Help With Upgrade. Thanks.

My specs
i7 980x 3.33ghz
dell workstation 3500 mb ATX
16 gb of pc3-10600 ram
r9-290 4gb
antec 650w tp3-650
2 tb 7500 HD
(i have a mini ssd 256gb that i can use)
Windows 10
I'm using an old Alienware tower. It's ugly but I don't care)

I have 200 dollars to spend. Anyone have any suggestions for upgrade? I'm leaning on a new cpu because I think there is something going wrong with the 980x. I've been having problems with game crashes when I'm only using 2 to 3 gb to run games. Also the motherboard...)

Thanks to anyone that helps.

-Nate

 

Also, I'm mainly into gaming.

 

The first thing I'd do is install the SSD you already have, (re)install Windows 10 and make it your boot drive. I'd also move/reinstall as much of your gaming and other software onto the SSD, not exceeding 80% of the formatted capacity. This alone should increase your performance.

Finding a new (not used) motherboard that works with your current CPU (or vice versa) is going to be next to impossible. Current CPUs use a different socket type and usually require DDR4 memory. Personally, I'd rather stay away from used boards and CPUs - you have no idea why they were taken out of service (defects) and if they were flogged by overclocking.

After installing the SSD, I'd check the board manufacturer's website to see if there is a BIOS update available. Ditto for upgrading your video driver software. If this doesn't solve the problem, I'd next install temperature monitoring software to see if system crashes are related to one or more components overheating - if so, spend the money on better cooling for the parts that are overheating.

Beyond this, I'd check the downloads section for good freeware that will check your memory, CPU, etc. for issues by brute force testing them.

Hope this helps.

 

Just clone your OS partition from the HDD (2TB) to the SSD. Also, once it's booted and functioning (You will have to change your boot order) make sure you've created a backup image and wipe the HDD. Or, partition the HDD to save the image using some free space, then wipe the old Windows partition. The backup image partition should be somewhat larger than the used space on your C: drive for future expansion. Or, you could use an external and leave it in a safe place. You could even keep a disconnected drive in your desktop to store a backup image should you encounter ransomware for some strange reason.

And, vintage cases ROCK.