AM3 processor compatibility with AM2 MB

[Khalgan]

Hello everyone. I have consulted this forum before, but today I finally registered to ask a question.

http://support.asus.com/Knowledge.aspx?SLanguage=en&m=T3-M3N8200&p=8&s=16&hashedid=6t6Ww6Ij8zgn2ee5

The thing is, I'm not sure, I think the people at ASUS are being too optimistic. It's one thing to say that it's possible to fit that processor on the motherboard... and another thing entirely to say that it will work properly. Many of the AM3 processors on the list have a TDP of 125W (and I've seen that this value increases for some models when installed in an AM2 socket). Do you think the motherboard will really be able to handle a processor with that TDP, or should I limit myself to 95W models? It's important to remember that this is a barebone, the cooling is almost non-existent, and I don't see any options for improving it given the design of the case.

Right now, I have an Athlon X2 4850e processor that's 45W. A friend has offered me a Phenom II X4 955 that's 125W. Do you think it would be possible to install that thing on the motherboard? Has anyone done anything like this before?

Any advice would be appreciated

Best regards

[Fassou]

If the micro you want to put appears in the compatibility table, then you can put it, although check if it supports it by limiting the bus, so it would work at half throttle.

About the TDP, you already know that 125W are many and cooling it will be hell, and in a barebone you will have even more problems due to lack of space.

Salu2!

[Khalgan]

The table even shows the 140W model, but there is no more information about it. I have to check the part number of the micro that they offer me, apparently there are several different ones for that model and only one works for me. I already know that the HT will be limited to 1 GHz, there is no remedy for that, but I hope that the frequency of the micro will be maintained. I have looked into it and I have found cases in some English forums of people who made this type of changes without major problems, but in no case did they mention the TDP issue. Regarding the cooling, there is really so little space that I don't think I can put anything better than the stock heatsink there, I will have to make a cardboard box with the measurements of some low profile model... to see if it fits. Thanks for the answer.

[Clipper]

hello, you should say which model of motherboard you have ;D
and by the way, what ram do you have? ddr2 or DDR3?
regards

[Khalgan]

Well, the motherboard appears identified in CPU-Z as "M3N18L T-M3N8200"

In reality, the second part of that code corresponds to the model of the barebone as a whole. Any search you do with that data ends up taking you to the barebone, as if the motherboard did not exist independently... which is very likely since it has a very atypical appearance, it doesn't look like a standard format, at most it has some resemblance to a reduced BTX. I suppose it is exclusive to this series of computers.

The memory is DDR2 PC2-6400, 2x2 Gb, and I have two other slots still free.

[Obione]

If it is this piece of junk you can mount any Phenom II x4 with the latest BIOS (1101).

[Khalgan]

Well, that's the big brother of mine, which came with a more colorful box, a clock on the front and a remote control, otherwise I think they were identical. In my first post I put the link to the ASUS page of my model.

Thanks for the responses, I guess I'll try to put the 955 they offer me... I'll let you know if the transplant comes out well XD

[Clipper]

you can look for something like this too, which when I updated was not expensive, that is, it works better with DDR3
AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz Black Edition 125 W (HDZ965FBGMBOX): Amazon.es: Electronics
regards

[Khalgan]

I'm afraid it's impossible to put DDR3 in it, the sockets on the board are DDR2, they are physically different. Support for DDR3 will be another feature of the micro that I won't take advantage of :wall:

[Clipper]

some time ago when I migrated from a 9950 to a 965 I also faced the problem of DDR until I read an article in which they compared an AMD 965 with DDR2 and with DDR3 the improvement is …. risible given that the 965 being the last AMD micro compatible with DDR2 and DDR3 does not use all the advantages of DDR3 memory
this is the good and the bad that AMD has, with its retrocompatibility policy we save a lot of money when updating the equipment ;D but we never get the maximum performance :llorar: like Intel
greetings
P.D whether you build a 955 or a 965 you will notice a great improvement and more if you do OC on the 965 the "good" one is the 125W I have put it to 4Ghz without problems but it is hot you will need a decent heatsink
greetings2

[Khalgan]

Well, I finally installed the new micro and I had several surprises.

1. The HT goes to 2000 MHz, when I didn't expect it to exceed 1000 MHz as my motherboard is AM2. Maybe the BIOS update has something to do with it, although I don't know to what extent the BIOS can change those parameters.
2. Finally, the memory I had installed goes to its maximum speed of 400 MHz, with the previous micro it went to 357 MHz, I don't think it will be noticed much but it's good.
3. For some reason I can't change the micro's multiplier in the BIOS. It's supposed to be an unlocked version (HDZ955FBK4DGI) of the 955 but the corresponding entries in the BIOS are grayed out. With the previous micro I could modify them even though it was a locked model, although I think I could only lower the values and when I exited the BIOS they would go back to AUTO… I don't remember.

In general I have noticed a considerable improvement in performance, and although I find the multiplier issue strange I didn't plan to do OC... with the case I have it's already pretty hot with its stock speed (in summer I don't know how I'll do, I'll have to think of something). If I find a good deal I might also change the graphics card... but first I'll be testing this for a while.

Thanks to everyone for your help.

Best regards.