Question Replace bad 880gm MB or move on despite good CPU and ram

[mikeford]

I've got a nice Phenom II 905e cpu, 8GB of ram, but this is the second motherboard to die in this system, first was 780 and either onboard audio or video died, replaced with 880gm-p51, and I failed to fully seat a PCI card and now POST dies at attempting to load cmos. This system is in a decent "media" case intended to go in the shelves with all my AV stuff, but fixing little issues and some LONG cables and it never left my work desk.

Since it croaked I built a new work system, Ryzen 5 1600 on a B450 MB, and got a couple of old Dell i5 mini towers fixed up, and I am even working on an older Dell Hybrid 140 media system, but none of those exactly fill the niche I had in mind for a system to go with all my hifi and video equipment. The system to go with the hifi gear needs to look nice in the living room, ie in the media case, and be robust enough to manage all media formats (old dell will have some issues with newest media).

Question is; find a new/used MB that works with the cpu and ram, AM3+, or move on with all new parts?

IF replacing only the MB, with what?

 

[blckgrffn]

My HTPC is a full size case but with Kaveri CPU w/built in graphics! Woo! Steamroller and Hawaii/GCN! Both known for the outstanding power efficiency

It also serves as my in-home-only plex server with no issues. When I built it it was the best no dGPU compromise out there. It was also the first time in maybe a decade I worried about ram speed and timings to "best feed" the GPU because it is so memory bandwidth constrained.

Plants vs Zombies plays fine

Also, Steam Remote plays works really great for keeping all that heat and power somewhere else. Steam features like that seem a little under appreciated, I look forward to at least Epic catching up.

 

[mikeford]

I ordered a 8 pin SOIC clip on ebay MONTHS ago, plan is to reprogram the bios chip on the motherboard. I've got a USB programmer. Shipping and vendor issues, but I finally have the clip, first job will be to see if I can read the cmos, then read and save it, find the bin for the bios, and maybe it will work again.

 

[blckgrffn]

I ordered a 8 pin SOIC clip on ebay MONTHS ago, plan is to reprogram the bios chip on the motherboard. I've got a USB programmer. Shipping and vendor issues, but I finally have the clip, first job will be to see if I can read the cmos, then read and save it, find the bin for the bios, and maybe it will work again.

Hahaha, good luck man. I just ordered a A8 7670 off of eBay for almost $40 because I have a really nice FM2+ board but a stupidly & annoyingly slow "dual core" Kaveri in it that just chokes on Windows. I am sure throwing money at it will make it so much better

(Actually, I am really hoping that it helps enough to make it useful.)

 

[VirtualLarry]

A8-7670 is one of those "Carizzo for FM2+" APUs, isn't it? I think that those ONLY work in A68-chipset boards, NOT "all" FM2+ boards, something about a third voltage plane? I dunno. Maybe it's just down to BIOS support.

 

[blckgrffn]

A8-7670 is one of those "Carizzo for FM2+" APUs, isn't it? I think that those ONLY work in A68-chipset boards, NOT "all" FM2+ boards, something about a third voltage plane? I dunno. Maybe it's just down to BIOS support.

Nah, nothing that special.

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"Godavari" - just me paying $37 for a ~$120 5 year old CPU. The FM2+ APUs seems to have really held their value. You can get the GPU less ones for ~$17 shipped without a GPU but what's the point in that? I could have gotten an A8 7500 for $20 shipped (probably should have) but the shiny newness of the Godavari cores pulled me in

Read the comments on that review for a real blast from the past! Why or why didn't I buy AMD stock then!