Hi Everyone, Its been a while. Last time on here I was working with a K6-2 motherboard. Now I have an EPOX 9npa N FORCE4 Ultra (not SLI) 939 socket motherboard. I expect at least to update the BIOS for the X2 4800. I have a AMD 64 3700+ 939 processor in here now. After I get used to an Athlon 939, now we see AM2 sockets, the new 940 pin arrangement, and the X2 939s really dropping in price. I want to stick with the 1mb cache versions of the 4800 or possibly the 4400 version. This PC has 4 gb of RAM and a SATA 80 gig WD drive, running XP Media edition. Before I start this, any suggestions? My first question is X2 compatibility for this mobo. Or/is there a really great board for the higer clocked x2s. (I can alway put this mobo and cpu in another PC for a family member.)
Yes, the X2 should be compatable with your motherboard. In fact, any socket 939 processor should be compatable with this motherboard. You shouldn't need to do anything to your computer to upgrade to X2 except for removing the old procesor and put the new one in. The only issue you might have, as you said, is the need for a BIOS update, which you may not even need.
Thanks Max, There is so much to keep up with the rate at which computer technology advances. I see now where the AM2 socket M/Bs, if I got this right, will need DDR2 800 memory, or maybe it is an option? The memory and the cost of it to keep up with new M/Bs is always a point to check. I have DDR400 memory in there now. I filled the slots because I was tired of being marginal at times on memory. John
Yea, Moore's Law, the number of transistors on integrated circuits doubles every 18 months. It is hard to keep up with. I left "the scene" for a few months and all of the sudden we were on the cusp of the release of AM2 and the 7950GX2 and Core 2 Duo. It wook me a few weeks to get all my facts straight on the new stuff. But in relation to your quesitons, you won't necessarily need DDR2 800, as long as it is DDR2. But yes, the motherboard and memory costs are the only real reason to stay away from AM2.
As an update to this thread so others will know. I upgraded to an AMD X2 4800+ processor with no problems at all. No BIOS update was needed. In the BIOS I simply let the BIOS set the processor operation to optimum performance. I am not a gamer so I have no need to even think about over clocking with my system now. I listened to others comments about 97 onboard audio, and agreed that its not that great, so I upgraded to a separate 5.1 PCI audio card and 5.1 speakers. I have an A-OPEN 6600 GT video card and will eventually upgrade that. This system gives me very few problems. Now I also want to go from an 80gig SATA drive to a 160gig SATA drive and will be done upgrading for a good while.
Big B, I didn't see your post until now about the cooling of the processor. I bought the processor in the box version of the AMD X2 and it came with that giant cool pipe heat sink and about a 70 MM fan, its huge, and working great. The 983 processors came down so far down in price that I was getting tempted, then when they included this heat sink, I couldn't resist. AMD is probably still using it on the AM2 version. The fan on the heatsink is pretty quiet also.
I was referring to the coding, not cooling, of the BIOS as being the hang up. The boxed (eg Retail) offer an appropriate heatsink for cooling the processor.
