Ye olde upgrade inquiry - Phenom II or FX CPU

[Starbomba]

I was recently able to get a Crosshair IV Formula (for free) to replace my dad's HP prebuilt boasting an E8400. The CPU i plan to use is a Phenom II 840T, which can unlock to 6 cores and so far has proven to be stable (still need to finish stress testing it) and was only $20 on eBay. However, due to the Ryzen launch, most FX chips are now (thankfuly) dirt cheap, which makes me think if a FX 6000 or 8000 would be worth it. I don't plan to pay over $50 for one, and while i know any newer Intel CPU, even Pentium and Celerons (like a G4560), or a cheapo Ryzen 3 would beat the snot of anything AM3/AM3+, i do not want to spend over $50 on any upgrade, especially for the low CPU demand my dad will have, and because i already have all parts at hand so i don't need to spend anything if i don't want to.

PC will mainly be used for regular Office work (mostly Word and basic Excel), web browsing, movie watching, audio creation (Adobe Audition) and light photo retouching (Photoshop). It will also run a LOT of compressing/decompressing duties. It will have 8 GB of DDR3 and a RX 460 for GPU acceleration. I don't plan to OC anything, as the main focus of that build is silence.

Would it be worthy to upgrade from a 6-core Phenom II to a FX 6000/8000 series? And if the core unlocking ends up to be unstable, would it still be worth to get a FX CPU to replace a 4-core Phenom II?

 

[Thefumigator]

I would keep the Phenom as long as it has 6 active cores. Its a nice CPU for multitasking considering you got it for 20$.
If that mobo supports FX cpus, I would only switch from Phenom to FX 8320 the 95watts version, and only if its cheap enough. Don't bother with FX like 8120 or 8150 as they are slower, they were the first to be rushed out to the market.

 

[cdawall]

The FX chips have modern instructions that the Phenom II chips lack, that would make them the smarter choice.

 

[Regeneration]

Vishera CPUs unofficially work on Crosshair IV Formula with the latest beta BIOS. You can get a cheap FX-8370 off eBay (avoid the low TDP E version), or maybe FX-9000 series if you have high-end cooling.

But take in mind the performance gain won't be significant. The Bulldozer/Piledriver FX series sucked, bad architecture, some were slower then Phenom II series. If you can unlock + overclock the current CPU, just stick with it.

 

[craigo]

Office rig huh?
no urgent need for an FX/AM3+ upgrade
stick with the $20 unlocker and use the exceptionally well crafted feature rich motherboard to under volt/clock the Phenom as a 6 core..
spend the FX money on other things.

 

[Regeneration]

And a word of advice about Phenom II overclocking, run Prime95 blend or large FFT, Phenom II's tend to "application crash" in the high FFT range (700-1000K).

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

Dont bother with a Phenom II unless its free.

 

[HD64G]

FX6350 or FX8320 would be great compared to any Phenom or Thuban. Instruction set help much and software now uses better more cores than when they launched. Went recently to FX8350 from Phenom 965BE and it is a big plus even in consumption when both undervolted (965@1.25V and 8350@1.3V without turbo).

 

[eidairaman1]

Go for a 8300, 8320, 8350, 8370 or their E-Models.

Not all CPUs Unlock as some components could be damaged.

Leave the Phenom 2 T model CPUs as an experiment.

 

[OneMoar]

really none of those are good options
=/
you honestly would be better off with a dual core Pentium then either of those

 

[HD64G]

really none of those are good options
=/
you honestly would be better off with a dual core Pentium then either of those

Just for gaming with a low end GPU or browsing only maybe, but for also multitasking, encoding videos, etc, no. Up to 580/1060 GPU lvl, FX is more than enough to extract the most power out of the GPU. From 1070/Vega 56 and over, you need Ryzen R5/i5 lvl of CPU though.

 

[OneMoar]

id still take the pentium upgrade path quieter uses less power and core for core faster

 

[Devon68]

Would it be worthy to upgrade from a 6-core Phenom II to a FX 6000/8000 series?

No. Keep the Phenom you have. It's a great chip and from the things you listed you wont need anything more than that.

 

[GorbazTheDragon]

You should be able to buy up 8320s and 8350s for peanuts these days... Nobody actually wants to keep them.

 

[yotano211]

id still take the pentium upgrade path quieter uses less power and core for core faster

The OP would have to completely change everything if he goes intel, his budget is $50 max. The OP cant go intel.

 

[Bones]

I would keep the Phenom as long as it has 6 active cores. Its a nice CPU for multitasking considering you got it for 20$.
If that mobo supports FX cpus, I would only switch from Phenom to FX 8320 the 95watts version, and only if its cheap enough. Don't bother with FX like 8120 or 8150 as they are slower, they were the first to be rushed out to the market.

Actually the FX-8000 has better stock specs than the 8320E with the same wattage rating. A little higher turbo clock and default/base clock too.
I dunno why AMD did these models like this but check the specs and you'll see it.

