New build possibilities

[TheDiceman]

I am currently running a 5400 x2 @3.1, 3 gigs of RAM and an ATI 3870. After the turn of the year I am wanting a new rig from the ground up so I can keep this one as a backup or secondary LAN rig. As much as I would really like to go with Intel on my next build, I just do not see it as being very cost practical for me since I am hard pressed to spend over $700 or so (budget would have been bigger but my monitor blew out so I have to replace that too) and Going with AMD typically lowers the overall cost for both CPU and motherboard in my experience. DX10 capability is a must (I wish DX11, but prices are rather out of the questions right now for most of those cards and I of course want the best performance for my dollar).

My main question is would an overclocked Phenom II with (for example) a 4890 give me a nice enough real world performance boost compare to the aged rig I currently have since I do not thing an Intel rig would be in my range?

Edit: Just to note, I already have a copy of Win7 on standby so that is not a part of the costs concern for me.

 

[glenskey]

i'm presuming you mean a phenom II x2 (550), if so then you will see a speed boost --the phenom can use an am3 socket, which is much faster than your athlon's am2. the athlon has a larger L1 and L2 cache size, but the phenom has 6mb L3 cache(whereas the athlon has none, so you will see an increase in processing speed)

i am not sure if it will give you the boost in 'real world performance' that you wan't (i can't tell without any more details on the phenom you want), but it will definitely increase.

hope i have helped