JDMfanatic

If you would like the Storm Scout buy from Manyak in the Marketplace for 80$ USD Shipped Brand New in Box. I bought one, pretty good deal, better than Newegg's deal.

And yes I would definitely recommend an AMD Black Edition processor and a Gigabyte or Asus board! A lot of choices have been given, but I'd go with:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103649
Phenom II X3 720
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128398
Gigabyte GA-MA790GPT-UD3H AMX Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231276
G. Skill Ripjaw 2x 2GB Ram
http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?p=FAN...4b46a34fd2ce00
CM Hyper 212+ CPU Cooler
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136358
WD 32MB Cache 500MB HDD
+ CM Storm Scout from Manyak for 80$

Total Price of Huge Upgrades: Price of this upgrade will only be about 495~ before taxes and shipping and rebates& such

I would definitely go ahead and do the upgrade to DDR3 Ram...

Tig.

Oh. Alright. So, if I get the Gigabyte motherboard, I'll have to get DDR3 RAM because its standards are DDR3.. right?
If the answer is yes, what are some good DDR3 sticks of RAM? I need at least 2GB.

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Craiga35

If you want to keep your memory you can go with this
gigabyte board. It is basically the same as the other one except it uses DDR2 instead of DDR3 which means you can use your old RAM.

EDIT: Also the new one I picked out doesn't have an integrated graphics chip, nbut that really won' matter because you're using your 9600Gt anyway.

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hermitmaster

You need to buy DDR3 ram in place of your current DDR2 ram because the socket is different. If I were you I would go with something similar to the following:
AMD Athlon II x4 620
ASUS M4A79XTD EVO
G. Skill DDR3 1600
It can all be had for under $300.

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JDMfanatic

If he's on the web and playing source games, the Phenom II 720 X3 BE will be way better than him than that Athlon quad... The Phenom will be able to overclock loads better and Quads aren't way better for gaming.

M3T4LM4N222

I'd say go with the Athlon II X4 620 along with a Gigabyte motherboard (The ones suggested above) then trying to unlock the L3 Cache on the Athlon II X4 using ACC because then it technically becomes a Phenom II that is slightly downclocked. If you don't want to pay the money to buy DDR3, then go with a AM3/AM2+ board, because they support DDR2.

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hermitmaster

It seems that the locked Phenom II 620s are all but gone, mine is an actual Propus core.

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Idiot

Go with the Phenom II since there is guaranteed functional L3 cache.

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Craiga35

I forgot about the phenom II x3 720. I would go with that, its a happy medium. It will be better at gaming than both of them and still has 3 cores, possibly a 4th if you're lucky with acc.

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Tig.

What is the difference between the ASUS motherboard and the Gigabyte motherboard? Both of them seem the same.

I would rather get the other motherboard just in case my 9600GT dies on me because I don't have any extra graphics cards. Thanks for the other option though.


Thanks for all the opinions! I'm still stuck in between. Get a Phenom II or an Athlon II. Also stuck between getting ASUS Motherboard or Gigabyte Motherboard. Please help me decide!

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