Advice please

[Guest]

A frend has a xfx 750a motherboard and a phenom 9500 cpu.

Currently debateing changeing the cpu to a Athlon64 x2 7850 Black Edition 2.8Ghz as a "upgrade" in cpu speed.

Whould this be a subtible upgrade and a "good choice"?

Please bear in mind with any advice u can give that this board has a 95w cpu power limit and due to cost changeing the board isnt a option.....

Thanks for ANY help or advice

 

[thechief73]

Hello Bozl1n, Welcome to THW.

I have found a comparison to the Athlon64 x2 7850 Black Edition 2.8Ghz vs AMD Phenom X4 9650 - 2.3GHz (This is the closest CPU they have listed to the Phenom 9500, as far as I can tell it is the only difference is its 100MHz faster, but will give you a good idea on the performance difference between the two) http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/90?vs=23

I really dont have much advice on your choice because I do not know alot about all the AMD CPU's out there, besides that going from a quad core to dual doesnt really sound like a good idea to improve performance, IMHO it would be more wise to get a nice CPU cooler and try to OC the CPU he already has.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for your reply.....

Thats the reason at looking at the 7850, to clock it.

Its running on water (with a loop that has overkill cooling potential) so heat isnt a issue

The 9500 isnt black edition and i dont understand ennuf about overclocking to attempt to clock the 9500, with a black edition i can just adjust the multy a bit.

Ill have a look at the link you pointed out and thanks again for your help

 

[MadGoat1979]

Your largest upgrade is going to come from newer architecture. Both of the CPUs you mentioned are Phenom 1 series CPUs. That series had its issues and didn't have great performance (not to mention terrible Overclocking potential).

If your friend has one of the motherboards on this CPU support list: Click Here Then it looks as the though there is a bios that supports some Phenom 2 based Cpus.

For gaming and price / performance (and going solely by the aforementioned .pdf) , the Phenom x3 720 is a great choice. Add the capability to Overclock to 3.3-3.4ghz on just about any platform, and its an EXCELLENT processor for anything you'd really wanna do with it.

(XFX limits their support site to registered users only, so bios updates and board revisions i don't have quick access to.)

But keep what I said in mind, Go with a Phenom II based CPU if upgrading, anything else wont feel like an upgrade. (speaking from experience here, I've upgraded three processors now (in this particular system), Athlon64 3800+ to, Athlon64 x2 5000+ to, what i have now is a Phenom II x4 940. (all processors where overclocked to 3.5ghz)

Remember AMD key architectures, from oldest to newest:

athlon64, Phenom, to now Phenom II.

The naming gets confusing however. For example: the athlon64 x2 7850 is based on the phenom 1. Little trick to help is anything with a 4 number model number (eg: Phenom 9500 or athlon64 x2 7850) is based on the first Phenom.

On the other hand, anything based on the newer(est) Phenom 2 will have only 3 number model numbers (eg: Phenom x4 940 or Phenom x3 720)

Anything with a "+" at the end of it is the now very old Athlon64 tech. (eg: athlon64 3800+)

oh, and if your worried about the 95w board not OverClocking well... I have two 750a chipset based boards with 95w max support (both with Athlon II x3 440s) overclocked to 3.5 with ease.

I know Im not the greatest at conveying my thoughts via text, but i hope its not too confusing.

 

[Guest]

Thats what i said "save the money, ditch the board and cpu together"

Other idea was to get a phenom 955 cpu and run it till its fubars the board and then replace board.

Any1 know if the power of the cpu at 125w, while i know it will kill the board over time, would be likly to take the cpu along with it once it dies?

And just to what extent is it "not a good idea" to put in a cpu thats to power hungy for the board?

 

[MadGoat1979]

Board isn't a bad board. (infact any of todays nvidia offerings for AMD cpus are almost ideticle to the chipset used in the board).

The only thing is the limiting 95w capability. BUT! With that said, that doesn't mean there are not 95w CPUs that would give you some great performance.

For example: AMD Phenom II X3 740 Black Edition

That is a Black edition 95w (OEM, no fancy box and no cooler included) x3 PH2 that will Roflstomp that old 9500 even at stock clocks. Overclock that little beauty to 3.5 (or more, you mentioned water cooling) and you have yourself a get CPU to carry on or through next year with!

Now with that having been said, you need to find the updated correct motherboard documentation from XFX (register on their support site HERE) and find out what CPUs are supported by that motherboard with which bios. (A bios update will more than likely be required to update the motherboards support for the newer chips)

 

[thechief73]

Bozl1n, I do not belive that putting a 125w on a 95w board will work at all, and may even cause other problems.

 

[Guest]

I read a review of the xfx board and they used a 140w cpu in it, it worked.

Some of the posts on xfx support forums from xfx staff put it "we dont recomend it and it will invalidate the warrenty" as id expect them to say. The other posts from peeps that to me seem to know what there talking about" suggest its fine to doas long as you accept that it will substantialy reduce board life.

Problem is they dont say buy how much and if it will explode when the time comes lol.

Thanks lads, after talkin ur advice threw withhim hes gonna save for a 780a and a shiny new 970 i think

 

[Embra]

I think that is his best option. Price should come down too.