n00b with sempron, advice sought

[RGone]

There's lots of false claims made by ECS about this mobo as I have also not seen a single success on this board but there was a few with a asus or asrock board with a 6150 chipset ,but ecs also say it will support a x6 thuban have you had a look at it !!!

I got sick of looking at all the hype for the board. Now I have to stop and think. As long as users stay away from overclocking ideas, the board might perform okay. It is cheap and many many look for that only. But cheap is seldom worth a hoot at overspeeding parts reliably.

The whole search was just more and more of the same about how good it unlocked stuff, but again not a single user reporting how they achieved success.

 

[popeyejohnson]

ecs = liars and theives

@RGone,
thats basically my thinking mate,
i couldnt find any one who had actually managed it either
which is why i came here in the first place,
ive also been on the bios mods website and allthough there are many requests for an unlock/overclock feature for this board no one has wrote one as far as i can find,
but it seems strange that they (ecs) would advertise it as something it blatantly is not, if only to avoid trading standards.
but regardless i thank you for your time and effort schooling me in this, its appreciated

@Kenny
i tried the unlock feature on each of the 3 bios ive had in the last 2 days and it boots as normal and shows a sempron 140 so ?????????
as i was reading round last night i came across something that seemed to suggest that if i put i black edition cpu in i would get more options appear in bios but now i want to reread it and link to it i cant bloody find it (same as it ever was!)
and i also want to thank you kenny and for that matter all who posted here for trying to help me with this
1 last question! do am3 and am3+ work on the same boards? or do they have different pin patterns/power needs or something?
cheers folkes
popeye

 

[RGone]

The best way to answer your question about AM3 and AM3+ is really to determine the board you are interested in and then look at the board manufacturer's supported cpu list for that motherboard. That should make the answer always correct. Reduces guessing.

In todays market place " I " would not buy a motherboard just for a single core Sempron. I would buy with at least a glance at the future which still can be like looking thru a fog. There are any number of pretty good 9xx chipset motherboards that will still work with a Sempron cpu and even unlock it. And getting a good 9xx chipset motherboard leaves me with a path to go with the Bulldozer/FX-series cpu also. So I am not facing getting a new motherboard if my money gets 'right' and I want a newer cpu.

 

[keny]

@kenny
i tried the unlock feature on each of the 3 bios ive had in the last 2 days and it boots as normal and shows a sempron 140 so ?????????
as i was reading round last night i came across something that seemed to suggest that if i put i black edition cpu in i would get more options appear in bios but now i want to reread it and link to it i cant bloody find it (same as it ever was!)
and i also want to thank you kenny and for that matter all who posted here for trying to help me with this
1 last question! do am3 and am3+ work on the same boards? or do they have different pin patterns/power needs or something?
cheers folkes
popeye

No probs mate. its just a shame that your'e board did not want to play nice, to be honest i would not bother put any other cpu in that board, it is a realy low end board and will more than likely give you more trouble than its worth, i would definately recommend getting a new board preferably a AM3+ as these boards are also bbackward compatible with AM3 making it a future proof board which should support youre AM3 sempy also

 

[popeyejohnson]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ASRock-N6...oards_CPUs&hash=item19d002f37c#ht_2950wt_1029

thats an unlock board isnt it?
amd am3+
so...... if i get that ive got an unlock am3+ board and 2 semprons to try and unlock and ill only be a HDD and RAM away from having a 2nd system

thoughts?

 

[RGone]

Another Nvidia chipset motherboard. Asrock would have to do all the programming to make unlock hidden cores. AMD provided the information to motherboard makers for ACC unlocking. ACC would n0t run on Nvidia chipsets.

I would buy AMD chipset motherboard only. You of course may spend your money as you see fit. IF you have issues with overclocking, we may not be able to help you as well with Nvidia chipset mobo. There again you have to decide for yourself what to buy.

This used as google search terms >> N68-VS3 FX unlock sempron 140 << did not make me jump for joy at all the positive results. Now you know what " I " think. You still have to do as you see fit to do and good luck to you no matter what.

 

[keny]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ASRock-N6...oards_CPUs&hash=item19d002f37c#ht_2950wt_1029

thats an unlock board isnt it?
amd am3+
so...... if i get that ive got an unlock am3+ board and 2 semprons to try and unlock and ill only be a HDD and RAM away from having a 2nd system

thoughts?

