Will an Opteron work on my motherboard?

[New Guy]

Hello there,

I currently have a Gigabyte Motherboard: GA-K8N Pro-SLI (http://www.gigabyte.com.au/Products/Mot...uctID=1883&ModelName=GA-K8N%20Pro-SLI)

The CPU hasn't work anymore and I had to buy a new one.

I am thinking of getting the Opteron 185, but the site says it is not supported... so what does that mean? Would it mean that it won't boot up at all; or do I just have to specify the multipler and lock speeds myself?

Thanks.

 

[o1die]

If you click on the cpu support list, you'll see the 185 listed about 10 spaces up from the bottom. N/A means it should work without a bios flash.

 

[New Guy]

Yea that's what I saw but I don't know what N/A meant...

So it shall work?

 

[Peter]

I'd rather say that n/a means not applicable, not working at all. Look at how the same breed of Opterons has lower speed grades supported (170, 175), but the higher ones (180, 185) n/a.

Remember that it's not only BIOS that makes or breaks compatibility. There are hardware factors too - CPU power supply for example.

 

[aelfwyne]

I'd have to agree on the "not applicable bit".... It looks to me like that board may have issues supporting dual core at higher clock frequencies. Though I'm not sure why an Opteron 170 works, an Opteron 175 doesn't, but an X2 4800+ does work... since the 4800+ is actually running at a faster clock than the Opteron 175, one wonders what the 175 does that neither the 170 nor the X2 4800+ does...

I'd not be surprised if it *did* work and they just haven't added in BIOS support for name recognition, but on some boards that alone will prevent working.