Upgrading Gateway box with AMD Phenom 9550 to 9950 Black Edition?

Well, thats a 780g board, so unless it's got really good cooling ability to the PWM area you're limited to 95w and lower CPU. Problem being most companies that make 780g boards cut corners and don't put full Phenom and X2 support on them. You could possibly run an X2 6400+ but run the risk of frying the PWM area.

you should run cpu-z and look at the mainboard tab. This will tell you everything you need to know about the motherboard so you can look it up from the motherboard manufacturers site. From that site, you'll be able to determine what the maximum wattage proc you'll be able to use.

I'm willing to bet they didn't get a motherboard that would support a 140W proc... especially since it's a mATX.

if you want to upgrade your proc (and don't want to change your mobo) you will probably need to wait for the 45nm procs to come out for the reduction in power. you'll probably need to flash your bios to do this option though. This may or may not work; I've never tried to flash the bios for a gateway/dell/etc back to the mobo manufacturers bios.

best thing you can do is try to find the EXACT mobo that is in your gateway.

I'm a little curious: Aren't the 9550 and 9550BE the exact same clock speed out of the box?? I could see making the swap if you had overclocking in mind, since you'd be able to take advantage of the unlocked multi....

BUT

Correct me if I'm wrong, but dont' OEM's (HP, dell, Gateway, etc) lock the Bios to prevent overclocking? If so, then I see no point in spending the money.



Self correction - 9550 and 9950 aren't the same, so there's a bit of a gain to be had there. However, my comment regarding the Bios still stands.

This seems like a whole lot of work to "upgrade" a computer that was just bought. If the OP is comfortable doing all of these upgrades, I'm having a hard time figuring out why he didn't just start from scratch in the first place. An off-the-shelf Gateway is bound to introduce limitations that make upgrading to a full-blown gaming rig prohibitively expensive. Locked BIOS on motherboards, inadequate case ventilation, sub-par PSU, and so on... some people just seem bound and determined to do things the hard way. It'd be one thing if this were an old computer and the OP's familiarity with computers has increased over the years, but he said he JUST bought it. Why? WHY???

The Foxconn 780g supports the 125w Phenom 9850 Black Edition. I don't think it supports the 9950BE. I would also be leery of Gateway BIOS support. Good luck getting a straight answer from them.

Waiting a month or two for the 45nm Phenom is an option - as is flashing the BIOS to a Foxconn OEM. Gateway BIOS support for the 45nms would be a question.

WARNING! ymmv with the BIOS flash. Do not attempt unless you are comfortable with the procedure and possible ramifications. Corrupting the BIOS may require the chip to be replaced if not the entire motherboard.

It doesn't appear you have difficulty replacing hardware. It is possible to replace the motherboard as long as the replacement is of the same chipset. Be advised that removing all hardware & chipset drivers prior to the installation of the new motherboard will ease the transition.

There are never any guarantees when dealing with upgrades and OEM hardware. It's good that you are doing your homework.

Let us know how it turns out ...

The 9750 is supposed to be available in retail with the new price of $170.
Also there is a new 125w 9950BE that was launched today. If your board can handle the 125w 9850BE it should be able t handle the new 125w 9950BE