Upgrade needed for Phenom II X4?

[spdragoo]

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: at least 1 week out, possibly as long as 2 months

BUDGET RANGE: $150-250 tops, BEFORE rebates; prefer $100-200 if possible

USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT (most to least):
-- Gaming: currently Halo CE, Halo 2, SWAT 4, AoE III, FarCry 1, & Starcraft II, but considering Diablo III, Call of Duty: MW2, and/or Battlefield 3/4
-- Video conversion (Nero)
-- Watching movies online
-- General office PC work

CURRENT CPU AND POWER SUPPLY: AMD Phenom II X4 970 BE; not sure of brand of PSU, but it's 750W (not at home right now)

OTHER RELEVANT SYSTEM SPECS:
Motherboard: Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3
GPU: Radeon HD 7450; will probably be upgrading the GPU within the next couple of months (likely candidate being an HD 7950 or some other AMD card in that performance range)
RAM: 8GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3-1333 (2x4GB)
Case: Thermaltake V3 Black; standard CPU cooler, 4x120mm case fans (max for the case)
OS: Windows 7 Professional (64-bit)
Hard Drives: WD Blue (1 TB) primary, WD Green (1 TB) secondary

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: *NONE*. I want something available in retail stores -- the local Micro Center is almost right on my drive from home to work -- so no online-only items.

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA

PARTS PREFERENCES: AMD CPUs only

OVERCLOCKING: No

SLI OR CROSSFIRE: Maybe

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1920x1080

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: I'm a pretty avid gamer, but I tend to stick with games that I like, even if they tend to be "older", so I don't always rush out to get the newest games when they're available. I'm not looking for absolute top-of-the-line (as seen from the price range), but I like to plan ahead on my hardware so that I'm not buying a new CPU every 6-12 months.

 

[JOOK-D]

AMD FX 6300 or FX 8320. They should work with your motherboard as long as you have the latest bios.

I believe the more cores the better for video conversion, in which case the 8 core FX 8320 would be better.

 

[JOOK-D]

And I'd get a nice CPU cooler to go with it. Something like a CM Hyper 212 EVO, only like $25 but much much better than the stock one, which would still be inside of your budget.

 

[ewok93]

Those are pretty simple tasks, I suggest a 6300, the 8320 is just overkill. Video conversion isn't very core reliant iirc.

 

[spdragoo]

AMD FX 6300 or FX 8320. They should work with your motherboard as long as you have the latest bios.

I believe the more cores the better for video conversion, in which case the 8 core FX 8320 would be better.

I'll have to check on the BIOS (have v1.0 of the mobo).

The CM Hyper 212, is that a fan-and-heatsink type device, or a liquid cooling solution? I'm not really planning on any overclocking, so I don't think I need to go full-bore on the cooling.

 

[ewok93]

It's an air cooler, so fan and heatsink. You should be fine with stock cooling, but it can increase the lifetime of your CPU, so if you have the money for it, go for it.