Is it worth upgrading from a AMD Athlon processor to a Phenom?

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h0tangel99

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Really? I would've thought .3 Ghz would've made a difference. Also, by looking at some benchmarks, I saw much improvements. Thanks for your answer! Hopefully I can get some more perspectives.
 
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h0tangel99

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Well, the main reason I don't want to overclock is because I would probably screw something up - even with a YouTube guide or something. Thanks for the answer, though.
 
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h0tangel99

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Hmm...I assumed it was. Well then how do you know if a processor is faster or slower if GHz doesn't matter anymore?
 
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h0tangel99

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Well I already have a pretty good gpu so I'm not looking to buy another one for a bit. My next one will probably be the GeForce 560 ti.
 
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Kronk42583

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Hi, I was in a similar position as you last april. I wanted to upgrade, but not spend a lot of money and I was wary of over clocking. My solution was buying a Phenom X4 955BE for $100. Killer price. Overclocking was as simple as changing the multiplier from 16x to 18x. temps on the stock cooler was minimal but i got a nice 400mhz jump from it. I since added a Coolermaster Hyper 212 to make things quieter than stock, but it isn't needed. I do a lot of H.264 encoding so I liked the 4 core aspect of it. I now run a Radeon HD 6950 2GB and I play Battlefield 3 1080p at max settings and its playable. Great bang for your buck. I think it's even cheaper now. I liked the upgrade but there is a lot of merit to the posts recommending saving money for a vid card. Probably a bigger jump to be seen there as far as gaming, but playing games isn't the only thing i do.

on another note, I bought an SSD a few months ago and its the single greatest speed improvement I've ever seen in my years building computers. It doesn't help frame rates really, but load times are non existent, apps fire up instantly, from power on to usable desktop is 26-28 seconds... I won't build another computer without one. I went with a Corsair Force3 180GB.
 
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suddenstop

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This would be worth doing if you overclock. the MHZ are really only comparable within a processor generation. After Athlons came the Phenom and then Phenom II which is a good chip. Phenom ii's have much beter power management and run cooler.

There is a lot more overclock headroom on a phenom ii, and they all will do 3.6 on stock voltages and many will do 4 ghz.

I did this upgrade myself, from an athlon ii running at 2.6 stock and i think i had it at 2.9 or 3. To the phenom ii x6 1055t at 4ghz.

It was a huge upgrade and everything was snappier. What you use the computer for does matter, and as the other folks said for gaming gpu is more important.

If you are not going to overclock don't get a black edition and get this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103893

3.5 ghz phenom ii for $128. Whether it is worth it is something you will need to decide. I wouldn't spend any more than that.
 
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h0tangel99

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Wow, I can't even believe the great price of that processor! It seems too good to be true, though....What's the catch with that cpu? lol
 
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