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CPU Upgrade Advice Desprately Needed.

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Hello Everyone :D 

Earlier in the month I asked a question regarding my mother board:

ASUS M4A78 Plus AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard

I was planning on upgrading my system but am on a bit of a budget, now I wanted to get the most out of my board and my current processor is an AMD Phenom 9600 am2+ 2.3ghz. To save money and extend the life of the board I decided to upgrade to an AM3 CPU.

However I have run into a slight dilemma in the form of two different processors. I was looking around for the strongest possible AM3 cpu and for a time only found

AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor

Today I found out about the

AMD Phenom II X6 1090T 3.2 GHz Six Core

My question is sort of a two part thing with a lot of explanation.

#1 I wanted to know which of the two would be the best upgrade for gaming. I am specifically upgrading my CPU for the first person shooter MMO Planet side 2, the game is very CPU intensive as my current CPU is very strained and I can only manage 25 constant frames in normal conditions and below 10 frames in heavy population battles (60 - 300 people). Developers have already stated that the game is going through heavy optimizations (people with i7's are having frames issues as well, people with i5's/Phenom x4's seem to have little to no issues) but it all seems to be a crap shoot in whether or not your performance will increase.

#2 Which of these CPU's are the strongest hell is it possible there is anything stronger in the AM3 chipset? Right now at this very moment the AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor is $85 on sale. It's the cheapest I have seen, and the other I can't really seem to find at any reputable sites and it seems to be $115+. Any and all help would be really appreciated, you guys have been super helpful in the past and if I could trouble you one more time I'd really appreciate it. :hello: 

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If you can find a reputable store that sells the 1090t for the less than or like ~150$ then go for it.
But prices for the 1090t are like 200$ or more, and for the half of the price the 965 be will be your best choice, not worth of spending 100$ more.

djangoringo said:
If you can find a reputable store that sells the 1090t for the less than or like ~150$ then go for it.
But prices for the 1090t are like 200$ or more, and for the half of the price the 965 be will be your best choice, not worth of spending 100$ more.


Looks like a third challenge has entered the frey. I just discovered another processor that seems stronger, as it stand these are the 3 possibles

AMD Phenom II X6 1100T Black Edition Thuban 3.3GHz, 3.7GHz Turbo Socket AM3 125W Six-Core Cant find on a reputable site.

AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition Thuban 3.2GHz Socket AM3 125W Six-Core Cant find on a reputable site.

AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz Socket AM3 125W $85 on sale in stock New Egg

I see rave reviews on all of these. I don't want to miss out on the sale, but at the same time I definitely want the best possible cpu at an affordable price.
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jtenorj said:
make sure you get a decent after market cpu cooler like a cooler master hyper 212 plus to push either one of those unlocked processors.


One thing I have seen complaint wise with these CPUs is their stock fan, and your suggestion is also well with in my price range I really appreciate your help. I will definitely pick up this cpu cooler.

for 85 bucks, I'd jump on the 965BE while you can. It should overclock to 4ghz and above pretty easily on a hyper 212 plus.

I gotta wonder, though. How is your mobo am2 AND am3? they are different sockets and there is no backward compatibility.

AM2 is 940 pins while AM3 is 938 pins, and the 938 pins of a AM3 cpu will not fit in a 940 pin cpu socket(different keying).

Do you have some kind of adapter? How would it affect the fit of either the amd stock cooler or an aftermarket cooler?

You can probably overclock the 965BE to 980BE speeds on the stock amd cooler safely. The extra threads in an x6 or i7 mean little or nothing for gaming.

jtenorj said:
for 85 bucks, I'd jump on the 965BE while you can. It should overclock to 4ghz and above pretty easily on a hyper 212 plus.

I gotta wonder, though. How is your mobo am2 AND am3? they are different sockets and there is no backward compatibility.

AM2 is 940 pins while AM3 is 938 pins, and the 938 pins of a AM3 cpu will not fit in a 940 pin cpu socket(different keying).

Do you have some kind of adapter? How would it affect the fit of either the amd stock cooler or an aftermarket cooler?

You can probably overclock the 965BE to 980BE speeds on the stock amd cooler safely. The extra threads in an x6 or i7 mean little or nothing for gaming.


Your question made me panic a bit :lol: 

I said to myself that is a good question, how in the world dos it take some many different chip sets!?

According to the box : Socket AM3 Processor Support Based on the AMD 770 chipset, the Asus M4A78 Plus supports the latest-generation AMD Socket AM3 processors including the AMD Phenom II X3 and AMD Phenom II X4 processor, as well as AM2 and AM2+ processors including the AMD Phenom, AMD Athlon and AMD Sempron series.

In fact when I saw that feature I thought it was great because I knew I wouldn't have to upgrade my MOBO for a long time.

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ruroni1030 said:
Looks like a third challenge has entered the frey. I just discovered another processor that seems stronger, as it stand these are the 3 possibles

AMD Phenom II X6 1100T Black Edition Thuban 3.3GHz, 3.7GHz Turbo Socket AM3 125W Six-Core Cant find on a reputable site.

AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition Thuban 3.2GHz Socket AM3 125W Six-Core Cant find on a reputable site.

AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz Socket AM3 125W $85 on sale in stock New Egg

I see rave reviews on all of these. I don't want to miss out on the sale, but at the same time I definitely want the best possible cpu at an affordable price.



Forget it, you wont find any 1090t or 1100t for less than 200$, go with the 965 be for that price, the best choice.

And the mobo is compatible with any of those cpus, but you'll need to flash the bios of the mobo.
http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_AM2Plus/M4A78_PLUS...

djangoringo said:
Forget it, you wont find any 1090t or 1100t for less than 200$, go with the 965 be for that price, the best choice.

And the mobo is compatible with any of those cpus, but you'll need to flash the bios of the mobo.
http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_AM2Plus/M4A78_PLUS...


I went ahead and purchased the 965 as you guys recommended. I have never updated my bios and the warning / risk notcies freak me out a little bit. Is the process simple enough for a beginner to do or do I need a professional to flash my bios?

djangoringo said:
For that cpu only bios version 1209, check your bios version, the 1090t needs the most recent update.
http://support.asus.com/cpusupport/cpu_support_right_de...(HDZ965FBK4DGM),3.4GHz,125W,rev.C3,SocketAM3,Quad-Core&pcb=1.01G&sincebios=1209&memo=

But if you don't have, it's easy to flash the bios and without risks (if you do it correctly)


Yea it looks like I need to go ahead and update. I am currently on version 0602. Should I go ahead and update that now or do I need to wait until I put in the processor? Just want to make sure I don't mess anything up. I watched an instructional video on how to flash my bios and it seems simple enough.

djangoringo said:
You can update now with no problems.
You'll have the support for the new cpu and old cpu.


All done! BIOS is officially updated to the newest version you recommended and the processor is on it's way! I can't thank you guys enough for your help and I am glad Tom's Hardware and the great community it has are around to help semi-newbs like myself.
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