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Tom's Hardware > Forum > CPU & Components > CPUs > [Solved] Upgrading from an AMD Phenom II x4

[Solved] Upgrading from an AMD Phenom II x4

Forum CPU & Components : CPUs [Solved] Upgrading from an AMD Phenom II x4

By the title you can tell, I am upgrading my processor form an AMD Phenom II x4 processor and I'm willing to spend up to $200 for it. I will mainly be using the computer for gaming. I would like to stick with AMD, but outside of that I have no preferences. I will be buying this processor in a week. Thanks in advance!
What I'm on right now: http://www.amazon.com/AMD-Phenom-P [...] 360&sr=1-1

------------------------------ gigabyte 6850 OC edition, asrock extreme3 970, amd phenom II x4 960T @ 3.0 ghz, coolmaster haf 912, 8gb ripjaws ram @ 1600mhz
Reply to bobochez

Your current CPU has a TPD of 95W. Is your MB limited to that TPD, or can it take a 125W CPU? If it can take a 125W CPU, then the obvious upgrade choice is this:
AMD Phenom II X4 975 Black Edition Deneb 3.6GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Desktop Processor HDZ975FBGMBOX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819103923

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Reply to abekl

AMD phenom ii x4 980 BE
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819103935

gets good benchmark scores compared to other AMD cpus even the new FX chips
http://www.techspot.com/review/452 [...] age10.html

but if youre going to spend $200 on a cpu, might as well get the i5-2500
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819115073

oh yea i have the phenom ii x4 980 BE and its very fast

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Message edited by computernewb on 02-13-2012 at 01:55:41 AM

Reply to computernewb

Nice upgrading to Phenom II 980BE

Reply to henydiah

computernewb wrote :

AMD phenom ii x4 980 BE
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819103935

gets good benchmark scores compared to other AMD cpus even the new FX chips
http://www.techspot.com/review/452 [...] age10.html

but if youre going to spend $200 on a cpu, might as well get the i5-2500
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819115073

oh yea i have the phenom ii x4 980 BE and its very fast

UNDER $200 So between the 980 and the 975 what is the difference besides the .1 ghz? they cost the exact same...

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------------------------------ gigabyte 6850 OC edition, asrock extreme3 970, amd phenom II x4 960T @ 3.0 ghz, coolmaster haf 912, 8gb ripjaws ram @ 1600mhz
Reply to bobochez

abekl wrote :

This is my mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813157280 And I don't know if it can handle a 125w cpu

------------------------------ gigabyte 6850 OC edition, asrock extreme3 970, amd phenom II x4 960T @ 3.0 ghz, coolmaster haf 912, 8gb ripjaws ram @ 1600mhz
Reply to bobochez

Yep. That MB will handle 125W CPUs no problem

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Reply to abekl

abekl wrote :

Yep. That MB will handle 125W CPUs no problem

cool! so should I get the 980 or the 975? Is there actually any performance difference? thanks for the feedback!

------------------------------ gigabyte 6850 OC edition, asrock extreme3 970, amd phenom II x4 960T @ 3.0 ghz, coolmaster haf 912, 8gb ripjaws ram @ 1600mhz
Reply to bobochez

agree with abekl, don't worry about asrock 970 and should choose newest / highest version of CPU

Reply to henydiah

I assume the 980 is the newer version...?

------------------------------ gigabyte 6850 OC edition, asrock extreme3 970, amd phenom II x4 960T @ 3.0 ghz, coolmaster haf 912, 8gb ripjaws ram @ 1600mhz
Reply to bobochez

bobochez wrote :

UNDER $200 So between the 980 and the 975 what is the difference besides the .1 ghz? they cost the exact same...

i think the .1 ghz is the only difference. but im not sure, so you should ask around.

actually the reason why the 975 and 980 are the same price on newegg is that the 980 does not come with a heatsink/fan. So if you dont have one yet, you have to get one if you buy the 980

also, nice mobo. i have the same one :lol:

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Reply to computernewb

computernewb wrote :

nice Will the heatsink from any amd cpu that fits onto my mobo work on the 980?

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------------------------------ gigabyte 6850 OC edition, asrock extreme3 970, amd phenom II x4 960T @ 3.0 ghz, coolmaster haf 912, 8gb ripjaws ram @ 1600mhz
Reply to bobochez

bobochez wrote :

nice Will the heatsink from any amd cpu that fits onto my mobo work on the 980?

if its the heatsink from your Phenom II X4 960T, then its the same socket type (am3) as the 975 or 980 so i THINK it should fit.

however im not 100% sure so you should ask around first.

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Reply to computernewb

computernewb wrote :

if its the heatsink from your Phenom II X4 960T, then its the same socket type (am3) as the 975 or 980 so i THINK it should fit.

however im not 100% sure so you should ask around first.

ok The heatsink on the 960t does a nice job and its quiet so I might just stick with it when I upgrade. I am leaning in the direction of getting the 975 just cause

------------------------------ gigabyte 6850 OC edition, asrock extreme3 970, amd phenom II x4 960T @ 3.0 ghz, coolmaster haf 912, 8gb ripjaws ram @ 1600mhz
Reply to bobochez

Why not look at a Phenom II X6 1045T, you get 6 cores instead of 4. Tigerdirect has them for $150.00

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applica [...] CatId=4432

Reply to shafe88

Too much loss of speed with the 1045T compared to the quad cores mentioned.

