Ga m68sm s2 plus phenom II 550: will it work?

[DogPawHat]

I'm thinking of doing an upgrade to my system and was wondering if the 550 will work on my board, and if it does, whats the benifit of moving up to a board with an am2+/am3 socket.

 

[SystemPat]

I'm thinking of doing an upgrade to my system and was wondering if the 550 will work on my board, and if it does, whats the benifit of moving up to a board with an am2+/am3 socket.

And your board is a what? What CPU and chipset is it running? If it's no longer in production then the BIOS updates to run the AM2+ and AM3 processors probably has not happened. Otherwise you would be confined to using the faster of the Athlon 64 x2 like the 6000. these seem to be rapidly disappearing from retail but can always be gotten in a variety of places.

 

[DogPawHat]

it in the title: GA-M68SM-S2 with a nForce630a and a Athlon 64 X2 4400 at 2.3 Ghz.

 

[bilbat]

The CPU support list for your board is here:
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support/Motherboard/CPUSupport_Model.aspx?ProductID=2640
Though the 550s are not supported, the high speed Windsor cores are... The BIOS page, BTW, is here:
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support/Motherboard/BIOS_Model.aspx?ProductID=2640
F3 is current...

 

[SystemPat]

Thanks.
I went and did the research for you. Results in a minute. If you want to look it up again for something else:
Go to www.gigabyte.us then Support&Downloads then Motherboards then find your model in the list
then click on CPU support.
And you'll find that it really only supports the AM2 chips. They list the very early generation Phenom chips but it downgrades the HT speed. So it is pretty much stuck with the X2 line of Athlon 64 CPUs. You could go to a 6000 if you think it's worth it.

 

[DogPawHat]

ok thanks

 

[megamanx00]

It doesn't even support Phenom CPUs. Sorry but you're stuck with Windsor and Brisbane CPUs till you get a better board.

 

[techshui]

DogPawHat,

The benefits of an AM2+ motherboard are are least three:

1. An AM2+ can support AM3 processors, like the Phenom FX, and even Phenom II x4 (depending on which AM2+ board you choose).
2. HyperTransport 3.0, allowing 2.6Ghz of HyperTransport speed.
3. Split power planes: one for the CPU cores, and the other for the Integrated Memory controller (IMC).

The benefit of an AM3 motherboard, is that it supports DDR3 memory. The cons are that it's not backwards-compatible AM2 processors.

Prices have been falling rapidly for AM2+ motherboards, and nowadays you can find one NEW for $40-$50. And I've even seen some for under $40!

 

[bilbat]

Now ya see here son, this is what we call a dead thread, it died as no one was interested or no one had info for it, or the author found the info and decided to let the thread die.

So we buried it, gave it a funeral and let it lie in peace.

Now what ya have done here is Necrothreaded it back into the living realm, disturbing its grave and its peace! Why boy, why? The poor thread has suffered enough! Let it rest!!

 

[DogPawHat]

Plus i already bought a new motherboard anyway, so its a bit late.

 

[bilbat]

We need a 'sticky' here; first, with some rules: search first; if you have a question, start a post; place the MOBO model number in the title; and if you have a useless comment that can be found in any thirty second google session - keep it to yourself! Also - general instructions on GB builds & MOBO intialization, common reboot loop solutions, USB troubles common to GBs, and the like - I've had no luck in requesting one...

 

[techshui]

@DogPawHat

Well, then a congratulations is in order, hope the new board serves you well!


@bilbat

This thread's only 2 months old, I meant no harm by posting here. Perhaps, a better suggestion would be an option for any thread starter on the site to "Choose a Solution", thereby closing their thread.

Most Google searches point to Tom's Hardware for the solution, it serves to show the influence and importance of THF, and this and many other threads here will be read and re-read hundreds if not thousands of times. Therefore, it's important for me to get it right.

And if you want to challenge the validity of the information I posted, go ahead, I encourage it even, because it helps prevent misinformation. However, making sarcastic comments about my post does nothing.

If the thread was was like you say, already dead, than why post at all.
(A better way to make your point would've been to write nothing, and "let dead threads lie")

 

[bilbat]

...two months old? Jeez - that's a year and a quarter in dog years, or thirty-seven BIOS revs for a P55 MOBO!
My apologies for being short...
It's just that I answer eight to twenty posts here daily, day in, day out, week in, week out - try to provide cogent, detailed, demonstrative answers - and every little thing helps (or hurts...) Just came back from one where someone entered a thread at the thirty-second post, we're up to forty-three (I think ), and I'm trying to remember 'did he post his RAM part number before?' before asking him, and seeming like I'm not really paying attention to him, so I wind up reviewing thirty-some posts two more times to try to be sure (or, at least, half-way sure), and semi-apologize anyway when I ask 'cause I'm still not sure!

'Necromanced', resurrected threads, as far as I'm concerned, just proliferate the confusion: 'that looks familiar - did I forget another one? - are there more, later questions? - has some new problem sprung up - did I get to that one yet? - ackk! it's aLIVe again!'
?
I did a username search here on Tom's and found one other post by you; run a quick one simply on 'thanks bilbat', and you'll get an idea of the kind of scope I'm talking about...

 

[mask0425x]

Well, at the risk of getting flamed, I'll revive this yet again... Fry's is having this exact combo on sale for only $80 less $10 MIR. I would imaging that they did their research before lumping them together. Otherwise, still a killer deal as the CPU alone sells for $100+ elsewhere.

http://shopping.dallasnews.com/ROP/ads.aspx?advid=2519&adid=8652034&subid=27559233&type=

@ DPH, just curious which board did you get and how do you like it?

OK, ducking for cover now!