Planning an Athlon X2 Upgrade (Asus A8V Deluxe)

[n8thegr8]

I am running an Athlon64 3000+ on a socket 939 Asus A8V Deluxe. According to an old article on anandtech (and the asus website), my motherboard should support an X2 processor. I have several questions:

1) Does it matter what version of the X2 I get? Example Windsor/Manchester, are they all supported?

2) Would the heatsink I'm running with the athlon64 be adequate for the x2?

3) I may buy Vista with the upgrade and a new hdd, would my system be capable of running the 64-bit version?

4) Any special upgrade tasks I would need to perform, other than updating the bios after install?

Thanks, appreciate the help, and looking forward to breathing new life into my system!

 

[hans007]

that board will likely support all x2s.


most heatsinks are ok, though some cheaper ones, maybe not if you are say going to buy an FX60 or something.

btw there is a x2-4200+ at newegg for $60.


most heatsinks for the 3000+ were designed to run the 3500+ and 4000+ etc also and those were 130nm cpus with similar heat output to say an x2 4200 or 4400 so i figure they should be able to handle it.

your 3000+ is already able to run the 64bit version

 

[n8thegr8]

fantastic! i did see that cpu on newegg, is that something I should jump on? is this price only temporarily quite low?

any recommendations for good 3rd party mid-to-high level heatsinks?

 

[o1die]

I'd try the old heatsink first. It may work ok. Be sure to uninstall any amd drivers in the control panel, under "add/remove programs". Then reboot and install the dual core driver from amd's support page.

 

[n8thegr8]

I'm actually planning on doing a clean install, possibily with vista. (although I couldn't find a vista driver on amd's driver page, only xp) would i need to worry about anything during the install other than updating the bios? and the cpu drivers once xp is installed?

 

[Chunkee]

Originally posted by: n8thegr8
I'm actually planning on doing a clean install, possibily with vista. (although I couldn't find a vista driver on amd's driver page, only xp) would i need to worry about anything during the install other than updating the bios? and the cpu drivers once xp is installed?

You will probably not need to do anything. VISTA will more than likely have all the drivers you need.

NjoY

 

[n8thegr8]

Very nice, what if I do a clean XP install instead? Just add the XP drivers after it's installed?

-Nate

 

[hans007]

Originally posted by: n8thegr8
Very nice, what if I do a clean XP install instead? Just add the XP drivers after it's installed?

-Nate

i dont think you need a driver for dual cores in XP. you just need one for athlon CPUs to enable cool and quiet i think.