Asus AM2 owners rejoice! New BIOS supports Athlon II/Phenom II.

Hi all,

This is more of an FYI than an actual question, although I would like to hear your thoughts on it. Those with old AM2 boards, take note! You may be in for some good news.

I have an Asus M2NPV-VM mobo, a mid range AM2 board that I got three years ago. It's pretty out of date by now and I've been keeping an eye out for a replacement, but things are a bit tight on the budget front as far as toys are concerned. :??:

Anyhow, my old mobo may just have received a new lease on life. Until very recently the highest CPU it could support was the Athlon 64 X2 6400+. The list didn't even include Phenom I's. Then quite by accident, I stumbled across a BIOS update on the Asus website (still in Beta though) that enables support for all the new Athlon II / Phenom II chips all the way to the 95W X4 945! See link with the updated support list.

http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=HGTVnGv5nGahCYgK&templete=2

This is obviously very exiting, as it means I can drop in a brand new chip that will be a massive upgrade from my old X2 5600+. Or would it? How much would my old mobo+ DDR2 RAM hold back the potential of an Athlon II / Phenom II chip?

I'm also a bit concerned about that Beta tag next to the BIOS update. If it doesn't work I'd be wasting money on a new CPU.

OK, enough blabbering. Your comments please!
 
Your mobo/RAM won't hold your CPU back at all and DDR3 isn't better than DDR2. You can get the Athlon II X3 440/445 or the Athlon II X4 635/460, all are very good CPUs and very good bang for the buck.

http://paulisageek.com/compare/cpu/

As for the beta BIOS when you do the BIOS update make sure you backup your old BIOS otherwise if the beta BIOS isn't working well you can brick the mobo.
 


Thanks for fuelling my optimism.. :D

Is there a good utility for BIOS updates and backups that will work on Windows 7? I should probably go check the Asus website, but I might as well ask.
 

1haplo

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DO NOT USE A WINDOWS BASE BIOS UPDATER.

Use ASUS EZFlash2 in the BIOS under tools.

Put the BIOS file on a USB drive and enter the BIOS and update the BIOS using EZFlash2.

Make sure that you are NOT overclocked when you update the BIOS. Put it to stock speed. Because if the overclock is not 100% stable you can brick the BIOS.

Updating the BIOS in EZflash2 is easy, and safe. I have updated the BIOS using EZFlash2 all the time with my ASUS boards.