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Please help me choose a CPU Upgrade

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I have a Gigabyte GA-M68M-S2P (rev. 2.3) Mobo running a AMD Athlon(tm) 5000 Dual-Core Processor with 8 gb Ram (Windows 7 64 bit). This was a computer my dad built and he was getting rid of it and gave it to me. It works extremely well for me, except for 2 things I do. First is when using itunes for converting files and the second is for editing and encoding videos. Both max out the CPU

I have a 2gb video card and I would like to be able to do the media conversions without maxing out my CPU. According to the Specs, it can support AM3/AM2+/AM2 processors: AMD Phenom II processor/ AMD Phenom processor/AMD Athlon II processor/ AMD Athlon processor/AMD Sempron processors.

I honestly do not want to upgrade the whole system yet, so with this knowledge in hand, can anyone help me decide what would be the best for this system? CPU's are something that have always confused me, so if anyone can guide me the right direction, I would be very thankful!

Randy

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CPUs Authority

Here's the list of supported processors: http://www.gigabyte.com/support-downloads/cpu-support-p...

Any of the Phenom II X4 or X6 processors are going to be a great upgrade, but new availability is drying up on those. A Phenom X4 965 Black edition for $85 or a x6 1045T for $110 (both at Tigerdirect) would both be excellent choices and should be about 3-4 faster for encoding video than your current setup.

Now in terms of maxing out the CPU, encoding is supposed to max out the CPU. That makes it finish faster. SO I would suspect your new processor also hits 100% during video encoding, you just finish 4x faster. The good news is that with 4-6 cores, you can still use the machine while it is encoding as long as you don't do anything else CPU intensive. Some video encoders do let you specify number of cores to use, but many just use what's there.

twelve25 said:
Here's the list of supported processors: http://www.gigabyte.com/support-downloads/cpu-support-p...

Any of the Phenom II X4 or X6 processors are going to be a great upgrade, but new availability is drying up on those. A Phenom X4 965 Black edition for $85 or a x6 1045T for $110 (both at Tigerdirect) would both be excellent choices and should be about 3-4 faster for encoding video than your current setup.

Now in terms of maxing out the CPU, encoding is supposed to max out the CPU. That makes it finish faster. SO I would suspect your new processor also hits 100% during video encoding, you just finish 4x faster. The good news is that with 4-6 cores, you can still use the machine while it is encoding as long as you don't do anything else CPU intensive. Some video encoders do let you specify number of cores to use, but many just use what's there.



Thank you twelve25, excellent information! I truly appreciate it.
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CPUs Expert

be very careful about what processor you try and put on that motherboard.

95 watt processors max...........

some processors on that provided list will not work and some may need the proper BIOS update beforehand........... which, if I were going to put another processor on that board, I would update first to make sure it will take and not screw anything up before I spent any money.
CPUs Expert

couple different sockets were made. AM2 was the first. that was 95watt. if he tries to put the 125 on it it won't work right. AM2 because he says "Athlon(tm) 5000 Dual-Core Processor" makes me think it's an older board.
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