What CPU next?

I think your best bet is a Phenom X4 and a hefty overclock if you want to keep the motherboard.

http://www.asrock.com/mb/NVIDIA/N68-S3%20UCC/?cat=CPU

The black edition 6x's are fairly competent but for a major upgrade in power I would recommend the newest fx series (Beats I5 in rendering and highly threaded) or the i5 2500k or Ivy equivalent.

Hi milez and thanks for the quick reply, why x4 over the x6? also would the upgrade from the cpu i have now, be worth the cost? thanks

Good luck finding an x6. As far as I know newegg stopped carrying them several months ago. Phenom II x4 965 should be around $89.

Hi wanderer / anyone else reading this, this is my Mobo http://www.asrock.com/mb/cpu.asp?model=n68-s3%20ucc

Thing is the Phenom II x4 965 http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=5307350...
I'm thinking about buying doesn't seem to be support by my mobo despite having an AM3 socket, does this matter?

Your board only supports up to 95W TDP. Your best bet is to buy a new board, the only CPU's that still occasionaly float around for yours that are worth getting are Phenom II X4 955 (the 95W version and it's rare now and not much of an upgrade) or a Phenom II X6 1045T (again rare now and depending on what you use your rig for possibly not much of an upgrade)

Thanks for the reply, so the 965 is incompatible with my mobo? would this not work http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=5307350... and are you sure it wouldn't be much of an upgrade, my current cpu is pretty crap, thanks

The link is a 125W 965BE it's not compatibile, if it was it would be an upgrade.

The 95W parts i mentioned that appear sometimes would be small upgrades (depending on use) a 95W Phenom II 955 (95W version) would be a very slight upgrade you would gain some L3 cache and 200MHz. The Phenom II X6 1045T is a 95W part as well that is still sometimes to be found. If you are doing tasks that utilise the 6 cores that would be an upgrade but if not you would gain 2 cores and L3 cache but lose some speed (its a 2.7GHz with 3.2 turbo)

Really in your shoes I would save for a new mobo then get a good CPU that you want rather than compromise on something that would be a minor upgrade/sidegrade

Out of interest what Graphics card do you have? Most games are bottlenecked by the GPU, unless you play a handful of CPU bound games or have a top shelf GPU thats likely your choke point anyway

I have a 560 ti, works veru nicly but my cpu holds it back.

Get an I5 3470 + H77 mobo and forget AM3, or AM3+.

You are using almost the top processor your mobo can support. It indeed can support Phenoms II (95w Versions) But upgrade wouldnt be a major improvement, and you wont feel really pleased about the performance change. Yeah, a PhenomII 965 BE would be a nice upgrade, and the ability to overclock should put your FPS at a major margin, but your mobo will suffer.

Wait untill you can get an I5 and a cheap mobo. That combo wont need overclock to throw big numbers....