That's only a am3 board mate,and a pretty poor example of one also, the tell tale sign of am3+ board is a black CPU socket (for future reference) I know you are trying to find a good unlock board but there are a shed load of boards out there that will unlock youre sempy and not break the bank and are a hundred times better. You want to be looking for something like this, not to expensive but will get the job done.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/140776893...om=R40&_nkw=140776893376&_rdc=1#ht_2142wt_922

 

[popeyejohnson]

ok progress,
yesterday a pal came round (who knows his onions rather than me who nose e nose note!.:0) and when he booted into bios>freq.+volt there were over-clocking options!
we turned it up but it failed to boot
so we cleared the jumper on mo bo, and went again,and the over-clock options had gone! so i googled (again) this p o s board and ended up reading a Spanish review that said that the over-clock options only become available on black edition cpu, as they have an unlocked multiplier(?)
but they were there however briefly
so they can be gotten to!
at the min im exploring getting a modded bios but when i find one for my board the link is always dead so i put a request up on biosmods.com so ill see where that goes. as it stands i want a better pc and today just before the close of business my solitor rang me to confirm ive had a compo offer for £1600 for a crash last year so ive told him to take that and am now waiting on that (3 week tops)
of that i can afford to spend about £150-£200 on my pc wich i realise is not a lot
but im thinking of a cpu (maybe with mo bo -bundles on ebay look good) and graphics card which will then leave me with my current board and cpu to throw in a cheap case with an old hd and use as either a media centre or sell (i could even sell it as an unlock board! it is no such thing but all the documentation supports the lie!)
or i may not as im a believer in karma so that's what im doing.
its all good round here right now!
whilst im looking round i may bring back links to things i am considering for your opinion if it would not be to much trouble as so far here every one who has spoken to me has been knowledgable and cordial wich is getting rare on forums now
one last thing i know (or think i do!) that am3 is backwards compatible with am2+ would that be the same with 3+ & 3? because if it is i may not get a bundle and put an octo-core on this ecs abomination! they can be had kinda cheaply if i dont have to buy a mo bo too
as ever thanks for taking the time to read!
pop-eye

 

[RGone]

@ "popeyejohnson" sorry for the accident that may bring you some money. Glad you are getting some money. The mcp61m-m3 v7.0 mobo seems little more than a piece of junk if you want to walk into an "overclockers" arena. Fine if you mostly want to leave things alone even if a BE type processor is plugged into the socket.

Second only to a power supply, the motherboard is the foundation of any hopes of high performance. Everything else plugs into the motherboard. CPU, RAM, Video card and all have to live in the mobo foundation. A crappy foundation and the whole house/building falls down or develops cracks in the building.

Get a good nOn Nvidia chipset motherboard and build from there on a decent motherboard foundation. Also get a good cpu cooler. Get an AMD chipet mobo, with cpu unlocking and maybe you could unlock your current cpu to two cores. But lay a good foundation before spending money on cpus and video cards or just plan to have some sort of issue from now on with motherboards that do not have decent bios options made for overclocking. That is my honest opinion. YMMV of course.

 

[RGone]

I just decided to show this separately and not try and put in the post above. I have bought similar before to use for a 'customer' build. Sometimes with careful looking thru the components, you can buy a group of parts cheaper than buying one piece at a time.

You need to find you some place where you live that you can order from and has kits similar to these. A lot of the barebones configurations there I would not touch with a 10 foot pole but there are some that would do pretty good for the price.

Barebones Computers : phenom ii x4 975

 

[popeyejohnson]

rgone, the accident was a minor car crash, i had a bit of whiplash no more. and at £1600 well worth it, if i wasn't an honest man id make it into a profession! alas i am honest and have a profession already.
i understand the sentiment as to laying a good foundation, and am reading profusely to try and get a bead on this
as to getting another unlock board and trying the cpu againb there is a bundle on ebay with a mo bo sempron and ram for 85 delivered wich would give me 2 shots at an unlock and a flying start on another build

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ASRock-N6...ards_CPUs&hash=item256f90f029#ht_3113wt_1029#

and walking into the over-clockers arena- i know i have a low end rig so i came to a place where people work towards making them perform better than stock in the hope of learning a trick or two to stop my rig sucking soooooo badly. i have seen people claiming clocks of over 3.5ghz on the sempron 140 and thought i could get some of that because i have direct quote from ecs
The first and only MCP61 unlock board in the world!
ECS MCP61M-M3 supports the new socket AM3 for AMD Phenom II™ processor, and features the NVIDIA GeForce6150SE/nForce430 integrated chipset, which deliveries the outstanding performance to support Dual-Channel DDR3 memory up to DDR3 1333.MCP61M-M3 also provides ECS Unlock to enable specified 2/3 core CPU to 4 core. MCP61M-M3 is the best choice for family and commercial use, it delivers a high performance and professional for AMD platform solution.
sorry for making you read that drivel.
as a mo bo this makes a pretty good tea-strainer!

but i was also looking at this

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Motherboa...oards_CPUs&hash=item19cfe51ef6#ht_2868wt_1029

its clocked at 4.2ghz out the box wich is handy because i dont think that has overclock options but with 4 cores at 4.2 coming from a 2,7 sempy i dont suppose it would need to..... untill it does!

i noticed your avatar do you have an opinion on the bulldozer architecture? im reading a lot of mixed reviews around the web- as in 100% contradiction 103% of the time leaving me (knowing little) confused
jax ms is jacksonville mississippi?

