hanns3163

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Oct 19, 2009
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I have amd athlon(tm) 64 processor 3800+, nvidia gforce 9500 ct 1gb graphic card, creative sb x-fi sound card, 3gb ram 2.41 ghz. On a ecs elitegroup n force 4m-a v3.0 motherboard. 500w power supply running 2002 xp 2. I want to upgrade processor to the best amd am2 socket and also want to know if I am currantly under powered. Any help will be appriciated. Lamen's terms please.
 
I would go with the 5000 black edition or the dual core 5200, which is 65 watts. Either one will give you a decent performance boost. 89w or 125w cpus are available, but if you go with one of these, be sure you get a decent heatsink to use with them.
 

SpidersWeb

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Aug 19, 2009
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Also check with ECS what CPUs your board supports, and weither or not you need a BIOS update before installing your new CPU.

Edit: sorry I can't make CPU suggestions because I'm not familiar enough with the AMD range, I do recommend a Black edition if possible though, the adjustable multi makes overclocking a lot easier if you want a bit more extra boost for your buck.