CPU upgrade

[Hal24]

Hello Gentlemen,

I need some advise from people who have a bit more knowledge than I have regarding the wisdom of upgrading an ancient MOBO (Gigabyte GA-M61VME-S2 REV.2.0) running an equally ancient CPU (AMD Athlon 64 X2
5400+,socket AM2, 2.8 gHz).
I saw recently on this site that AMD has released a low cost CPU (Athlon II X2 280 Dual-Core Processor, socket AM3, 3.6 gHz).
Would this be a worthwhile upgrade? It appears that the 280 is backward compatible with the AM2 socket. Are there any other traps I could fall into?. BIOS issues for example?
Any help would be much appreciated.
Hal

[ilikemacandpc]

How much money do you have for an upgrade?

Even if you get the Athlon II X2, it would be a notable upgrade, but if you save a bit more, you could get an Athlon ii x4, which would be much faster.

Your board can even support the six core Phenom IIs, and if you have a Microcenter nearby (if you live in the US), you can score a six core for pretty cheap.

Definitely update your board's bios; you should be OK.

CPU Support List: http://www.gigabyte.us/support-downl....aspx?pid=2439

Athlon II X4: http://www.amazon.com/AMD-Athlon-640...OW?ref=prid-20

Phenom II X6: http://www.microcenter.com/product/3...oxed_Processor

What are your other specs (RAM, GPU, HDD mainly)?
Your system is pretty old anyways, so considering a fully new build if you have the cash might be better depending on your other parts.