I wish to upgrade my CPU to an AMD FX series


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My motherboard fully supports the new FX series from AMD (8 core) my question is which one would be good for me? I'm currently running a phenom II X4 955.  I have a friend advising me that these CPU tend to run really hot, and I might want to switch to water cooled, which my case also fully supports. I need input on this, most likely will be purchased from newegg or amazon, whomever happens to be cheaper! My purchase will most likely be in a few months, depending on how well work goes :)

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My daughter's system is an FX8350, and it does get pretty toasty, not only the CPU but the chipset itself too.. not absurdly hot though. Just using the stock cooler, managed to overclock it safely by 500MHz, any higher would definitely need a better cooler, but as it is it's in the safe zone. Her chassis has plenty of fans built in already and lots of breathing room though, water cooling for her particular setup would have been overkill. If I were to try and shoot for 5GHz out of it (supposedly doable with good cooling) then I'd definitely consider water. That aside, it's an excellent processor for the price, zero regrets.

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What PSU do you have? Those things consume a pretty serious amount of power.

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What PSU do you have? Those things consume a pretty serious amount of power.

Thermal Take 1000 watt

My GF just got an 8350 and it's fast.  I'm on a 2600k @4.0 GHz and the AMD CPU doesn't feel sluggish one bit.

 

Here's some benchmarks comparing the CPU you have, to the 8350.

 

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/88?vs=697

 

If you can find one on sale, it's worth it.

I just looked @ newegg and see that the 8350 is listed for $179 and the 8370 is $189, is there much performance difference between the 2?

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Seems like you have all you need then. The FX8350 is based on a slightly older core stepping which apparently doesn't OC quite as well so the 8370 is the better choice if you're going to overclock but there's no real difference between the 2 at normal clock speed.

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Seems like you have all you need then. The FX8350 is based on a slightly older core stepping which apparently doesn't OC quite as well so the 8370 is the better choice if you're going to overclock but there's no real difference between the 2 at normal clock speed.

Cool, just for the S&G I'll most likely grab the 8370 and OC it, it's a black edition so why not! ;)

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For an extra 10 bucks I'd say that's a pretty sound choice. Hope you enjoy :)

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Thermal Take 1000 watt

I just looked @ newegg and see that the 8350 is listed for $179 and the 8370 is $189, is there much performance difference between the 2?

 

 8370 is around 2 years newer.  I think the performance is just about the same as they're at the same clock speed BUT the 8370 has a higher boost clock, albeit just slightly.  Do you want to save a few bucks or have a CPU that might be able to clock higher?  And make sure you get a good cooling fan.  My GF's 8350 does about 60-65 C at 100% CPU usage with no overclock.

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Would there be any advantage to upgrading to the 220 watt CPU? vs the 125 watt?

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I hear the 220 watt units are far easier to overclock, but not all motherboards have the capability to handle the extra power draw, as yours is an older board I have my doubts that you'd get full benefit from it. What model motherboard is it that you have?

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I hear the 220 watt units are far easier to overclock, but not all motherboards have the capability to handle the extra power draw, as yours is an older board I have my doubts that you'd get full benefit from it. What model motherboard is it that you have?

Biostar TA970

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Unfortunately it doesn't appear as if your board is listed as being compatible with anything newer than the FX 8xxx series. It might pick the 9xxx series CPU's up but you'd get no guarantee of stable power supply so I'd advise against using the 220w CPUs with that board.

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The FX 8370 is a 125 watt part, I can't see why the board wouldn't pick it up.

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  • 4 weeks later...

So I received my new CPU (8370) yesterday and got my arctic silver today, got it installed and running with no issues!

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