AMD AM2+/AM3 CPU Recommendation

[Kohan]

Hello, everyone. I'm so far behind on tech talk that it isn't funny. Fortunately, I still remember how to put a computer's various parts together. I also purchased a nice motherboard some time ago with future upgrades in mind. Here's the info on what it supports:

Socket: AM3/AM2+/AM2
CPU: Phenom II / Athlon X4 / Athlon X3 / Athlon X2 / Phenom X4 / Phenom X3 / Athlon / Sempron
FSB: 2600MHz Hyper Transport (5200 MT/s)

Well, the time has come. I'd like to replace my ancient DC CPU with something nicer. My tragically small tax return will be coming in soon, and I'd like to spend under $200, if possible. The less, the better, so I'd rather have something which is, say, $130, than a $199 deal whose performance gain is so small, I'll never notice. On the other hand, if you can argue the benefits of spending two bills, feel free, as I'll gladly listen. Heck, go ahead and throw some bargain CPUs at me, too -- never can predict if my apartment will spring a leak between now and tomorrow.

As for what I'll be doing, playing FFXI is an obvious concern, and since that's CPU intense, I'd like something that plays well with it. Professionally, I use my machine for various PC games, and I also utilize it for video editing, often recording in HuffYUV and encoding in DivX.

All suggestions are welcome. Reviews and comparisons are, too. Thank you in advance for your help.

[fishstix]

I bought the Phenom II x4 940 last January and have been thoroughly satisfied with it. It's the baseline of the PII chips @ $150 with newer/faster models for more money and budget ones for cheaper.

[sade3437]

I'm with him on the 940 been using it for about 4 months now and @ 156$ you can't go wrong at all plus it overclocks really well

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103471

[LiquidFriend]

Hello, everyone. I'm so far behind on tech talk that it isn't funny. Fortunately, I still remember how to put a computer's various parts together. I also purchased a nice motherboard some time ago with future upgrades in mind. Here's the info on what it supports:

Socket: AM3/AM2+/AM2
CPU: Phenom II / Athlon X4 / Athlon X3 / Athlon X2 / Phenom X4 / Phenom X3 / Athlon / Sempron
FSB: 2600MHz Hyper Transport (5200 MT/s)

Well, the time has come. I'd like to replace my ancient DC CPU with something nicer. My tragically small tax return will be coming in soon, and I'd like to spend under $200, if possible. The less, the better, so I'd rather have something which is, say, $130, than a $199 deal whose performance gain is so small, I'll never notice. On the other hand, if you can argue the benefits of spending two bills, feel free, as I'll gladly listen. Heck, go ahead and throw some bargain CPUs at me, too -- never can predict if my apartment will spring a leak between now and tomorrow.

As for what I'll be doing, playing FFXI is an obvious concern, and since that's CPU intense, I'd like something that plays well with it. Professionally, I use my machine for various PC games, and I also utilize it for video editing, often recording in HuffYUV and encoding in DivX.

All suggestions are welcome. Reviews and comparisons are, too. Thank you in advance for your help.

Got a Frys Electronics or Microcenter near by?

I recently nabbed a Phenom II x3 for $99 and got $30 off of a motherboard purchase for buying the CPU. Had little problems unlocking it into a quad core.

[Agito]

Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition $160.00 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-808-_-Product


Video editing is extremely processor intense and new games are processor intense. You can very easily overclock this to 4.0GHz on air and have a very high end processor.

[Kohan]

Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition $160.00 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-808-_-Product

Video editing is extremely processor intense and new games are processor intense. You can very easily overclock this to 4.0GHz on air and have a very high end processor.

Thanks. I'm considering the aforementioned, but looking at this one's pricing -- and overwhelmingly positive customer reviews -- it may be what I go for. I look forward to using a faster CPU for video editing, as my current one certainly takes its sweet time, even though I use VDx64 with the appropriate codecs. Now, I should probably look into buying yet another HDD so I don't continuously over-fill my current one with lossless video...

Thanks again.