Worthwhile CPU upgrade or complete change?

[Baseley09]

Yo duders, few of the usual upgrade questions put to you guru's.

Currently running AMD's cheapest lowly Quad core Athlon II x 4 620 2.6ghz, looking into worthwhile upgrades.

Here is the motherboard i'm using: http://www.gigabyte.com/products/pro...aspx?pid=3447#

A list of supported CPU's is on the right hand menu, maybe looking at the Phenom II X4 975 or would it be worth going for a 6 core number?

One thing to bare in mind is that unfortunately this board only supports DDR2 memory I believe, do you think its worth upgrading the CPU....or better off going whole hog for a new Mobo with an i5 or somesuch?

Cheers in advance.

PS: i'd rather not change out the whole system, so recommends would be a big plus before mega changes!

[monel]

I'm in the exact same position, but with a Phenom X4, if the mobo supports the Phenom II, I would consider it but I really want an intel system, lack of funds being the problem. DDR2 here, also. Another factor is I've spent quite a bit on drives, fans, decent power supply-my current PC is a frankenstein's computer let down by the CPU.

[eastyy]

would say here is a graphic of benchmarks comparing your cpu to a x6 and judge for yourself if you think its worth a upgrading

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/106?vs=147

to be honest i am seeing everything the past year or so as a incremental upgrade and nothing really major doubt it would be worth upgrading the whole system for perhaps 20fps in a game

[Baseley09]

Ah great site thanks, makes things much simpler. Yes my main aim is gaming, looks like 20fps gains with a better CPU which is quite worthwhile. Also need new PSU & GPU, going to be an expensive winter.

[eastyy]

what graphics card you using at the moment ?

[Baseley09]

1gb power color 5770. It's ok, great for some games but getting long in the tooth for modern releases.

[eastyy]

oh i had the 5750 only 512mb one seemed to run games pretty well on my phenom II x4 only one that really taxed it was the witcher 2 but reducing the detail and still seemed to run pretty well

[FelixofMars]

I would say on modern gaming that the GPU is more important. How much real strain are you putting on even a quad core?

[eastyy]

the new amd fx bulldozers have been reviewed.....not really worth the money benchmarks have been pretty lousy so far most benchmarks not even as fast as the phenom II

[speedlolita]

Yeah, Bulldozer is rubbish.

[monel]

Would you guys suggest I get a whole new system, considering what I mentioned earlier in the thread, or just a CPU? I'd like to be able to have a spare PC for emergencies, so a complete upgrade would be cool, but I need to save as much cash as possible right now.

[eastyy]

what model phenom x4 is it ? also what graphics card you using ?

[monel]

Just your standard Phenom, not the Phenom II, clock speed around 2.2 with no overclocking. Onboard graphics, Nvidia, as I don't do PC gaming but I would like a beefier system for music and video editing and emulation.

[speedlolita]

i5 2500k seems to be the best bet currently in terms of price/performance.

[monel]

That means a new motherboard... But it would be great.