(Motherboard) Best Upgrade for my Current Mobo?

[CHESTER_72]

Hello all. I play Star Wars: The Old Republic and I am need of a cpu upgrade. Combat becomes sort of sluggish and really hits my FPS hard. I'm pretty sure its because of my old CPU bottlenecking everything else. I currently have an AMD Phenom 9600 Quad-Core Processor @ 2.3Ghz. My motherboard is an MSI K9N SLI V2 (MS-7390). Here is a link that lays out the current supported CPU's for my motherboard. But I dont know much about AM3 vs. AM2/AM2+ or what exactly my motherboard can fit. My spending price is no more than $250 or maybe up to $300 if the CPU is THAT much better than my second option. I am running Win 7 64-bit with 6 gigs of DDR2 Ram, which I will soon be upgrading to 8 gigs. Any help would be much appreciated to find the best upgrade for my rig. Thanks a lot every one and happy new year!

 

[a4mula]

i3-2120 + Asus P8H67-M $202.98

Not trying to be a smart ass but the reality is the i3-2120 outperforms every AMD available in gaming. At this price it's in your budget and seems to me to be the best upgrade path. You can use everything from your current setup on this mobo (less hsf), including the DDR2 ram.

 

[CHESTER_72]

i3-2120 + Asus P8H67-M $202.98

Not trying to be a smart ass but the reality is the i3-2120 outperforms every AMD available in gaming. At this price it's in your budget and seems to me to be the best upgrade path. You can use everything from your current setup on this mobo (less hsf), including the DDR2 ram.

Yeah I was thinking about going Intel. The motherboard you listed in the combo says the memory standard is DDR3 1333/1066. So I can still use my current memory for this new motherboard? You sure? Thank you.

 

[a4mula]

No, actually I was just double checking and I lied. There is still room in the budget however to make the jump to DDR3. Pretty easy to get a 4gb kit for $20 or so.

 

[CHESTER_72]

Best answer selected by chester_72.

 

[CHESTER_72]

No, actually I was just double checking and I lied. There is still room in the budget however to make the jump to DDR3. Pretty easy to get a 4gb kit for $20 or so.

Yeah I thought maybe you just overlooked that part. But thanks again man!