Phenom II x4 820 really slow

[ATMINSIDE]

the revision is 3.010 and the processors box shows a 1 and it's not checked

3.010 is good news, the processor you have began support at 2.xxx

There should be a page in the BIOS that shows the processor model number, can you confirm that the information shown about the processor is correct?

 

[darkblitz05]

I've been through the BIOS inside and out and there's nothing. And I can't update the BIOS cause this is the most recent update they have for the board. I wonder if maybe it would be smarter to try replacing the board before the CPU with maybe one that's known to have a better BIOS with more control?

hmmm I have this board before, and I was having also the same problem but I was even only running Phenom II-X3 740.

How old is your board by the way?
By the way I got 2 of this boards

1st board:
My solution before was replacing the stock fan of the AMD with an aftermarket cpu cooler, and updated the bios.

2nd board:
Still the same problem, so I decided to replace it with a mid high end board with all the solid cap thing..

 

[TR0UBLE]

it shows
AMIBIOS 1804
AMD Phenom (tm) II X4 820 Processor
Module 13.69
AGESA 3.7.0.1
Revision 2
uCode Patch Level 0x1000086

 

[ATMINSIDE]

You could try going to BIOS 1802, just to see if it helps.

Or 0701, that's when support for your CPU was added.

 

[Johan45]

Was this a fresh windows install. Like a recent CPU upgrade ?

 

[TR0UBLE]

After upgrading my GPU and getting no real bost on fps in games I decided a clean windows install with drivers might help which it didn't. I think I will try going back to a previous BIOS. if not maybe I'll just consider a new board since darkblitz seems to have had the same issue with this board I may still have a good processor. I'll let you know what the results from the BIOS flash are

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Pending how much a new board costs it may be more effective to just upgrade to a new CPU/Mobo/RAM completely.

Just something to keep in mind.

 

[TR0UBLE]

Any suggestions on an older setup that may be a little cheaper since as of two weeks ago am unemployed....?

 

[TR0UBLE]

Although I really think if I had all 4 cores on this working it would be plenty fast for what I do... I'm not really a hard core gamer now days. If anybody has suggestions on good boards for using this phenom II I'd apreciate that also

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Any suggestions on an older setup that may be a little cheaper since as of two weeks ago am unemployed....?

If you can get a rough budget I'll see what I can find
Its a last-resort option, but could be better for you than buying a new motherboard for an old platform.

 

[TR0UBLE]

There's' a guy local here that has a Asus M5A78LM LX PLUS that he'd sell me for $60 that he says has a feature, core unlocker or something. anybody have any thoughts on it? I'm suddenly feeling iffy abot asus...lol

 

[Johan45]

It's a micro board with DDR3 support so you'd still need new ram. 4 phase without a heatsink so if you did decide down the road to ran a 4 core FX it probably wouldn't work out too well and right now they're only $50 brand new at NewEgg. No personal experience with one.

You'd be better off with something like this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128651
Or this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131873

This will at least offer an upgade path of some sort in the future faor a 4 or 6 core FX CPU. Get the board and ram now then in a year or whatever a new CPU.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Agreed with Johan, its meh at best.

~$100 will get you a new board that's leaps and bounds better than the M5A78LM LX PLUS

 

[TR0UBLE]

Think I'll go with that Gigabyte, thx for all your help. I'll let you know how it turns out

 

[Johan45]

You'll still need some DDR3 ram to go with it. I would suggest some 2x4Gig 1866 G.Skill for the same upgrade reasons. If the 820 can't run it at 1866 you can always run at 1600. The FX does really well in the 1866-2000 range

 

[TR0UBLE]

Just want to say THANK YOU for all your help figuring out my problem and solution. I had no idea how far back in the dark ages I was living but holy crap. You guys rock. And going from low detail 15 fps to ultra @ 120fps is a HUGE difference. And I knew graphics were getting amazing but still.... wow Thanks guys. Now just to upgrade my OS to a 64 bit... you guys think its worth the time to relearn linux or whatever they call it now?

 

[Mandrake4565]

So what did you eventually do?