What CPU should I buy?

Here comes everyone saying get an i5 lol.

i5! Seriously though, if you want to stick with AMD then that's a pretty solid option. It's not i5 fast for gaming, but it's certainly not bad. You're looking at maybe 15% loss in CPU-intensive games vs the i5, 20% if you're looking specifically at 1080p. For non-gaming stuff, it'll generally beat the i5.

For gaming without a doubt the Ivy Bridges I5 is head and shoulders above both the older Athlon II's and new Bulldozer and Piledrivers. All you have to do is look at some benchmarks and your answer should be pretty clear.

It seems like the new FX 6300 is the sweet spot for Gaming on a budget with an AMD CPU at the moment. The extra cores that the FX 8XXX CPU's have don't make much difference as far as gaming goes.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/fx-8350-83...


Mactronix  

The 8320 will be a big improvement over your x3 for virtually every application. As long as you have a decent cooler for overclocking you're setup nicely for an easy "big" upgrade @ $179.

First of all I would like to thank everyone of you for taking the time to respond to my querry, much appreciated! From what I gather the i5 is without a doubt better but unfortunately I don`t have enough money to change both my CPU and my mobo. I`m going to buy the 8320, OC it with a better cooler and hope for the best  

Once again, thanks and Happy Holidays !!!

Have fun with it :-)