AMD Phenom II x4 955BE to AMD FX 8350 Worth it?

[Padilla]

Current Specs:

CPU: AMD Phenom II x4 955 BE 3.2Ghz (watercooled)
MOBO: Gigabyte MA770T UD3P rev 1.0
RAM: 12GB DDR3
HDD: 240GB SSD 1 TB HDD
GFX: EVGA GTX 970 SSC
Sound: Soundblaster Z

I was interested in upgrading my system, a REAL upgrade would be going to Ryzen or Intel 7th/8th gen for sure, but the cost of getting the new mobo, new cpu, new ram, new AIO for cpu etc adds up really quick.

I looked into getting:
AMD-FX8350 BE 8 Core 4.0Ghz , 4.2Ghz Turbo
MSI 970 AM3 gaming motherboard

used on ebay for about $75 each, and a couple misc things like brackets / thermal paste to keep it at $200 or less for everything.

To me, the upgrade would give me:
1) Access to USB 3.0 connectivity
2) Sata 6gb/s instead of current 3gb/s
3) Higher CPU core clock
4) more cores, more threads

I know my CPU is VERY old but I fell I have a decent GPU and my question is, would spending less than $200 be a worthwhile upgrade to get a couple extra FPS and decent performance gains? How much of a performance improvement etc? Just looking for some thoughts and comments. Thanks!

 

[Iron Woode]

When I was in almost the same predicament, I decided to go Haswell instead of the newer Skylake. I was able to re-use everything minus the board and cpu. It was a great upgrade. I did get a used I5 to save money.

 

[OTG]

Even now a Haswell i5 will likely cost at least $150, and the 8350 will be fine for almost any task.
I have an A10-7850k, and it'll run new games perfectly well, just don't spend too much time comparing FPS because you won't get the same gaming performance as with an Intel chip. It won't be bad necessarily, but you won't win many internet e-peen contests.

 

[ao_ika_red]

How about having second hand x6 1100t? It's much cheaper option imo. But obviously you won't get better I/O option than you had.

 

[LightningZ71]

If your priorities are USB3, SATA III, and more cores, I would suggest investing in a PCI-e SATA/USB card (they're running at around $25 online from several places) and getting the X6 1090t, which is available on e-bay for less than $50 from several vendors and definitely works with your board and your current cooler setup. This is an investment of around half of what you're looking at, gets you what you need, and lets you start saving up earlier for a much faster setup instead. Either route you take won't net you a major upgrade in performance, but the extra cores can help. I'd also suggest that you look into a mild overclock. You should be able to hit 3.8Ghz without too much fuss and you should see a modest improvement in what you're doing. At this point, I just wouldn't be throwing a lot of money into an FX series processor.

 

[maddie]

If your priorities are USB3, SATA III, and more cores, I would suggest investing in a PCI-e SATA/USB card (they're running at around $25 online from several places) and getting the X6 1090t, which is available on e-bay for less than $50 from several vendors and definitely works with your board and your current cooler setup. This is an investment of around half of what you're looking at, gets you what you need, and lets you start saving up earlier for a much faster setup instead. Either route you take won't net you a major upgrade in performance, but the extra cores can help. I'd also suggest that you look into a mild overclock. You should be able to hit 3.8Ghz without too much fuss and you should see a modest improvement in what you're doing. At this point, I just wouldn't be throwing a lot of money into an FX series processor.

Where are you seeing the X6 for ~$50? Someone I know is interested in this and I'm seeing $100 +

 

[epsilon84]

What are you looking to improve mainly? You asked about increased fps so I'm guessing it's gaming performance.

If that's the case you can probably get a SB era i7 2600K based system for about the same price, which would actually provide a very noticeable improvement over a Phenom 955, in fact an overclocked 2600K is not that far off Ryzen levels of gaming performance.

An FX 8350 would be a big improvement too but not to the same extent as an i7 2600K. Since they are around the same price range now I don't see any reason to go with the FX 8350 as it's not a drop in upgrade for your current system, you need a new mobo either way so may as well get there config that gives you the greatest bang for your upgrade buck.

 

[Iron Woode]

Even now a Haswell i5 will likely cost at least $150, and the 8350 will be fine for almost any task.
I have an A10-7850k, and it'll run new games perfectly well, just don't spend too much time comparing FPS because you won't get the same gaming performance as with an Intel chip. It won't be bad necessarily, but you won't win many internet e-peen contests.

I paid $120 CDN for an I5 4690K used.

This was my setup after I upgraded from my AMD system:
Asrock H97 Pro4
I5 4690K
4gb DDR3 1333
Gigabyte windforce GTX 650 TI Boost
1tb WD hdd

this newer system performed at least twice as fast as my AMD system did in every task and only cost me about $200 CDN

This year I changed out the ram for 8gb DDR3 1600 and added a Gigabyte windforce GTX 1060 3gb and it plays games very well.

