Asus A8N-E and CPU/GFX Upgrade

[ShinzoUK]

Hi Guys,

My apols if this has already been answered, but I have searched the forums but can't find the answer.

I have the Asus A8N-E and would like to do a little cheap upgrade, however, the Asus tech support is kak (IMO), as they appear to be unobtainable and the Asus forums haven't really helped.

I would like to keep the mobo (which I believe is Revision 2 and has bios 1008) and just upgrade the CPU and GFX card. I was initially thinking I'd like to pop the Athlon 64 X2 6000+ into this mobo, but nobody could confirm if it would take that chip, however, it appears that it will at least take the Athlon 64 X2 4800+ (which would be better than my current 2 year old 3700+ San Diego).

I'd also like to pop in either one of the latest NVidia 8800/9800 or Radeon 4850 GFX cards, but as they are PCI-E 2.0, I am not sure if they will work on this mobo.

If anyone knows whether I can successfully put these bits onto the Asus A8N-E, I'd be most grateful for some confirmation.

As my OS is currently XP SP2, assuming any of the above is possible, I'd also be most grateful if anyone could let me know if I would also need to do bios and/or driver updates/upgrades to get them to work properly.

My apols for all the questions.

Thanks very much in advance.

S.

 

[Mondoman]

Your MB takes socket 939 CPUs, which have been out of production for a while. Dual-core socket 939 CPUs are now ridiculously expensive on ebay because of this, so any upgrade will not be cheap. I'd suggest considering getting a whole new modern motherboard/CPU/RAM combination.

In theory, PCIexpress 2.0 cards should work on "normal" PCIexpress slots (although of course without running at the faster PCIexpress 2.0 speeds).

 

[Wisecracker]

Your best bet is probably to purchase the new video card - the HD4850 would be an excellent choice. Though PCIe Gen2 has twice the bandwidth available I believe Tom's looked at performance differences and found them to be quite minimal.

You could then move the video card to a newer rig when you are ready.

Your best bet with the AMD 64 3700+ Sandy is to give her an OC to 2.5-2.6GHz and see how that suits you.

Otherwise-spending money on a s939 CPU is not a worthwhile upgrade. Unless you can find a good deal on eBay (which from the look of prices is not bloody likely...)

http://computers.shop.ebay.co.uk/items/CPUs__W0QQSocket93ed0b93ZSocket93978967252QQQ5ftrkparmsZ72Q253A1300Q257C39Q253A1Q257C66Q253A2Q257C65Q253A12QQ_dmptZUKQ5fMotherboardsQ5fCPUsQQ_npmvZ3QQ_sacatZ3671QQ_trksidZp3286Q2ec0Q2em14QQ_sopZ1QQ_scZ1

 

[ShinzoUK]

Thanks for the encouraging info and your opinions guys.

I had read shortly after posting my original question that the Athlon 64 X2 4800+, would not work in a 939 board as the chip was AM2, but another site selling the chip said that it would. Am I missing something (is there a 939 and an AM2 version of the 4800+?) or are those people saying that it won't work just misguided?

Thanks again.

S.

 

[ragsters]

Yes there are two versions of the 4800+.

 

[Reynod]

The 4800 and FX60 / Opti 180 / or 185? were that last of the line for the 939 mobos.

The 4800+ is a 90nm 2.4Ghz CPU with a 2X1Mb cache - the 4400+ which was very polular also had a 2X1Mb cache but ran at 2.2Ghz - easily overclcoked to 2.4 with a 220fsb (slight increase).

The AM2 CPU's of the same calibre sported 2X512Kb cache but a 100Mhz speed bump to compensate.

Try getting a 939 X2 (dual core CPU) of any size ,,, this should give it a decent boost.

As wise said previously a 4850 would be more than sufficient for that as a mow level gaming machine.

The AM2 cpu line simply extends the cpu speed ... and later boards (only the most recent) also support Phenom CPU's (triple or quad core).

If you can pick up a dual core cheap then go ahead and upgrade it a bit.

The 1008 bios is fine - I have a Premioum and an SE mobo here and both run the dual core cpu's fine.

Hope this helps.