Scroll down for TLDR.

So I've been eyeballing GPU's lately for an upgrade and the more I look the more inclined I am to just start slowly buying parts for a whole new budget machine.

Afterwards just adding ram to my older one for a photo shop machine for the wife's photography business.

I'm in Canada, s o parts are pricey atm due to the dollar and much harder to source from Canadian retailers it seems.
I have a best buy that is local. Outside of that it'll have to be ordered and shipped.

Decided already it'll be a budget build again, and I'm set on an athlon x4 cpu. Most likely an 860k. Or an 880 but I'm not sure if it's worth the price jump tbh.

This will be my first rig I'm buying specifically on a budget to overclock the cpu.
My last two had unlocked cpu's but I never did get around to it and the mobo's werent really built for it.

It'll be a slow process of deal shopping and ordering parts one at a time as I can. It's no big rush and right now I'm looking for your educated opinions on my best price/ performance options that suit what I'm trying to do.

TLDR
Slowly building a newer more current budget gaming cpu with an 860k at its core.
Iso your help and advice.

First questions.

Fuck the 880k right? I can get the 860k for 25$ less or better and overclock it to 4.x ghz right?

If possible, since I'm overclocking. Should I just grab and OEM/tray if I can that's cheaper then a retail boxed?

If so I'll be opting for the CM hyper 212 Evo cooler. It's regularly available at <40$ and it's never let me down.

Mobo.
As i'll be buying this specifically to overclock, can you recommend to me a good fm2+ mobo for overclocking.
Also what am I looking for from a mobo if I'd like to use it to overclock?

Whats your budget and what can you reuse?
I would advise buying mobo + CPU from retailer. Source rest of parts from Craigslist (except gpu ofc)

Yeh I'm trying not to get too far ahead of myself atm.
General idea is.

Don't need an OS.
Currently have razer wired gaming mouse and an eclipse ii KB.
Have a full 1080p monitor I'll be reusing

860k cpu
CM hyper 212 evo
Good mobo for OC
Most likely an rx480 4gb or 8gb gpu
The rest will come with time
I'm partial to seasonic and Antec psu's so I'll be getting one of the two.
I'm slowly figuring out the parts as I go starting with cpu and mobo.
The budget number is not one number. It's a promise I made myself to get the best deals I can on this over time.

Shitty cpu choice to build overtime, strongly recommend against it.

Building overtime, you should be picking a relatively new gg cpu as it'll get outdated as time goes and not an outdated discontinued cpu.

What amd cpu currently has as good of a price/performance margin that you'd suggest?

Mostly opting for this as it's extremely budget friendly and can be overclocked well.

Also all the benchmarks I've read through show it outperforming a lot of more expensive ones in single threaded applications like games.

I'm not super worried about future proof so much mostly cause I can't imagine games going so far beyond a x4 cpu oc'd to 4.2+ ghz
That other won't be use able in 3 years from now when I will most likely do this again. But I may be seriously wrong on this.

My current time older desktop is running a phenom ii x4 965 be at stock speed and I've yet to play a game that demands more then it can give. My bottleneck is the old 7850 I'm still running from when I built it ~4 years ago.

Very much open to opinions though so if you have other recommendations I'm all ears. It's not a rush build its just me looking to change the scenery some and hand my old desktop down to the wife's office for photo editing machine.

Edit: Only thing set in stone regardless of it being a setback is that I will be using an AMD cpu and gpu.

This post was edited by C0ntr4ct0r on Aug 7 2016 07:33pm

if you're set on AMD cpu, u either wait for their new CPU zen that should be released soon, or go minimum of fx 6300/8320.
6300 oc's far better than any of the 3 cpu, pretty much the CPU to oc with.

but i dunno why you'd wanna limit urself with outdated cpu's though, especially when you plan on building overtime.
Upgrading ur cpu from phenom ii x4 965 to athlon 860k is pointless, it's like going 2500k to 3570k
since ur building overtime, u might as well wait til end of this year to purchase zen

also canada psu's are usually overpriced as fuck, like rest of the parts of computer but they do have great discounts from time to time.
You gotta snipe it tho, essentially look for seasonic and superflower oem's. EVGA provides both, and has known gg customer service so keep a look out for those.

This post was edited by Secksii on Aug 7 2016 07:59pm

I'll give you my insight on why I made this selection of cpu so far.

Firstly I'm not considering this an upgrade to my 965 be necessarily as the wife will use it so I'm actually just making myself a new gaming rig. The 860k is a much more recent cpu then my old phenom and I've read some really great things about in terms of gaming especially silly at its price point.

