What motherboard would go well with a Phenom II x3 720

[mrfun1981]

Yes, the deed is done. Went for the 720X3 + Biostar board and 4GB Corsair PC8500.

While deciding whether to go X3 or save money with an X2 I remembered that years ago I'd spent something around £300 on a 486DX33 mboard + 1MB RAM ... and later spent £320 on 16MB of 2nd hand RAM!

Well lets hope we have made the correct choice & spend them few extra £'s on it now. Not sure i would have spent the money & got 4GB DDR2 i think 2GB DDR2 would be enough

My board arrived today just waiting for my CPU & PSU to come as iv ordered them from a diff shop. Then i can set up my new rig, im considering getting a new CPU cooler in a few weeks, are you going to get one or make do with what comes with it?

 

[deshepherd]

Well lets hope we have made the correct choice & spend them few extra £'s on it now. Not sure i would have spent the money & got 4GB DDR2 i think 2GB DDR2 would be enough

Yes ... I suspect 2GB would do me fine for now but with current prices (£40 for 4GB PC8500) I decide that it was worth the extra! Plus, I'm sure that in a couple of years time MS will have ensured that we really need 8GB!

 

[Frozen_Texas]

in regards to unlocking 4-th core on X3 CPU i have read here: http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php/topic,180.0.html that it's possible on gigabyte mobos when using special bioses, but as far as i know you need to have some special production batches of the cpu, like "0904" or others. you need to dig more about it, it' worth imo

 

[deshepherd]

in regards to unlocking 4-th core on X3 CPU i have read here: http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php/topic,180.0.html that it's possible on gigabyte mobos when using special bioses, but as far as i know you need to have some special production batches of the cpu, like "0904" or others. you need to dig more about it, it' worth imo

I think you need to be able to activate ACC in the BIOS - this was added for Phenoms to aid overclocking etc and allows some internal parameters in the chip to be tuned etc (sounds like some "experimental" logic that AMD didn't want enabled by default in case it didn't work as expected) ... PhenonII's are meant to have this enabled by default so ACC option isn't needed in BIOS however some mb manufacturers failed to remove it. I suspect that when enabled it changes some internal setting in a way that clears the "core 4 disabled" bit!

There appear to be 2 results of this

1) AMD are asking mb manufacturers to remove ability to enable ACC when PhII is installed
2) Mb manufacturers that previously taken it out are putting it back in because people are choosing mb's on basis of this feature!

Anyway, my 720X3 arrived yesterday .... and its an 0904 so once I get it installed etc I'll have a go at the ACC trick to see what happens

 

[Frozen_Texas]

yes , once you check it tell us the results

 

[Tute]

I've just ordered a Gigabyte GA-MA770-UD3, albeit it's to go with the 7750BE, which isn't tri-core but is Phenom-based.

Will let you know if it's any good.

 

[deshepherd]

yes , once you check it tell us the results

Got the chip installed.

Good news: using ACC it posts as having 4 cores
Bad news: Didn't boot windows - at 2.8GHz failed miserably, at 1.6GHz got as far as being able to get task manager open to see 4 CPU load graphs before it crashed

Thus conclusion is that my 4th core is (probably) non-functional. (even though it is a 0904 batch one)

 

[mrfun1981]

Got the chip installed.

Good news: using ACC it posts as having 4 cores
Bad news: Didn't boot windows - at 2.8GHz failed miserably, at 1.6GHz got as far as being able to get task manager open to see 4 CPU load graphs before it crashed

Thus conclusion is that my 4th core is (probably) non-functional. (even though it is a 0904 batch one)

At least you got it going a bit better than me, only had one attempt with it.

It wont even post the bios, & being a pratt i didnt know at the time how to fix the problem so i had to call a mate to help me out & he tell me how to to move a jumper on the motherboard to reset the bios. While all this going on i had my partner giving me evil looks as she was thinking i had spent over £300 on parts & ****d it up in the 1st day.

The funny thing iv been reading on another forum (not sure if i can post the link) That someone with the same board + cpu as us, been getting a strange problem. He is using a 8800GT graphics card & the computer wont post at all but if he takes it out & use the on board graphics the PC boots up & is stable with 4 cores running.

Im using a 9800GT which is more or less the same type of card, so im not sure yet if mine would work if i take the graphics card out & use on board just to test it. Im in know rush to test this method out as i want to get playing some games at the mo + my parnter would kill me if she see's me start messing inside my case again.


What graphics card are you using at the moment?

 

[deshepherd]

At least you got it going a bit better than me, only had one attempt with it.

It wont even post the bios, & being a pratt i didnt know at the time how to fix the problem so i had to call a mate to help me out & he tell me how to to move a jumper on the motherboard to reset the bios. While all this going on i had my partner giving me evil looks as she was thinking i had spent over £300 on parts & ****d it up in the 1st day.

The funny thing iv been reading on another forum (not sure if i can post the link) That someone with the same board + cpu as us, been getting a strange problem. He is using a 8800GT graphics card & the computer wont post at all but if he takes it out & use the on board graphics the PC boots up & is stable with 4 cores running.

