Vista - Need some advice on this guys

Finally brought my vista experience scores up.

Memory - 5.9
Graphics - 5.9
Gaming Graphics - 5.9
Hard Disk - 5.9
CPU - 4.7

... so we can all plainly see where the bottleneck is .

Using an HP Compaq SR5113WM
Asus M2N68-LA - Ivy GL-6

GPU -
XFX 9600GT 512MB DDR3
650W Antec PSU

Memory -
4 GB DDR2 PC2-5300 RAM (system picks up 3.5 GB)

Hard Drive -
320 GB W.D.

Processor -
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3600+ (the mediocre part of it all)

My question would be if anybody has any recommendations
for upgrading the cpu?

Actually I play FEAR and the expansion packs on Max. settings for about everything.
Usually have V-sync on with triple buffering which helps ...
and disabled Superfetch in both the registry and services. Everything looks
great and plays just as well yet i feel that i'm bottlenecked by the processor.

Would a AMD 64 X2 6000+ or the 6400+ work with this motherboard in my specs.?
Would I have to flash the bios for it to recognize one of these cpu's or would
they be automatically supported?

Been looking around alot on this and i know nothing about flashing a bios
so basically i'm looking for a cheap upgrade over this middle end cpu
that i have now that would be simple to do without jumping through alot
of hoops.
I'm not looking for one to max out my score either but hopefully to bring it
to at least a 5.0 anyway.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I wanted to overclock the 3600+ and at least get it to 2.5 GH but
these retarded bios' HP likes to use won't let you change hardly anything.

according to these specs, you have the fastest cpu for that motherboard.

Motherboard Specifications, M2N68-LA (Ivy)*

Thanks for the info but i'm not seeing on there where it says that
the 3600+ is the fastest cpu for that motherboard.

I do see however that it says that the Mobo supports the following -
Athlon 64 X2 with Dual Core technology.

I wonder if that means that all AMD 64 X2 processors would be supported.

if so......... a 5000+ is about $60 and the 3ghz x2 is about $80ish...... but the 5000+ will give you a 5.9 score

The magic of Google...


From: CPU support / Asus M2N68-LA (Narra3) motherboard

well there is your answer anyway its no more than $100 to upgrade to a good one