Reply to abekl

you have a 960t, why bother upgrading at all? buy a aftermarket cooler and just overclock, you should easily get 4ghz with minimal increase to the vcore

Reply to ShadyHamster

Yea the quad cores would be better for gaming since they have a higher clock speed.

http://sketchup.google.com/3dwareh [...] revstart=0

Reply to shafe88

I haven't done any overclocking or unlocking of cores yet so I will have to put some research into it before I try on my own. The reason I want to upgrade is because in the 3Dmark11 test I ran, the CPU intensive portions of the test were lagging while the graphic parts were smooth. I considered overclocking before, but I don't know which cooler to go with. I have a cooler master HAF 912 if it matters. thanks!

------------------------------ gigabyte 6850 OC edition, asrock extreme3 970, amd phenom II x4 960T @ 3.0 ghz, coolmaster haf 912, 8gb ripjaws ram @ 1600mhz
Reply to bobochez

don't judge things based on synthetic benchmarks.

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Reply to esrever

esrever wrote :

don't judge things based on synthetic benchmarks.

I am mainly worried about my processor bottlenecking my graphics card and In the tests, it seemed like the slowest part was the processor.

------------------------------ gigabyte 6850 OC edition, asrock extreme3 970, amd phenom II x4 960T @ 3.0 ghz, coolmaster haf 912, 8gb ripjaws ram @ 1600mhz
Reply to bobochez

you won't really see much improvement getting a better processor. The test also doesn't really show what real gaming performance will be. The 960t should be sufficient and not really worth an upgrade to a faster phenom 2 since you'd get minimal improvement. Just OC your cpu and see if you have problems playing your games.

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------------------------------ sllaw eht no nettirw gnihtemos saw ecno ereht
Reply to esrever

esrever wrote :

Ok. Now I just need to learn how to OC =.=

------------------------------ gigabyte 6850 OC edition, asrock extreme3 970, amd phenom II x4 960T @ 3.0 ghz, coolmaster haf 912, 8gb ripjaws ram @ 1600mhz
Reply to bobochez

OC question: will an OEM version of win7 prevent me from OC'ing?

------------------------------ gigabyte 6850 OC edition, asrock extreme3 970, amd phenom II x4 960T @ 3.0 ghz, coolmaster haf 912, 8gb ripjaws ram @ 1600mhz
Reply to bobochez

nope. just prevents you from changing motherboards.

looks like with that motherboard you should be able to see if you can unlock that x4 into an x6 cpu, i am not familiar with as rock bois.

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Reply to noob2222

noob2222 wrote :

nope. just prevents you from changing motherboards.

looks like with that motherboard you should be able to see if you can unlock that x4 into an x6 cpu, i am not familiar with as rock bois.

Ok. I went forum trolling and people were expressing concern about using an OEM mobo to overclock.

------------------------------ gigabyte 6850 OC edition, asrock extreme3 970, amd phenom II x4 960T @ 3.0 ghz, coolmaster haf 912, 8gb ripjaws ram @ 1600mhz
Reply to bobochez

The 960T (or at least mine) can easily make 4ghz as a quad core and unlocked as a 6 core still OC's well (see my sig for what i currently run at). I found i can OC further as a quad though. Maybe you can higher with a Deneb but would the small amount more you get actually show any real world raise in performance that justifies the spend? In my opinion probably not.

The OEM thing doesnt matter at all to OC'ing.

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http://valid.canardpc.com/cache/banner/2321060.png

Reply to wr6133

Overclock. It's not hard, just takes time. What's the worst that could happen? You have to buy a new CPU? You're already planning on doing just that.

Out of the box, I overclocked my nephew's 960T to 3.6 Ghz and ran memtest and SuperPi all night long. Passed with flying colors. I could have bumped it up more, but for what my nephew needs, 3.6 was more than fast enough.

You can easily take a Zosma to 4+ Ghz at stock voltage. Just make sure you test for stability.

Reply to Houndsteeth

Best answer

You really SHOULDN'T do this upgrade. It would more like a sidegrade.. basically spending money for "same performance"
Just OC it and spend the money somewhere else.

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------------------------------ Core i7 2600k, Asus P8Z68 Deluxe, 16GB Patriot DDR3, 2TB HD , SLI GTX 460 1GB, XFX 750W BE, 3D Vision, CM 690 II Advanced
Reply to vitornob

vitornob wrote :

You really SHOULDN'T do this upgrade. It would more like a sidegrade.. basically spending money for "same performance"
Just OC it and spend the money somewhere else.

Ok. If I overclock it to 3.4 ghz would it bottleneck a 6850?

Reply to bobochez

its not bottlenecking now.

------------------------------ sllaw eht no nettirw gnihtemos saw ecno ereht
Reply to esrever

I agree with some of the other posters = no point changing your current cpu.
Unlock it or overclock it.
The 960T unlocks to a X6 1065T.

Reply to davcon

Best answer selected by bobochez.

------------------------------ gigabyte 6850 OC edition, asrock extreme3 970, amd phenom II x4 960T @ 3.0 ghz, coolmaster haf 912, 8gb ripjaws ram @ 1600mhz
Reply to bobochez