I have an Asrock 970 Extreme Rev. 1 with a Phenom II 840 processor I was wondering what would be the best upgrade choice for a new processor. Thanks for the help!
fx 6300 fx 8320 or fx 8350 what ever amount you want to spend I guess
Since you aren't planning on upgrading the motherboard, I would recommend the FX-6300. It would be a very decent upgrade from what you have without spending a whole heap of money. Only reason I could recommend you spending 200 dollars on an FX-8350 is if you were planning on upgrading the motherboard to a 990FX northbridge equipped motherboard. The FX-6300 is plenty to work with on a 970 motherboard and you can save yourself some out of pocket costs till you want to completely replace the majority of your equipment if you were waiting till AMD deploys the new die shrink with Steamroller.
I really wouldnt upgrade until after AMDs new round of announcements. After that, prices will drop on the FX6 and 8 series. Then you could pick up an 8350 for around 130-160. Just like how the 8150s are now.
We probably aren't going to see the Steamroller die shrink till late next year or maybe even 2015 when DDR4 is supposed to be phased in. If he needs power but doesn't want to spend a ton of money he should upgrade to an FX-6300 now since he's keeping his motherboard. I don't see any reason why he would wait possibly 2 years just to upgrade everything when he's already got a half decent motherboard but the CPU is 3 generations old.
on the Asrock 970 Extreme 3 4+1 powerphase.. i would not recommend to pickup a cpu higher then the FX6300. the FX6300 is the best cpu to get, for this board. FX8320/8350 are just to powerfull for those weak vrm´s and only 4+1 powerphase. i wont give you any room for overclocking..
grtz Angel ☺