AM3 in AM2/AM2+ Motherboard?

[joh06937]

i have an old amd athlon 64 x2 5200+ brisbane processor and was thinking of upgrading but it would be stupid to get am2 or am2+ nowadays so i was looking at am3's. however, my motherboard (see sig) is an am2/am2+ motherboard. i have read that am3's will fit into am2/am2+ motherboards. will an am3 fit in my motherboard (for only a little while)? if so, what kind of performance (if any) will be lost from the am3's full potential? thanks for any help.

 

[joh06937]

for those that are lazy, here is my motherbard:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...2&cm_re=ga-ma780g-ud3h-_-13-128-382-_-Product

 

[ganzey]

i dont know about am3 to am2+, but i have my phenom II 940(am2+) running in a am2 mobo with little to no performance loss.

 

[Ethan3.14159]

Gigabyte says it's AM3 ready, so it just needs a BIOS update to accept AM3 cpu's.

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support/Motherboard/CPUSupport_Model.aspx?ProductID=3004#anchor_os

 

[joh06937]

ok awesome. thanks for the wickedly fast replies. so is an athlon II or phenom II better?

 

[ganzey]

phenom II whips the athlon II

 

[Ethan3.14159]

All of the Athlon II CPU's have no L3 cache. Go with the Phenom II unless you're really on a strict budget.

 

[El Gappo]

Honestly there is a very little difference in performance between the phenom II and athlon II when it comes to gaming and benchmarks . There are a few doozies out there tho, I definitely wouldn't recommend getting a tri core athlon because they suck big time...

You will also have to check out the latest bios's on that board and see if they added c3 stepping support otherwise you will be limited to 800mhz with a new revision chip.

 

[El Gappo]

Also another thing to add is amd just released a new line up today so you may want to hold off a little while before buying a new cpu http://anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3726

 

[joh06937]

Also another thing to add is amd just released a new line up today so you may want to hold off a little while before buying a new cpu http://anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3726

wow, those look really cool. i probably will hold out and get a newer model quad core (plus then i will have more money and will be able to get a better cpu ). so is there any performance loss when using an am3 in an am2+ motherboard?

 

[El Gappo]

There is when benchmarking and overclocking as ddr3 gives plenty more bandwidth and headroom, Im running 5-5-5-15-11 on my £25 kit of ddr3 ram at 1450mhz for example. You would never of seen such low latencies and high speeds on ddr2, but for day to day use you will probably never notice a difference.
You can always just wait till April the 28th for a board upgrade as amd release their new chip sets You may see something you like.

 

[joh06937]

actually that is the hardest part of upgrading for me. i NEVER can decide what to get: motherboard or processor? processor or gpu? etc. etc. SO irritating.

 

[joh06937]

if anybody has any opinions about what i should upgrade, please comment. i can't decide (as stated above) between cpu, gpu, or motherboard. if a go with a gpu, i will get another hd 5770 and run them in crossfire (at 8x and 8x though). if i went with a motherboard, then i would have to wait and get a cpu as well since i would get a ddr3 and am3 one. so really it is between a cpu and gpu. any opinions?

 

[El Gappo]

Just go for cpu since that is by far your bottleneck. Whats your budget?

 

[joh06937]

around 170 or so. maybe higher...

 

[El Gappo]

Get whatever cpu you can, If its purely for gaming etc then a X2 555 will suffice and leave you a nice chuck of cash in your motherboard piggy bank

 

[joh06937]

actually i would rather future proof and spend all the money on one thing (like the cpu or gpu).

 

[El Gappo]

Nothing is future-proof but in that case blow the lot on a cpu. Or save until the end of april and blow it on a 6 core thuban cpu and or a 890x chipset board. There is to much choice lol.

 

[CardboardSword]

If you can field it, get a Phenom II x4, depending on how much you plan to OC and budget, get either the 955, or 945.

 

[joh06937]

Nothing is future-proof but in that case blow the lot on a cpu. Or save until the end of april and blow it on a 6 core thuban cpu and or a 890x chipset board. There is to much choice lol.

those 6 cores look real tasty... i might have to wait for one. too many new things coming out!!!! more cores, dx11, usb 3.0, sata 6, ssd's... my mind just boggles...