How will a phenom II X4 945 (95w) OC?

http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] ,2396.html

Thought that article would give you a good idea what the chips are capable without having an unlocked multiplier and being able to put high-end voltage to the CPU. Looks to me like @3400 is quite attainable, compared to an unlocked multiplier and being able to put high voltage to the CPU that will get you above the @3.6 mark.

@1100 OC on an AMD CPU is way better then most. I'd really be stoked if I could do that with this 940.

TK, I looked at the XFX compatibilty chart http://www.xfxforce.com/en-gb/prod [...] st-AMD.pdf and the 95w 945 is not on there yet. You may want to contact them before you go that route. I've heard that XFX has some of the better costumer service in the PC industry.

The problem with you going the 720 route is you may only see marginal gains over your 5000. You'll be gaining an extra core, some L3 cache, and maybe a little better OC.
If you can get a confirmation on MoBo being able to use the 945, that would be the way I personally would go. 2 more cores and AM3 means you will be able to up-date the MoBo a little farther down the road.

I recently upgraded from my Athlon X2 5600 2.9 Ghz to a Phenom II X4 945 95W. My giga-byte motherboard is good for 140W, however the price for my 945 was right. The maximum temperature for this chip is 71'C (most phenoms AMD's are rated for just a few degrees over 60). The stock heatsink which came with my processor is very small and all aluminum (much smaller yet a little heavier with different fin design than my old heatsink). So I figured, what the heck! It doesn't take much to cool this thing. So I bought a new heatsink from a Athlon 6000+. These are fairly heavy and come stock with four heat pipes, copper base, and larger footprint. I am now running a cool and rock stable 3.35 ghz at 3.325 volts (max core temps I've seen runnning prime95 are 50'C). Bottom line, I'm loving it!