Wait, what was the point of AM3?

To eventually wipe the earth of what ended up stuffed into every AM2 board?

/removes tongue from cheek

Maybe the DDR3 slots only work with AM3 cpu's like you can get DDR3 LGA775 boards but only Certain Core 2's support the DDR3 memory.

Its the same as the 780i (DDR2) vs. 790i (DDR3).

I thought the AMD Phenom II x4 940 is a quad core cpu that is designed for AM2+ motherboards and DDR2 1066 memory. I know the AMD Phenom II x3 cpu's can be installed in an AM2+ motherboard but memory would normally be only DDR2 1066. So far so good. It now appears we have a motherboard that can be used either way. That's okay too. However, I was under the impression that the Phenom II x4 940 could not be used in an AM3 board. Is that correct or did I get things mixed up?

That's correct, the PII quad cores that are out now are AM2+ but AMD will be releasing AM3 quads in the future. AM2(+) CPUs can't be used in AM3 mobos but AM3 CPUs can be used in AM2(+) mobos.

They aren't worth it yet, but eventually memory manufacturers will shift more to DDR3.

This reminds me of an old 915(?) Intel chipset for my Pentium III dual core machine. The chipset and Intel did not support two physical CPU's but (Acorp?) made a dual chip motherboard using that chipset. Sadly it could only use 512Mb MAX. Which of course was fine at first when everyone was at 64Mb and 128Mb.

NASTY. VERY NASTY. It is a kludge and I wouldn't recommend it.

I'm not saying it wouldn't WORK. But it is hard enough to get updated bios with MAINSTREAM boards. This will be an orphan motherboard almost before it is released.


SIDE NOTE: Back then I remember a TON of people online telling me I was stupid to build a two core home/gaming machine... it would NEVER be needed for ANYTHING but servers. A faster single core chip would be oh so much better. Didn't matter that the second core was useful in servicing the operating system while playing any games... thus making the machine run much much SMOOTHER. Oh I used the forbidden word. Anyway it was a major flame war back at that time. (98? 99?) It appears I might have been slightly correct.

Here is something else to think about. AMD may have DDR3 support for there chips now, but it doesn't do tripple channel, only dual channel support.

Well it doesn't look like I'll need my crystal ball. Newegg is now selling an AMD Phenom II x4 quad core designed for an AM3 motherboard and DDR3 memory. GEE! I thought I would have to wait until April. Wait! I know! Maybe that's when they'll announce a Phenom II x4 1000.

Now I just gave to figure out why I think I should get the quad core instead of a triple core.

What if the new AM3 board is pretty?

Psssh. Still on LEDs? Weak.

(Clear acryllic, UV reactive case (blue) + UV reactive fans (green) and "invisible" cold cathodes No LEDs).

Have to agree here. I dont like LEDs or any kind of fancy crap, I just like a solid black case that looks good.

Also, I think what they are releasing in april is the 945 X4, which to my knowledge is essentially an AM3 940.

Just a 940 but at 3.1GHz. I would guess that each XX5 means 100MHz...... Maybe.

Doing better in a synthetic benchmark =/= "actually good for something."

AM3 CPUs are supposed to work on AM2+ mobos with a BIOS update, which unluckily mine doesn't have. Socket AM3 was introduced mainly to prevent unexperienced builders from plugging an AM2/+ into an AM3, cause it wouldn't work as AM2/+ CPUs lack the DDR3 controller. So, it's basically a physical measure.
The only P2 which are AM2+ are 940 & 920. AMD is to release 3 new AM3 quad cores to replace them in April, ranging from 2.8 to 3.1 GHz, and models up to 3.5 GHz on the second half of the year.
Huh, and then shall come the Athlons X3s & X4s!!! And even a Phenom II X2!!!!!!!

Well, AM3 phenom IIs (3.0+ GHz) will still be 125w. The main difference however is DDR3.

That would have been an i815 board. Ah yes, the days when you could just plunk two standard desktop chips in a dual-socket motherboard made with a standard desktop chipset because the FSB is a shared bus- easy to tack two CPUs in there. The bandwidth sucks, but you could get cheap SMP. The i915 chipset was for the first LGA775 P4s and supported 4 GB of either DDR2-533 or DDR-400...and it *specifically* had SMP capabilities disabled because Intel was PO'd at people making "cheap" dual Xeon setups with i865 and i875 chipsets rather than paying twice as much for E75xx/E73xx Xeon chipsets with "official" support.

They were most certainly right if you were running the the typical setup of Windows 98SE. None of the DOS-based Windows, including 98SE and Me, could support SMP. Your second CPU would have just been sitting there idle. You had to run Windows NT or one of the Unix variants to get SMP support.