All I am saying is that a newer platform will bring far better performance as well as features not found on old platforms like the 970/8350 combo.

The choice is yours.

 

[Ancalagon44]

I personally wouldn't upgrade to an FX 8350. They just aren't good enough. Considering you would still be looking at $150 for the upgrade, I think you can do better things with your money.

Like the upgrade to Sandy bridge as mentioned, or Ryzen if you want to stay AMD. Pay a little more and go to Ryzen R3 1200.

Yes the 8350 is "cheaper", but it is also a waste. Spend $250 well rather than $150 poorly.

EDIT: Or, as others have mentioned, you can upgrade to other Intel platforms. With Coffee lake and Ryzen being out, I'm sure a lot of people are finally getting rid of the Sandy Bridge, Ivy Bridge and Haswell platforms that they have had for years.

 

[epsilon84]

I personally wouldn't upgrade to an FX 8350. They just aren't good enough. Considering you would still be looking at $150 for the upgrade, I think you can do better things with your money.

Like the upgrade to Sandy bridge as mentioned, or Ryzen if you want to stay AMD. Pay a little more and go to Ryzen R3 1200.

Yes the 8350 is "cheaper", but it is also a waste. Spend $250 well rather than $150 poorly.

EDIT: Or, as others have mentioned, you can upgrade to other Intel platforms. With Coffee lake and Ryzen being out, I'm sure a lot of people are finally getting rid of the Sandy Bridge, Ivy Bridge and Haswell platforms that they have had for years.

This. Repeated for truth. I'm seeing a lot of people selling used SB to Haswell era gear. Frankly the Haswell i7s are still overpriced IMO, at least in Australia, but the SB stuff is pretty damn good value for money, I'm seeing i7 2600Ks for around $AU100 or approx $US 75. 4770Ks sell for about twice that which doesn't make sense as you can almost buy a new Ryzen 1600 for that price.

 

[PingSpike]

Sandy/Ivy bridge are dirt cheap now. You can get non-K i5s for $50 any day of the week on ebay. The motherboard situation is a mess though, you'll have to pick through a poor selection of refurbs and used and they'll cost about as much as they did when they were new.

I thought about about switching to haswell stuff as well, but those cpus are still holding their price at the moment, the motherboard situation is barely any better and its not much of an upgrade over the ivybridge stuff I already own.

I agree basically that you should just keep your powder dry and do a big upgrade. There's some hope that ram prices will dip down soon making the switch less awful price wise.

 

[OTG]

Maybe you guys are just better at ebay than I am, but I'm seeing haswell i5s at ~$150, i7s ~$250, i3s at $120, all with time left on the auction.
At that sort of price, buying used doesn't make any sense, considering how good the new stuff is.
Sure it's possible to find deals, but a $150 upgrade to the 8320 may well be worth it just for the USB, SATA, and core count.
No, it's not a high-end gaming machine, but people seem to have this bizarre belief that anything with lower FPS than a super-overclocked i5 will be intolerable. Even a 4-core Kaveri will play most games without a problem, just stop staring at the FPS counter.

 

[AtenRa]

Wait three months, get a new Ryzen 2

 

[monkeydelmagico]

Vote for brand new i3 8100. It makes all the previous intel quads seem overpriced in comparison. Even used ones don't offer the value and performance to make a strong enough case against this newer chip. $200 should be just enough to get a cheap mobo, single 4gb ram stick, and the cpu. Honestly I'd save up another $50.- to be able to afford a single 8gb with the option of adding another 8gb down the road.

 

[SlowSpyder]

I made a similar jump from a Phenom to an FX and felt it was a worthwhile upgrade. But, there are better options than the FX if you save a few more pennies.

 

[gregoryvg]

Why wouldn't you just get a Ryzen/B350 combo?

AMD Ryzen 3 1200 for $109.99
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113446

MSI B350M PRO-VH PLUS AM4 AMD for $64.99
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813144080

Total: $175

You get all the modern features you want, plus a platform that would be upgrade-able to future Ryzen systems all for about the same as getting old used equipment.

 

[slashy16]

Current Specs:

CPU: AMD Phenom II x4 955 BE 3.2Ghz (watercooled)
MOBO: Gigabyte MA770T UD3P rev 1.0
RAM: 12GB DDR3
HDD: 240GB SSD 1 TB HDD
GFX: EVGA GTX 970 SSC
Sound: Soundblaster Z

I was interested in upgrading my system, a REAL upgrade would be going to Ryzen or Intel 7th/8th gen for sure, but the cost of getting the new mobo, new cpu, new ram, new AIO for cpu etc adds up really quick.

I looked into getting:
AMD-FX8350 BE 8 Core 4.0Ghz , 4.2Ghz Turbo
MSI 970 AM3 gaming motherboard

used on ebay for about $75 each, and a couple misc things like brackets / thermal paste to keep it at $200 or less for everything.

