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i recently built my self a new computer and gave my old one to my little brother. this computer is rather outdated so i was thinking of giving it a little upgrade. i will be using the same peripherals, case, psu, ram, and motherboard, etc but want to change the gpu and cpu. the motherboard it has right now is the asus M3A78-EM it is currently paired with a ati radeon hd 3850 512mb gpu and an athlon x2 7750 Black Edition cpu. i want the new cpu to be around $100 and it has to fit the socket which i believe is am2, am2+ and am3. the gpu we are looking at is the AMD R7 260x. the cpu we are looking at is a Athlon II x4 630 quad core. if anyone has suggestions i would love to hear them. but please do not suggest nvidia as they are just not in my price to performance range. thanks!

Motherboard: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. -Support- CPU Support M3A78-EM

CPU we are looking at: Amazon.com : AMD Athlon II X4 630 95W AM3 2MB 2800MHz Retail : Desktop Computer Central Processing Units : Electronics

GPU we are looking at: Amazon.com: Gigabyte R7 260X GDDR5-2GB 2xDVI/HDMI/DP OC Graphics Card (GV-R726XOC-2GD): Electronics

I'd suggest looking on EBay, maybe even craigslist, or google for refurbished/used Phenom II x4 955 BE and try to find a deal. ONLY IF your PSU has the power to handle an overclock.
IF you can get a Black Edition that is overclockable, and your PSU has the Watts, you can then find a cheap aftermarket CPU cooler and some thermal paste, keep that old PC going for some time longer.

Otherwise you look like you're at optimal price performance ratio for your upgrade budget. Make sure to check for online deals websites and all that for a best price. Good luck.

Just for reference all Black Edition from list below,

AMD Phenom? II Processor Model Number and Feature Comparisons


AMD Phenom™ II X4 Processor
Model Number Frequency Total L2 Cache L3 Cache Packaging Thermal Design Power CMOS Technology
980* 3.7 GHz 2MB 6MB socket AM3 125W 45nm SOI
975* 3.6 GHz 2MB 6MB socket AM3 125W 45nm SOI
970* 3.5 GHz 2MB 6MB socket AM3 125W 45nm SOI
965* 3.4 GHz 2MB 6MB socket AM3 125W 45nm SOI
955* 3.2 GHz 2MB 6MB socket AM3 125W 45nm SOI[/QUOTE]

thanks for the suggestion. i just put a bid on for that exact cpu. hopefully i can get it for cheap!