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I'd go with the Asus board JAE linked. It'll let you use your existing processor and inexpensive DDR3 RAM, and will probably work with the Piledriver core FX CPUs when they come out in a few months, so you'd have a future upgrade path to more cores if you end up needing them.

(CPU support link in JAE's post is broken; apparently you can't link directly to the CPU support lists, you need to navigate to them. But the 255 is definitely supported.)

JustAnEngineer wrote:

If you were going to get a new motherboard and a new processor, the LGA1155 options would have offered more bang for the buck

mmmm, at $80, the x4 965 BE might just take my recommendation over the Pentium G850 at the moment, even if it is a "legacy" processor. While they do offer roughly the same gaming performance due to Intels superior IPC, you can't argue against the Phenom's 4 cores. Granted, the x4 965 is at the top of the AMD x4 group while the G850 is in the middle of Intel's dual-core lineup...

Since Bulldozer was a step backward in IPC, it seems like Piledriver might just catch back up to Phenom. Time will tell whether or not they offer new Piledriver FX-series CPUs with the same level of performance as the x4 965 at the same price. (Bulldozer was certainly overpriced for its performance) It seems like they're trying to clear out Phenom inventory in preparation for Piledriver, which would mean the two processor families may not have to do battle for very long? It certainly woudln't hurt to wait and see what Piledriver lauches at, but since Vrock is in the AMD camp for cheap...I might be tempted to grab a cheap x4 965 after we see what Piledriver FX has to offer and ride that out if I were him.

JustAnEngineer wrote:

If you were going to get a new motherboard and a new processor, the LGA1155 options would have offered more bang for the buck.

For $75? All I really needed/wanted was more RAM, and the board was a necessary upgrade so I could get it. At some point I'm sure I'll want a new processor, but eh. I don't game much anymore.

Vrock wrote:

I went for cheap, cheap!

8gb of Crucial RAM--$35 shipped

ASUS M5A78L-M LX PLUS (open box)--$39.99 shipped

Total cost: $75.98. Ha!

I know I cheaped out on the mobo and I am taking a risk with an open box part, but I'm feeling lucky, punk.

Kudos! for keeping more money at home, and thus keeping more options open for the future, while getting a lot for a little right now. If you find that it ever feels slow anytime soon, try to snag one of those x4 965 or some such. If you want to go very heavy multitasker, an x6 is an option too. I am able to peg 3 cores on my x6 to full load on chess analysis, while causually streaming a video, surfing , etc. all at once, all with no slowness, no stutters.