Would there be much benefit in upgrading?

[Acid_death69]

Hi all,
At the moment I have an AMD 64 Athlon 2x 6400+ BE running at GHz. Im wanting to upgrade but my motherboard will on go as high as AM2+ so im kind of stuck with what I can get (I really don't want to upgrade my mobo just yet).

Anyway I was looking at an AMD Phenom X4 9850 2.5GHz and I wondered if it would be worth the upgrade?

 

[cmndr_andi]

What is the make/model of your motherboard?

 

[alexp999]

Most if not all AM3 cpus are backwards compatible with AM2+

Its down to the mobos cpu support list as to best chip youll be able to stick in

 

[Acid_death69]

The make and model of the mobo is Asus cross hair, nforce 590SLI

 

[cmndr_andi]

Ah, indeed - it only supports up to Phenom 1 X4.

In that case I can't recommend going for a Phenom 1 X4 - they are slow and hot CPUs.

Unfortunately, that means that upgrading will cost a bit more. What do you use the system for mainly?

 

[Acid_death69]

I mainly use it for gaming and also editing and mastering music.

Is the only way to get a better CPU to get a new mobo then?

 

[cmndr_andi]

Have a look at this review.


For gaming, the Phenom 1 X4 will actually be slower than your current dual core - as the clockspeed is lower and most games don't take advantage of Quad cores - even today.

For editing and mastering music - so long as the applications are multithreaded then the Quad core will be faster. But if the aren't then the dual core will be faster - just like in gaming.

If you want a new CPU that is worth the upgrade - then a Phenom II X4 or i3/i5/i7 would be a big upgrade. If you are on a tight budget - a good AM2+ board like this and an Athlon II X4 would be great, and you could reuse your DDR2 RAM.

 

[Marine-RX179]

There are official AM2+ version Phenom II X4, and the fastest would be the Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition (AM2+).

 

[cmndr_andi]

There are official AM2+ version Phenom II X4, and the fastest would be the Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition (AM2+).

Aye, but this is an AM2 board that happens to support some AM2+ chips. Unfortunately no AM2+ Phenom II chips are on the CPU support list found here.

 

[Acid_death69]

Cheers for the help guys. I'll probably wait a while then before upgrading my mother board I've had it now for a year and a half and spent over £100 on it. I want to my use out of it first.