- May 30, 2001
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See below for background if needed, but the short version is I kinda put the cart before the horse and ordered a processor earlier today. I went 945 instead of the 940 for the DDR3 and AM3 compatibility down the line.
AMD Phenom II X4 945 Deneb 3.0GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor Model HDX945FBGIBOX - Retail
I had been planning on getting this motherboard as a good bang for buck to allow me to re-use memory It appears compatible based on Newegg's specs.
But this link at AMD's page is not listing it as a compatible board.
Will this board I was looking at buying run the 945? Will I need to BIOS update it? Or what AM2+ board can you recommend?
My current box:
ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe Motherboard
BFG GeForce 9800 GT OC 512 Card
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+ Windsor 2.8GHz S Dual-Core Processor
Crucial 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel
XP Pro
2 160 GB 7200 RPM HD (both IDE drives, Seagates)
Running on a 22" widescreen Viewsonic monitor
Have been having some freezing issues, the screen would just lock, no artifacting, no apparent heat issues, I've blown the case out several times. I thought it might be a memory thing, as it seemed the longer I had gone since a reboot the more likely the freeze was, it also showed up the more windows I had open. I guessed I had a bad chip on one stick that only got accessed when I had a lot open or hadn't rebooted for a while. I planned to test it, but hadn't gotten it done, I generally started rebooting just before raiding time and it worked fine.
Then last week one of my hard drives flat disappears, it's not being recognized at all, ruined a night of WoW raiding while I updated one of my installs on the other HD. Hmm I think, maybe that HD was dying. Then the system freezes again. Then 2 days after the "missing" missing hard drive is recognized normally and I can launch wow from my solo play folder.
Friend of mine has the same mobo, and we're thinking the board's a likely culprit, checking here with the AT crew for input both on troubleshooting or new parts to look at.
My main use is playing WoW, raiding and multiboxing. I'm intrigued with the new Phenom IIs because of the ability to use them in AM2+ or AM3, DDR2 or DDR3, and I prefer AMD generally from past comfort.
A new mobo I'm thinking AM2+, allowing me to move a quad core phenom II to an AM3 socket later if worthwhile. 4 memory slots that can all be used would be best, so I can add to my existing memory when I make the 64 bit leap.
Upgrade priorities:
Mobo
HD
CPU
OS
memory
budget probably 2-300, but it might go higher out of sheer frustration, like freezing on me last night while raiding as we pulled a boss.
Help?