[SOLVED] Whats the best CPU upgrade for my system? The motherboard chipset is AM3

[Z1Xx]

HI. I want to upgrade my CPU so it handles games better,,

My PC specs are
AMD Athlon X4 645 3.1GHz
4GB ram single memory (gonna buy another one for 8 gb dual) 1333 MHz
A880GM-M7 motherboard
Asus GTX 660 Ti direct cu ii 2GB

Thats the basic specs 😉

 

[Z1Xx]

Phenum II X6 is as high as you can go.

A simple google answers the question:

ECS ELITEGROUP

Founded in 1987, ECS, the Elitegroup Computer Systems, is a top-notch manufacturer and supplier of several families of computer products in the industry. With almost 30 years of experience, ECS not only produces high-quality products such as motherboards, desktops PC, notebook , Mini PC and semi...

www.ecs.com.tw

Here's the cost of a new system:

Ryzen 2600 $113
B450 AM4 motherboard $80
550W power supply $80
16 gigs memory $80

$353.

Reuse video card and hard drive, and case. A RX570 can be had for $100 if you really want to upgrade to moderate frame rate 1080p gaming.

But isnt the 500 watt power supply enough?

 

[digitalgriffin]

But isnt the 500 watt power supply enough?

Yes and no. For a lot of video entry level gaming cards, 500watts is enough.

But, power supplies have different build qualities. The capacitors degrade eventually in even the best of brands with 10 year warranties. This means your total power output will eventually decrease and the quality of the power will decrease leading to random computer failure when its under load.

I dont know the brand or age of your power supply, so as a safety measure i recommend replacement.

My recommendations from cheapest kia to mercedes are
Corsair cx550
Corsair cx550m (modular plugs)
Seasonic plus gold 550
Corsair rm550x
Seasonic prime

They are all acceptable in my book. There are other good brands. But these are my goto brands based on personal experience, warranty, and reviews.

They are all quality units in my book. They tend to produce good to excellent quality output and have quality internals. That means it should last a while if it arrives working. However even the best of models have a stinker every once in a while that are dead on arrival.

There have been reports of fan failure (noise) on the seasonics when new. But I havent encountered this yet and ive bought 4.

There have also been reports if failure of the extremely high wattage (1000+ watt) RM series from corsair. But this was from several years ago. So corsair might have isolated the issue since then.

 

[King_V]

Without knowing the exact brand and model of your power supply, it's hard to say if it's good. There are great 500W power supplies, and there are terrible ones.

BUT - I wouldn't worry too much now on your existing hardware if it's ok. Yes, they do degrade over time.

The more important thing is when you do upgrade to a new platform. Older power supplies don't deliver their power in a way that's suited toward newer systems, and, I know a few years back, different power-states were introduced (Haswell era, so, 2014 or so?).


Any which way, I don't think any further expenditure on the existing platform you have is worthwhile. You'll be putting in money for very little noticeable difference.