OCed FX 6300 vs stock 8350?

iPepsi57

Distinguished
Jul 13, 2013
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Hey Tom's, I have been running the FX 6300 in my rig for about ~1 1/2 years now and so far it's done its job. However, I have considered upgrading to the FX 8350 solely because at stock it's faster single threaded performance would yield better frames in the games I lack in currently. I have an ASUS M5 A97 R2.0 which is the 970 chipset, from what I've learned is that my motherboard can run an FX 8350, but without overclocking, and at that point I'll be pushing the already stressed VRM. My question is, would you buy an FX 8350 or keep my FX 6300 and overclock it? What would be better? I have about $180 bucks I can spend and I can either buy a new HDD and a cooler for my current system, or the FX 8350. If you think I should stay with the FX 6300, could you link me to a $40-50 cooler that could run this baby around 4.5GHz?

tl;dr keep the FX 6300 and overclock it or buy an FX 8350 and keep it at stock (or overclock it, but would my motherboard be able to handle that?)
 


It is 100% compatible. The Cooler Master 212 EVO is 2cm taller and that fits in your case. So, the Phanteks one will too. Also, you can check compatibility: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/rosewill-case-challenger
Scroll down to left bottom and you'll see a link. Follow it and choose your cpu cooler.