Upgrading CPU

[darkslash_323]

Hi, I'm looking into upgrading the cpu for my brother's computer. His mobo is a Asus M2A-VM, which is a AM2 socket. But I've been researching around and it seems after a bios update it can also support AM2+ and AMD3 cpus. He currently has a Athlon 64 X2 4600+. We were looking into the Athlon64 X2 6000+ (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103772). But we aren't sure of this is the best choice. Was wondering if anyone had any opinions has to which cpu he should get. His budget is around $80 and is mostly used for gaming.

Thanks!

 

[geofelt]

What is the rest of the system?
What are the primary games, and at what resolution?

Most of the time gaming is improved more from a vga card update than a cpu update.

 

[saaiello]

Here is a list for the CPUs you can upgrade too and which Bios update you will need from the looks of the list you can do much better then that Athlon64 x2 6000+

http://www.cpu-upgrade.com/mb-ASUS/M2A-VM.html


I would suggest going with this Phenom

AMD Phenom X3 8750 Toliman 2.4GHz 3 x 512KB L2 Cache 2MB L3 Cache 73.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103252

According to my list it will support this CPU with Bios update 2101. He is lucky to have a good board from a good company since they are very good at updateing their bios for further support.

Good Luck

 

[welshmousepk]

a phenom?! bad choice, they are bad performers and horrid overclockers.

if your mobo does indeed support AM3 procs, grab an athlon II tri-core. or if you can spring the budget a little (100 dollars) an athlon II 620 should do very well.

 

[saaiello]

a phenom?! bad choice, they are bad performers and horrid overclockers.

if your mobo does indeed support AM3 procs, grab an athlon II tri-core. or if you can spring the budget a little (100 dollars) an athlon II 620 should do very well.

The Phenom x3 is the best there board will support and still buy new in the $80 price range. I provided a link of all the processors the board will support so before you say bad choice bla bla do some research and see what the board supports.

 

[welshmousepk]

The Phenom x3 is the best there board will support and still buy new in the $80 price range. I provided a link of all the processors the board will support so before you say bad choice bla bla do some research and see what the board supports.

the athlon 6000+ would be better than a phenom. the original phenoms are awful procs. they are hot and burn lots of power. so before you insult me, how about doing YOUR research.

the OP said his board supported AM3s, hence why i mentioned one. but i did say 'if its compatible'. either way, a phenom is a bad choice.

 

[saaiello]

the athlon 6000+ would be better than a phenom. the original phenoms are awful procs. they are hot and burn lots of power. so before you insult me, how about doing YOUR research.

the OP said his board supported AM3s, hence why i mentioned one. but i did say 'if its compatible'. either way, a phenom is a bad choice.

My intentions were not to insult you and I apologize if I did wasnt my intentions I got defensive and I shouldn't have. I will be honest I do not know the ins and outs of AMDs processors like that and I will have to look more into it I just listed what looked to be the best for the money he has to spend.

 

[C00lIT]

the athlon 6000+ would be better than a phenom. the original phenoms are awful procs. they are hot and burn lots of power. so before you insult me, how about doing YOUR research.

the OP said his board supported AM3s, hence why i mentioned one. but i did say 'if its compatible'. either way, a phenom is a bad choice.

Sorry but you are pretty wrong on this one.
If you did your research you would know that the Phenom's are faster then AthlonX2's clock per clock. not by much... I think 15% or something like that.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-phenom-athlon-64-x2,1746-9.html

This is what I run

Phenom9950be
4gigs ram
GTX260
Originally was an Asus M2N-E, then changed to an M3A78-EM as I needed an extraboard to make an extra pc with some *** cpu

Long story short, the cpu does not bottleneck my videocard, I can run everything at my 23" screen res of 1920x1080 and as much as I can just jump to a 955 and clock it higher.... What's the point... my 9950 does a perfect job as it is... Everything opens quickly and getting into Company of Heroes 5 seconds faster or having Winrar finish a little faster isn't changing my life...

If the OP wants to just throw in a cpu to make the pc faster ... a Phenom9850 would be the best Pick according to the supported list.

Or he can take the risk of running an AthlonII 435 (if it runs it would be the best) but that's quite an IF.


My advice is this

9850be or Athlon6000+ would be the best pics as 2.4Ghz is not going to justify the extra cost.

 

[welshmousepk]

phenoms are marginally more powerful clock for clock, but with half the overclocking headroom, and twice the power consumption.
the choice is a no brainer.

 

[darkslash_323]

Wow thanks for everyone's input. But I have another question regarding this. Is a quad core or dual core better for gaming? or it really doesn't matter. Because I kind of want this upgrade to help prolong his computer use a few more years.

Thanks.

 

[geofelt]

Wow thanks for everyone's input. But I have another question regarding this. Is a quad core or dual core better for gaming? or it really doesn't matter. Because I kind of want this upgrade to help prolong his computer use a few more years.

Thanks.

It depends.

If your games are cpu bound and can make use of more than two cores, then a quad cores is in order. Most games today can not make use of more than two cores. FSX and supreme commander are among the exceptions. Most of the time, a duo clocked at 3.0 or better will be able to drive any single graphics card to it's capacity.

If you look at the following article and charts, you will see that a duo at 3.0(E8400) is able to give you good gameplay for most games, and that performance is primarily determined by the graphics card.
http://www.guru3d.com/article/vga-charts-december-2008/

Different games were tested the next year with a i7-965 @3.75, and you can see that performance similarly scales with the power of the graphics card.
http://www.guru3d.com/article/vga-charts-december-2009/3

Once you can consistently achieve 60FPS you will have good gaming. Do not bother much with the very high numbers. With a budget of $80, what can you do? I think I would do some looking on e-bay. Find out what your old card can sell for, and ust the proceeds to bid on a better replacement.

If, by any chance, the PC has less than 2gb of ram, use the $80 first to get it up to 2 or 3gb.

 

[darkslash_323]

Hmm...maybe we'll hold off the upgrading for now and will save up for a better time to upgrade. Thanks for everyone's opinion and help.

 

[darkslash_323]

Best answer selected by darkslash_323.