Official GIGABYTE Forum
Questions about GIGABYTE products => Motherboards with AMD processors => Topic started by: Edo on August 07, 2011, 11:58:53 pm
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First of all I am very glad that I have found this forum and that I will interact with other people that use Gigabyte products.
Now to the point,for some time now(2 years to be exact)I have been using Gigabyte M61PME-S2 motherboard and even though it 's a a low range(and old)motherboard it served me well so far with the current hardware configuration:
Chipset : nVidia GeForce 6100V
Processor :AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ 2,71 GHz
RAM:3GB DDR2 800MHz
Hard Disk:Western Digital 500 GB
Graphics Card:Radeon 4670 512MB DDR3
Monitor:Samsung Sync Master,maximum resolution 1440x900
PSU:Seasonic 520 W
Now,what I want to do is to upgrade my computer with a new CPU and GPU,and since my budget at the moment is around 170(I know it is not much)i have found that the Phenom II x 2 555 3,2 GHz and Radeon 5770 1 GB DDR 5 would be around that price range and a significant upgrade(especially since I play games at resolution 1440x900).I have found on the motherboard's official site that it supports this CPU (even though it will result bus system speed decrease but wont affect CPU speed)and that with a certain BIOS update it could work.At first,I was thinking to upgrade it with the Athlon II X 3 445 3.1 GHz but as far as I can tell my motherboard does not support it(feel free to correct me).
Now,what I would really like to know is,has anyone actually done this(put AMD3 CPU on AMD2 motherboard)and of course did it work and is my RAM DDR 2 800 MHz compatible with that CPU?
Any help that you guys can provide would mean a great deal for me and I apologize for the fact that my English is not that good,but I hope that you did understand the majority of the things that I was trying to say,thanks in advance!
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Your ram should work as far as I can tell.
I personally do not have experience using an am3 in a AM2 motherboard.
Hopefully someone else here can give their advice on what is your best option for upgrading.
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Hi there,
The Phenom ii X2 555 CPU will work on your motherboard but remember to update the BIOS to F5B before you install the new processor. You can download the BIOS from here: http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=2755&dl=1#bios and I would recommend that you use QFlash to run the update. If you are not sure of how to use QFlash then please check here: http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php/topic,2441.msg13929.html#msg13929.
As Malum has already said, your RAM should work OK with the new processor and should run at it's rated speed without problem.
I don't think there should be a problem with running a 5770 Graphics card but there have been a couple of instances where a newer GPU on some of the older motherboards, have not worked properly. If you do encounter a problem with this then you can always contact Gigabyte as it can often be fixed with a BIOS update.
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Thank you guys so much for the help!I really appreciate it,and I can finally upgrade my computer :) .
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Good luck with the upgrade and don't forget to let us know how it all goes. :D
And, if you should happen to run into any problems, you know where to come for some help. ;)
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Thanks again,I just forgot to ask you do you think should I go with this Phenom or Athlon II x 3 455 cause it turns out that I can actually use it for my motherboard.I mean,if a CPU has more cores does it instantly make it better,btw, nice Galaxy Quest quote there :) .
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Hi again,
ah, Galaxy Quest, as a long time Star Trek fan I just loved that film and it always makes me laugh but, not many people realise the quote is from there! :D
Although having an extra core can help in certain applications if it was my money I would go for the Phenom ii X2 555BE as it is a better CPU overall. Being an unlocked processor it makes it easier to overclock, if you want to get a little extra speed from it, which can be important when gaming. It will serve you better in the long run to and, if you decide to upgrade your motherboard in the future will probably be a better long term investment.
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The movie was very good if not great and I 'm a big Star Trek fan myself :D !I thought that Phenom II was a better solution and I have heard about the core unclocking thing I just hope that in case that I will need to do that,those extra cores will be stable.
