Processor Upgrade
in [UK Linux]
|
Prev: UKPost problem
Next: Login question
From: Folderol on 17 Mar 2010 17:44 I have an asus motherboard AM2 socket carrying an Athlon 4200 I understand this mobo has a maximum clock speed of 3.2G I saw a recommendation for upgrade to a Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition but this was quite an old article and these seem as rare as hens teeth. I've seen suggestions to go for a 955 but these are AM3. People say they are backwards compatible with AM2, but logic says there must be some performance or feature downgrade. Does anyone know if this is in fact a practical upgrade and/or if there is a better one (changing the mobo is not an option). The machine is used heavily for music development - particularly softsynths. -- Will J G
From: Jim Price on 17 Mar 2010 18:40 Folderol wrote: > I have an asus motherboard AM2 socket carrying an Athlon 4200 > > I understand this mobo has a maximum clock speed of 3.2G > > I saw a recommendation for upgrade to a Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition > but this was quite an old article and these seem as rare as hens teeth. > > I've seen suggestions to go for a 955 but these are AM3. People say > they are backwards compatible with AM2, but logic says there must be > some performance or feature downgrade. AM3 processors have DDR2 and DDR3 memory controllers - you don't get to use DDR3 memory if you use them in an AM2+ board, and hypertransport will be limited to what your board supports. > Does anyone know if this is in fact a practical upgrade and/or if there > is a better one (changing the mobo is not an option). That depends on which specific motherboard it is, which you haven't told us. You can use some AM3 processors in AM2+ motherboards, but not AM2 unless the motherboard can be made to support AM2+ when given a bios update. That information should be on the manufacturers support web pages which deal with your motherboard model. > The machine is used heavily for music development - particularly > softsynths. Can the software you use actually take advantage of multiple cores? If not, you would be better off with a higher clocked lower core count processor, if processing power is actually a problem. The AMD Phenom II X2 555 is the newest C3 stepping and as fast as you say your motherboard can support, should you not benefit from more cores and your motherboard is upgradeable to AM2+. It is also rated at 80 watts, in case your motherboard cannot support 125 watt processors like the Phenom II X4 955 (which seems to have been manufactured in both C2 and C3 steppings according to amdcompare). -- JimP
From: Folderol on 27 Mar 2010 04:45 A bit slow coming back here - new service doesn't seem to support usenet :( mother board is Asus M2NPV-VM bios is 503 - curious as the asus website claims that the lowest version number compatible with my current process or ai 1200 (or thereabouts). I've got a floppy drive I can plug in so can flash an upgrade. I can't seem to find any information on the maximum power handling of this motherboard. However, the current processor stays consistently at 40degC with very little fan activity even when both cored are running about 70%. The asus website doesn't say anything about compatibility with AM2+ or AM3 chips and the reading I've done via search engines is unsurpisingly varied. Some of the software does already take advantage of the existing two cores, I can see the activity levels shifting about and the usage is mostly fairly even. -- Will J G
From: Jim Price on 27 Mar 2010 12:41 Folderol wrote: > A bit slow coming back here - new service doesn't seem to support > usenet :( That is all too common nowadays. > mother board is Asus M2NPV-VM > bios is 503 - curious as the asus website claims that the lowest version > number compatible with my current process or ai 1200 (or thereabouts). The most recent BIOS for that board is from 2008. I don't see any Phenom II support at all. The only Phenom supported is the 9450, which is very old. If it doesn't support any other AM2+ processors, my guess would be that it is not going to work well with the processor you were looking at. > I've got a floppy drive I can plug in so can flash an upgrade. Probably academic unless you can find a supported processor which is worth the price of the upgrade. > I can't seem to find any information on the maximum power handling of > this motherboard. However, the current processor stays consistently at > 40degC with very little fan activity even when both cored are running > about 70%. It looks to be 125W max. That motherboard doesn't have the greatest reputation for stability, so I would not provoke it by upgrading the processor to something which draws more power than the one you already have, or 89W if your current one is an energy efficient model. > The asus website doesn't say anything about compatibility with AM2+ or > AM3 chips and the reading I've done via search engines is unsurpisingly > varied. It only does DDR2 up to 800MHz, so I would not expect full AM2+ compatibility (which includes higher speed RAM). Other than that, the processors supported by the BIOS should all work, with reservations about the higher power ones. AM2+ processors not supported by the BIOS stand some chance of working, but it is only a theoretical chance. They may not run at full speed, in which case they would not be much use as an upgrade. The BIOS needs to be aware of the stepping of the processor, and the most recent BIOS for your board only supports up to G2 processors. G was the last series of K8 architecture steppings, whereas K10 started the sequence again and is now up to C, so don't assume that if the first letter is lower, it will be an older stepping. One of the issues with AM3 processors is that without the motherboard and BIOS support, how is the processor going to choose whether it should use its DDR2 or its DDR3 controller. Unlike most other options, there is no failsafe for this one, as DDR2 is not backward compatible from DDR3. That is a showstopper for AM3 on AM2 motherboards, unless your motherboard specifically supports it. > Some of the software does already take advantage of the existing two > cores, I can see the activity levels shifting about and the usage is > mostly fairly even. Why was it you can't upgrade the motherboard? It was released in 2006, so although it is by no means useless, it is a little long in the tooth. If you do decide to upgrade the processor, bear in mind that stepping updates also usually provide a small speed boost aswell as clock speed. You can check stepping info on amdcompare.com, which suggests that the fastest G2 stepping processor which will work with your board would be the Athlon X2 6000+. Watch out when purchasing, if you do, as there is also an Athlon X2 6000+ at F3 stepping, which will not be as good, and given that your upgrade choices are limited to processors which are not that much faster (<50%) thanthe one you already have, I would say a motherboard+processor[+memory] upgrade would be more cost efficient, but would cost quite a bit more. DDR3 is quite expensive (very expensive compared to itself a year or so ago), so re-using your DDR2 in an AM2+ board with an AM3 processor would be the middle ground. That's going to be about £120 for something noticeably faster than what you have already (Athlon X3 440 and decent AM2+ board). The processor you were thinking of is going to be over £100 on its own, so it isn't necessarily in the wrong ballpark financially. If you are already short of memory, this might not be the way to go though. Any final choice might be affected by which linux distro you are using too. HTH -- JimP
From: Folderol on 29 Mar 2010 16:16
Thanks for such a detailed (but ultimately depressing) reply. I didn't want to go for a whole motherboard upgrade, partly because I don't want to 'waste' a seeming fully functional unit, but also because I'd only about 18 months ago got a new graphics card for it, and about a year ago doubled the memory to 4G so wanted to get some value for money out of it all. I'm wondering if an Athlon 5600 might be a reasonable intermediate compromise 2.9G (where as the current one is 2.2G but still low power. I've also seen them advertised for 40-50 quid. The other point is that I have a Sempron in my 'office' machine, with a similar motherboard, so could push the old Athlon over to that and get two bites of the cherry. I run debian based OSs. Currently squeeze with RT patches. -- Will J G |