125W CPU in 90W mobo - What's the worst that could happen?

[emchrism]

Hi all,

A recent build has resulted in my ending up with a 125W CPU, and a 90W mobo (facepalm). Hence, when I boot the machine I am greeted with a bleep and an error about the CPU being an unsupported CPU. You can bypass this error by pressing F1 and the machine does boot.

So I was wondering, what's the worst that could happen?

Will it simple be a case that the CPU can't get as much juice as it would like? Or will it be the opposite, the CPU will draw more power than the Mobo can handle and flames ensue?

I havn't and don't plan to overclock the machine. I'm open to underclocking it if that may be a way to workaround the problem?

Many thanks

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Components in question
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Mobo: Asus M4A78LT-M 760G (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard [90-MIBBJ0-G0EAY0WZ]
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-424-AS

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail [HDZ955FBGMBOX]
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-244-AM&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=1943

 

[Blue160]

Worst that can happen is it will overload the power circuitry on your motherboard and eventually provide you with some pretty smoke and a smell of burning electronics.

 

[Orcvader]

Looking at the Asus site it looks like the board can support it fine, but you need to update it to the latest BIOS in order for the 955 to work.

As for the powering... not really sure on this... if it's supported in the BIOS then surely Asus has already tested it and is fine...?

 

[Brookert]

Looking at the Asus site it looks like the board can support it fine, but you need to update it to the latest BIOS in order for the 955 to work.

As for the powering... not really sure on this... if it's supported in the BIOS then surely Asus has already tested it and is fine...?

I suppose if your really worried it might fry the board, underclock it

 

[Blue160]

As for the powering... not really sure on this... if it's supported in the BIOS then surely Asus has already tested it and is fine...?

If the chip is officially supported in the latest bios I suppose it must he fine. You should be covered by the warranty if it borks your board as well.

 

[emchrism]

Thank you for your responses.

Apologies, the board I have is the LE edition, not as per the title in the link posted. All of which has left me somewhat confused as that's what I thought I had ordered, anyway.

A good thought to actually RTFM, so upon checking ASUS site, it doesn't list 125W CPUs as supported - http://uk.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_AM3/M4A78LTM_LE/

I guess at this stage, of the two, ordering a new mobo is the cheaper option.

 

[Blue160]

I guess at this stage, of the two, ordering a new mobo is the cheaper option.

.

Definitely. Sell the one you've got and it shouldn't be massively expensive. If something were to go wrong with an unsupported CPU I wouldn't have thought you'd have much luck with a warranty claim.

 

[Emlyn_Dewar]

COuld add some better cooling to the mosfets and try and get the volts/clock down on the CPU to take it to 90w, but where is the fun in that?
Get a different motherboard!