Motherboard Upgrade Suggestions?

[travisyang]

p6610f

Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit

I'm looking to upgrade to a new motherboard (current one is default) that will support a 125W cpu (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103923). It must also have 4 x 240 pin slots for ram and support up to 12 gB of ram. I've been looking around for a few days now, and am curious as to what you guys recommend, hopefully it'll help me make up my mind. Thanks in advance! 

[Big_Dave]

Hi Travis,

These are the motherboard specifications for your PC.  It supports up to 16 GB.

You might want to consider one of these AMD AM3 95 watt rated processors.  If you do, then you can still use the same motherboard and software (operating system).

Most that ask for processors upgrades really need a video card upgrade along with a bigger power supply.  If you are into gaming at all, then go for the video card and power supply before buying a bigger processor. The processors on the list are very powerful for most applications.

What applications are you using that require improved performanced?

[travisyang]

Actually in my case, the cpu and (now) motherboard are the last things for me to upgrade. I went ahead and upgraded my gpu, ram, and psu first! The sole reason for getting a new mobo is to support the new 125W cpu and to allow for overclocking. I'm looking through the list of cpus, and I have found some interesting ones, but I want to make it a worthwhile upgrade that will last me for a while. I do a lot of game streaming, which takes a heavy tole on the cpu. 

[Big_Dave]

Hi Travis,

You might want try using Task Manager to monitor the performance of your PC.  Within Task Manager there is a resource monitor function which will give you see performance graphs for each processor, memory and I/O usage.  Start up Task Manager and click on the Performance TAB.  That screen alone will give you CPU and memory usage. Leave Task Manager running and then start your application(s) and run them for 5-10 minutes or until you feel you are at a performance peak period and then quickly switch over to Task Manager and observe the results.  You will find more detail under the Resource Monitor TAB.  You might be surprised at the results.

Post the results for each physical processor.