Motherboard for over clocking athlon 7550

[Bjm2587]

Hi there, just bought a budget pc so of course the mother board doesnt support any type of overclocking. My plan is to slowly build this into a water cooled beast by buying and upgrading parts over time. The cpu I'm working with is an athlon x2 socket am2+(940) running at 2.5 And I'm looking for a good motherboard that will support overclocking this cpu. Here's what I'm looking for:
Support SLI
Support up to 6-8gb of ram ddr2 or 3
Support over clocking
Good FSB
Micro ATX


Well I'm new to all this so I'm not exactly sure on what else I should be looking for, recommendations comments and criticisms all welcomed. Thanks.

 

[Dolk]

Well AM2+ boards are common actually, the thing is though... you should have posted this in the AM2+ boards area

Anyway I'll help you out finding a good budget Board. Just give me a sec.

Here is a great Mobo for a budget system: Asus M3N72

 

[Bjm2587]

Oh sorry, it said am2+ then socket 940 so I thought this was the appropriate spot. Can a mod move this? Anyway, thats a decent looking board. I'm changing my list to micro atx because the tower I have now will only hold a micro atx. How do you know that the board will support OC? I'm not looking for anyone to do my work just looking for recommendations from people who have the same cpu as myself. Thanks.

 

[Dolk]

The 7550 is an alright CPU. It follows the old X2 Architecture, so it will not OC to much but it can. As far as Micro ATX wtih SLI support, don't think that is going to happen.

 

[Bjm2587]

Oh ok, didnt know that. Well it is possible none the less so I'll work with what I have. http://www.ripping.org/database.php?cpuid=968
Looks like someone got a 3.4 on it, too bad it doesnt say what kind of cooling or if it was stable. I wonder if I could push 3.6 with watercooling, some guy did it with dry ice. Well the good thing is that once I reached my max with that cpu and I have some cash down the road the phenoms have the same socket. This is the first cpu that I've owned that actually has the potential to OC. It is a budget gaming rig so maybe I wont go with SLi after all.

 

[Dolk]

Make sure you find a board that supports the Phenom IIs. The AM3 Phenom IIs can work on a AM2+ board, but it needs a certain BIOS version in order to work.

 

[Bjm2587]

Ok, there's a lot of research ahead of me. Is there anything special about that '+' ? You've been a great help so far. So on that board you recommended it says CPU Socket Type AM2+/AM2 so it wont support the phenom II correct? I might just go with ATX I have to pop my tower open and find out or maybe I'll buy my new tower at the same time as the board.

 

[Bjm2587]

How do you know if you can use a mobo to OC?

 

[Bjm2587]

This looks like a really good deal. http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicat...1&csid=ITD&recordsPerPage=5&body=#ReviewStart

Any advice before I order?