upgrading a s939 single to a dual core

[M0rtal]

I am upgrading a single core to a dual core, will it affect my bios, and if so, how, and what should I do to be proactive on that?
Didn't know if I need to flash the bios after the new cpu, or before, or if I even need to do it at all.
Asus mobo
AMD cpu's

Thanks!

 

[Schadenfroh]

Update to the latest bios before you install the new CPU (verify on the motherboard's website that it is supported).

This may not be applicable to you, but if you have an nForce3 Ultra socket 939 motherboard with an ATI graphics card in Vista, you could run into trouble.

 

[v8envy]

Flash the bios to the latest before installing the new CPU -- it's only common sense. If the BIOS doesn't support the new CPU you won't be able to boot far enough to kick off the flash. And if the machine boots, you probably don't need the flash in the first place.

Just make sure your board and the latest BIOS support the new dual core you're installing. You can find that info on the manufacturer's site. If the revision of the BIOS you're running is listed to support your new CPU you don't have to do anything at all.

 

[Markfw]

Welcome to the forums M0rtal ! I see you already have already been great advice..

 

[Captante]

Also note that if you don't plan on re-installing your OS you may need to install AMD's dual-core CPU driver & software for maximum performance.

 

[M0rtal]

Thanks everyone, this is a Asus VIA K8T800 socket 939, can someone verify that this will work with it as I'm not 100% on it:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16819103582

 

[aka1nas]

Originally posted by: M0rtal
Thanks everyone, this is a Asus VIA K8T800 socket 939, can someone verify that this will work with it as I'm not 100% on it:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16819103582

What board model is it exactly? AMD's website only has the AV8-X with the VIA K8T800 Pro chipset(with BIOS 1.02 or higher) listed as officially supporting socket 939 X2s. Their system compatibility list is likely out of date for older chips, so you'll want to double-check Asus' website for that board as well.

IIRC, some of the earlier VIA socket 939 chipsets did not end up working with X2s, at least not with the first hardware revision of those boards.

 

[M0rtal]

This is my mobo:
http://www.newegg.com/product/...x?Item=N82E16813131541
Does it have a tag on it to show the hardware revision #?
sorry to have so many questions, just want to make sure before I order the dual core.

 

[Markfw]

Originally posted by: M0rtal
This is my mobo:
http://www.newegg.com/product/...x?Item=N82E16813131541
Does it have a tag on it to show the hardware revision #?
sorry to have so many questions, just want to make sure before I order the dual core.

Check this link
It looks like it will support all dual-cores, unless the motherboard model number is wrong.

 

[M0rtal]

Yes, you are correct, I just flashed my bios to the most current one that supports it, now I just need to order my proc. and new video card, should get another year out of it then.
Thanks everyone!

 

[crimson117]

I have a similar setup - almost same mobo, with a 4400+.

 

[Denithor]

You are aware, I hope, that for about the same price as that cpu that you could upgrade your whole rig to a much faster C2D system?

abit IP35-E $67 after MIR
e2180 $80
Corsair 2x1GB DDR2-800 $28 after MIR

Total: $175

A painless overclock to 3GHz will net you much better performance than you will see from that Opteron that costs about the same. Plus you can sell off your old parts to make it an even cheaper upgrade. And if you have less than 2GB of memory now this deal is even better.

 

[hooflung]

I just got a Opteron 180 from newegg with an arctic cooler freezer64 pro for my backup gaming rig. Changed out a x2 3800+ that I am sending to a m8 to replace his single core 3000+

2.4ghz 180 with 1mb cache should run like an e4300-e4400 at stock settings. Newegg sold out the day after I ordered. Its sitting on my counter at home, ordered tuesday.

 

[nerp]

180 @ stock is a fast chip.

 

[Dadofamunky]

What if he doesn't want to swap out his system? After all there is a significant opportunity cost to doing so. new OS installation, unpredictable issues with a new mobo, a significant chunk of time, etc... why shouldn't he try to upgrade what he has first if it's even remotely cost-effective?

