Help with this board and maybe a suggestion for a new one?

[Vishera]

ASRock A785GM-LE is my board, mATX with supposed support for AM2, AM2+ AND AM3 CPUs. now i need to know before i buy the AM3 CPU (currently running a phenom x4 9850) if this board will TRULY support AM3 without a BIOS update. i don't want to buy the phenom 2 x4 970 BE and not be able to use it, that's $124 out the window. if it will not, what is a good YET CHEAP (i mean under probably $70) motherboard i can buy? and i cannot afford to have AM3+ for when i upgrade again, it has to be regular AM3. if anyone has suggestions it would really help

 

[RGone]

if this board will TRULY support AM3 without a BIOS update. = The manufacturer's website it your best friend and where any of us would have to go to determine the answer to that question. Most manufacturer websites have a motherboard cpu support list and what the first bios needs to be in order to support which cpu. Truthfully the manufacturer is probably the best resource for what is the earliest bios to use with what cpu, since most of us will never even have seen that board and never will.
RGone...

 

[Mr.Scott]

Bios has to be 1.20 or newer for support......but that doesn't mean you'll actually want to run that processor in that board. The PWM area of that board will not take kindly to a 125w CPU. You can run it, but at your own risk.

EDIT- I'm assuming you have a 95w 9850 in it already. The 9850's also came in the 125w flavor.

 

[Vishera]

no i have the 125w 9850 already so i think i'll be fine as far as the 970's TDP

 

[Vishera]

i have BIOS 1.30 and i already have a 125W CPU so that's not an issue. anything else i should worry about?

 

[Mr.Scott]

Nope. Plug & play.

 

[Vishera]

totally off topic but i found an APU for the same price as the 970, and for less than $250 i can switch the mobo and ram and buy this APU. good idea or bad?

 

[Mr.Scott]

Which APU?

 

[Vishera]

A10-58OOK Trinity 3.8GHz it's $130 the 970 is $125 so same price range, and it cuts the need for a GPU. i calculated the wattage on pcpartpicker and my PSU can still handle the parts i've picked

EDIT: the A8-6600K is $120 should i get that instead?

 

[Mr.Scott]

What do you do with the PC? It'll make a difference on your choice.

 

[Vishera]

i mostly surf the internet but i also want to play gamecube games on emulators, and maybe do actual gaming. would an APU cut it?

 

[Mr.Scott]

For the most part, yes. Depends on the games you play and at what resolution. Personally, I'm a big fan of the APU's. I'd look at the Richland cores.

 

[Vishera]

i might go richland later but for now i think i'll go trinity for budget purposes. definitely going to think about richland though, 4.1GHz stock speed? that's amazing.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Richland saw some pretty big gains over Trinity, its worth the extra few bucks.

 

[Vishera]

i'm getting the A10-6800K now. 4.1GHz stock speed, wow. do these things overclock well?

 

[Mr.Scott]

i'm getting the A10-6800K now. 4.1GHz stock speed, wow. do these things overclock well?

http://hwbot.org/hardware/processor/a10_6800k/

 

[Vishera]

typically how much heat do these put out? i was going to grab the hyper 212 evo for my cooler if i overclock, but i don't want to end up not having an adequate cooler. i mean, if at stock they already run hot under load then obviously an overclock is going to make them blazing, and i'd want a better air cooler or even a liquid cooler.

 

[Mr.Scott]

They're 100w processors. Should be cooler than any of the 125w+ processors you mentioned earlier.