need a new cpu, possibly mobo

[Georgy291]

short and sweet,

check left for what i curently have
<--------------

i know that my cpu is bottlenecking my system big time so i was thinking upgrade.

What would you advice, stick a am2+ phenom x4 in to it or completely get a new board and cpu.

curently i dont think i have big budget, possibly £100 at most, hence im asking do i buy phenom now or keep saving up for something desent

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

short and sweet,

check left for what i curently have
<--------------

i know that my cpu is bottlenecking my system big time so i was thinking upgrade.

What would you advice, stick a am2+ phenom x4 in to it or completely get a new board and cpu.

curently i dont think i have big budget, possibly £100 to £120 at most, hence im asking do i buy phenom now or keep saving up for something desent

This is no mention of support for the newer AMD 45NM processors in the offical CPU support list for your motherboard:

http://www.abit.com.tw/cpu-support-l...md770_ax78.htm

Also the SB600 southbridge would probably not run the HT at full speed for the Athlon II and Phenom II.

However you can still do an AMD based upgrade for around £100.

I would probably look at the following upgrade:

AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition ~ £68

http://www.scan.co.uk/TodayOnly/Index.aspx

Asus M3A78-T ~ £52

http://www.scan.co.uk/TodayOnly/Index.aspx

The Asus is a 790GX motherboard which has excellent reviews and was originally around £100 to £125! Even if you cannot afford to get a processor ATM the motherboard is well worth the upgrade cost IMHO!

Also an X2 550BE at stock clockspeeds is faster than even a 3.2GHZ X2 6400:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?p=27&p2=97

Since your processor is at around 2.6GHZ and equates to an X2 5000+ the X2 550BE is massively faster:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?p=33&p2=97

The X2 545 is also available which is slightly lower clocked and does not have the unlocked multiplier of the X2 550BE.

Scan have it for £63 on Today Only:

http://www.scan.co.uk/TodayOnly/Index.aspx

Also you maybe able to unlock an X2 550BE or X2 545 to a quad core too if you are lucky!!

[Pob255]

That is an am2+ motherboard and it's also HT3.0 5200MT/s so it should in theory support athlon II and phenom II
Your best bet is ask on the Abit care section
I'm sure Buff will know
http://forums.hexus.net/abit-care-hexus/

[BUFF]

there is a beta BIOS for the AX78 that supposedly added support for early Phenom IIs CPUs but it wasn't a great BIOS for overclockers.
http://nf7sextreme.lvcoyote.com/M706A_14.zip
Of course it's also possible that it will run a 45nm CPU on an earlier BIOS but just not have the CPU microcode to recognize it by name in the BIOS

[scaryjim]

... the SB600 southbridge would probably not run the HT at full speed ...

That is an am2+ motherboard and it's also HT3.0 5200MT/s so it should in theory support athlon II and phenom II ...

Listen to Pob The Southbridge has no impact on HT speed. As it's a 770-chipset mobo it'd run HT at full HT3.0 speed (it's the northbridge that determines HT speed, not the southbridge - the first batch of 700 chipsets, including the 790FX, had SB600 southbridges because AMD hadn't got SB700 working in time ).

Without BIOS support you'd run the risk of a Phenom II only being run at minimum multipltier (i.e. X4 == 800MHz): a couple of people reported this issue on here about 6 months ago...

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Listen to Pob The Southbridge has no impact on HT speed. As it's a 770-chipset mobo it'd run HT at full HT3.0 speed (it's the northbridge that determines HT speed, not the southbridge - the first batch of 700 chipsets, including the 790FX, had SB600 southbridges because AMD hadn't got SB700 working in time ).

Oops! Perhaps I was thinking of the 740G motherboards which had the SB600 which could not run the HT at full speed.

Without BIOS support you'd run the risk of a Phenom II only being run at minimum multipltier (i.e. X4 == 800MHz): a couple of people reported this issue on here about 6 months ago...

Which basically means a new motherboard then if the beta BIOS has issues!!

The OP may have some success with the BIOS listed in this thread:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/Forums/...d.php?t=214285

Even then you can barely overclock the processor.

Anyway the SB750 has far better overclocking ability than the SB600 anyway and can unlock cores to if you are lucky.

The OP could probably sell their existing motherboard and RAM for around £40 to £50.

Hence my advice still stands.

[Pob255]

Yes the 600sb limits your overclock and I seem to rememberr that the Sata access time wasn't that good and fewer usb ports.

The thing to do would be get a newer cpu and try it, if it doesn't work then get a new motherboard.

[Georgy291]

cheers for the advice, but the thing is i cant buy the cpu and see if it works as if it doesnt i wouldnt be able to afford to buy a mobo with it....il just keep saving up til the summer possibly i5 then

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

cheers for the advice, but the thing is i cant buy the cpu and see if it works as if it doesnt i wouldnt be able to afford to buy a mobo with it....il just keep saving up til the summer possibly i5 then

Well if you sell you existing parts you could afford the upgrade.

A cheaper upgrade could based around the following parts:

ASROCK K10N78 ~ £42

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/160996

AMD Athlon II X3 435 ~ £58

http://www.scan.co.uk/TodayOnly/Index.aspx

A comparison of your processor to a stock clocked X3 435:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?p=112&p2=33