Im using a 9800GT which is more or less the same type of card, so im not sure yet if mine would work if i take the graphics card out & use on board just to test it. Im in know rush to test this method out as i want to get playing some games at the mo + my parnter would kill me if she see's me start messing inside my case again.


What graphics card are you using at the moment?

I've got a 3850 ... n.b. I initially started booting the board only (no HDD attached) via the internal graphics support.

N.b. when you say "wouldn't POST" do you mean nothing shows up on the screen ... I found on first power up my screen (Samsung LCD) didn't detect the DVI signal but after pressing the reset button on the mb it detected it. Also, with no HDDs to detect the BIOS tended to get past the "press DEL to enter BIOS" section before the screen decided to show anything.

BIOS that was initially on board would post with the 720 but didn't "recognise" it ... however using the BIOS inbuilt update util I was able to flash the latest version which was reports it correctly.

Usual sanity check on gfx card ... make sure the power connector to the gfx card is connected ... I've forgotten that in the past! Not sure if its relevant but I also connected up the molex socket on the board (auxilliary graphics power) though I think that may not be needed unless running crossfire.

Hope you get it working soon. Other issues I discovered after this

- BIOS was recognising the RAM as PC6400 ... had to manually set all the timings to get PC8500 5-5-5-15-22 timings and up the voltage to 2.1V as well

- BIOS sets HT and NB freq's to 1.6GHz .... managed to increase the NB to 2GHz (whic I think is default for PhII) but haven't managed to get it to increase the HT speed.

Multiplier overclocking went smoothly ... appear to get 3.3.MHz with stock cooler/voltage .

 

[dagwoood]

Usual sanity check on gfx card ... make sure the power connector to the gfx card is connected ... I've forgotten that in the past! Not sure if its relevant but I also connected up the molex socket on the board (auxilliary graphics power) though I think that may not be needed unless running crossfire.

deshepherd, I think mrfun1981 had problems when trying to run all 4 cores on his 720, so not a typical graphics card problem per se.

- BIOS sets HT and NB freq's to 1.6GHz .... managed to increase the NB to 2GHz (whic I think is default for PhII) but haven't managed to get it to increase the HT speed.

I can't find anything on AMD's site as to what HT/NB speed the X3 720 should run at, although from reviews I've read it should be 2.0GT/s. Can anyone confirm it should be set to this speed because, like deshepherd, mine's defaulting to 1.6GT/s?

 

[mrfun1981]

deshepherd, I think mrfun1981 had problems when trying to run all 4 cores on his 720, so not a typical graphics card problem per se.QUOTE]


Yeah you are right,

Iv since tried using a 7600gs & on board graphics to see if the 4th core will work but every time the PC refuse's to boot up & i have to reset the jumpers on the motherboard.

Guess im not one of the lucky ones

 

[deshepherd]

dagwoood: I think mrfun1981 had problems when trying to run all 4 cores on his 720, so not a typical graphics card problem per se.


Yeah you are right,

Iv since tried using a 7600gs & on board graphics to see if the 4th core will work but every time the PC refuse's to boot up & i have to reset the jumpers on the motherboard.

Guess im not one of the lucky ones

Sorry ... misunderstood initial posting ... thought the problem was with getting 720 to post at all and not just when trying the to enable the 4th core. Anyway, looks like the 4th core is genuinely broken on many 720's ... from comments I'd read elsewhere I'd been hoping that it was more of a feature to cope with the power spec (i.e. AMD either dropping 1 core or 2MB L3 from fully functional die simply because 4 cores + 6MB L3 would exceed TDP rating)

Anyway, bit more experimenting ... bumped NB voltage to 1.3V (n.b. in BIOS its the "chipset voltage" option) and seems to be stable at 2.4GHz. Also with core voltage at 1.4V was managing 3.4GHz - but temps higher (~62C). 3.5GHz not stable. So backing off to 3.3GHz at stock voltage (1.325V) which runs ~55C. Remember I'm using stock cooler and now in a closed case that is not optimised for cooling! Current performance is likely to more than adequate for me at the moment - plus 3Dmark scores while increasing CPU speed clearly indicate my 3850 is now a bottleneck!

 

[mrfun1981]

Glad to see you have OC yours with a stock cooler, did you go in to the bios to change the setting or did you use the windows software that come with the motherboard to OC with?

The CD that come with the motherboard, can your PC read it ok?

1st time i used it i could read some of the stuff from the CD but not all of it. Iv had to try install the drives again because of a major graphics card problem

see this thread for details http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17987910

Iv tried using the CD again in my PC & it cant read it, iv tried in a 2nd PC iv got & it still cant read the CD, lucky with having a 2nd PC here i was able to download most of the driver but if you go to the Biostar web site they have only got the drivers to download but none of the OC software that comes with the board.

http://www.biostar-usa.com/app/en-us/mb/driver.php?S_ID=377

I wonder if i contact the shop got it from they can sort me out a new CD with the software on?