I still have a very, very functional S939 system. The question is getting your hands on a S939 CPU at this point. Asus is a pretty solid company and I can't see any issues with your board supporting a dual-core BIOS update. Assuming it's even needed. If so, take the steps carefully to update it (I've done it several times with no issues) and you should have a nice performance boost.

I personally love drop-in CPU upgrades. I've done it three times for S939. Of course I won't be doing any more.

 

[hooflung]

My Opteron 180 dropped into my eVGA 133-K8-NF41 and its working fine, showing up fine even off the first BIOS. Just have to swap out my 7800GT for my X1900GT to get that extra graphics perf. out of Vista 64. All in all if you can get the 180 OEM for 135 or less from newegg and a Arctic Freezer 64 Pro then do it. God that HS/Fan is awesome btw. HUGE and cool to the touch after 24/7 operation.

 

[bryanW1995]

the $135 oem version is sold out already, you have to buy the $170 retail version I don't remember what I paid for mine in june of last year, but I have a feeling that it was too much

 

[queequeg99]

Originally posted by: Dadofamunky
What if he doesn't want to swap out his system? After all there is a significant opportunity cost to doing so. new OS installation, unpredictable issues with a new mobo, a significant chunk of time, etc... why shouldn't he try to upgrade what he has first if it's even remotely cost-effective?

Exactly. I just picked up an opty170 for a little over $100 to replace a single core Athlon XP 3000+ (coupled with 2GB ram and an 8800GT on an Nforce 4 Ultra+ MB). I play some Crysis and Oblivion (not a lot but enough to care about upping the eye candy levels a bit) and I figure this will be a very easy fix to tide me over for awhile. I am experienced with system rebuilds and could easily switch out the MB, CPU, and memory. However, I have my system set up just how I like (dual boot into XP and Ubuntu) and don't want to mess with that more than once every few years. I also have two daughters under 3 years old, which makes spending a whole day fiddling around with a computer a bone of contention in my household (i.e. I will probably have to add a couple of nice dinners to the cost of a whole rebuild when the time comes). I figure in a year or so I will upgrade to Nehalem, possibly get a second 8800GT, and just suck it up and spend the time.

 

[v8envy]

I'm in the same boat re: having 2 kids under 3 and limited fiddling time. However, throwing a dual boot hard drive out of a machine previously running an Asus socket 939 board and a Venice 3200+ @ 2.4 into a brand new Gigabyte P35 chipset DS3L, core2 dualie and 4 gigs of ram took all of.... 5 minutes to call microsoft to reactivate. XP came up and replaced the HAL with no problems. After it came up I installed the new drivers, rebooted, and all was good. Ubuntu felt absolutely zero pain. It's been rock solid ever since with either OS, never a bluescreen or a weird preformance glitch.

Total cost for the upgrade: $171 for board & cpu, $12 for 4 gigs of ram. Total performance difference: OMGWTFBBQ. And that's running the cpu downvolted at 2.66 ghz, not the 3.33 it can do.

Later upgraded the video from a 7600GT to an 8800GT 512. Another 'omgwtfbbq' performance gain.

Hardware upgrades are nowhere near as bad on software as they used to be in the days of win2k. And there's no guarantee adding a whole new CPU won't throw windows for a loop either.

 

[Denithor]

v8envy +1

That's why I threw out the comment about upgrading the whole guts of the system. It's painless these days and REALLY REALLY improves performance.

My last major upgrade was A64 3200+ --> e6400@2.66GHz and I would second the "OMGWTFBBQ" response to the performance improvement. And that was after I got over the sticker shock of a C2D system upgrade in the very first week they were available (trust me, it was painful).

Now, 18 months later, that cpu is still humming along happily overclocked even further on a new IP35-E board (stable at 3GHz with no voltage bump--haven't had a single bluescreen since getting it all running on the new mobo). Even at the price I paid for this setup I'd say I've gotten my money's worth out of it.