Thank you guys for the feedback, now I have another question. My understanding is that I can drop an AM3 socket processor into the AM2 socket on the motherboard and still run the processor (after a BIOS upgrade). Could I drop a processor like this in there and expect better performance?
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002SRQ214?ie=UTF8&ref_=de_a_smtd&showDetailTechData=1#technical-data
I don't have the computer in front of me right now, I will get the motherboard specs later if they are needed.
I built 2 computers back in 2011 april, 2011 I built an AMD based system using most all ASUS parts with a AMD Phenom II X4 975 3.6 GHz cpu, following in August of 2011 I built an Intel system using the i7-2600K cpu....... in Aces High one couldn't tell any difference in playability regardless of which PC was being used.... the AMD had an XFX 6870 1 GB GDDR5 video card, the Intel system was using a XFX 6950 2 GB GDDR5 video card.. both systems had 16 GB of system memory, and both used Crucial m4 128 GB SSD's with Win 7 Ultimate 64 bit installed.....
The intel system cost nearly $1,300+ more to build than the AMD system......
YMMV, but I never really think much about all the benchmark and comparison charts...... I only know Intel is better at video editing while AMD is better at AutoCAD / calculating ....
as far as Aces high goes, I am in agreement with Challenge, that regardless of cpu manufacturer, one should purchase a cpu that has a stock speed of at least 3.0 GHz if not higher
hope this is helpful
TC
