quick question about motherboards and old 32bit cpu

[HiroPhrozeN]

hi i have been doing a lot of reading lately but cant really find what im looking for/ too complex heh. i was wondering if certain or infact all 64bit motherboards still support 32bit cpu. like i am atm looking for a new motherboard that supports sli and pci express but also i dont want to upgrade my cpu for a little while as a new motherboard and vid card will cost a bit. i currently have an Athlon 2400+ cpu that i would like to use untill i buy an Athlon 64 duel core 4200+. also another question i am looking to only buy 1 vid card atm but want the option to add another later, so sli will work with only 1 vid card right? also which motherboard would you recommend for duel core, i am unsure if i want to oc or not , but u know i want to future proof my self as much as possible so i have the option of oc'in later on, also i hear that good oc motherboards also = high qulity componets and longer motherboard life. in the price range of about
$220-300 Australian

thank you in advance for any help or websites u could point in my direction.

 

[SynthDude2001]

The 2400+ you're using right now is an Athlon XP, which uses Socket A (462). The sockets used for Athlon 64's are physically different and incompatible, those being 754 and 939 (939 being the newer one, and the one used for the X2's). What video card are you running right now (and did you have any particular ones you had in mind to buy)? It may be best just to wait until you can upgrade everything at the same time (CPU, motherboard, video card).

And yes, with PCI-E/SLI boards you can buy one video card and add another (more or less) identical one later. The main problem in your case is that you still want to use your old CPU for the time being - and that's just not possible with PCI-E video cards (which don't exist in Socket A platforms anyway). I also wouldn't really recommend buying a new high-end video card in AGP at this point either, for obvious reasons. There is one motherboard on the market that supports Socket 939 CPU's and both full-speed AGP and PCI-E on the same board, but it's only one PCI-E slot, which won't work if you want to do SLI later. Plus the board is decidedly not a great overclocker (mostly because of the lack of voltage options). That would make it possible for you to upgrade only the CPU and motherboard now, and use your current AGP video card until you replace it - but I wouldn't really recommend it since it sounds like you're shooting for a high-end system with the possibility of SLI in the future. Basically you're looking at a whole platform upgrade at this point.

 

[HiroPhrozeN]

oh ok thanks for your help. so is there such a thing as a 32bit amd 939 cpu? i was having a look thru price lists and i cant see any *shrugs*

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: HiroPhrozeN
oh ok thanks for your help. so is there such a thing as a 32bit amd 939 cpu? i was having a look thru price lists and i cant see any *shrugs*

hmm...well I believe there are Semprons (AMD's lower-end budget processors) starting to appear for Socket 939, but I think those are 64-bit (not that it really matters overall at this point). I'm still not entirely sure you can even buy one at retail yet though, because I've only heard them starting to appear in some OEM machines (Compaq, maybe?).

 

[HiroPhrozeN]

heh i guess ur right, i guess ill just get the motherboard and cpu at least then i can get the vid card wen i want plus i can use my ram at 400mhz instead of the crappy 133 im on atm. now it depends on the mother board and not cpu right? but i will be upgrading both so im sure it will work fine. i currently have 2x 256mb 3200 400mhz ram, so if i bought another 512 stick to make 1 gig worth it should run at 400mhz? i have been reading many posts and a lot of ppl still saying they can only get 333 or some thing, also would that allow me to be at T1? not that i really know much about ram only that T1 command rate is faster. i dont really understand all that ram talk about 2-3-3-4, 3-2-2-3 etc hehe. thanks again for ur help i had almost decided the motherboard i was gonna get - asus-sli then i looked on there website and here and it got slamed as being really crap...well back to looking i guess


edit - i was doing some more looking around for mb's and found this Epox mb in the cpu socket description it says hyper transport up to 4000+, does that mean im unable to use a 4200+ duel core cpu in there? sorry for all these boob questions.

 

[evilharp]

Hey HiroPhrozeN,

A couple of quick tips:

1) A64 based cpus (Opteron/A64/FX/X2/Sempron) are all 32-bit compatible.
2) A64 based cpus must be used with the correct socket:
-Socket 754 - Single Channel A64 and Sempron
-Socket 940 - Opteron and Early FX
-Socket 939 - Sempron (soon), A64, FX, (new) Opteron and X2
3) X2 should work with any 939 board as long as the bios supports the chip. Most boards have support, but, investigate (the forum is a good source) before you buy.

The Epox board you listed does support the X2 and CPU's beyond the 4000+. See: http://www.epox.com.tw/eng/support.php?ps=346&type=1

2005-07-05 - 05.06.28 - 9sli5628.zip - ** Dual core CPU support.

 

[HiroPhrozeN]

ah ok thanks for ur help so the current sli board will support all current duel core amd cpu? because the newest versions which i dont think are sold where i live yet says this

"CPU Socket:
Support Socket-939 based AMD Athlon-64/ Athlon-64 FX 2.0GTs Hyper Transport processors with up to 4800+"
link

where as the current one says this

CPU Socket:
Support Socket-939 based AMD Athlon-64/ Athlon-64 FX 2.0GTs Hyper Transport processors with up to 4000+
link

so that is why im a little concerned, does this only affect single core FX cpu, coz the way its written doesn't make it clear.