Cheap upgrade from an old phenom?

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mizzou

Diamond Member
Jan 2, 2008
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I posted this a ways back and found it wasn't worthwhile at the time.

I have a Phenom II x2555be that has four cores all unlocked and is rock steady at 3.6ghz. I can hit 4.0ghz but I have to up the voltage and it runs very hot.

My motherboard is AM3 and NOT AM3+ so that defeats any easy drop-in replacement.

I really don't care if its Intel or AMD, I've just noticed I'm hitting a CPU wall on some of my games.


Video Card is a 5850 FYI.



I'm having difficulty looking at the bargain'ish CPU's out now and it seems like anything in the sub $150 market will not be much of an upgrade...
 
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mizzou

Diamond Member
Jan 2, 2008
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yeah I think the haswell i5 would do just great! Based on the intel / amd new chip rumors, it doesn't appear that any chip is really worth continuing to hold my breath.
 
Arachnotronic

Arachnotronic

Lifer
Mar 10, 2006
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mizzou said:
yeah I think the haswell i5 would do just great! Based on the intel / amd new chip rumors, it doesn't appear that any chip is really worth continuing to hold my breath.
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Yeah. If you are willing to wait about a month or two for the mid-range Skylake i5s to hit the market, that might be an option, but if you need something now you really can't go wrong with a Haswell i5 with H81 for a cheap, but fast, system.
 
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escrow4

Diamond Member
Feb 4, 2013
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i3 4170 (fastest base i3 @ 3.7Ghz) or i3 4370 for the added cache, slight boost in clock speed and HD 4600. $200 isn't really a bargain for an i5; an i3 is an acceptable compromise. Add a half decent H81 board if you want something basic to go with it - Gigabyte's H81M-HD3 has decent onboard audio and an onboard USB 3 header or the H81M-S2H as an alternative with ALC 887 and less iGPU outputs but otherwise similar. Some H81 boards have no onboard USB 3 headers and LPT/COM ports so double check the spec list.
 
Arachnotronic

Arachnotronic

Lifer
Mar 10, 2006
11,715
2,012
126
escrow4 said:
i3 4170 (fastest base i3 @ 3.7Ghz) or i3 4370 for the added cache, slight boost in clock speed and HD 4600. $200 isn't really a bargain for an i5; an i3 is an acceptable compromise. Add a half decent H81 board if you want something basic to go with it - Gigabyte's H81M-HD3 has decent onboard audio and an onboard USB 3 header or the H81M-S2H as an alternative with ALC 887 and less iGPU outputs but otherwise similar. Some H81 boards have no onboard USB 3 headers and LPT/COM ports so double check the spec list.
Click to expand...

Only problem I have with an i3 is that games will almost surely require benefit from quad core CPUs over the next few years. I'd take a dual core i3 over a many-core FX chip, but I think if you can afford the i5, it's a much better purchase for the long-term.
 
T

teejee

Senior member
Jul 4, 2013
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Go for the cheapest Skylake i5. It will last many years for gaming. You need quad core for future games, so skip i3.
 
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escrow4

Diamond Member
Feb 4, 2013
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Arachnotronic said:
Only problem I have with an i3 is that games will almost surely require benefit from quad core CPUs over the next few years. I'd take a dual core i3 over a many-core FX chip, but I think if you can afford the i5, it's a much better purchase for the long-term.
Click to expand...

100% agree, may as well go i7 the way games are going. Depends on the game, OP didn't new or old or both.
 
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gammaray

Senior member
Jul 30, 2006
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if you can find a cheap Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition, it would be a great upgrade for am3 platform. OC the hell out of it.
 
S

SPBHM

Diamond Member
Sep 12, 2012
5,066
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depending on the games I would use the money + whatever you can get for the 5850 to get a gtx 960 or something, they are better for DX11 in terms of CPU usage and will support DX12.

since you are running a PII X4 3.6GHz...
 
Yuriman

Yuriman

Diamond Member
Jun 25, 2004
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A Haswell i3 will be a fair upgrade. I actually replaced a Phenom II (not as highly clocked, admittedly) with an i3 recently, and was pleasantly surprised.

