New cpu needed, with restrictions

[IainR]

Hi all, currently have an Asus Crosshair III Formula AMD 790FX (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard, with an AMD Phenom II X3 Tri Core 720 Black Edition 2.80GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail cpu. I don't have the funds to update my whole system right now, but i'm looking at upgrading my cpu from above, and my 5770 xfire setup. What is the best bang for buck AMD cpu out there at the moment that my current mobo supports? I'm hoping under or around the £100 mark, but can strech further if it's worth doing so. Also, and I realise it's the wrong section,but might aswell kill 2 birds with 1 stone, what would be a worthwhile upgrade from my 5770xfire setup, or am I better waiting for the 7xxx series? I would also not mind going nvidia gpu, if worth it.

 

[gamesaregood]

Have you tried unlocking the core on the CPU? Is the CPU overclocked?

 

[IainR]

Yeah, it's running as a quad core @ 3.2ghz, all done via the mobo, i'm just looking for something with a bit more bite that I can then clock up again via mobo.

 

[gamesaregood]

Yeah, it's running as a quad core @ 3.2ghz, all done via the mobo, i'm just looking for something with a bit more bite that I can then clock up again via mobo.

Ok, I would say your best option is overclocking an X4 955 or 965 if you look out for a C3 stepping one it should get close to 4GHz.

Otherwise you could pickup a Hex Core 1090T and overclock that to similar levels but its slightly over your budget.

 

[IainR]

Thanks for the replies mate, so something like this - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-253-AM&tool=3 - would be a worthwhile upgrade until I can afford to fully rebuild after a shift in a dusty hellhole next year lol

 

[GTO656]

nice is it worth overclocking it to 4ghz?? would the windows index go up on CPU I wonder?

 

[Martini1991]

Nothing really would be a real upgrade given you're running 3.2GHZ as a quad anyways, just overclock what you have...