amd athlon II x2 245 Replacement advice

Jonny2time · Oct 13, 2015

I am looking for the best upgrade option for my AMD Athlon II x2 245. I am currently looking at getting the AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition 3.2GHz AM3 125W and wanted to know if this is a viable option or if there are other (better) options out there.(i currently only have the budget to replace the CPU) Here are my current specs:

Motherboard: https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/M4A88TM/
CPU: amd athlon II x2 245 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...)
PSU: 430 W (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...)
GPU: GTX 750 (http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-750)

Thanks!

jeffredo · Oct 13, 2015

What is your max budget? Are you looking at used? The X4 955 BE isn't a bad choice compared to what you have. I'd recommend making sure its a C3 stepping (runs cooler and overclocks better than the C2 stepping the chip had a release). Get a good air cooler and try to get it to 3.8 to 4.0 Ghz. Its pretty easy usually, although every chip is different in its OC ability. I gave my nephew an old X4 955 BE rig I had and he plays most newer games with medium settings @ 1600x900 (on stock settings with a wimpy GTX 560 SE).

An X6 1090t would be a better option, but they are holding their value much better than the X4's and just don't seem worth it. As far as the X4 9XX series they're all the same chip - just with 100 Mhz speed bumps. So if you find a good deadl on a GTX 965, 970, 975 or 980 by all means consider it.

maddogfargo · Oct 13, 2015

Officially, this motherboard supports up to a Phenom II x6 1100T. But since I don't see VRM cooling, I would stay with the fastest x4 you can afford. 955 and 965 are good. Put a good cooler on it and a mild OC and it's a decent budget gaming CPU.

Jonny2time · Oct 13, 2015

jeffredo :

I found a slightly used 955 for $90 that comes with the heatsink. Should i not use a stock heatsink? ideally i would not like to go over $100. but if need be i could spend a little more (no more than $150), if it will provide significant improvements.

jeffredo · Oct 13, 2015

I would strongly recommend an aftermarket, quality heatsink if you have any intention of overclocking it (which again, is really easy to do with a little homework). It should run you about $25-$30 for one (like the ever popular Coole Master Hyper 212 Evo). The stock cooler is marginal and quite noisy.

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