HI there, new to the site/forums, big fan of the youtube channel.
I have a rig I built in Feb 2012, most of the specs in my profile.
I have the AMD FX-8120 with stock cooling fan right now. I was looking at doing some minor updates to my system and was considering getting either a good liquid cooler or good air cooler. However, I would also be open to updating my CPU but I'm unsure if the new 83XX CPU's work with my MB (Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3, socket AM3+).
Any advice would be great!
A new FX CPU would work with your mobo, but theres no need to upgrade, you are getting almost the best proformance you can get from AMD these days. An upgrade would not give you much proformance. Just OC.
If you could give some more information about what you want to do that would be great.
An 83xx Piledrive CPU should provide about a 7% increase due to IPC. I'd see what an OC can do for you before you upgrade. Any watercooling loop with a rad short of 240mm (120mm x 2) like the H100 isn't really worth it as high end air coolers can cool just as well if not better than the smaller watercooling loops with 120mm rads.
Depending on the case, I'd consider the NZXT Kraken x60 (2x 140mm rad), though the H100 and H100i have better compatibility. As for air coolers, you really can't go wrong with the Noctua NH-D14, the Phanteks PH-TC14PE, and Logan gave the NZXT Havik a very favorable review. All of the coolers are 140mm.
dont upgrade your cpu like uberFefa said you are getting almost the best proformance you can get from AMD these days. i suggest you overclock for now and upgrade when steam roller come along
like jerm1027 said just buy a good watercooler, oc, and think about buying a steamroller chip. you should see 15-25% improvement clock per clock if you buy a steamroller chip. if you can get to 4.7 ghz stable with the fx8120 you your doing great!