Will these work together?

newbuyer17 · 17 Oct 2012 at 07:20

AMD Bulldozer FX-8 Eight Core 8150 Black Edition 3.60Ghz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail with H20 Cooler
Gigabyte 970A-DS3 AMD 970A (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard ** FREE NEXUIZ GAME **

I want to use my current Phenom II X2 550BE and unlock the cores (which works fine on my current motherboard), then at some point upgrade to the above CPU.

Can I confirm this M/B will be able to unlock the cores and also take the bulldozer and future AMD CPUs?

Is this board future prooofed to all new AM3+ CPUs or does it have something missing?

Thanks

Leeroy123 · 17 Oct 2012 at 09:53

Get yourself an intel chip mate, much better performance. Amd are pish

foster grant · 17 Oct 2012 at 10:26

You could have a look at the new AMD Trinity Processors

newbuyer17 · 17 Oct 2012 at 11:46

I dont think it makes sense financially.

If I stick to AM3+ I can keep my current processor then upgrade in a year or two.

If I go with Intel, then the equivilent boards and CPU are even more. I also want to use virtual machines as well as a bit of gaming, so the extra cores in the AMD should help even though they dont look great for gaming in single thread.

OK, FM2 is an option instead of AM3+, but this still means ditching my current CPU now. Are the ones listed even any more powerful than my current CPU with the 4 cores unlocked?

Cheers

stulid · 17 Oct 2012 at 12:33

Heres the CPU support list of that board - http://www.gigabyte.com/support-downloads/cpu-support-popup.aspx?pid=4122

GIGA-Man · 18 Oct 2012 at 17:43

970A-DS3 has CPU cores unlock feature which should enable you to have more cores on 550BE (please mind it depends on the CPU itself too)

BUT none of 970A-DS3 revisions support 8150 CPU, for example Rev.1.1 (most probably this one is on stock now) http://www.gigabyte.com/support-downloads/cpu-support-popup.aspx?pid=4297

So you can find the list of MBs compatible with AMD FX 8150 at: http://uk.gigabyte.com/support-downloads/cpu-support.aspx

Talking about future proof mobo - for example having in mind different sockets like FM1 and FM2 CPUs and motherboards (FM2 released recently) you are always limited to some extend and such thing cannot be secured

newbuyer17 · 20 Oct 2012 at 20:54

Thanks.
Does that just mean it hasn't been tested or is there something missing.
From what I read the only different between 970 and 990 is the sli crossfire thing, yet 990 stuff seems to work with later cpus?
Or does it just need BIOS update?

GIGA-Man · 23 Oct 2012 at 15:57

970A-DS3 does not support FX 8150 due to hardware limitation, cannot be solved by bios.
But we have another 970 chipset based motherboard which supports it: 970A-D3 Rev.1.4