A good replacement for my damaged AMD Phenom II X4 965 CPU?

Thanks to the crappy stock fan that came with the CPU (and my own incompetence), it was very easy to slip up and bend a few pins on the CPU while I was trying to clean the fan. One thing lead to another and one pin fell off (kinda easily actually). I was also under a lot of stress that day, so I think it might've been that more than the stock fan's fault. Anyways, I'm in a weird spot. The CPU still works but performance in games is worse than before, so I'm thinking I need to replace the CPU soon. I was looking for the sites to buy a replacement 965 but it's discontinued and not being sold new anymore on newegg or amazon. There's only the used ones on Amazon, but they aren't cheap (with the lowest being $105).

Do you think it's more worth my money to:

1. Get an upgrade CPU?

or

2. Get a used replacement of the same one I already have (AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE) ?

If it's 1, what's a good (AMD) upgrade CPU that's $120 or below?

I've been looking at this: AMD FX-4300 Vishera 3.8GHz (4.0GHz) Socket AM3+ 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor FD4300WMHKBOX - Newegg.com but I don't know how it compares to my current one.

DocBrown said:

Get the AMD FX- type CPU. They are the latest AMD versions. This should fit your MB socket with no problem.

I assumed that was the case but this site: AnandTech | Bench - CPU confused the hell out of me. Why does it say it's less powerful (it's on the page I linked)? I thought that was a reliable website....

I would say the FX-6100 but I am biased I have been able to overclock it passed 4.5 and it fits the price range. I also have the exact same motherboard as you, so I could always help you out with any questions. I have come to know this motherboard pretty well. Which revision is yours? Mines is 1.2 with bios f6.

Twario said:

crankypenguin said:

I would say the FX-6100 but I am biased I have been able to overclock it passed 4.5 and it fits the price range. I also have the exact same motherboard as you, so I could always help you out with any questions. I have come to know it pretty well. Which revision is yours? Mines is 1.2 with bios f6.

Hmm, that sounds nice, the price is good. Do you think that would pair up nicely with a AMD 6870 GPU perhaps? How does it compare to the 965 CPU I already have?

As for the mobo the manual says says Rev.1201, but not sure what the bios# is right now....

In 2009 I built a system that had AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black edition with a MSI 790fx-gd70, mushkin 2x2gb ddr3 (996601) and a XFX GS250XYDFC GeForce GTS 250 512MB Core Edition 256-bit GDDR3, but it did not have a SSD back then. I would rate that system from 2009, to my current...hmmm on a scale from 1 to 10, the AMD Phenom II X4 965 was a 6 and my current is an 8. So yeah a BIG improvement. Sadly I have never used a AMD GPU so I can't help you there, I use a GTX 660OC by Gigabyte. A small free program called CPU-Z can tell you the bios version and a lot of other useful info about the system. I am glad to have found someone with my mobo:)