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Upgrade path from socket 754

R

rwo123gr

n00b
Joined
Dec 18, 2006
Messages
22
As topic says, right now i'm on a socket 754, which Premiere is not too happy about.

As much as i would like to wait on the PII i don't think i can, i was thinking of just getting a cheap phenom barebones like: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?EdpNo=4347146&sku=A455-2812 N and saving for a later batch of the new chips.

Is that kit a good deal? Is there something that will take both phenom and II without spending much more? basically i just need the cpu and ram upgrades, i won't really be playing games on this build, and i already have some sata drives to use, so i basically just need whats in that kit + some capable video card. Thanks for any advice.
 
Upgrading your socket 754 is going to be a waste. I think the fastest chip made for it was the 3700+ at 2.4Ghz.
Upgrading to the phenom2's are supposed to be nice. I remember reading some reviews that the Phenom II's would be compatible with a few of the recent Phenom boards, so you may want to just get one of those boards, and buy a cheap 9650 or 9950 AMD and upgrade to a Phenom II in a few weeks.

The Phenom's are good for video editing, so even with a low end quad the performanc increase is going to be incredible over your single core socket 754 build.

K-TRON
 
I don't think that's a good choice if you have hopes of upgrading to a Phenom II at some point. The Phenom II chips that I've seen listed are rated at 125W (the 2.8 & 3.0 GHz CPUs). When I check the Asus CPU support pages for the M2N-SLI, the highest wattage processor that it supports is 95W. That leaves you pretty much dead in the water in terms of how much power the board can deliver. The PII upgrade also assumes that Asus will release a BIOS patch that supports it.

I have the big brother to that board, the M2N-SLI Deluxe, which uses the Nvidia 570 chipset instead of the 560 on the M2N-SLI. The deluxe board supports up to 125W processors (though it's still not rated for the 140W ones that AMD has at the highest end these days). Asus has not yet announced or released a BIOS for it, though I'm hoping they will by the PII launch day. Compared to more recent AM2+ boards, the M2N-SLI Deluxe does not have the split power planes (i.e. it can't run the cores at different speeds to save power) and it doesn't have Hypertransport 3.0. It still remain unconvinced of how important HT 3.0 is over HT 2.0 for most users. The only benchmarks I've seen that show a performance hit are those when people are running integrated graphics (i.e. integrated graphics offloads to the CPU and uses HT as the conduit).

I would also shy away from any of the 9x00 Phenoms due to the TLB bug. I won't go into all of the details here but, in order to avoid the potentially system crashing bug, they turn of the L3 cache which causes a 10-20% performance hit in some applications. Vista SP1 forces this patch on you in software even if you disable the TLB "fix". There are ways around this (search engine for phenom TLB and crystalcpuid), but why bother with all of that if you don't have to? Getting a 9x50 Phenom gets you a more recent Phenom chip that doesn't have the TLB bug. Yes, TigerDirect and a bunch of others have the 9x00 chips on fire sale prices right now, but there is a reason for it.
 
If it's just a placeholder until Phenom2, get a cheap dually instead.

What is your price range and what is the system for?
 
I don't want to get in a peeing contest with anyone on this, but if you google that motherboard, it is a discontinued item on NewEgg. Plus it is specced as an AM2, not an AM2+.

Just an alternative suggestion.

I have actually purchased several of these boards for servers and such where "gaming" video isn't necessary and they work well, have good stuff, good ratings and are cheap. Plug in a better video later if you want.

$100 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138128

I use these memories:

$40 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231122

I have two of these, purchased (for lots more money) right after they came out:

$120 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103244

That's $260 for motherboard, x4 processor and 4 gigs ram. The motherboard supposedly supports 16 gigs, though I haven't been able to buy the 4 gig dimms yet (I intend to).

This is a good starter system, using parts that I have personally used and like. Add the Phenom II later.
 
i have the m2n-sli board and personally id recommend to stay away from it.. after using the m2n-sli board and a 680i ive completely lost trust in nvidia's chipsets and if anything id look at a 780g or 790GX board so that you can in the future upgrade to phenom II which will be am2+/am3(with am2+ backwards compatibility) which the m2n-sli board isnt am2+ so its completely pointless if you want to upgrade to phenom II..
 
sirmonkey1985 said:
i have the m2n-sli board and personally id recommend to stay away from it.. after using the m2n-sli board and a 680i ive completely lost trust in nvidia's chipsets and if anything id look at a 780g or 790GX board so that you can in the future upgrade to phenom II which will be am2+/am3(with am2+ backwards compatibility) which the m2n-sli board isnt am2+ so its completely pointless if you want to upgrade to phenom II..
Click to expand...

If you check the cpu support list you will find with the latest bios it supports all current am2+ cpus.
http://support.asus.com/cpusupport/cpusupport.aspx?SLanguage=en-us

I know three people with this board personally, all with 0 issues. It is a very solid board. I have the M2N32-SLI Deluxe which has the 590 chipset over the 570 chipset the M2N has, and both boards are excellent.

At that price, I would totally buy that kit and put a Phenom 2 in it when they come out. I am keeping my current motherboard for the Phenom 2 because it has proven it self well for almost 2 years now and has the performance I need (last update brought ddr2 1066 support even!! :D).
 
M2N32-SLI Deluxe = Nvidia 590 chipset & can do up to 125W processors
M2N-SLI Deluxe = Nvidia 570 chipset & can do up to 125W processors
M2N-SLI = Nvidia 560 chipset & can do up to 95 W processors

The board in question does NOT support all current am2+ cpus.
 
jcolby said:
I don't want to get in a peeing contest with anyone on this, but if you google that motherboard, it is a discontinued item on NewEgg. Plus it is specced as an AM2, not an AM2+.

Just an alternative suggestion.

I have actually purchased several of these boards for servers and such where "gaming" video isn't necessary and they work well, have good stuff, good ratings and are cheap. Plug in a better video later if you want.

$100 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138128

I use these memories:

$40 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231122

I have two of these, purchased (for lots more money) right after they came out:

$120 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103244

That's $260 for motherboard, x4 processor and 4 gigs ram. The motherboard supposedly supports 16 gigs, though I haven't been able to buy the 4 gig dimms yet (I intend to).

This is a good starter system, using parts that I have personally used and like. Add the Phenom II later.
Click to expand...

Just wanted to state if you do that you can save even more money by getting this combo for the same CPU and Ram:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.143603
 
DesertCat said:
M2N32-SLI Deluxe = Nvidia 590 chipset & can do up to 125W processors
M2N-SLI Deluxe = Nvidia 570 chipset & can do up to 125W processors
M2N-SLI = Nvidia 560 chipset & can do up to 95 W processors

The board in question does NOT support all current am2+ cpus.
Click to expand...

If you read the supported cpu list, the board supports the x4 9850 which is a 125W cpu.
 
The reason I suggested the MB I did is that it has built in 790 graphics which are very respectable for integrated graphics, plus it is a current board with latest chipsets.

It is a nice motherboard. I have used it in a couple of systems including a Media Center to drive a 720P TV. It is not a "high end" board, but it has 6 SATA ports, HDMI (if you want to use that), reasonable sound etc.

Of course there are LOTS of motherboards out there to choose from. I just think that the one in the bundle is a clearance item and you are buying 3 year old technology. For the money you can do better.
 
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