CPU Upgrade help

[Sweg Bucket]

I'm looking to improve performance on my current build. My current cpu is the AMD Phenom II x4 840T and my GFX Card is a Nvidia GTX 750Ti (EVGA SC 2GB edition). Also my motherboard is the ASUS M5A78L-M/USB3. I'm looking for a cheap upgrade that would improve performance. Price range should be around $100.

 

[Dulith1118]

would suggest moving to intel will cost u about 200 180 bucks other than that there isnt a huge upgrade within amd for AM2+

 

[lucas_7_94]

I would go for any FX series, but, considerer in future go to intel, we're doing awesome stuff with new series 6.

 

[utroz]

Hmm. Not too much you can do for that type of money. Maybe a ram upgrade. Any worth while cpu would cost more than $100 dollars (FX-83XX cpu's) and even then that motherboard isn't the best for running them.

 

[johnnyb105]

Your Board

http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/M5A78LMUSB3/specifications/

Your cpu upgrades are this http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/M5A78LMUSB3/HelpDesk_CPU/

The highest it will go is a 8370 on a cou now for only 100 bucks to upgrade the only viable thing you really could do is get a SSD replace your mechanical drive with it and install your os to that windows ie then use your older drive for files storage games ect... The board is a AM3+ sINCE 100 BUCKS WONT BUY YOU A faster GPU other then upgrading your ram that's it!

 

[gggplaya]

Buy a water cooler and overclock what you have, did wonders for my computer i built in 2008. I bought a corsair H80i, this is assuming you have room in your case as well as your motherboard allowing some overclock.

In the future, if you upgrade your motherboard/CPU combo, you can reuse your water cpu cooler.

 

[Gallarian]

Unfortunately, your build and budget dont leave much room for any significant upgrades. However, that doesnt mean you can't do anything.

It really depends on what you mean by 'performance' - Gaming performance? Boot up speeds? Ability to do more at once? File transfer speeds?

Gaming performance: GPU upgrade - but at $100, thats not really an option. However, you could overclock your 750ti a little for a small but free FPS boost.

General performance: CPU upgrade - but again not much you can do with $100, as the only meaningful upgrades will cost way more than that. As above, you could look into overclocking but you would need a good CPU cooler.

Multitasking ability: RAM upgrade - You could do this on your budget, but I would only advise it if you have 6GB or less. For gaming and general use, anything above 6GB will be fine at the settings a 750ti would run.

Boot times / Load times in games and apps / file transfer speed: SSD upgrade - This is something you could definitely do with your budget. If youre currently using a hard drive, then an SSD would significantly decrease the amount of time it takes to boot up and shut down your PC, load up games and apps and move large files around.

So my suggestion would be to buy your self a good 250GB SSD such as: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147372

If the prospect of a performance boost in that area doesn't do anything for you, then my suggestion would be to hold off and save up until you can upgrade your GPU or CPU with something worthwhile.