Choosing the best CPU for my motherboard...

[SmorlFox]

Hi Guys,

I have just recently updated my computers graphics card (to a Radeon HD 6670 2gb GDDR3) and am generally happy enough with the results but i can't help thinking a better CPU would benefit me.

My PC is an Acer Aspire T180 AMD 64 Athlon X2

When I updated the graphics card I also boosted the memory to 4gb (4 x 1GB 800mhz sticks) and fitted a new PSU (550watts)

I am actually unsure as to what motherboard is inside my tower and so am stuck, and clueless really, as to what is the optimum CPU I could install in it.

Am I right in assuming that the CPU is "bottlenecking" the performance here?

I would be very grateful for any help in this matter.

Thank you in advance.

 

[o1die]

bad link

 

[o1die]

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110210161206AAQeukL
http://www.ebay.com/itm/AMD-Athlon-64x2-4800-2-5GHz-AM2-/150989684915?pt=CPUs&hash=item2327afc0b3
http://www.ebay.com/itm/AMD-Phenom-X4-9550-Quad-Core-2-2-GHz-AM2-Desktop-Processor-/370752380102?pt=CPUs&hash=item5652905cc6

I'm not sure if the 9550 will work, but it's a possibility if it's rated at 95 watts or less. I wouldn't spend too much on such an old board, but since you've already started upgrading, it's your choice. The 4800 would be an adequare cost effective solution.

 

[SmorlFox]

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110210161206AAQeukL
http://www.ebay.com/itm/AMD-Athlon-64x2-4800-2-5GHz-AM2-/150989684915?pt=CPUs&hash=item2327afc0b3
http://www.ebay.com/itm/AMD-Phenom-X4-9550-Quad-Core-2-2-GHz-AM2-Desktop-Processor-/370752380102?pt=CPUs&hash=item5652905cc6

I'm not sure if the 9550 will work, but it's a possibility if it's rated at 95 watts or less. I wouldn't spend too much on such an old board, but since you've already started upgrading, it's your choice. The 4800 would be an adequare cost effective solution.

Thank you very much for your response, appreciated. So just to confirm, my motherboard has an AM2+ socket?

Its just, another line of inquiry led me to believe the following..

"According to Acer's support site, your motherboard should take Socket 940 CPUs"

Is this guy wrong?

Thank you once again.

 

[SmorlFox]

After a bit of Googling I have installed CPU-Z and discovered the following about my existing CPU and Motherboard.

CPU : http://imgur.com/Gq9Tcl4

Motherboard : http://imgur.com/cjPQd6k

So am i correct in thinking that my motherboard would support the 9550?

Thank you.

 

[o1die]

The 9550 may work, but remember it's only 2.2 ghtz, slower than some of the dual cores. Google for some old benchmarks to compare the 9550 to some of the dual cores.