Upgrading from Athlon ii x2 220 to fx 6300 black

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KnightHawkUSA

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Jun 20, 2013
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Hello, I have never installed a new CPU before and would love some advice on what to do before, during, and after the installation to make sure it's running correctly. Thanks in advance.
 
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burdenbound

burdenbound

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Aug 9, 2011
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You will need to check and see if your current motherboard supports the AM3+ socket type, if it does then it should be as simple as dropping the new one in. You will want to get some thermal paste to reapply to the heatsink, rubbing alcohol and cotton balls will help to remove the old stuff.

If your motherboard does not support AM3+ you will need to purchase a new motherboard, possibly new RAM if your using DDR2 and make sure you don't have a hard drive or cd drive that connects using an IDE ribbon cable because most new motherboards only come with SATA connections.
 
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cmi86

cmi86

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Sep 29, 2010
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Your board needs to be AM3+, at least 95 watt cpu support (125 watt support would be better) and also make sure your board has the proper BIOS revision for 2nd gen FX chips. If you meet all of those criteria you should be fine upgrading to the 6300
 
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K

KnightHawkUSA

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Jun 20, 2013
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Shoot, the amazon listing just said am3. I guess i'll have to look for a different one. Is the phenom ii x4 965 still a worthy cpu, or is it getting too outdated? I'm really trying to stay around $100.
 
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burdenbound

burdenbound

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The 965 is still a pretty decent cpu, it is getting a little dated but you will definitely see an improvement over the Athlon X2. Higher CPU demanding games will possibly limit you around 40-50 fps like battlefield 3 multiplayer or even some MMO's in the highly populated places. But for most things its a pretty decent cpu, I think its worth it if it enables you to keep all your current parts.
 
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L Helps

L Helps

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Jan 4, 2013
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still a very good budget cpu.
 
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burdenbound

burdenbound

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I couldn't find your motherboard any where, is this a pc you built or bought from a store? The 965 is a 125W CPU and if your motherboard doesn't support that you will have to get a new one. Which basically places you back in your old predicament. On top of that your operating system is tied to your motherboard, if you see where I'm going with this it might turn into an expensive upgrade.
 
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burdenbound

burdenbound

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I see, I'm thinking that with what you have you don't have very many options when it comes to upgrading. You may want to think about saving up some money and building a custom rig. The problems you may run into by trying to upgrade what you have is that it would require a new motherboard to run the more power intensive 965, then you would need to get a fresh operating system to install on top because the license is tied to the old motherboard. On top of all that you might have to upgrade the PSU because you have a more power hungry CPU and the current one in that system is only 350W which is not a lot to work with.

I'm sorry to break the bad news to you, this is one of the many reasons a lot of people decide to build their own so that they can upgrade easier as time goes by and not have to scrap the whole thing.
 
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K

KnightHawkUSA

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Jun 20, 2013
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I think i'll do some more research on my motherboard for some upgrade options. The reason i want a new cpu is to play a few new first person shooters like bf3 and far cry 3. I have a gtx 560 ti, a 600w power supply, and 12 gb of ram. So far I have played older strategy games, and some newer total war games. my old processor was enough to get by. I bought bf3 the other day so that I could play with my brother and it's basically unplayable. Which is a real shame because I think my GPU would work perfectly. Thanks for all of the help so far, and I'm still open to anyone's thoughts if they bothered to read this.
 
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burdenbound

burdenbound

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Ok I thought you were still using all the stock parts. Good luck on what ever path you end up going, I know I have a buddy with a 560ti and a fx4100 and it plays battlefield pretty well. I think the 965 is comparable to the fx4100 if not a little quicker.
 
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