Help me choose upgrades for my pc?

Lunchboxor said:
Thank you very much for your help everybody
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Have you/are you going to try to unlock? Because I'm anxious to know if it will :) Many many many of those 550's have factory locked cores so AMD could provide the market with dual cores using the same chip as the x4. I'm running essentially the same w/my 555 as x4 and I've had it to just under 4GHz. Trying the unlock is a no brainer decision. And isn't hard to do esp when you have a master at it showing you how. Just think of the gpu or ssd you could get with that extra 100!
 
I did unlock the core with the settings posted and now bla crops 2 gets constant 120fps. That was by far the easiest and most effocant thing to do
 
Before any other upgrades, make sure the cpu is stable. If it passes you'll be able to boost your cpu up to gain even more performance.

Here's a plan I would suggest:
Get a better than stock cpu cooler because the test produces heat and x4 will run hotter than x2. Do you already have an aftermarket cooler? This one performs very well for its price point and will fit diff motherboards if you change that later on. What case do you have? Is it well ventilated?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065

Then, with cooling in place, use Prime95 to make sure your cpu is stable.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime95#Use_for_stress_testing

Someone with more exp with Prime95 might have better instructions. The link ^ says run it 10-16 hrs. I think less would be ok. Run the "Blend" method.
http://download.cnet.com/Prime95/3000-2053_4-192895.html

During the test have a temperature monitoring app or 2 open and keep an eye on the temps.
http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html
http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/

Because as x4 the cpu's temp sensor is disabled, first run the test as a dual core and make some notes on temps so you can compare temps while running the test as x4. When testing as x4, I think adding 10C to the mb temp should give you a somewhat accurate x4 cpu temp. Another way to guestimate x4 cpu temp could be: x2 mode > cpu - mb = X . x4 mode > mb + X = cpu temp.

Max cpu temp is 70C. You'd like to see it stay below 65 during the test. But it will take a little guesswork as x4.
http://products.amd.com/en-us/DesktopCPUSideBySide.aspx?id=621&id=560
 
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