Best yet available processor for Socket

I had been an AMD Athlon II X3 455, which, however, with games now often became a brake.
The Phenom II fits on the same socket (AM3), so that was the logical upgrade option.
But you have to note that motherboards have a TDP of 125W for bringing the Phenom II, Athlon II during requires only 95W power.
If you start the Phenom II on a 95W motherboard, the computer boots up, but the CPU brings only 800MHz and can not be high overclock.
With an installed Windows 7 the conversion is complete without a hitch, in Windows XP, I had keyboard and mouse connect to an adapter on PS2 to install the drivers, as USB did not work right, but this is bearable.
In a fresh installation that only takes place after the conversion, there are no problems.

The installation with the supplied boxed cooler (requires no additional thermal paste!) Was smooth, the performance has attracted noticeably.
Comparing the frame rate in games such as CS: GO I had about 50-90 frames per second (fps), afterwards with the same graphics card (Radeon 6770) 130-200 fps. So an increase of more than 100%.
In Starcraft 2, the difference is also exhilarating, even with large 4v4 battles now jerky nothing more.

Conclusion: the 90 have paid off and I would advise anyone with an Athlon II and a motherboard that already has 125W TDP (googling!) To advise switching to this processor.