At the moment i think the speed now will be good enough but i do want to try & OC at some point just to get that extra bit better performance out of it

 

[JamesM]

Whats the performance of these like compared to say, an 8400 at 4GHz?

Possibly thinking of swapping back to AMD and wondered if the extra core would be a benefit but obviously don't want to find out that the E8400 runs better overall.

 

[deshepherd]

Glad to see you have OC yours with a stock cooler, did you go in to the bios to change the setting or did you use the windows software that come with the motherboard to OC with?

The CD that come with the motherboard, can your PC read it ok?

Could read the CD ok but not used the software on it ... tried using the AMD Overdrive utility to change settings but that just seems to freeze the system!

For now using BIOS only. May have a look at AOD again by downloading from AMD web site in case there's an updated version that's fixed something.

Iv tried using the CD again in my PC & it cant read it, iv tried in a 2nd PC iv got & it still cant read the CD, lucky with having a 2nd PC here i was able to download most of the driver but if you go to the Biostar web site they have only got the drivers to download but none of the OC software that comes with the board.

I downloaded stuff (eg BIOS) from the "worldwide" section accessed via www.biostar.com.tw.

Also, as mentioned above, I believe the AMD overdrive util is on their website.

At the moment i think the speed now will be good enough but i do want to try & OC at some point just to get that extra bit better performance out of it

Its simple to do from the BIOS ... multipler is on the T-series menu (think thats the name) then under the CPU FID/VID sub menu - need to switch to manual overclocking to make this accessible

 

[littlepuppy]

Whats the performance of these like compared to say, an 8400 at 4GHz?

Possibly thinking of swapping back to AMD and wondered if the extra core would be a benefit but obviously don't want to find out that the E8400 runs better overall.

I moved from intel to AMD similar spec to you, I would say its very similar but its nice to be back with AMD.... Its also nice to have a change

 

[mrfun1981]

Could read the CD ok but not used the software on it ... tried using the AMD Overdrive utility to change settings but that just seems to freeze the system!

For now using BIOS only. May have a look at AOD again by downloading from AMD web site in case there's an updated version that's fixed something.

I downloaded stuff (eg BIOS) from the "worldwide" section accessed via www.biostar.com.tw.

Also, as mentioned above, I believe the AMD overdrive util is on their website.

Its simple to do from the BIOS ... multipler is on the T-series menu (think thats the name) then under the CPU FID/VID sub menu - need to switch to manual overclocking to make this accessible

AMD overdrive is not on the biostar website to download but iv found it else where, there is other software on the cd that is not on the biostar website - software to update the bios via window's, Biostar's own OC software, which looks easier to use then AMD's software. some monitoring soft ware which i even got the cd to read.

iv email the place i got it from & they will RMA the CD only & sort out a new one for me

Iv found another small problem, the PC dont always like loading some games they crash during boot up & i have to do a hard reset. Iv got the latest drivers for my graphics card & chipset etc.

But one thing iv noticed, not sure if its connected is that the -12 volt on the motherboard is only running at -7.4 volt iv used 3 different programmes to get the running. I dont know much about the volt but am i right in thinking it should be running closer to -12 volt? All the other volt's are runnning around what they should be on the readings.

Could you do me a favour & take a reading of your volt's on your motherboard so i know if it s a problem with mine or if the board is meant to be running at that

Cheers

 

[deshepherd]

AMD overdrive is not on the biostar website to download but iv found it else where, there is other software on the cd that is not on the biostar website - software to update the bios via window's, Biostar's own OC software, which looks easier to use then AMD's software. some monitoring soft ware which i even got the cd to read.

Think there is a version of overdrive in the chipset drivers on the CD (which contains the gfx drivers etc as well). Anyway, the one I got that way was something like v2.0.14. Just been to game.amd.com and found latest version there is 2.1.6 ... installed this and I can now successfully adjust settings inside windows! Plus this has also allowed me to get a 2.0 HTLink speed!

 

[deshepherd]

Iv found another small problem, the PC dont always like loading some games they crash during boot up & i have to do a hard reset. Iv got the latest drivers for my graphics card & chipset etc.

But one thing iv noticed, not sure if its connected is that the -12 volt on the motherboard is only running at -7.4 volt iv used 3 different programmes to get the running. I dont know much about the volt but am i right in thinking it should be running closer to -12 volt? All the other volt's are runnning around what they should be on the readings.

Didn't reply earlier as hadn't seen anything reporting a -12V figure but just loaded speedfan and see that that reports it ... and mine is showing -12V at -7.34V ... others are about right.

 

[mrfun1981]

Didn't reply earlier as hadn't seen anything reporting a -12V figure but just loaded speedfan and see that that reports it ... and mine is showing -12V at -7.34V ... others are about right.

Thanks for that,

At least you are getting roughly the same as me. Which makes me a bit happier knowing that there is nothing wrong with my voltages.

Im guessing it might just be a small issue of the way the sensor reports the voltages on the -12