brands is pay extra for features you won't ever use.
I will hesitantly mention Asrock - they tend to be the budget enthusiast brand, and they seem to work well, but are noticeably manufactured to a lower specification. YMMV, if you absolutely need to save $10, Asrock is your brand and it will probably work just fine, but if you can skip a pizza one weekend, I'd go with one of the other 3 brands every time.
I see what you are saying about the Haswell, the updated chipset is a fair point. I wouldn't recommend AMD though, at one point I used all AMD products but they have really gone down hill in quality and support over the years imo. It's personal preference though.
Good catch on the Z97 being the same price though, I just still had the other one bookmarked from late last year and it was easy to bring it back up
Currently Playing: ESO and FFXIV
Have played: You name it
If you mention rose tinted glasses, you better be referring to Mitch Hedberg.
The basic options are paying more to get something faster from Intel or saving money to get something cheaper but good enough from AMD. You're advising paying more without getting something substantially faster. Yes, that chip lacks a GPU, but that doesn't magically make the CPU better.
Sorry I wasn't at home to tell you all the things in the case before. I was going by memory, and I was actually off on the card. It is a 650 ti boost, not a 660. I updated the OP with a new section to include what is in the case. I'm also not exactly sure on the wattage for the power supply. It's a Thermaltake, but unless I rip it out....which I don't feel like doing atm...I can't tell. There are no visible stickers. I can just see the name etched on the side. I want to say I had some generic 1000w in there before. This one may be less, 850? 600? Wish there was a sticker I could easily see. It was bought last summer so I don't remember.
I was looking to spend under $300 for new parts.
I would recommend finding out what PSU you have, as the PSU very well may be the issue or have caused the issue you are having.
To answer your question here are some decent components at a fair price that fit your budget.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130637
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113286
CPU & Mobo for $200
I would add this PSU just to be sure.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817438012
$35 after rebate and has a good review on Jonnyguru
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story6&reid=351
Total for all 3 $250 before a $15 MIR , $235 after.
Once again I would check and see what make/model PSU you have currently. If it is a piece of crap one replace it.
My 2cp
Your current system should be fine for replacing the motherboard and CPU. You might need a new OS license because they are tied to the motherboard. As a student, you should be able to get a nice discount.
If you want an inexpensive system, the FX6300 is a good CPU. If you want to push your budget limit to squeeze more performance out of your system, Intel options will perform slightly better in most games.
If you don't know what parts you have, then find out. If you have to open up the case and read labels, then do it. You don't want to spend $300 on parts only to find that they're incompatible with old parts that you were hoping to keep.
In particular, I want to know what CPU and motherboard you had, even though you're replacing them; motherboard is much more important than CPU here. I want as much information as you can get about your old memory, which may or may not be all that much, but you can surely at least find the number of memory modules, and knowing which motherboard you had will say something about your memory. Find the exact brand name and model of your power supply; this one is vital and a nominal wattage alone does not suffice. If you can find the brand name and model of your case, then do so; if not, then at least describe where the fans are and how big they are. I'd also like to know exactly what you have for storage; for a hard drive, what really matters is the capacity and rotation speed, but it's probably easier to find the brand name and model than the rotation speed.
Edit: I see that you've listed some parts in your original post, but I'd still like to see more.
There's a good case for simply getting a new motherboard, keeping the old CPU, and leaving it at that. That will leave you the option of upgrading the CPU later if you need a new one. You can probably also keep your old OS license if the motherboard failed. You'll likely need to call Microsoft to reactivate it with a new motherboard, but if you tell them that your old motherboard died and you're keeping the old CPU and memory, I'd be surprised if they didn't activate the OS for you on the new motherboard.
One warning is that motherboards don't always die alone. If it took other components with it, you may end up having to replace more than just the motherboard. Do you know that other parts still work, or are you just hoping?
Your power supply may or may not warrant replacement, depending on what it is. If other parts die, it's always possible that the power supply is really what killed them.
If you're willing to spend more money, an SSD is a worthy upgrade if you don't already have one.
If you do go the motherboard upgrade only route, I'd lean toward this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128651
Shipping costs are real costs, too, so this one is actually a bit cheaper than the comparably fine motherboard that jdnewell linked, even if you ignore the rebate.
Whoops just noticed your budget.
On that budget don't bother upgrading the CPU or Motherboard. Best investments are replacing your mobo. Need to know the exact mobo, because more modern AMD mobos will be incompatible with that processor. SSD is probably the 2nd best upgrade but at that budget it might be more trouble than its worth. It will reduce microstutter and loading times, however you won't be able to get a large one spending part of $300 on a new mobo and the rest on an SSD, Shipping, and Tax. Small SSDs are kind of a pain in the ass to deal with on a Windows System.
For Motherboard, I recommend this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130677
The 650ti should be sufficient.
On the PSU, Thermaltake has good and bad PSUs. It really depends on how much you spend. A 1000w Thermaltake PSU tends to be good. I have a 650w Thermaltake PSU that is fantastic mainly because its their top brand. Thermaltake's failure rate hovers around 1.2%-1.8% which is in the better range of PSU providers.
I think I'll jump on the "replace the motherboard" bandwagon as well.
The reason being - there is a very good chance that your RAM, CPU, &/or video card could have fried as well. But you won't know any of that until you get a motherboard back in there that at least POSTs.
On your budget, I think you have to go one piece at a time, and it may be worth while just to take it into a shop and make sure all the other parts are good, because if all of it has failed, that goes well over your budget.
If you have a friend who's willing to let you test out hardware on their rig (or willing to test it for you) that could give you a lot of piece of mind up front, and save you the cash that a repair shop may charge you.
And there is the risk that you buy this motherboard, it's bad and you don't even know it because other components are bad, and your just more or less stuck with a non-working computer. This could turn into an expensive mess without at least being able to show that some of your other parts are actually still good and working.
Not that I'm trying to dissuade you from working on your own computer. It's just there is a very, very high chance that more than just your motherboard is dead. RAM almost always goes down with the ship. Video cards commonly go. CPUs and hard drives rarely, but occasionally, go. Finding another rig you can test out your remaining parts on would go a long long way to potentially saving a lot of heartache and expense.