Old CPU Upgrade

[FuzzyStarburst]

Hi! I'm trying to help a friend upgrade his family's older pc for some light gaming. Currently, he's sitting on 4 GB of RAM, a Radeon HD 6670, and is mostly happy with these things. However, on a few games he's recently looked into, his Athlon II X2 215 is just not cutting it. I was looking at a Phenom II x4 945. 

PC specs can be found here: 

http://h20564.www2.hp.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docId=c01861133
Upgraded to Radeon 6670, 4 GB Ram, and a 500w power supply

I'm still pretty amateur with this and I have never upgraded a CPU. All the motherboard requirements line-up as far as I can see, but I was really hoping to find a second opinion. Is the Phenom II x4 945 compatible with this board? Is this a good upgrade for this system or are there any better cpu choices? 

(If it helps, he was hoping to be able to run Killing Floor 2, even at the lowest possible settings, which his current CPU probably won't.)

[Jlryan]

Hmmm I'm not 100% sure, the Phenom II x4 945 is a 125w TDP, I think the max safe for the M2N68-LA is 95w but don't quote me on that, still looking that bit up for you.

[FuzzyStarburst]

Board's too old, doesn't show up.  

[Jlryan]

Yeah the maximum safe for that board is 95w, if you can find a AM2+ Phenom II x4 that's 95w you'll be good. (ie; NOT black edition parts, as these are most definitely 125w TDP).

[FuzzyStarburst]

Thanks for the help. I'm shopping through, and the Phenom II X4 850 is looking like a better choice. Thanks again!

[iHardware Shelden]

Processor upgrade information

• TDP: 95W

• Motherboard supports the following processor upgrades:

  NOTE: Only socket AM2+ processors are supported with this motherboard.

  • AMD Phenom II Quad-Core

  • AMD Phenom II Triple-Core

  • AMD Phenom Quad-Core (A) 9xxx series (AM2+)

  • AMD Phenom Triple-Core (T) 8xxx series (AM2+)

  • AMD Athlon X4

  • AMD Athlon X3

  • AMD Athlon X2 (AM2+)

   

  Copy paste from website ^^^

   

  I think the  "Only AM2+" is a typo though....

[Jlryan]

No problem!

 

There is a x4 945 with a 95w tdp somewhere, but the performance difference between that and the 850 is very small, so go with whichever is cheapest / easily available.

 

EDIT: infact the 850 has a higher stock clock speed, so that might be better suited for single process applications.