CPU Compatibility?

[Helgaiden]

My brother's system (Rig 2 in sig) is showing its age trying to play CoD: Black Ops. 4gigs ram, 8600gts, Athlon 64x2 5200 windsor. It runs bad. He is also trying to play the new Medal of Honor game.

The graphics card can be upgraded, looking at a ATI 5750 or Nvidia 450 however CPU has me stumped. It is an ABIT AN52 Socket AM2 mobo. Newegg doesnt carry much in the away of socket AM2 specific CPUs anymore, however they have a slew of AM2+ and AM3. Would any of those work? What would be a recommended CPU upgrade?


I found this on the ABIT site for BIOS update...
http://www.abit.com.tw/page/en/down...ard&pTITLE_ON_SCREEN=AN52&pSOCKET_TYPE=Socket AM2

"Update CPU Micro code to support Phenom CPU and Athlon 4X50 series and Sempron X2 CPU" Not sure what to make of that.


Keeping cost conscious, i saw this CPU...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103644
AMD Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition Deneb 3.0GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM2+ 125W Quad-Core Processor
One of the reviewers mentioned it was a great upgrade for his aging Socket AM2 system. What do you guys think? Will it work? Assuming it does, the only tradeoff is reduced Hyper Transport speeds right?

 

[QuietIce]

I'm just guessing here but that BIOS update says "Phenom" not "Phenom II" and it was written in June 2008, which was before the Phenom II came out IIRC, so my bet is, no Phenom II support.

It does seem to support the Phenom but it's odd that those haven't been added to the CPU support list even though the 4x50's from that same update have been added.

I also noticed the FX-62, which is a 125W processor, is on the list. That means (assuming the Phenom's are supported) the 9850BE would be the highest you could go.


The HT Link speed is determined by the board so you'll only see 1000 MHz ...

 

[Badbonji]

I am sure the Phenom II isn't supported, only on AM2+/3 boards. If you can afford a new motherboard too the Phenom II's are much better than the 1st generation.

 

[QuietIce]

I think I've seen a couple that support Phenom II but that's all, one or maybe two. Most manufacturers didn't bother to write new BIOS's for boards that old ...

 

[Helgaiden]

What would that mean if i ended up with the phenom 2 from my first post in that board? No post?

a little more resarch showed this...
http://forums.extremeoverclocking.com/showthread.php?p=3795614

No Quad-core support. Lame, looks like new mobo is gonna be the only answer.