Lost and confused by AMD.

[sheldonleigh]

Hey there lovely peoples.

I am very confused by my PC.

I purchased it from Mesh computers a year ago and it has served me well till now.

Unfortunately though itt slowed down massively with the new games that are out.

I was in the process of upgrading to a new PC but Meash messed me around for well over a month so I cancelled my order. I am still, another month later, waiting for my refund.

So now that I have cancelled my order, and will one day get my money back, I have decided to wait to see what the next lot of AMD chips are like. Till then however I am upgrading my existing machine a bit to make it last. I may not be in the position to upgrade as I will soon be being made redundant on medical grounds after 3years of sick leave after getting crushed by a large truck (14+ tonnes).

Ok so to my question.

I have been reading up on my Motherboard and found some descreprencies.

The model is M4A78 Pro. It has a Phenom 2 x4 940 Black Edition processor which I read is an AM2+ chip and currently I'm trying to get DDR2 1066 ram to work.

There is a problem that is bought up online about running 1066 ram that you can only have 1 ram chip per channel.

Ok so the comfusing part is this board is an AM2+/AM3 board. Does that then mean I could put an AM3 Chip into it and run DDR3 Ram?? that would make a massive difference and the PC would then last a couple more years.

 

[ShortAlieN]

from what i read the board can only use DDR2 1066 or 800. so DDR3 is probably out of the question.

 

[INMATE183]

My understanding is that the AM2+ boards make is possible to use both AM2 and AM3 socket CPU's by a simple bios update. Im pretty sure in saying there is no such thing as an AM2+ processor (unless both am2 and am3 can be counted). Some one comfirm this for me though as im sleepy.

It depends how upto date you want to keep you rig..Im running a 955 on a 790 board with 8gb of DDR3, and although i may change the gpu I would say id stay with this for upto another 2 years.

If you do upgrade get a 890 board, HOWEVER (we love these), there is an AM3+ board coming out at some point give it a google and research. I dont think its going to be like am2+ tho and dont think its backwards compatable with a normal am3? If im wrong possibly wait if im right get an 890

I would have a look about but its time for some breakie.

 

[Junglerog]

Hi Ron, I am sorry about you accident.

They say bulldozer ( new AMD 32nm CPU) should be released in second quarter of 2011 and apparently it is going to have new AM3+ motherboard. I read somewhere that it is going to be compatible with AM3 somewhat. I read specs of your PC, I think you do not need an imidiate upgrade although I understand how it is sometimes, this pressure inside is unbearable hehe ( trust me I know!

).

 

[INMATE183]

Ah from what ive read the AM3+ socket will work with AM3 but not the bulldozer, thats a diff ball game aparently? Have a look on amd forums...im sure if it can it will work. all in all wait it out for AM3+ for upgrade?

 

[Junglerog]

Inmate i read (not sure where) that Bulldozer will work but not as efficient? or sth like this I guess we need to wait to find out. I thought about smooth move from AM3 to AM3+ but If it does not I might as well think about selling my Crosshair IV and 1090T now before it will loose value (even more) and maybe use an old rig for a while...

 

[Deceit]

Sorry for being off topic but any chance you where sent to aldershot medical barracks or at it when you got ran over by a truck? Just curious as when I was in there while a royal engineer the exact same thing happened too a soldier who I could have sworn was a royal marine and was about 3 years ago maybe more when I was there.

 

[INMATE183]

Inmate i read (not sure where) that Bulldozer will work but not as efficient? or sth like this I guess we need to wait to find out. I thought about smooth move from AM3 to AM3+ but If it does not I might as well think about selling my Crosshair IV and 1090T now before it will loose value (even more) and maybe use an old rig for a while...

Still reading in to it, alot of umm's and ahh's but I think your right in what you say sry for the snappy reply previous

 

[sheldonleigh]

Sorry for being off topic but any chance you where sent to aldershot medical barracks or at it when you got ran over by a truck? Just curious as when I was in there while a royal engineer the exact same thing happened too a soldier who I could have sworn was a royal marine and was about 3 years ago maybe more when I was there.

I dont remember going to Aldershot. I may have done but I dont think so. Tidworth maybe but not Aldershot.

 

[sheldonleigh]

Hey guys thanks all for the input. I read on two seperate forums that this board "Bought DDR3 compatability to AMD"

Now I was pretty sure that it wasn't compatable with it but with the problems I've been having with the DDR2 I hoped it may

be true. I have however now fixed it.

On this board if you are running 1066mhz ram you can only have one card per channel. I took this as meaning 1 card in yellow 1 card in black. I was wrong. I havew now switched

them over to both in the same ram bay, next to eachother, and it reads dual chanel 1066. I also had to drop the OC to 3.2ghz it is now on stock 1.35v. I was trying 3.6ghz at 1.5v and it was tripping. So I think its time to leave it at 3.2ghz so it lasts.

The new graphics card is lovely and my £39 Novatech 800W atx PSU is up to the task of the HD6970.

Now to hold myself back from getting a Gladiator bundle from Aria, the i5 2500 looks like a treat. I will wait till after I know whats going on with Dozer before I upgrade now.

Tick ..............................................................................Tick.........................................................................Tic...k

Oh this will take a while...

Thanks again all.

Ron

 

[sheldonleigh]

My understanding is that the AM2+ boards make is possible to use both AM2 and AM3 socket CPU's by a simple bios update. Im pretty sure in saying there is no such thing as an AM2+ processor (unless both am2 and am3 can be counted). Some one comfirm this for me though as im sleepy.

It depends how upto date you want to keep you rig..Im running a 955 on a 790 board with 8gb of DDR3, and although i may change the gpu I would say id stay with this for upto another 2 years.

If you do upgrade get a 890 board, HOWEVER (we love these), there is an AM3+ board coming out at some point give it a google and research. I dont think its going to be like am2+ tho and dont think its backwards compatable with a normal am3? If im wrong possibly wait if im right get an 890

I would have a look about but its time for some breakie.

I will keep an eye out for that, when Mesh finally gives me a refund I may...will....no may...buy one to run the current processor, if it'll run it. If now then I'll stick with this till the Dozer chips are out.

 

[icetronix]

@OP

I thought DDR3 ram wont fit into a DDR2 DIMM socket, because the little notch is not in the same spot.

My understanding is that the AM2+ boards make is possible to use both AM2 and AM3 socket CPU's by a simple bios update. Im pretty sure in saying there is no such thing as an AM2+ processor (unless both am2 and am3 can be counted). Some one comfirm this for me though as im sleepy.

AM2+ CPUs have HyperTransport 3.0, they will work in AM2 boards but will be limited to HyperTransport 2.0.

I think thats the only real difference between them.