That said, at this point I would not recommend buying anything except a Skylake i5 or i7, given Haswell's age and the lack of Skylake i3's in the immediate future. Hold on to what you have for a few weeks.
 
TeknoBug

TeknoBug

Platinum Member
Oct 2, 2013
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Arachnotronic said:
Only problem I have with an i3 is that games will almost surely require benefit from quad core CPUs over the next few years. I'd take a dual core i3 over a many-core FX chip, but I think if you can afford the i5, it's a much better purchase for the long-term.
Click to expand...

jji7skyline said:
Quad core games run fine on the i3.
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^ that
escrow4 said:
100% agree, may as well go i7 the way games are going. Depends on the game, OP didn't new or old or both.
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The way games are going? A lot of them will still be poopy console ports, only a very select few are actually taking advantage of multiple cores.
 
DrMrLordX

DrMrLordX

Lifer
Apr 27, 2000
22,885
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gammaray said:
if you can find a cheap Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition, it would be a great upgrade for am3 platform. OC the hell out of it.
Click to expand...

Actually, the real bargain is something like the 960T, if it can be had for a reasonable price. It can unlock to a Thuban.

Or, go poking around for the 95W 1055T, or the rare OEM Athlon x4 840(T?) that unlocks to a Thuban (with L3 cache).
 
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escrow4

Diamond Member
Feb 4, 2013
3,339
122
106
TeknoBug said:
^ that

The way games are going? A lot of them will still be poopy console ports, only a very select few are actually taking advantage of multiple cores.
Click to expand...

All the major AAA titles of 2015 use multiple cores including hexa cores - Witcher III and V for one, also Unity last year.
 
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gammaray

Senior member
Jul 30, 2006
859
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DrMrLordX said:
Actually, the real bargain is something like the 960T, if it can be had for a reasonable price. It can unlock to a Thuban.

Or, go poking around for the 95W 1055T, or the rare OEM Athlon x4 840(T?) that unlocks to a Thuban (with L3 cache).
Click to expand...

i agree, but the 960-70-80BE will get better fps in games.
 
DrMrLordX

DrMrLordX

Lifer
Apr 27, 2000
22,885
12,941
136
Agreed. Always go for R0-stepping. It will generally clock higher, especially if you get something like the 95W 1055T, 1090T, or 1100T. 960T/840 are budget shots in the dark, if you can find them at a good price.
 
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gammaray

Senior member
Jul 30, 2006
859
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81
well, i had both like 3 years ago, a 1090t and a 960be and honestly, i could not see a difference in fps, except the 960 was like 40$ cheaper. so, i was guessing, since the 980be is clocked at 3.7ghz...better fps (albeit marginal)
 
S

soccerballtux

Lifer
Dec 30, 2004
12,553
2
76
Arachnotronic said:
If you need something now:

Mobo: http://www.amazon.com/MSI-Computer-..._1?ie=UTF8&qid=1437879855&sr=8-1&keywords=H81

CPU: http://www.amazon.com/Intel-I3-4160...e=UTF8&qid=1437879876&sr=8-2&keywords=i3+4130

This should be a sizable upgrade over what you have now.

That said, if you can spend the extra, get a quad core i5 like this one: http://www.amazon.com/Intel-i5-4590...e=UTF8&qid=1437879920&sr=8-3&keywords=core+i5
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eh. he can get a FX-8310 for $100 and be set for the next fear years of gaming, and a used 120mm CPU cooler on Ebay for $25. Makes more sense than a lowly dual core. For Intel I think you need to either go [much cheaper] G3258 and overclock, or quad core [more expensive] and overclock.
 
D

dark zero

Platinum Member
Jun 2, 2015
2,655
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My motherboard is AM3 and NOT AM3+ so that defeats any easy drop-in replacement.
Click to expand...

It killed the thread. It only goes up to Phenom I.

So wait to Skylake and go with an i5
 
bbhaag

bbhaag

Diamond Member
Jul 2, 2011
7,307
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Good thread. Lots of good info for people like the OP and me who are stuck with AM3 and want to know the best path for either upgrading or ditching the whole thing and starting over.
 
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