Is this upgrade worth going for. I have had the i7-870 for quite a while. Is it worth it to buy a FX-8350 and motherboard upgrade from the i7-870? I want a cheap cpu, so rather no intel.
If gaming is your requirement then its not really worth upgrading that CPU to any CPU as the gains will only be slight or marginal. If you want to keep your setup consider upgrading your Graphics solution and/or adding a SSD is a fine little upgrade.
In general computing the FX 8350 will be a upgrade but I don't know if its exactly cost efficient at $200ish its still a higher price to pay.
The i7 is a very fast processor. Was one of the best in its day. The only meaningful upgrade is going to be to a Sandy or Ivy bridge I7 which means $300 processor and a new motherboard.
I recommend keeping your cpu for atleast another year. It's not really letting you down is it? If so, have you tried overclocking it? If you've got the upgrade bug bad, how about building a cheap htpc or spare computer to tinker around with?
Well, the 965 BE is only 25% worse than the 2500k. Costs 50% less, too.
Also, with that motherboard, he could overclock the 965 to pretty high speeds, which will make the 965 as good as an i5 2500k @ stock.