OldBuzzard

I'm thinking of doing a CPU upgrade. My 4800+ is getting a bit "long in the tooth", and I'm thinking that it may also be bottlenecking my 3870 x2.

Now, I'm running an AM2 board, so either of these would work:

Newegg.com - AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ Windsor 3.0GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM2 125W Dual-Core Processor - Processors - Desktops
or
Newegg.com - AMD Phenom 9950 BLACK EDITION 2.6GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 2MB L3 Cache Socket AM2+ 140W Quad-Core Processor - Processors - Desktops

The 6000+ looks very attractive at $112.00 but it is just dual core.

The 9950 has the advantage of being Quad core, but is $235.00, more than 2x the cost of the 6000+.

Bear in mind, that I do have the option of adding another 3970 x2 in Crossfire, or depending on the $$ involved, going with a 4870 x2.

Either one will be a nice boost for me...I'm just looking for the best bang for the buck.

__________________
When looking for a reason as to why things go wrong, never rule out sheer STUPIDITY

Grace

You should go with the 9950 if you want to upgrade. If you go with the 6000+, you will probably not even notice the difference. You can clock the black edition CPU a little too. Just make sure that your motherboard supports it!

nil4t

Keep in mind the 9950 is 140 watts, I'm not so sure your board will support it if it's an older am2 board. Also, if you plan on upgrading for gaming and you don't plan on overclocking. You may be better off with a higher clocked dual-core processor, such as the 6400+.

Just checked the cpu support list on your board and I did not see the 9950 listed. Highest it went was 9850.

Callandor

It's there.

Model Number and Feature Comparisons - AMD Phenom? Processors

Since your board supports AM2+ processors you can pretty much go with the most expensive one you're willing to get right now, and that seems to be the 9550. But you can always just go with the 6000+ if you're planning to go with a 9850 or 9950 black edition later on when prices level out.

__________________

Kizo

I think nil4t meant to say the 9950 is not on this list:
ASRock Motherboard - Product - ALiveXFire-eSATA2 - CPU Support List
Its the CPU support list of the ALiveXFire-eSATA2.

@OldBuzzard: While it may work, personally, I don't think you should risk it, since it's a 140W CPU, while all others are 125W and below. This boards electronics maybe isn't adequate to support this kind of power load (not sure what happens in this case, maybe fried circuits on the board, or fried CPU as well) . If it is, I'm sure ASRock will make a BIOS update soon and put it on their webpage.
Cheers

Callandor

???

It's there too.

__________________

Callandor

What Grace said btw though is true, you probably won't notice much difference if you go with the 6000+. That killer heat sink will look really nice in your case though.

__________________

Kizo

I think there is a misunderstanding. The 9550+ that you saw is indeed on that list, but not the 9950+.

Callandor

WTF!!!??? I think I'm going blind...

__________________

Liqourice

Problem is that you wont be able to take full advantage of the 9950 on that motherboard since it's only an AM2 socket, not AM2+. I'm not sure the difference between HT1 and HT3 is that huge but there will be a lower bus speed than the CPU can handle.

OldBuzzard

No it won't...I watercool

Yeah, after I posted, I noticed that the 9950 is a 140W CPU. My board might not like it.

Oh well. that might give me an excuse to get the DFI with the 790FX chipset I wouldn't mind the Sapphire version of it, but that rascal is dang near impossible to find in the States.

As for the 6400+...I didn't see that on The Egg. That could be a possibility too.

Decisions, decisions.

__________________
When looking for a reason as to why things go wrong, never rule out sheer STUPIDITY

swimtech

Sticking with an AMD CPU right now, you'd at least want some bang for any bucks, and the 6000 won't really let you see much of any...

The high end Phenom 9950 Black and a new board should provide a very noticeable bang, and you could do the video card upgrade down the road a bit. Your OS ('s, plural !!! ) will make nice use of the extra cores even if all present apps don't - you should notice that too.

Then however, if you're willing to do the processor/board thing, better bang for the buck is with Intel architecture.

Decisions for sure...

__________________
It's not so much getting your way that matters or not - what matters is how you go about getting it.

Grace

Not buying anything at the moment would be another possibility too. You have a good system, I don't think there is any real reason to upgrade that at the moment. Plus, the prices of the dual core CPUs are constantly going down at a remarkably quick pace. If you want to upgrade, I would guess that doing a more complete job (CPU, motherboard and GPU) around Christmas would be a far more wise idea. By then most CPUs out right now will cost half as much as they do now, plus the price of the 4850/4870 will be much lower as well. To be honest, I think that you wouldn't even buy such a thing because they'll be outdated by then!

BlueMak

I heard a rumour, not sure if it is true or not, that around the 11th of August there will be a reduction of the price of Quad Core CPUs by Intel.

As for AMD, I don't like them after the 989 thing, so...don't get AMD!! :-p

__________________

The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

Kizo

Hi, OldBuzzard. I have recently checked the ASRock site for a new BIOS for my motherboard (ALiveXFire-eSATA2), and I noticed that the Phenom 9950BE was added in the CPU Support List, so if you still want an upgrade, you can be sure that it is suported.

Cheers

OldBuzzard

Not that's spooky...I was just there earlier today myself and saw the same thing

With the price drop that 9950 Black box is looking like a VERY good possibility.

However...not in the immediate future...my FW900 went zzzzzz...flash...pop So I need to spend a few $$ to get it fixed.

__________________
When looking for a reason as to why things go wrong, never rule out sheer STUPIDITY

Kizo

Sorry to hear that... Why did it broke? Was it hooked on an UPS? A great deal of all PC failures are power/current related, so you might want to consider doing that, if you haven't. I have my PC and monitor connected to one at all times. Though i can imagine the power draw on that HUGE CRT is much higher.

Liqourice

This kind of annoys me. An old Asrock board supports the 9950 but my new 790FX Gigabyte doesn't.

Just be aware that the Phenom won't run at full speed on that motherboard due to it not supporting HT3.

OldBuzzard

Kizo

I think it's just age. It sounded like a capacitor 'popped'. If I remember right, the build date on this monitor is 2002.

__________________
When looking for a reason as to why things go wrong, never rule out sheer STUPIDITY