Which Processor To Upgrade

Basically my son is getting to the point where he wants to start playing more system intensive games than what Facebook and Armor Games has to offer. His computer is composed of parts out of mine that I have upgraded over the last year and a half, and is actually a decent system, minus the processor.

I am torn between upgrading my processor, and giving him the one out of my system, or just upgrading his to something better.

Basic specs on both:

Mine
AMD 1055Tx6 Processor OC'ed to 4ghz
MSI 890FXA-GD70
XFX Radeon HD 6950 X2 In Xfire
16gb Kingston 1600 Hyperx Ram
50gb Revodrive
50gb OCZ Vertex 2 SSD
1TB WD Black HDD
2TB Hitachi Green

His
AMD Sempron 145 (2nd core did unlock, however wasn't stable at high load)
Gigabyte 880 Mobo (not sure exact model off the top of my head but will accept the 1055t without a problem since it was in that mobo at one point)
4gb generic 1333 ram
HIS 6850 Video Card
500gb Seagate HDD

I am back and forth, because most of what I have read doesn't seem like I would gain much going from a 1055t to something like the FX-8150, at least in everyday gaming use, and some light video encoding and conversion.

So there is the question on my mind: Spend $199 and give him my 1055t, or spend 75-100 and upgrade his.

I, personally, wouldn't bother upgrading a six-core Phenom II for any of the FX CPUs. I came up across this choice as well, and found that it just wasn't worth it, neither form a performance, nor a power consumption (or any other) standpoint.

A nice, inexpensive 3 or 4-core Phenom II would make a stellar upgrade for your son's machine. It's the cheaper route, and probably more beneficial in the long run. Make sure to check Microcenter's stock if you have one nearby! Cheap OEM AM3 CPUs come through them sometimes.

upgrade his. Running FX on anything short of a 9xx series chipset isnt worth doing. You are already overclocked at 4ghz so changing out to a 1090t or 1100t wont gain you any real benefit. Get him something along the lines of a 960T if your feeling generous.

Just buy him a 1055T and put it in his system and don't bother taking your apart. That way you are only messing with one system.

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html
This index indicates that your performance would increase quite a bit. (3000+ point difference) It seems that your CPU would surely bottleneck your 16gb of RAM, SSD, and Crossifre 6950s! I would definitely advocate upgrading your CPU.

This way, you'll solve both of your computer's bottlenecks in one fell swoop.

My two cents

If it were me, id buy a 960t, try to unlock it, znd try to push it as far as it will go. If it a) unlocked and b) overclocked better than the 1055, id keep it in my computer, if it did not, I would put it in the boys. But I like to tinker

sempron 140 unlocked is a nice low power quiet HTPC processor IMHO.

You wanna give him some gusto, check the mobo capabilities and go thuban/zosma if possible. Any of the above recommended chips basically. from 960T to 1055-1100T. (personally I found the 1090T to be a cheaper although completely identical otherwise ) chip to the 1100T. I would only choose one or the other if I was going for hardware points on HWBOT.


Note that, my sempron 140 OCed to 305 HTREF on the stock cooler. 315 on LN2. While unlocked.

It all boils down to the boards TDP maximum. A lot of boards skimp on the VRMs and dont even include a heatsink. (because they are not listed as 125-140W TDP capable). Ifhis isnt. Flip it out and get a $50+ board that is. then get him a zosam/thuban chip. Cant go wrong and when it gets long in the tooth, you can always OC it.

Some may say it is long in the tooth now, it has been a round for years, but as time goes on more and more is getting GPU offloaded. As resolutions go up CPUs are less important for gaming. A hexacore will give you more crunching power and video editting but wont effect games, so I agree with the 960T if it a available for $100 ish I dont know.. last time I bought an AMD chip the 555BE C3 was $100.

Best investments once you have a decent setup (and no sempron 140 is not decent) are IO devices and monitor. those last 3-4 generatino upgrades or more if you buy smartly. i have gone through 8 gerneations on my 1680x1050 monitor. My 1920x1200 has seens 6 gens. im too cheap to spend 3 bills to get 3x 1080p monitors even though I can use that many desktops, because

a) I like 16:10 or even 4:3 for desktop, and b) 1080P is low resoltuion really, I just cant afford higher for LCD (I stepped DOWN in res to go LCD 4-5 years ago and STILL am waiting for affordable 2560x1600 monitors. (we are getting closer FINALLY though)

Thanks for all the responses so far. As far as the work swapping processors around, I enjoy the opportunity to work on my gear, so I don't mind the work. Will have to look a little more into pricing on some of the recommendations here.