AM2 or LGA775 motherboards that use DDR memory?

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philodox

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 6, 2004
Messages
372
Hi all,

If this has been asked already I am sorry, but I did a search and didn't find anything. I have a DFI LanParty s939 motherboard which uses a A64 3000+ and 2GB of DDR memory. I bought the 2GB of RAM recently and don't feel like trading up for DDR2 at the moment, but really want a dual core processor. After scouring the Canadian sites I can't seem to find a reasonably priced s939 dual core processor [x2, FX or opteron] and started looking at the AM2's and Conroes. The prices are so low that I have been thinking my best bet may be to try to get a transitional board of some kind that will allow me to use one of the new sockets and my old memory.

Are there any AM2 or LGA775 [conroe] motherboards that can take DDR memory? It would also have to have PCI-E as I have a Sapphire X1900GT.

EDIT: Alternatively, if anyone knows of a good place a Canadian can get a dual core s939 it would be appreciated. :)

Thanks in advance,

Jason
 
As far as I know, AM2 and 775 both require DDR2. You'll have to stick with the 939 chipset to continue using DDR. If I'm way off, someone correct me!
 
AM2 CPU's have an integrated memory controller that only supports DDR2, meaning it is physically impossible to create an AM2 + DDR1 motherboard.

LGA775 CPU's don't have an integrated memory controller, so an LGA775 + DDR1 motherboard is possible. There's only one that I know of, the 775-Dual VSTA made by ASRock. It's an LGA 775 motherboard with DDR1, DDR2, PCIe, and AGP support.
 
There are no AM2 motherboards with DDR1 support. AMD DDR1 is s939 in the higher end CPU's.

LGA775, I think the best option is the ASRock Dual-VSTA or the newer ASRock 4coreDual-VSTA.
http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=4CoreDual-VSTA

Not going to hit any killer OC's with it, but it will support DDR1 and Conroe.

Edit: Someone beat me, although I did link to the newer motherboard :p.
 
Whats different between the 774Dual-VSTA and the 4CoreDual-VSTA? Just quad core support?
 
there are a number of motherboards that can run core 2 with ddr 1-184 pin . most of them have the via 880-pro-chipset . there may be some via 890's that can run ddr 1 as well with the core 2. there is even a version of the asrock 775 dual vista that can run the fastest quad core core 2's .:eek: :cool:
 
Unknown-One said:
Whats different between the 774Dual-VSTA and the 4CoreDual-VSTA? Just quad core support?
Click to expand...

Yeah, I dont' think there's really too much different. Maybe they'll give more than x4 bandwidth to the PCIe x16 slot :).
 
Wow, thanks for the quick responses everyone. Looks like that ASRock board is my answer. Are they reliable? I have always gone with ASUS in the past and got my most recent DFI board as a matter of necessity.

Thanks again. :)
 
There are opteron 165s for ~$150 on newegg. that's not a bad price to jump to dual core, and they often have good oc'ing results (2.6 on air cooling for many)

zv
 
philodox said:
Wow, thanks for the quick responses everyone. Looks like that ASRock board is my answer. Are they reliable? I have always gone with ASUS in the past and got my most recent DFI board as a matter of necessity.

Thanks again. :)
Click to expand...

Maybe a PM to JSF35rhino would be a good idea. He has one of the Dual-VSTA boards and he's posted a lot about it in other threads. He has a lot more firsthand experience with the boards than I do :). I've used ASRock boards before and have had no issues with them (a couple different 939 Dual-SATA2's, some older Socket A boards).

If you got the ASRock with a E4300, you might have a great budget OCing combo.
 
zero_vertical said:
There are opteron 165s for ~$150 on newegg. that's not a bad price to jump to dual core, and they often have good oc'ing results (2.6 on air cooling for many)
Click to expand...
Unfortunately newegg doesn't sell to Canada. :(
kirbyrj said:
If you got the ASRock with a E4300, you might have a great budget OCing combo.
Click to expand...
The place that I am most likely buying from has the E6300 for only $12CDN more than the E4300, so I will probably go with that. The E6400 is $50 over the price of the E6300, so it is probably not worth my while. I doubt I will be overclocking the processor anyways.

I'll see if I can find some of those threads you were talking about and will PM him if I have any more questions about the ASRock board. Thanks. :)
 
It was either JSF35rhino or WesleysDad. One of the two of them uses it regularly :).
 
The only limitation I'm aware of is that these boards have issues going over 300MHz FSB without a voltage mod (pencil mod, so its really easy to do).
 
philodox said:
Wow, thanks for the quick responses everyone. Looks like that ASRock board is my answer. Are they reliable? I have always gone with ASUS in the past and got my most recent DFI board as a matter of necessity.

Thanks again. :)
Click to expand...
I've been using the AsRock board with my E6300 for a couple months now. I haven't played with OCing much, simply b/c I didn't buy this board to OC with. It's done everything I've asked of it. I use PCIe and DDR2 on it, without issue. The mATX board in my HTPC uses the same chipset, and has no problems with AGP and DDR.

I just got a BadAxe2, and am going to be rebuilding this machine once I move some files around. I know this isn't the FS forum, but I'm going to put the AsRock up for $45 shipped, if you're interested.

-bZj
 
philodox said:
Wow, thanks for the quick responses everyone. Looks like that ASRock board is my answer. Are they reliable? I have always gone with ASUS in the past and got my most recent DFI board as a matter of necessity.

Thanks again. :)
Click to expand...
AsRock is Asus. ;)
 
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