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Phenom II Advice

Jeeva

Jeeva

Jeeva

Associate
Joined
11 Jan 2007
Posts
363
Location
Cambridge, UK
Hey guys, I've been out of the loop for hardware recently, and I was wondering if any of you fine gents would answer a few random questions I had?

Essentially, I've got a reasonable set-up at the moment, shown in my sig, but basically consisting of:
AMD 5000X2
Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe
4GB DDR2 (800Mhz) Ocz Ram

I was looking to upgrade my processor, potentially to one of the Phenom II's that look so nice- I'm informed by the Asus support forums that my motherboard will support the 940 black edition 3.0ghz (socket am2+) and was looking at that as my best candidate, but was wondering (before i pull the metaphorical trigger) whether
a) that would run at a cooler temperature than my x2 (clocked at 2.86, currently running bloomin' hot), cooled with a Scythe Orochi, or should I change coolers?

b) Would I be able to drop in one of the AM3 processors into my board (not too hopeful on this count, but would help with my leapfrogging on upgrading partially ;)) and if so, would I have to upgrade my RAM (as they seem to go as low as 1066 DDR?)

c) ...I've totally forgotten my C. Sorry.

I'm probably way out for most of my thoughts, but hopefully I'll manage to get by for a while longer without a massively expensive upgrade =)

Thanks in advance,
Jeeva
 
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a) Yes, these chips run cool. The scythe should work fine for it.

b) AM3 fits in AM2+ boards, its AM2 chips that dont fit into AM3 boards. Check your motherbord bios supports the chip tho.

c) Oh..
 
Thank you very much =D

Also, sorry about C, again. I think I must've rolled two questions into one naturally and forgotten about it =\

Oop, quick random: My motherboard appears to be simply AM2. Does this rule me out for AM3-drop-in-handyness?

Ah, I've just noticed that on the thread that confirmed that the 940 would work, the second post shows that the x3 720 black edition will apparently work, and that seems to be AM3?
Awesome! Except for my wallet :( :)
 
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naknakkus said:
that CPU
Click to expand...

According to the thread I linked above, about half (quote-ish, I didn't check the claim, other than seeing multiple people say they did/didn't get it working) of the guys on the Asus forums have the 940 working on this board nicely, and the other half have problems. And about half of the first half believe they managed it, seemingly by some kind of arcane ritual involving goats blood and RAM-timings.

:) But I'll post up if I manage it :)

EvilOne said:
notes on the latest bios, you might be lucky.
Click to expand...

Apparently no Phenom II's officially supported. Will check the notes in a moment on the hope it's mentioned, seem to have lost them in my downloads folder somewhere.
 
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Hey guys,

Just removed my cooler, current CPU, reset my bios dropped in my new CPU (955BE, maybe excessive, but it gives me a bit of a slow-burning upgrade path, sort-o'-thing).

Plugged it in, powered up... Screen! Beep! Yay! Just nip into BIOS.

Got in (good sign, right? Can see the system clock moving) but the keyboard stopped working. Oh well, restart, will try another USB port.

Black screen. =o

Anyone have any ideas? =\

Thanks,
Jeeva

Also: Sorry about the technical double-post.

Okay: So it gets to the Bios after I reset the CMOS.
Keyboard works on the POST type screen, but not afterwards. So I can get into the BIOS, but do nothing else. =/
 
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Emm very interesting...

Whats your ram made up of 2x 2GB or 4x 1GB? Might be worth trying 2 sticks if you have 4?

I presume your using the latest BIOS, I know its not officially supported on it but can't hurt!
 
4 1GB sticks. Unfortunately (well, not really, but y'know) it's made up of two different revisions of OCZ platinum, but I assumed it wouldn't matter particularly. Will try taking one out in half a minute or so. :)

Yep to the latest BIOS. Have heard success stories of both AM2+ 940s and AM3 3x chips on it. :(

Edit: Tried my original sticks only, no luck. Will try the other sticks only. Also, randomly, the splash screen thing hangs for a minute or so if you hammer delete. Rand'm.

Have tried both sets separately now, no luck or difference. Though it shouldn't, I'm wondering (/hoping desperately) if/that another keyboard might help.

Anyone got any other ideas? Maybe I should've been less enthusiastic =)
 
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Well, I award myself 5 points. A PS/2 keyboard works in bios. Now to try getting to Windows. :)
 
Yeah, it's been showing it as the correct CPU on the summary screen (I forget the name, first screen that comes up that shows errors such as "No keyboard detected, please press x to continue") throughout.

Edit: Hmph, now that I've mucked about with the BIOS, it refuses to display anything, or POST (beep?). Guess I'll reset it and just try booting without touching anything in the BIOS.

Well, I have Vista loading... who knows if it'll manage to log in. =o
Original KB has lit up (G15)... and I have a mouse!

...so, overall, I shouldn't play with the bios?

...This is very odd. =) In Windows, going to run some stability checks.

Randomly let Windows rate my CPU, and it thinks a) it's running at 800mhz (possible with cool'n'quiet, unless I miss my guess?) b) rated at 4.7- dropping .7 from yesterday. Whoops. Not as bad as a real 800Mhz, at least.
 
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Re your USB keyboard not working in the BIOS, different motherboard but mine strangely only works in a certain USB port even though like yours you are able to get into the BIOS in the first place.
 
Thanks Winnter =D

I could swear this is the port I used before :(
I'm just hoping I can figure which port I _did_ use before, as my housemate won't be happy if I have to continue borrowing his KB for when I boot ;) -USB KB just started working. Hopefully even with the other one unplugged. Though the screen just turned off - not a good sign, bah.

Edit: Wouldn't be too jealous though, I can't get it to boot more than one time in a row without removing graphics card and resetting the CMOS: Question to people here, would removing the battery (not permanently, just 'til I finish some of this coursework ;)) do the same thing, essentially?

Otherwise I might have to put a button in, instead of this infernally placed jumper. =o =)

Newly weird symptom: USB KB started working for F1-pressing at start. However, when I do that, Windows doesn't boot.

This is seeming problematic, at best. Work time!

On top of all of this, Asus Probe/Everest are reporting the temperatures to be silly and high (>44), despite it also reporting constant clocking of 800Mhz. And cool 'n' quiet isn't working currently. :(
 
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