AMD or Intel

[Jaysquirrel]

I'm not totally sure about the newer Intel chips and AMD chips so I figured someone may be able to help.

Right now I'm running an AMD X2 5000+ Black Edition (OC'd to 3Ghz), 8GB of 800Mhz DDR2 ram, ATI 4850 and a pretty crappy Asrock A-Live Xfire2 mobo. I've been looking at the new Phenom II's, mainly because of the price, but I've also been told the i7 is worth looking at.

Right now I mainly play games like, WoW, GTA 4, some FPS and that. But mainly I use my system for programs like Photoshop, After Effects and other video editing.

So what would be the best upgrade for me right now? I'm on a pretty tight budget, so I think the i7 is way out of my league, but I also need to know if I should get a new mobo too.

Keep in mind my system right now runs a little slow.

Detailed system specs as of now:
Asrock ALiveXFire-eSATA2 (Socket AM2)
OCZ 4GB (4x2GB) PC2-6400C5 Dual Channel Vista Gold Series DDR2
Asus ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB GDDR3
Akasa Ultra Quiet 500W Paxpower Active PFC ATX2.2 Power Supply
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 5000+ Black Edition OC'd to 3.0GHz (Socket AM2)

 

[Jaysquirrel]

Hmm, I'm thinking of ordering an AMD Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition since its compatible with my mobo.

 

[Jaysquirrel]

just beware your board only does HT 1.0 where am2+ do HT 3.0.

Well after reading up a little on it apparently I personally wouldn't notice a huge difference between HT1 and HT3, so I think I'm gonna go ahead and order the AMD Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition.

Worst case scenario is HT3 is 100x better than HT1 for my use, I'll just buy a new mobo.

 

[Jaysquirrel]

Well I ordered the Phenom II B Edition yesterday and it should be coming tomorrow morning, thanks for the advice

 

[Jaysquirrel]

Installed it within minutes

Love it, I can actually play GTA IV maxed out with around 40-50 FPS.