To me, the upgrade would give me:
1) Access to USB 3.0 connectivity
2) Sata 6gb/s instead of current 3gb/s
3) Higher CPU core clock
4) more cores, more threads

I know my CPU is VERY old but I fell I have a decent GPU and my question is, would spending less than $200 be a worthwhile upgrade to get a couple extra FPS and decent performance gains? How much of a performance improvement etc? Just looking for some thoughts and comments. Thanks!

Go on ebay and pickup a Intel 2700k and board. It will be about $200 and will offer much better performance. The AMD FX series is among the worst processors ever made and perform like garbage.

 

[Iron Woode]

Why wouldn't you just get a Ryzen/B350 combo?

AMD Ryzen 3 1200 for $109.99
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113446

MSI B350M PRO-VH PLUS AM4 AMD for $64.99
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813144080

Total: $175

You get all the modern features you want, plus a platform that would be upgrade-able to future Ryzen systems all for about the same as getting old used equipment.

you didn't include ram.

 

[Yuriman]

Tbh I don't see much point in an AiO for newer chips. Power consumption drops nearly every generation. You can get ~4ghz chips with no module penalty and 50-70% higher IPC, in a 65w TDP. Certainly a full platform upgrade is more expensive but you're also getting a lot more.

 

[MajinCry]

There will be little difference in gaming performance. Phenom II and Piledriver have the same (terrible) draw call performance, with xLake CPUs almost being twice as fast at processing them.

 

[epsilon84]

Why wouldn't you just get a Ryzen/B350 combo?

AMD Ryzen 3 1200 for $109.99
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113446

MSI B350M PRO-VH PLUS AM4 AMD for $64.99
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813144080

Total: $175

You get all the modern features you want, plus a platform that would be upgrade-able to future Ryzen systems all for about the same as getting old used equipment.

Good luck running that with no RAM.

I think the OP is going for maximum value for the upgrade dollar here.

An older i7 would also outperform that setup easily, for a lower price. Sure, you don't get the latest IO standards, but at least the OP can re use the DDR3 RAM

 

[epsilon84]

Wait three months, get a new Ryzen 2

Right, because I'm sure we can upgrade to Ryzen 2 on a $200 budget. See above post about RAM. Maybe with the absolute cheapest mobo, and Ryzen 3 chip plus 8GB of the cheapest DDR4, but 4C/4T isn't exactly showing off Ryzen in the best light, and neither is low end DDR4, which frankly makes Ryzen run like turd. Plus 8GB is actually a downgrade on capacity compardd to the OPs 12GB of DDR3 that he currently owns.

To truly shine the Ryzen platform requires DDR4-3200 CL14 which alone costs $150 for 16GB.

As a point of comparison, for $250 AUD (~$190 USD) I recently got myself a Dell SFF with an i7 2600 + 16 GB DDR3 + GTX 1050.

So I get a faster CPU, double the RAM and a half decent GPU that I can actually game on, for the same price as a low end and slow Ryzen combo that has no GPU...

Bang for buck used SB/IB era hardware is the way to go.

 

[gregoryvg]

you didn't include ram.

Yep, I did forget he would need to get some DDR4 RAM, and like the epsilon85 mentioned; it should be fast 3200Mhz RAM. This would potentially push the upgrade out of the OPs budget.

 

[Headfoot]

Forget getting a turd FX series processor. Just save a little longer and get a decent CPU that will last you as long as this one has. If you buy cheap crap now all you're doing is setting yourself up to have to upgrade sooner, and spend the money anyways. Its 100% false economy. If money is the issue, I'd just get a inexpensive Ryzen or the 4-core Coffeelake i3 and call it a day

 

[Klingenberg]

Just bought an i7-970 along with an DX58SO motherboard and 16GB of 1600mhz corsair DDR3 ram for 1000 dkk(around 120 dollars).

It's a beast, both in gaming and streaming, would definitely recommend

Another option is a 2600k + motherboard bundle. They are in the same price range, and according to this, isn't far from the 7700k in gaming performance:
https://www.hardocp.com/article/2017/01/13/kaby_lake_7700k_vs_sandy_bridge_2600k_ipc_review/4

 

[MajinCry]

Just bought an i7-970 along with an DX58SO motherboard and 16GB of 1600mhz corsair DDR3 ram for 1000 dkk(around 120 dollars).

It's a beast, both in gaming and streaming, would definitely recommend

Another option is a 2600k + motherboard bundle. They are in the same price range, and according to this, isn't far from the 7700k in gaming performance:
https://www.hardocp.com/article/2017/01/13/kaby_lake_7700k_vs_sandy_bridge_2600k_ipc_review/4

According to Anandtech, at the same clocks, xLake is 20% faster than Sandybridge. There's a huge difference in emulator performance (>40%) though, as Haswell brought 2x faster cache.