am2 upgrade help

[rmuir]

Hey

2 years ago my bro got a pc for uni and he is now after an upgrade, he has a am2 4600 x2 on an asus mobo with 2gb ddr2.

He has a max of about 150 quid to spend ( the less the better ), whats the best he can get for his cash?

Is Phenom the route to go or a cheapie core2?

All help appreciated!!

 

[gareth170]

phenom 9850 or 9950 if his motherboard can support them with a bios update. or even get a 6000+ or 6400+

 

[rmuir]

forgive my ignorance... but just how easy is a bios update, i'm fairly confident doing whatever is required, but i know a mate who had a stressfull few hours borking up an update on an asus mobo!

Is a quad phenom gonna blow an x2 out of the water?

cheers

 

[Monkeynut]

forgive my ignorance... but just how easy is a bios update, i'm fairly confident doing whatever is required, but i know a mate who had a stressfull few hours borking up an update on an asus mobo!

Is a quad phenom gonna blow an x2 out of the water?

cheers

The Phenom is faster clock-for-clock and will speed away in quad-core aware apps.

Modern BIOS updates are usually a memory stick and an option in the BIOS to start flashing

Make sure though that it's a compatible board.

 

[PwnDirect]

which mobo is it exactly

as only am2 + support most of the phenoms the lower wattage models may be compatiable with a bios update.

If its not compaitable the best step would be to Oc his current cpu & add 2g of ram & wait for the new amd duel cores Coming soon

Also whats he use the comp for?

 

[gareth170]

just remember not all am2 motherboards have an bios update to support phenoms. also has it's a am2 motherboard he won't get the full performance because am2 motherboards only run at HT 1.0.

so thats why i said even getting a 6000+ or 6400+ would be a great performance increase.

 

[Trunks9486]

If he is just gaming then a graphics card will provide a fine boost in performance.

 

[rmuir]

Not just for gaming... running cad/engineering related stuff as well as gaming.. cannot for the life of me remember what board it was i put in there.

will get him to check. Would seem that an upgrade is fairly pointless tbh

 

[mattheman]

Hey

2 years ago my bro got a pc for uni and he is now after an upgrade, he has a am2 4600 x2 on an asus mobo with 2gb ddr2.

He has a max of about 150 quid to spend ( the less the better ), whats the best he can get for his cash?

Is Phenom the route to go or a cheapie core2?

All help appreciated!!

dont spend any money keep it as it is.

 

[braveheart]

if you use AM2 mobo then update BIOS for support AM2+ CPU (if it support) then it go backward as AM2 -- AM2/AM2+ and AM3 are using same 940 pins but different speed also it still at backward.

6400+ AM2 is 3.2Ghz that what I used - seem nice speed and I wait for new AM3 with new 32nm die core due in 2010 or later so Im save up some of my quids first. So buy either 6000+ or 6400+ at cheap price then save up for next one that would be best one.

 

[Trunks9486]

My suggestion would be not to bother.

New Phenoms are out in January for AM2+, compatibility of those with AM2 seems unlikely for now. Socket AM3 comes in February for DDR3 compatibility.

The new Phenoms look good, but they will limited by AM2 motherboards, especially if overclocking.

790FX/790GX + SB750 + Phenom II BE = Awesome AMD set up in january.