 

[Zyll Goliat]

Try to avoid first bulldozer CPU´s like FX8120,8150.....instead get vishera if you can,I recommended FX8300 that should be the cheapest 8-core also that one works on less power(95W)3,3Ghz Turbo on 4,2Ghz but off course you can easily OC with some better mobo.......

 

[Papahyooie]

I think most everybody here is ignoring the OP's real question. He's not asking which is better. The only thing he's asking is, is it worth spending up to $50 to get an upgrade over the six core Phenom he already has.

OP, the six core phenom will be plenty for the "daily driver" role for the uses you cite. If you can get a FX 83xx within your budget, it would be a decent upgrade (I've gone that exact same route before, so I have firsthand experience.) However, with the light usage you say it will see, you will be easily comfortable with the CPU you already have.

 

[Bones]

I think most everybody here is ignoring the OP's real question. He's not asking which is better. The only thing he's asking is, is it worth spending up to $50 to get an upgrade over the six core Phenom he already has.

OP, the six core phenom will be plenty for the "daily driver" role for the uses you cite. If you can get a FX 83xx within your budget, it would be a decent upgrade (I've gone that exact same route before, so I have firsthand experience.) However, with the light usage you say it will see, you will be easily comfortable with the CPU you already have.

Well, yes and no on that..... I don't think the original question has been ignored so much but point taken.
I was saying if you do decide to go FX then the 8000 for the $$ and for specs would be best, however as pointed out above you can OC any of them and it woudn't matter much since all FX chips tend to OC the same overall except for the 9xxx series.As long as it's one of the 83xx chips the OP would be fine, if it's an 81xx chip you will have some problems like multimedia playback stutter for example - All of my 81xx chips do this.

As long as the 840T is doing the job to the OP's satisfaction I woudn't see a real need to change chips myself. If for some reason the OP decides to change chips yet still keep it AM3 then I'd suggest grabbing a 960T or even one of the hex cored chips like a 1090T/1100T Thuban.
The board he has clearly is capable of running anything AM3 related period so no probs there at least.

 

[yotano211]

Well, yes and no on that..... I don't think the original question has been ignored so much but point taken.
I was saying if you do decide to go FX then the 8000 for the $$ and for specs would be best, however as pointed out above you can OC any of them and it woudn't matter much since all FX chips tend to OC the same overall except for the 9xxx series.As long as it's one of the 83xx chips the OP would be fine, if it's an 81xx chip you will have some problems like multimedia playback stutter for example - All of my 81xx chips do this.

As long as the 840T is doing the job to the OP's satisfaction I woudn't see a real need to change chips myself. If for some reason the OP decides to change chips yet still keep it AM3 then I'd suggest grabbing a 960T or even one of the hex cored chips like a 1090T/1100T Thuban.
The board he has clearly is capable of running anything AM3 related period so no probs there at least.

It was answered but some people are saying to the OP to go with intel because that is something they would go and completely ignoring the OP's wishes and budget. They forget about the OP and only suggest what they would buy.

 

[eidairaman1]

My honest humble opinion, without a doubt, I'd only keep the hex core in another exact machine and buy the 8350/8370.

The FX *100 cpus got bad press, with so much hatred in the web and even on here overshadowed the fixes the *300 series had and honestly you can only feel performance by using it day by day, not some lame synthetic benchmark. A cpu upgrade beats having to replace the board and ram which result in a OS reinstall for best possible performance from it.

 

[cdawall]

My honest humble opinion, without a doubt, I'd only keep the hex core in another exact machine and buy the 8350/8370.

The FX *100 cpus got bad press, with so much hatred in the web and even on here overshadowed the fixes the *300 series had and honestly you can only feel performance by using it day by day, not some lame synthetic benchmark. A cpu upgrade beats having to replace the board and ram which result in a OS reinstall for best possible performance from it.

It is a pretty massive difference using an i5/i7 in games vs even my overclocked 9370. You can see 40FPS pretty easily especially when it is the minimum frames dropping to 30. Games are day to day use for a lot of people. A 45W mobile i7 quad core wipes the floor with a 9590, in just about anything. The board he has will support as high as a 9590 just fine, however it isn't necessarily worth it.

 

[eidairaman1]

It is a pretty massive difference using an i5/i7 in games vs even my overclocked 9370. You can see 40FPS pretty easily especially when it is the minimum frames dropping to 30. Games are day to day use for a lot of people. A 45W mobile i7 quad core wipes the floor with a 9590, in just about anything. The board he has will support as high as a 9590 just fine, however it isn't necessarily worth it.

Hence the suggestion of the 8 series since the 9 series need water just to keep cool.

 

[cdawall]

Hence the suggestion of the 8 series since the 9 series need water just to keep cool.

8 series isn't any cooler at the same clock speed. They are all the same piledriver cores.

 

[eidairaman1]

8 series isn't any cooler at the same clock speed. They are all the same piledriver cores.

However the 9 series are ultra leaky chips and still cost more than the 8 series.