This rug will do nothing but game. Steam along with my games will be the only things going on. So the need for more cores or a more dynamic cpu isn't a super big concern.

I will be overclocking but it won't be huge. I'd like to get the 860k from its 3.7 base to 4.0ish. And I'm happy.

Almost everywhere I look this particular cpu is said to overclock reasonably well and outperforms more expensive cpu's in gaming related tasks. Which is literally all it will be for.

So I took all this info I'd read through
Along with the fx model 6300 and 83xx being 130+$ in canada next to the 860k coming around 90 and has been on sale recently for ~75$. Can.

I don't mind old cpu's. And I'm not concerned with the future so it's more a project to get the best I can for the best price.
My 965 was "old" when I bought it, but holy fuck dud it impress me in terms of price/power when I first got my hands on it.

Edit:
I was considering zen, then thought what are the odds there brand new architecture releases a budget gaming cpu that's comparable in price to the 860k if I snag it at 70$

Thoughts on this? ^

I have an Antec 620 hcg psu atm and it's still going strong and 100% quiet 4 years later which kinda hooked me on them. I also picked it up for 50$ on sale from ncix iirc.

My old old one had a seasonic and it's still running 7 years later in my buddy's desktop. Hard to kick at that.

I've never owned anything from Evga, could you link me some examples of the psu's you be recommending?
I'd imagine something 600+ for this once I'm said and done would suffice.

This post was edited by C0ntr4ct0r on Aug 7 2016 08:28pm

What i meant by upgrade was that you're essentially going from 965 to 860k, even if you give the old build to your wife, or whomever you're still using the 860k after using 965.

Link me what you already have, you already have the cooler and psu, what's left? and budget is 600+?
You don't need to limit your CPU budget to under $100, if you're total budget allows

for EVGA power supplies, look for the B2/G2 (superflower) and GS (seasonic) models. Avoid B1/G1/Nex

Currently the new build has nothing so far. The cooler is ordered 36$ Can locally so it wasn't bad.

Is there a better amd cpu then the 860k for gaming that's under 100$ or better yet under 80$?
Ideally what I'm looking for is to create a competent gaming machine again that will cost as little as possible.

I'll end up building this and being content with it for a few years.
By then zen and whatever else amd comes up with will be out, tested, upgraded, and cheaper. Letting me build one again at that time.

If I could pull off a gaming desktop again for 600 or less I'd be pretty pumped. The less money spent the better.
This time I'll be opting to spend slightly more on a better budget gpu.
It's less about having a numerical budget and more about creating something useful whilst leaving the smallest financial footprint.
We're a family of 5 on my income plus a bit of extra from her photography so I'm very much a penny pincher lol.

What I gathered yesterday from some Google fu is that there is good boards for overclocking with this particular socket but none are less then 100+$ so far. Which is unfortunate.

I'll look into those psu's along with the two I'm partial to and link them. Then 8 can get a better idea of what would suit best and if any bad ones come about I'm sure you would notice.

This post was edited by C0ntr4ct0r on Aug 8 2016 02:56pm

ASRock FM2A88X PRO3+ FM2+ ATX 4 64GB (3) $98.00 Add
Gigabyte GA-F2A88X-D3HP FM2+ ATX 4 64GB (0) $108.00 Add
Asus A88X-PLUS/USB 3.1 FM2+ ATX 4 64GB (0) $111.53 Add
Biostar Hi-Fi A88W 3D FM2+ ATX 4 64GB (2) $119.99 Add
Asus A88X-PLUS FM2+ ATX 4 64GB (1) $123.50 Add
ASRock FM2A88X+ Killer FM2+ ATX 4 64GB (3) $154.99 Add
Asus A88X-PRO FM2+ ATX 4 64GB (7) $156.04 Add
ASRock FM2A88X Extreme4+ FM2+ ATX 4 64GB (6) $177.02 Add
Asus CROSSBLADE RANGER FM2+ ATX 4 64GB (1) $199.75 Add
ASRock FM2A88X Extreme6+ FM2+ ATX 4 64GB (2) $221.28

Those are what I've seen are available atm
Some I may be able to get slightly cheaper
Best price for performance board that's fm2+ for strictly gaming?
Even if it's not here lmk what your thinking.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7948/asus-a88x-pro-review
Is the one I'm looking at. Thought the pricing would have been better. Silly Canada prices.

This post was edited by C0ntr4ct0r on Aug 8 2016 06:17pm