Have found my CPU finally starting to bottleneck my system for gaming purposes, and upgrading the CPU (Athlon64 X2 6000+) will also require a motherboard upgrade (as the current one is a 4-5 year old AM2 one), and if the motherboard will be an AM3 one I'll also have to upgrade my memory from DDR2 to DDR3. I got a Radeon HD5770 half a year ago so the graphics card is sorted. I'd like to keep the total costs below 300€.
So, it all starts from choosing the CPU...
A friend of mine suggested getting an AMD Athlon II X4 640 (around 100€), but browsing for choices I stumbled upon AMD Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition, which seems to be a bit stronger than the Athlon (even without overclocking, which I don't intend to do), while the price is almost exactly the same. However, the Phenom is an AM2+ socket one, while the Athlon is AM3. The specs seem to be pretty much the same (both 3,0GHz etc.), but the Athlon has no L3 cache at all (the Phenom has 6mb, is this the main reason for the performance difference ?).
Now, that image gives me the impression the CPU will work in an AM3 socket...but there seems to be a general rule that AM3 CPUs work on AM2/AM2+ sockets, but not the other way around. So, would it work in an AM3 Motherboard or not ?
So, what should I do:
1. Assuming the Phenom works in an AM3 motherboard: get it, an AM3 motherboard and DDR3 1333Mhz memory.
2. Get the Athlon, an AM3 motherboard and DDR3 1333Mhz memory.
3. Get the Phenom, an AM2+ motherboard (like this one) and DDR2 800Mhz memory.
I'd think 1 would be the best choice if it works, but if it doesn't, 3 would give me the best performance right now (DDR2 vs DDR3 doesn't make much of a difference currently I hear), but 2 would be easier to upgrade after another 2-5 years but would cost ~50€ more now.
I have 3x1Gb of DDR2 (not sure about it's frequency, CPU-Z shows one at 200Mhz, one at 266Mhz, and one at 333Mhz) memory currently, and that brings me to another question: would it be a huge performance loss to stick with it and go with choice 3 without the new memory ? if not, that would be clearly the least costly route, which I wouldn't mind at all. Would also appreciate some tips regarding memory placement, I've heard it makes a difference which and how many slots are filled but don't know the details.
Also, a quick question on motherboards in general: how much of a difference do they make actually - more precisely, is it worth it to go for a 90-110€ one over a 60-80€ one ?
...I might have made some wrong assumptions here, I'm no expert and didn't want to spend all day confirming I got everything right so, feel free to correct me or even suggest other CPUs in the same price range.
So, it all starts from choosing the CPU...
A friend of mine suggested getting an AMD Athlon II X4 640 (around 100€), but browsing for choices I stumbled upon AMD Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition, which seems to be a bit stronger than the Athlon (even without overclocking, which I don't intend to do), while the price is almost exactly the same. However, the Phenom is an AM2+ socket one, while the Athlon is AM3. The specs seem to be pretty much the same (both 3,0GHz etc.), but the Athlon has no L3 cache at all (the Phenom has 6mb, is this the main reason for the performance difference ?).
Now, that image gives me the impression the CPU will work in an AM3 socket...but there seems to be a general rule that AM3 CPUs work on AM2/AM2+ sockets, but not the other way around. So, would it work in an AM3 Motherboard or not ?
So, what should I do:
1. Assuming the Phenom works in an AM3 motherboard: get it, an AM3 motherboard and DDR3 1333Mhz memory.
2. Get the Athlon, an AM3 motherboard and DDR3 1333Mhz memory.
3. Get the Phenom, an AM2+ motherboard (like this one) and DDR2 800Mhz memory.
I'd think 1 would be the best choice if it works, but if it doesn't, 3 would give me the best performance right now (DDR2 vs DDR3 doesn't make much of a difference currently I hear), but 2 would be easier to upgrade after another 2-5 years but would cost ~50€ more now.
I have 3x1Gb of DDR2 (not sure about it's frequency, CPU-Z shows one at 200Mhz, one at 266Mhz, and one at 333Mhz) memory currently, and that brings me to another question: would it be a huge performance loss to stick with it and go with choice 3 without the new memory ? if not, that would be clearly the least costly route, which I wouldn't mind at all. Would also appreciate some tips regarding memory placement, I've heard it makes a difference which and how many slots are filled but don't know the details.
Also, a quick question on motherboards in general: how much of a difference do they make actually - more precisely, is it worth it to go for a 90-110€ one over a 60-80€ one ?
...I might have made some wrong assumptions here, I'm no expert and didn't want to spend all day confirming I got everything right so, feel free to correct me or even suggest other CPUs in the same price range.
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