Not 6-core ready?

[HostileDonut]

Some motherboards say "six core ready" and some do not. What does this mean? I thought as long as you have the supported watts and the supported slot it didn't matter. The one that didn't say it had a 140 max TDP and an AM3 CPU socket. It would still be 6-core ready, right?

 

[hunter315]

CPUs require BIOS support, if the BIOS doesnt have support for the microcode on the CPU the board cannot run it. Which boards are you looking at?

 

[HostileDonut]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131363&cm_re=asus_AM3_motherboard-_-13-131-363-_-Product That one. Also, it says 1600 OC RAM, does that mean I can or cannot just put in 1600Mhz RAM?

 

[Deleted member 217926]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131363&cm_re=asus_AM3_motherboard-_-13-131-363-_-Product That one. Also, it says 1600 OC RAM, does that mean I can or cannot just put in 1600Mhz RAM?

It means you can run DDR3 1600.

 

[HostileDonut]

Then why does it say "OC" next to it? So, if I were to take that board I could pop in a 1600Mhz stick and it would work fine?

 

[hunter315]

The highest most motherboards will default DDR3 to is 1333MHz, if you want it to be 1600MHz you will need to set it manually like you should be doing anyway, if you put a 1600MHz stick in it would work fine but it would be running at 1333MHz until you up it to 1600MHz.

That board will support a 6 Core CPU just like the rest of the ASUS M4Axxx lineup, but it may need a BIOS update if you get one of the older boards from stock because that board existed prior to Thuban so it wont necessarily support it out of the box like one of the 880G boards might because Thuban was out when they were released.

 

[HostileDonut]

So if I put 1600Mhz memory in that board, it would lower it to 1333Mhz, but then I would go into the BIOS and switch the timings to manual and then select 1600Mhz DDR3, right? That goes for 2000Mhz RAM to, right?

 

[Stardude82]

Something like that. I know for some P57/H55 and all H67 boards for instance you'd have to select a, "XMP" (EXTREME memory profile) to get it to run above 1333 Mhz. Otherwise it should be a matter of adjusting your FSB to RAM ratio and then, adjust timings (and voltage) as needed. The guaranteed values for CAS at a voltage should be given by the manufacture and give you a good starting point.

You might want to have a spare AM3 CPU available just in case it doesn't work out of the box. People as of this January are complaining that newer chips weren't working without a BIOS update.

 

[Deleted member 217926]

XMP is Intel only. On AMD boards you have to set the speed/timings manually.

 

[HostileDonut]

So if I didn't want to OC my CPU I would have my FSB set to 200Mhz, set the RAM to 1600Mhz and set the FSB and RAM ratio to 10 and I would have whatever my stock CPU was and then 1600Mhz RAM, right? If I bought an AMD Phenom II X6 1090T and I want to run it @ 4GHz I would set the multiplier to 5, FSB to 800Mhz, and RAM ratio to 2 and then I would have 4Ghz and 1600Mhz RAM, right? (thought I would give a scenario just to make sure I have it right)

 

[hunter315]

On that board no, AMD allows a much wider range of memory multipliers relative to the system bus than Intel does, and that board has a drop down menu of speed options, select the right one and it will set the appropriate ratio and multiplier for you.

For OCing a 1090T, first, you will never get your base clock up to 800MHz on an AMD system, second, the 1090T has an unlocked multiplier so you just set that to 20 and its at 4GHz, you will likely need to tweak the voltage to get it stable but since you would be adjusting the CPU multiplier you wouldnt even need to touch the memory setting again.

 

[HostileDonut]

Okay, thanks. I am trying to build something for my dad, so I really want it to be as fast as possible.