Completely clueless on getting a new CPU

[phomatic]

I am looking to get a new CPU for my PC and am completely clueless about CPUs and motherboards.

A friend told that if I get a new CPU I most likely will need to a get new motherboard..which I know nothing about.

I recently bought a GTX 570 GPU and 600w PSU as I want to play Guild Wars 2 on high settings flawlessly. As of now my CPU is pretty bad as it is still the standard one that came with my HP Pavilion.

Any suggestions on what will fit right with my new GPU in the category of CPUs and motherboards?

I don't want to overkill it either. I do not have a budget, but I also do Not want to spend more than I need to for these. As I said, I don't want a CPU/motherboard that won't do me any more good with the GPU that I have.

Thanks for all help in advance.

 

[DJDeCiBeL]

What model is the system?

 

[phomatic]

My model #: HPE 400y
My current CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 945

 

[DJDeCiBeL]

Here's the CPU's it supports:

Max TDP: 95W

Motherboard supports the following processor upgrades:

NOTE: Only Socket AM3 processors are supported with this motherboard.

AMD Phenom II X6 10xxT Six-Core (Thuban core)
AMD Phenom II X4 9xx/9xxe/8xx Quad-Core (Deneb core)
AMD Phenom II X3 7xx/7xxe Triple-Core (Heka core)
AMD Phenom II X2 5xx (Callisto core)
AMD Athlon X4 6xx/6xxe (Propus)
AMD Athlon X3 4xx/4xxe (Rana)
AMD Athlon X2 2xx/2xxe (Regor)
AMD Sempron Single Core 1xx (Sargas core)

So any 95W (non Black Edition) CPU from that list will work. You can't really do much better than what you already have though, for gaming purposes (the X6's wouldn't really be worth it for gaming).

 

[phomatic]

What about a good motherboard to go with that, that is along the same line of capacity for doing well in a game such as Guild Wars 2?

I would like to have an Intel I5 of some sort; which means I would need a different CPU from the ones you listed.

 

[axe1592]

Actually an X6 would be a decent little boost in gaming performance. I went from an unlocked X2 555 to a X6 1090 and while it wasnt a whopping huge boost, it was a decent one as in 10-15% maybe. Even though no games are coded to take advantage of 6 cores, Windows will still use those extra cores and you can get some extra performance out of them.

Now it might not be worth $140 or whatever you can find an X6 for but that would be up to you. If youre on a tight budget, might as well stick with what you got. That X4 is not a bad processor at all and should give you pretty solid frame rates with that GTX570.

 

[DJDeCiBeL]

What about a good motherboard to go with that, that is along the same line of capacity for doing well in a game such as Guild Wars 2?

I would like to have an Intel I5 of some sort; which means I would need a different CPU from the ones you listed.

If you're gonna go that route, a 2500K or 3570K with a Z77 mobo would be the way to go. The only problem I see with that is that you may need a new case too because I'm not sure that a larger mobo than what's there will work. (The one it has is mATX, so you could get a mATX Z77 board, but it's not really worth it, IMO).

Plus, I imagine that the front panel connectors are oddball too, being a HP, so that would be a problem as well.

 

[DJDeCiBeL]

Actually an X6 would be a decent little boost in gaming performance.

A 1090T is only 200Mhz faster than the 945 and the extra two cores mean nothing for gaming.

 

[axe1592]

Not to mention youd probably have to reinstall Windows again if you swapped in a new motherboard and that would add an extra $100 on to the price tag. If youre gonna do all that, would you be opposed to just building a whole new rig? If youre gonna get a new CPU, motherboard, RAM and copy of Windows, wouldnt be that much more for a case, hard drive and DVD drive.

A 1090T is only 200Mhz faster than the 945 and the extra two cores mean nothing for gaming.

Did for me when I went from an X4 to an X6.

 

[goodguy713]

I call bs on this because battle field 3 uses 6cores.. while in multi player .. i dont know any one that just plays the stand alone ..

 

[DJDeCiBeL]

I call bs on this because battle field 3 uses 6cores.. while in multi player .. i dont know any one that just plays the stand alone ..

We're not talking about BF3 here anyway, but yes, that's the ONE game that it matters in... And with an i5, it doesn't even matter. 4 is enough.

Anyway, for GW2, a quad core is fine (either a Phenom II X4 BE that can be OC'd OR an i5).

 

[DJDeCiBeL]

Not to mention youd probably have to reinstall Windows again if you swapped in a new motherboard and that would add an extra $100 on to the price tag. If youre gonna do all that, would you be opposed to just building a whole new rig? If youre gonna get a new CPU, motherboard, RAM and copy of Windows, wouldnt be that much more for a case, hard drive and DVD drive.

Agreed with that 100%.

 

[goodguy713]

toms hardware never revisited bf3 benchmarks while in multi player they only did the single player mode.. thus the 4 cores ... any way a 570 should be nice .. thing is 1090t and 1100t are hard to come by now .. sure you can buy them but usually at elevated pricing .. they stopped making them already.. if you want uber fast performance ill give you a hint .. lga 2011 with a 3930k 64GBs of ram @ 1600mhz and set up a ram disk image using your ram as a drive image you you can install bf3 or what ever game you want on it and still have room to spare you will get 3 GB per second easy on data rates.. trust me .. also for you noobish people standard hard drive takes 6 mins to convert a vts file to mp4 handbreak normal ram disk 2mins 30 sec.. with a 1090t and this is a 1gb file.. choke on that for a minute.. that would be the equivelent of 8 ssd drives in raid 0.. to get those speeds

 

[DJDeCiBeL]

toms hardware never revisited bf3 benchmarks while in multi player they only did the single player mode.. thus the 4 cores ... any way a 570 should be nice .. thing is 1090t and 1100t are hard to come by now .. sure you can buy them but usually at elevated pricing .. they stopped making them already.. if you want uber fast performance ill give you a hint .. lga 2011 with a 3930k 64GBs of ram @ 1600mhz and set up a ram disk image using your ram as a drive image you you can install bf3 or what ever game you want on it and still have room to spare you will get 3 GB per second easy on data rates.. trust me .. also for you noobish people standard hard drive takes 6 mins ram disk 2mins 30 sec.. with a 1090t and this is a 1gb file.. choke on that for a minute..

LGA 2011 is a HUGE waste of money for gaming... Will it be absolutely amazing in things besides gaming? Sure. Will any of that matter in games? Not really.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/288?vs=552 Check the gaming benches specifically. In all but one game, the 2500K hangs right with the 3930K.

 

[axe1592]

LGA 2011 is a HUGE waste of money for gaming... Will it be absolutely amazing in things besides gaming? Sure. Will any of that matter in games? Not really.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/288?vs=552 Check the gaming benches specifically. In all but one game, the 2500K hangs right with the 3930K.

Totally agree. The 2500K is the best gaming processor on the market dollar for dollar. For a gaming rig, the 2500K and 3570K are the best ways to go. Youll see virtually no difference between them and their i7 big brothers. The Hyperthreading of the i7's can come in handy, no doubt, but gaming isnt an application thatll use it. Buy i5 and put the extra money towards the best GPU you can get.