AM2+ mobo to pair with Phenom II 945?

[KiltedFool]

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?

 

[KiltedFool]

Contemplating the following combo from newegg for 259, though my digging around shows this board may have some gremlins, stuttering display that can't be tracked down and debugged.
AMD Phenom II X4 940 Deneb 3.0GHz Socket AM2+ 125W Quad-Core Black Edition Processor Model HDZ940XCGIBOX - Retail
GIGABYTE GA-MA790X-UD4P AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 790X ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

Something at that level of processor and price point is about where I'm aiming at this time.

Any input, recommendations?

 

[KiltedFool]

bought a processor, updated in first post. May have gotten the order of purchases backwards.

 

[baddog60]

It may just be me, but it seems like you may have just made a mistake. The motherboard that you talk about is a very nice one; however, you could have gotten it in a combo deal with the PII 940 and saved around $65. Also, the 940 is a Black Edition that would help you overclock it. I know that the 945 allows a future upgrade to DDR3, but that seems to be a heavy price to pay for something that you may never use.

 

[nenforcer]

For some reason the AM3 portion of AMD motherboards doesn't appear to be fully fleshed out yet and I don't know why.

This is the only AM3 nVidia motherboard on the market and it doesn't support DDR3 just like the Gigabyte board you linked to.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813131383

In fact only the AMD 770, 790FX and 790GX boards support DDR3.

The prices on DDR3 have come down tremendously but performance isn't tremendously greater than DDR2, especially with the much higher latencies of DDR3.

I don't know why you can't buy boards with both DDR2 AND DDR3 slots but that would probably limit the amount of memory too much. (I only run 2GB, though).

I suspect the economy has really slowed release schedules and shifting to DDR3. I'd suspect the vast majority of Phenom ][ purchases are AM2 / DDR2.

 

[KiltedFool]

I debated that exact point, and nearly bought the exact combo at least 3 times. And you're right, I may not ever use that (and then kick myself) or I could kick myself for not going the extra 20 bucks to get the 955 BE. But I don't overclock anyway.

For a variety of unrelated reasons I am actually buying the processor and mobo/other parts on separate orders. Long story.

And I ordered the processor earlier today and it's already shipped, so that ship has sailed.

I am strictly doing this upgrade to improve my performance while multi-boxing 4 shamen in WoW and get some stability back, hence the Phenom II quad core.

Back to my other question, will the 945 run on that board cleanly? Newegg's customer reviews are loaded with successful builds using the 940 and 955 CPUs, but the 945 is invisible.



edit:

Gigabyte's website says it supports it, who to believe?

 

[baddog60]

I can't answer your question directly, but I can say that my board that just came on Friday had the latest F4 BIOS. That should help your chip run on that board. I think the reason for very few reviews is that the 945 does not seem like a compelling chip right now. The 940 is simply at too good a value at its current price. Similarly the 920 is a great chip, but not at the same price as the 940. This is not to say that the 945 or 920 are not good chips, just not as good relative to the 940. Good luck with your build.

 

[lopri]

I have to say 945 will work on 790X-UD4P since I have a 955 running on it. Just make sure to have F4 BIOS ready. The board will likely be coming with F3 BIOS, and it will boot with 945 but will not report correct clock speed in Windows. Upon flashing to F4, things will be merry.

If you're into tinkering with memory timings and such, you may want to seriously consider 790FX variants, though. This 790X board is nearly flawless in its functional aspects, but overclocking options are very sparse (can't complain at its price, however).

 

[KiltedFool]

lopri, great advice, though off by just a hair.

My buddy that helps me build and I fought with the bloody thing for many hours, trying to isolate a potential bad memory chip, wondering if the new HD was faulty, constantly troubleshooting because it would consistently hang during setup.

I had mentioned BIOS updates early in this odyssey but both my buddy and I shy away from them as a rule. BIOS flashes have always scared the hell out of me, no matter how easy the manufacturer's literature claims it is, there's always risk.

Just as my buddy is starting to mention contact numbers for various tech support (has nearly exhausted his knowledge options), I revisit the compatibility chart on GIGABYTE's webpage, which lists the F4 BIOS under that specific processor for this board.

Then a scramble for a floppy drive starts going bad (I have like 1 in the house), until we read that you can do it with a USB flash drive, and I have those coming out my ears.

Flash to F4, crossing my fingers (did I mention it was a thunderstorm outside at the time?), then go back into the process.

Like friggin butter from that point on. Mobo drivers, updated nvidia drivers, AVG, the Windows 7 RC1 OS itself, none of them even gave us a whimper from that point on.

Long story but we got there, and my system does scream now. Now to learn the quirks of Windows 7 and decide which makes more sense on memory, add another 4 GB kit of crucial PC-6400 to what I have, or buy a new 8 GB kit of similar (4 sticks of 2 GB), because I can't spend that much more.