Upgrade Compatibility?

Am2+ motherboards run am3 cpu's fine

click on the CPU support tab on the page you listed for a complete list of supported processors .
Note that you may have to update the BIOS before you make the swap

Oh wow, that tab didnt load for me before, I only had 3 tabs.

Thanks alot, one more thing...

Being a black edition, as far as I understand it its easier and safer to overclock, is that right? If I were to overclock to ~2.8-3.0 would that effect the life of the chip, and if so, by how much?

Also, is it worth it?

PS, this is my current cpu cooler; http://www.zalman.co.kr/Eng/product/Product_Read.asp?id...

My athlon holds at 40 degree's even with the fan speed turned to the lowest setting.

Will that fan fit the phenom chip I posted above, and if I do overclock +0.5 ghz will it disperse enough heat?

Edit: This is my PSU, its 500 watt http://www.enermaxusa.com/catalog/product_info.php?prod... will that be an issue or will it be fine?

I'm seriously considering buying that chip from newegg as long as it will work without any issues in my current system.

(Sorry, I keep googling things, and just ending up with more questions than answers  )

First of all the Phenom 9850 is not your best CPU option and they do not overclock well. On the supported list you have Phenom II X4 945 as the best chip but you have as well great options in Phenom II X3 and Athlon II X3 and X4 and all of them will overclock better than the original Phenom. It looks like the limitation of your board is the TDP of the newer CPU's at 95watts although some of the older ones show TDP of 125watts.

The reason I was looking at the 985 is because it is cheap, and seems to be compatible.

I'd only be OC'ing ~500MHz so I dont really need the best possible chip to OC.

I like the quad cores, simply because I constantly am multi-tasking. My iTunes never closes, firefox always has numerous tab's and windows open, often burning/ripping dvd/games, encoding video etc...

64 Bit is a must, but as far as I know they dont make 32 bit only chips anymore?

The issue is really the fact that when my avg is running background scan's I can feel my comp slow down, and can hear it working hard. It just seems slow, hell my cell phone has a 1 ghz processor, its about time I step it up a bit i'd say...

Another thing is my comp has a hard time with itunes open (cover flow) and playing games, but I assume 99% of the issue is my graphics card in that case seeing as all I have is a geforce 7900 gs. I'll be upgrading that soon... (Not a gamer, but still)

So anyways, what cpu should I be looking at, the athlon quad cores look decent, price point is fine, i dont want to spend too much over $100 I mean this is somewhat of a temp fix, I'll likely build a new comp in a year or two to use as my main.

The thing I like about the athlon is its already 3 ghz so I could probably QUITE easily OC to 3.5 maybe 4?

Also, as for the wattage the phenom's TDP says 125 watt, where as the athlon is listed at 95 watt.

What does my board put out, I thought it could do 65/95/125 I think I read that somewhere, but ive read so many articles on different things I may be confused...

That'd probably explain why the chip is only 80 bucks. After reading that reply, that chip is out the window, definite non buy.

So the athlon is the way to go, but its an AM3, I know my mobo says that chip is supported (the 640) but will there be an issue?

Well the thing is if I go and buy a phenom II I might as well go buy a new board, and if I buy a new board, I'm going am3, if I go am3, I'll need DDR3, I already have a 1TB HDD, so really the only thing left is my *** graphics card which would need to go, so essentially, I'd be building a new PC. Which I dont want to do at this point in time.

I'd like to buy a new cpu that will give me a very noticeable difference in speed whether it be the boot time, or the load time of an application explorer navigation etc... but I dont want to go overboard because of what I explained above.

So I guess I'm now looking at athlon quad cores. Whats the scoop on them, and will my current setup be able to use the chip? (I guess if it were compatible with a phenom it should be compatible with an athlon II)

Edit: I should add in, that when I game on my pc, its not like graphic intensive games, or RPG's or RTS's or anything, its usually just the sim's or an old street racing game made in like 2000.

I'm debating if I should OC the athlon or not, it'd probably perform great without ocing.

Little free performance is always in order if the other hardware is up to it.

Thats true, I'll probably leave it alone when I first get it, and if in a few months it feels like it needs a bit of a boost, I'll likely OC it.

What are your thoughts on the Athlon II x4 640? Good CPU, will it work in my system?

Yes it should work just fine!

Best answer selected by HaGGardsmurf.