AM2 user looking to go quad

I would imagine that it should work fine. Either way, I wouldn't waste the money on any upgrades for that system. You'd be surprised what upgrades you could get for $200 or less.
 
If you have a microcenter nearby, you can upgrade to a 965 and AM3 motherboard with an AMD chipset for about $140 or so. Toss in a set of 2x2gb DDR3 RAM for about $20-30, and you're good to go.
 
it *may* work, chances are BIOSTAR dropped the support for it, so your friend can roll the dice, however best bet is go to Microcenter (if possible) and pick up a deal on a quad + AM2+ board, and just reuse the ram
 
Jimmy the Greek said:
Was it just that X4s weren't available when they made the board, or are there AM2 boards that won't support X4 chips?
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There were a lot AM2 motherboards out there that did not support AMD's new Phenom I CPUs due to the motherboard manufacturer not providing support for those motherboards. It looks that particular Biostar was one of the AM2 mobos not given support for the old Phenom based PSUs let alone the new Athlon II or Phenom II X4 CPUs
 
Tsumi said:
If you have a microcenter nearby, you can upgrade to a 965 and AM3 motherboard with an AMD chipset for about $140 or so. Toss in a set of 2x2gb DDR3 RAM for about $20-30, and you're good to go.
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Agreed. Or Fry's, Newegg has good combos as well.
 
i owned the nforce 550 version of this board. it'll take a phenom 1 but not the phenom ii.
 
If you're lucky a Phenom 1 might work, a Phenom II 940 will be pushing it.

Then again with AMD parts being so cheap and RAM being affordable, better buy a budget AM3 mobo + x2 555 (unlock the cores) and DDR3 RAM instead.
 
yimingwuzere said:
If you're lucky a Phenom 1 might work, a Phenom II 940 will be pushing it.

Then again with AMD parts being so cheap and RAM being affordable, better buy a budget AM3 mobo + x2 555 (unlock the cores) and DDR3 RAM instead.
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Unlocking is not guaranteed, and then he would be stuck with another dual core part if that happened.
 
yimingwuzere said:
If you're lucky a Phenom 1 might work, a Phenom II 940 will be pushing it.

Then again with AMD parts being so cheap and RAM being affordable, better buy a budget AM3 mobo + x2 555 (unlock the cores) and DDR3 RAM instead.
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A Phenom 1 will not work in that board. It was made around the same time as the original TForce 570/590 motherboards, and according to Biostar, when I asked them if the TForce 570 SLI I had at the time would support Phenom processors, the answer was no, because: " the Biostar AM2 motherboards made in 2006/2007 do not have the necessary power plane configuration to support AM2+ processors."
 
From the website below states you can put in a Phenom 9850 and some googling seems to jive with this as well(With minor glitches pertaining to CPU fan control and poor OC) however from the biostar website it is not officially supported.

http://www.cpu-upgrade.com/mb-Biostar/NF520-A2_SE_6.0.html

A Phenom 9850 can be had for 50 dollars on sale at Tiger Direct but I would agree with others that a cheap combo with an Athlon II x4 and AM3 motherboard would be great if your willing to buy new ram. Plus once bulldozer comes out you can grab a Phenom II X6 from the bargain bin down the road.
 
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Andy735 said:
From the website below states you can put in a Phenom 9850 and some googling seems to jive with this as well(With minor glitches pertaining to CPU fan control and poor OC) however from the biostar website it is not officially supported.

http://www.cpu-upgrade.com/mb-Biostar/NF520-A2_SE_6.0.html

A Phenom 9850 can be had for 50 dollars on sale at Tiger Direct but I would agree with others that a cheap combo with an Athlon II x4 and AM3 motherboard would be great if your willing to buy new ram. Plus once bulldozer comes out you can grab a Phenom II X6 from the bargain bin down the road.
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I don't see how that board would support a 9850 (since finding the 95W version is extremely hard), when they haven't tested the lower 9000 series for compatibility. I honestly would not chance it

I went by Biostar's recommended CPU List for the NF520-A2 SE, which is the closest I could find to the board in the NewEgg link. Now, the NF520-A2 TE supports Phenom 1 and 2 processors.

Like I said before, from experience, a vast majority of Biostar's AM2 boards made in '07 support AM2+ boards, the power circuitry is not dual-plane (not split-plane like on AM3), which is a requirement for AM2+ compatibility, as I had a TForce 570SLI... I loved that board, first AM2 board I had that came close to 300MHz HT ref clock, as long as I didn't fill all 4 DIMM slots, couldn't go over 233 if I did.
 
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