Question A motherboard suggestion for AMD 3000G CPU

[loninappleton]

I am on the fence about what budget motherboard for the AMD Athlon 3000G cpu. My first look was at the MSI MSI A320M-A PRO AM4 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - Newegg.com

The crucial element for me is running Windows 7 Ultimate OS with no requirement to run Windows 10.

Also if there is a suggestion for a lowwr order thlon AM4 A series with G specifier for graphics with no card required, please advise. I have
not bought new hardware for a long time.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

The crucial element for me is running Windows 7 Ultimate OS with no requirement to run Windows 10.

That's an easy one then, since the Athlon does not support Windows 7.

Your only choice on AM4 is 1st gen Ryzen or a Bristol Ridge APU. With Intel, the latest generation that can run 7 is Skylake (6th gen).

Why not just install 10/11 and use StartAllBack or StartIsBack? 7 has been outside of support for over two years by now.

 

[loninappleton]

Thanks for answering. Ok, past the Windows 7 problem what is a budget motherboard for use with Athlon 3000g? I have seen the MSI A320 series. You see, I'm used to not messing with video at all. My old PCs (on a homenet workgroup) all have onboard video. I have no need of more for news, some mkv movies etc.

I don't know anything about Win10 ability to "rollback" all the bulk and features on it.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

Ok, past the Windows 7 problem what is a budget motherboard for use with Athlon 3000g?

Any board will do fine. It's more a question of what features you're interested in. Some A320 boards have 10Gbit USB3, some have 4 DIMM slots, etc. I use an Asus A320M-K for my HTPC, for no particular reason other then it was the cheapest at the time. But it can run the used 200GE's memory at 3533MHz@1.35V. It can also do 3600MHz, but requires 1.38V to do it.

I'd recommend a board with 4 DIMM slots, then you can easily add more memory down the line. But what I'd really recommend is either a B450 or A520-based board. They're in the same price range, and you do get the option to drop-in a 5000-series APU eventually. B550 can be an option too, but you will not get PCIe 4.0 with an APU. But you do get PCIe 3.0 from the chipset.

I don't know anything about Win10 ability to "rollback" all the bulk and features on it.

Those two programs are just 3rd party start menu replacements. They change the start menu (and can change general UI) to resemble 7 quite closely.

If that's what is bothering you with 10/11, I'd go that way, since MS seem set in their way. So are unlikely to change back.

 

[loninappleton]

Thanks for the tip on those Startup emulators. I have a sample Win10 to try that out. And I'll go over the motherboard CPU info. Other than the Athlon 3000G what would be the entry level A4 cpu which has onboard video? I do no gaming and for this build, just want enough to replace older hardware.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

Other than the Athlon 3000G what would be the entry level A4 cpu which has onboard video? I do no gaming and for this build, just want enough to replace older hardware.

Trust me on this, you do NOT want an entry level A6-9500. AMD issues them as bootkits, and that's practically all they're good for. I played around with one when I had it on loan, and the performance is just atrocious. You don't even want Bristol Ridge at all. For several reasons. The A6 is effectively a single core CPU. That's just not enough to do anything these days. A8+ are at least dual module but only slightly better due to their ancient/weird Bulldozer architecture, and you are investing in a 6 year old platform at this point. AMD has also cut driver support for Bristol Ridge, so bugs and security issues will not be fixed. So you're investing in a 6 year old platform, with no support from the manufacturer.

I'm starting to think you might get more mileage out of an Alder Lake Pentium. They're quite good actually, boards are a bit more expensive, but nice for the features you get.

 

[igor_kavinski]

I'm starting to think you might get more mileage out of an Alder Lake Pentium. They're quite good actually, boards are a bit more expensive, but nice for the features you get.

Seconded. The single threaded performance may make the OP scream with glee.

 

[loninappleton]

I appreciate the time you are taking on this. I suppose I'm looking for confirmation on something I've decided on. I no longer speak Intel "as a dialect" -- just have no interest in it. It's just a mental block trying to switch out to that product line.

