I have a spare $200 laying around and i was thinking about upgrading my AMD FX 6200 to a AMD FX 8350. Is it worth it, or should i wait for AMD's Steamroller? Then, again, i was thining about getting better cooling also. I had my eyes set on a NZXT Kraken x60 and a few more fans for my case ( better than stock, of course. ). So, i guess what i am asking is..should i get the (obviously better) CPU or upgrade my cooling? Thanks in advance.
Steamroller at a guess is probably going to be between 10-15% faster (if we take the last two revisions of AMD CPU's as an example)
Getting cooling would aid in clocking your your 6200 to get a bit more out of it.
Honestly its more of a personal choice, does the 6200 you got work for you as it is? is there anything you do that requires a 8350 currently.
I think i would probably get cooling and wait for the next AMD chips to come out (they are going to be AM3+ anyway) providing the 6200 does what you want it too right now.
Hold out with the 6200 for now. It's still a decent performer, so maybe spending $30 to get a Hyper 212 Evo and overclocking it can help. Or you could keep it at stock. Then wait for Steamroller to be released. See some benchmarks, get some opinions, and if they don't perform better or perform worst than Piledriver, you could buy the 8350, which by then will be cheaper. If they are better, then you could spend your money there
if i was you i would preper for steamroller and get your water cooler and by the time steamroller comes you can overclock the hell out of it instead of upgrading your cpu now and getting a water cooler later it's upto you tho only thing is i cannot gaurantee steamroller will be am3+ so if you decide to purchase a watercooler preper to buy an adapter for a new socket if it does indead have a new socket not completly sure about the socket
Was leaked back in september that they had planned the steamroller to be AM3+ socket
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2208525/amd-sticks-with-socket-am3-for-steamroller