CPU upgrade

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

 

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-downloads/cpu-support-popup.aspx?pid=2439

Athlon II X4: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003M7BLOW/?tag=tec06d-20

Phenom II X6: http://www.microcenter.com/product/...45T_27GHz_Six_Core_Socket_AM3_Boxed_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.