Why has the Athlon 3000G gone from an intro price of about $50 to $90? A motherboard like the MSI A320 at $50 and a CPU at $50 would get a build started to replace one rig more than ten years old. And the board should have VGA b/c my old screens are hard wired for that.

 

[igor_kavinski]

To be honest, you are not making much sense. You are prepared to waste money on an inferior old product from AMD because you have some beef with Intel? A normal person tries to maximize bang for the buck and you seem to want the opposite.

 

[loninappleton]

Your point on wasting money investing in a new but out of date system is well-taken. It's just my ignorance on the topic. But I would not want a high end motherboard on the prospect that it would go through a lot of upgrades. Somehow in the tech world it's more likely that obsolescence would defeat that goal. DDR3, DDR4 and DDR5 memory as example.

 

[VirtualLarry]

To be honest, you are not making much sense. You are prepared to waste money on an inferior old product from AMD because you have some beef with Intel? A normal person tries to maximize bang for the buck and you seem to want the opposite.

Some people have trouble adapting to (technological) change.

I'm sure that there's a thriving underground market in B&W TVs, and cassette walkmans, too.

Some people still use "outhouses" to this day.

 

[UsandThem]

I'm sure that there's a thriving underground market in B&W TVs, and cassette walkmans, too.

Give it another 10 years and cassette tapes will become the new vinyl for hipsters.

"Dude, you have not experienced Dark Side Of The Moon until you've heard it on cassette. Cassettes allows you to hear it how the artist wanted you to really hear it, in all of its glorious analogue sound!"

 

[loninappleton]

The discussion seems to have gone in another direction. Ok for that. I'll continue to watch for whatever turns up.

 

[UsandThem]

The discussion seems to have gone in another direction. Ok for that. I'll continue to watch for whatever turns up.

There's only so much that can be done with what you want to do.

You've been told what your options are in this thread (and your previous one in December), so there's really no new information (or other options).

You want a legacy system in order to run Windows 7 (which has been unsupported for a long time now).

 

[loninappleton]

We'll leave it there. Thanks for answering.

 

[bigboxes]

I came from Windows 7 Ultimate. I left it when my main rig died. There was a lot of work to uninfest Win10. I used Open Shell to imitate their windows explorer and the Win7 start menu. In the end, it was worth it. You can find a budget Intel Pentium chip and mobo combo for ~$100

 

[loninappleton]

Uninfest is an interesting term for it but I know what you mean. I'll look at those Start programs again which I had done on a previous exploration of upgrading. Hard to let go of some things. Thanks for the reply. As to old (December) vs new inquiries on the same thing, chalk it up to memory loss.

 

[igor_kavinski]

Intel Pentium Gold G7400 12th Generation 2 Core 4 Thread 3.7 GHz LGA1700 Desktop Processor BX80715G7400 - Best Buy
ASRock H610M-HDV/M.2 LGA 1700 Intel H610 SATA 6Gb/s DDR4 Micro ATX Motherboard - Newegg.com

I hope this is to the OP's liking.

Regarding Windows 7, if you really want to, you could just run it in a VM using Virtualbox or Hyper-V.

 

[loninappleton]

Your suggestion of a specific combo is most appreciated. I'll certainly follow up on it. But I'm thinking a graphics card would still be needed.

 

[igor_kavinski]

Your suggestion of a specific combo is most appreciated. I'll certainly follow up on it. But I'm thinking a graphics card would still be needed.

Is there anything specific you need to do with the graphics card, as you don't have gaming needs? The pentium in that combo has 3D graphics that may play older games released up to 2010 at reasonably playable frame rates.

 

[loninappleton]

Is there anything specific you need to do with the graphics card, as you don't have gaming needs? The pentium in that combo has 3D graphics that may play older games released up to 2010 at reasonably playable frame rates.

Apologies for remarks I made before I did a brief lookup of the combo you suggested. I does as you've said have the graphic component. I find that unusual if not unique for Intel but haven't tracked the Ford vs Chevy discussion for a long long time. Again, my error.