What CPU should I upgrade to?

JustShenanigans · Apr 17, 2016

I'm looking to upgrade my CPU for my PC. The current main specifications are as follows; AMD FX 4100, GTX 970 OC and an Asus M5A97 Motherboard. I use this PC for casual gaming, but now I have some intensive college work that needs doing and I find the CPU really brings my PC down speed wise. It is currently cooled by a Reijintek Triton cooler. So I would like some CPU upgrade recommendations that will go with both the cooler, motherboard and GPU alike. My budget is around £250. Thanks peeps!

synphul · Apr 17, 2016

What version of the m5a97 is it? The r 2.0, le, evo/pro? About the best you could do with be an fx 6350 or fx 8350. I would hold off on suggesting the fx 8350 until you know which motherboard it is and whether or not it has heatsinks on the voltage regulators or not. Those two cpu's are similar except one has 6 cores and the other has 8 cores. Unless your schoolwork is heavily threaded the 8350 may not do much for you.

You'll probably want to overclock it to increase performance per core which you should be able to do with that cooler. The motherboard model will help determine how well you can overclock since there are several m5a97's, some have heatsinked vrm, some don't, one is 6+2 power phases while the others are 4+2. Power delivery would come into play more when considering the 8 cores fx 83xx (more cores pull more power, especially if overclocked).

JustShenanigans · Apr 17, 2016

synphul :

What version of the m5a97 is it? The r 2.0, le, evo/pro? About the best you could do with be an fx 6350 or fx 8350. I would hold off on suggesting the fx 8350 until you know which motherboard it is and whether or not it has heatsinks on the voltage regulators or not. Those two cpu's are similar except one has 6 cores and the other has 8 cores. Unless your schoolwork is heavily threaded the 8350 may not do much for you.

You'll probably want to overclock it to increase performance per core which you should be able to do with that cooler. The motherboard model will help determine how well you can overclock since there are several m5a97's, some have heatsinked vrm, some don't, one is 6+2 power phases while the others are 4+2. Power delivery would come into play more when considering the 8 cores fx 83xx (more cores pull more power, especially if overclocked).

How would I go about finding what version it is?

synphul · Apr 17, 2016

It should say on the board itself.

Here is an m5a97 evo r2.0, the model is highlighted with an orange box and the orange arrow points toward vrm that have a heatsink on them.
http://prntscr.com/at9ytx

Here is the m5a97 pro, again the model highlighted and the vrm heatsink pointed out.
http://prntscr.com/at9zb8

By contrast, here is a m5a97 le r2.0. The name highlighted in orange and the bare vrm with a red box around them. Notice there's no metal heatsink there and with an overclocked or 8 core cpu those can overheat easier when they don't have a heatsink to help keep them cool. If they start to overheat the cpu will throttle even if the cpu temps themselves seem to be good.
http://prntscr.com/ata01m

JustShenanigans · Apr 18, 2016

synphul :

I've attached some photos I don't think it's either of them. https://www.imageshack.us/i/pnfDyTpjj https://www.imageshack.us/i/pnzNuv34j

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What CPU should I upgrade to?

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