Question about the FX-4100/4170

[Neodemonflare]

Hi, just have something of a query... which hopefully some of you fine people can help me with . Hopefully this is the right place to be asking. Basically what I'm wanting to find out is if this would be a good upgrade from an Athlon X2 260. Preferably I'd been wanting to go with a Phenom X4, sadly they are getting hard to come by.. and over here in Australia, somewhat expensive now (having said that there are a couple X6 1045's reasonably priced).

This is an upgrade for my uncle, over clocking isn't really a requirement, gaming wise he only really plays RTS's (I am thinking of introducing him to Skyrim, being a big fantasy fan).

Current parts that I assembled on the cheap are.
CPU: Athlon X2 260
MOBO: GIGABYTE 880GA-UD3H
PSU: Cooler Master 500W
RAM: Kingston Hyper X 1600 4Gb
GPU: Sapphire Radeon 6770 1Gb GDDR5
HDD: Caviar Blue 500Gb System and programs, 1Tb Caviar green (everything else).
Case: Generic tower used to house his Pentium 4

Thanks in advance for your input .

 

[computernewb]

getting a fx-4170 would be a considerable upgrade.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106-5.html

However, your motherboard is an am3 motherboard. Fx cpus require an am3+ motherboard. However, i believe you can use the fx cpus with a bios update.
http://www.gigabyte.us/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3789#sp

edit: there seems to be different versions of your motherboard. The one that is compatiable with the fx cpus is the (rev.3.1). you should verify your version.

 

[Outlander_04]

Check the manufacturers web page for your mb and check the cpu support list

 

[nekulturny]

The 4100/4170 CPU will fit into the socket, but AMD offers no official support for it. A bios upgrade may or may not help you, and its not a crapshoot I would want to take.

You still have some good mileage left on that board, however a Phenom II is the way to go. They outperform FX CPUs anyway.

This: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103923

OR

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103727

 

[Neodemonflare]

Hi, thank you for your replies (very useful), sorry I could post a message sooner, just got to look at the motherboard today and indeed it is a revision 1 version... making it effectively AM3 only. So it's looking like I'll be trying to find a Phenom II.

Nekulturny, thanks for the recommendations, I'll check soon if newegg will ship over here, if so those are pretty decent prices. If not I'll see if I can somewhere that offers international shipping (or maybe even within Australia).

Computernewb, that was a handy little chart, I hadn't been able to find anything yet even remotely comparing the two CPU's.

Again thank you.

*Edit to add update*
Newegg doesn't ship internationally, I have found a Phenom II X4 945 (not a black edition) for $122... but the search continues.. I may use that as a fallback.

 

[Neodemonflare]

Best answer selected by Neodemonflare.