 

[popeyejohnson]

i have posted on bios mods website regarding the missing options on my mobo i spoke to a chap who sent me a file telling me it was for my board but... well this is a copy+paste of the file name=
Acer Emachines WMCP61M Motherboard P01-A1 Unlocked By 1234s282
now i can see mcp61m is in there but.....????!!!! so ....
mcp61m would be my chipset then but what do the other characters denote and is there a way back from a bad flash? it comes with a flash utility too so i would of thought that if its wrong it wouldnt let me continue? i would (will) ask the bloke who sent it me but it was sent via pm a few hours ago and he isnt on line now
sorry for question after question

 

[RGone]

The bios you were sent is for an Acer or make that Emachine desktop setup. Apparently the motherboard you have was used in the Emacahine. The bios was 'unlocked' to give more options to that motherboard that came in an Emachine but with almost all the bios menu options hidden from view of the Emachine buyer. That keeps peeps with no skills from dorking up a setup while it is in warranty.

The bios for the Emachine mobo was modded By 1234s282 to unhide the hidden bios options.

Depending on the flasher, it might flash no matter how well the bios fits the motherboard.

 

[popeyejohnson]

i have an ami bios and that is award? does that matter or is it like using windows or linux? ie you can choose?
also looks like am2 im am3 would that matter? support for ddr3? i know these are questions i should be asking him so ill go and do that thanks for your time mate. if you are on the mississippi, i hope to be there around christmas, allways wanted to see it but visa's are a ***** and i await an answer......

spoke to the guy. wrong file. no explanation or anything he only joined the forum today. that ****ed up man could of put an entire family out of internet school work budgeting and correspondence until my money lands in 3 week. proper good job i checked or i would of been in trouble!

 

[RGone]

i got to know the bios modder pretty darn good before I try anything they have done. You are more glad you checked with them before disaster, than I could ever be but am glad you looked around first before flash.

Edit:
noticed your avatar do you have an opinion on the bulldozer architecture? I am skipping BullDozer with all its' heat and waiting on PileDriver sometime in maybe August. im reading a lot of mixed reviews around the web- as in 100% contradiction 103% of the time leaving me (knowing little) confused
jax ms is jackson mississippi?
End Edit.

 

[popeyejohnson]

sig test

 

[RGone]

sig test

Need what is cooling the cpu.

Need at least what power supply by model number and watts.

 

[popeyejohnson]

ok my money turned up an hour ago, so now im activly looking for a bargain, so i had a look on gumtree and have found this
http://www.gumtree.com/p/for-sale/amd-phenom-x4-9550-series-quad-core-processor/107091245
and this
http://www.gumtree.com/p/for-sale/gtx-550-ti-1gig-gddr5-asus/107599266
and this
http://www.gumtree.com/p/for-sale/sapphire-radeon-hd-6670-2gb-ddr3/107437257
do you think any of those are worth having at the money? it would go into my current ecs p.o.s. mobo for now.....

popeye
ps am2/2+ cpu work in am3 yes? or have i got my a: about face?

 

[trents]

An AM2/AM2+ CPU will not work in an AM3 or AM3+ board. Absolutely not! AM3 and AM3+ motherboards use only DDR3 ram and there is no AM2/AM3+ CPU that has a memory controller that will work with DDR3 ram. An AM2/AM2+ CPU will only work with DDR2 ram. However, an AM3/AM3+ CPU will work in some AM2+ motherboards because the AM3 CPU has a memory controller that was developed after DDR2 memory technology was developed and technically, at least can use DDR2 memory.

Summary:

AM3/AM3+ CPU might work on an AM2/AM2+ motherboard, if the board's bios supports the particular CPU.

AM2/AM2+ CPU will not work on an AM3/AM3+ motherboard.

 

[caddi daddi]

popeyejohnson, i have spent days undoing what software
overclocking has damaged (just ask Rgone), but if you must(only behind our backs please) go to
amd.com, click game, click downloads, download amd overdrive. as you began to understand what is what, get rid of it quick as it will only cause you much heart ache and grey hair. do not even think about anything else.