Upgrade from an Athlon II X2 250 to FX8320

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bedroll69

bedroll69

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Currently i'm rocking a 3.0Ghz AMD Athlon II X2 250 Dual core CPU, an AM3+ Mobo, (can't remember the details of the top of my head), Nvidia GTX 750Ti OC edition, 4Gb DDR3 RAM and a generic 450w PSU.

I was considering upgrading the CPU to an eight core AMD FX-8320, Is this going to be worth the £115 it's going to cost me?

The system is primarily used for gaming and video editing.

Any help would be appreciated.
 
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DonkeyOatie
I would b e reluctant to recommend a FX6300 upgrade on any motherboard where it could not be overclocked, but it would be a significant improvement Reality has a way of demanding more performance than you have at any given moment.

You need to do some navel gazing and decide what sort of future you plan. Cheapest, best upgrade, or major re-build on the horizon.
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DonkeyOatie

DonkeyOatie

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Your motherboard means a great deal to the decision. although the FX8320 may fit in your socket, it is a 125W chip and the power delivery of your motherboard may be inadequate or stressed to much by it. Realistically, you need a motherboard that will not only run a GX8320, but overclock it well also, or you are leaving a lot of your money on the table.

You also need a robust and high-performance PSU. What do you use?

A motherboard upgrade may also require a new version of the Operating System.
 
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bedroll69

bedroll69

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Having done some research, and actually found out that my cheap Asus M5A78L-M Motherboard doesn't support 125w CPUs. The Power supply is a cheap no brand one that came with the case, But I could easily upgrade that. Bearing in mind I would need a new motherboard, would you be able to recommend a decent one?
 
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madmatt30

madmatt30

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DonkeyOatie

DonkeyOatie

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This http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Motherboards/AMD+Socket/Socket+AM3%2B+Piledriver+FX/Gigabyte+GA-970A-UD3P+AMD+Socket+AM3%2B+Motherboard+?productId=57967&source=pcpartpicker is about the cheapest good motherboard that will do what you want.

The motherboard you have is inadequate even for a FX6300 overclocked, it may run, but it will stress the heck out of the VRM, so you do have to upgrade.

Since you need a new CPU and Motherboard, and you will also need an aftermarket CPU cooler with the FX8320, look at what you could do with the same money with an Intel solution. You may be able to get a Hawell i5 CPU/Motherboard for a similar price.

I'm burning through your money, but another 4Gb of RAM would not hurt either.
 
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madmatt30

madmatt30

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You can run a stock 6300 on your board (with a bios update likely).
That would be a quick/cheap upgrade , as donkeyoatie says once you look at a new board/CPU & a new windows install you may as well take going Intel into account.
The 6300 (even at stock) has close to 4x the performance of your current CPU though when utilised properly & would be a significant upgrade.
 
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DonkeyOatie

DonkeyOatie

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I would b e reluctant to recommend a FX6300 upgrade on any motherboard where it could not be overclocked, but it would be a significant improvement Reality has a way of demanding more performance than you have at any given moment.

You need to do some navel gazing and decide what sort of future you plan. Cheapest, best upgrade, or major re-build on the horizon.
 
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