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I'm not sure if your current motherboard will allow for core unlocking as I think it only became available from the series 7 motherboards onwards. But, as I said before, if you upgrade your motherboard in the future, then this is something you can look forward to trying.
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Yeah I know,I was thinking the same thing, but I don't think that I will need to do this probably until 2013.
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I like your philosophy and if it ain't broke, does the job that you want, why spend money to fix something that works OK.
The locked cores on the 555BE will still be there in 2013 and is an option that you can explore when the time and money are right as upgrading to a new motherboard will also involve upgrading the RAM.
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Upgrading RAM is already on the way since it is very cheap at the moment.The thing is ,I still use Windows XP SP 3 and as you know it 32 bit systems do not recognize more than 3,25 GB or something like that but I will probably go for Windows 7 64 bit since BF3 does not support XP.Forgot to ask ,is it me or is that F5B BIOS update a beta version and is that going to be a problem?
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Do I have to make my USB bootable in order to work when I try to update the BIOS?
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No, you can just format it as FAT32 and then copy the BIOS update file onto it. Make sure you plug the USB stick in before you power up the PC and it is better if you can use one of the USB ports on the backpanel rather than from a port connected to one of the motherboard headers.
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Ok ,I checked and it is FAT32,thanks again.
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I just wanted to say I'm a big Trek fan myself.
;D
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That's good. One in the US, one in the UK and one in Antigua and Barbuda......
Soon there will be enough of us to take over the world...... and possibly the Klingon empire too! ;D
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Yep my band:
Gre'Thor
http://soundcloud.com/grethor/omega-point (http://soundcloud.com/grethor/omega-point)
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@malum
Interesting music you're creating but I don't think I should have listened to it so early in the morning as I am now wide awake and bouncing off the walls!
EDIT: Just gone back and listened to your track again and one of my mate's who is here with me agrees that whoever you've got doing the drumming is awesome.
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I like the heavy sound but found that it was all a bit samo samo. It needed a bit more direction in my opinion.
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Thank you DM and Absic for checking it out...I apologize for hijacking the thread I really only posted because we have used the name from Star Trek GreThor is the Klingon version of the underworld.
As far the song well this is a rough demo recording. The guitar track was done in one take and the song was not even half way done.
The second half of the song I just improvised and it seemed to work. But yes the guitars are a bit sloppy. With no lead guitar, bass or vocals I can see how it may be a bit boring.
I am curious ,DM, by what you mean with direction?
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Absic is the audio genious not me but I just thought that it was like someone who could play the guitar well but was just not thinking about where the music was going if you follow me. Now that you have clarified things a bit though I can see why it sounds that way. Anyway I think it is promising if you can get some help. ;)
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Yeah I view a lack of direction more along the lines of improvisation. I had only written the first half of the song
before i pressed record and played to a click track (just a metronome (http://www.metronomeonline.com/) beat).
It was pretty hard especially since i had spent a few hours coming up with ideas my the arm that i use to pick the strings
was screaming at me while recording (it was very exhausting). I'm brainstorming ideas and will eventually put another song together. Once I have
enough material I will go back and re-record everything using multiple layers of guitars, vocals, and maybe even some
keyboards and make everything perfectly on time.
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Well good luck with your composing and do let us have a link to the final piece once you have finished it. I am sure it will be awesome. 8)
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First of all I am very glad that I have found this forum and that I will interact with other people that use Gigabyte products.
Now to the point,for some time now(2 years to be exact)I have been using Gigabyte M61PME-S2 motherboard and even though it 's a a low range(and old)motherboard it served me well so far with the current hardware configuration:
Chipset : nVidia GeForce 6100V
Processor :AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ 2,71 GHz
RAM:3GB DDR2 800MHz
Hard Disk:Western Digital 500 GB
Graphics Card:Radeon 4670 512MB DDR3
Monitor:Samsung Sync Master,maximum resolution 1440x900
PSU:Seasonic 520 W
Now,what I want to do is to upgrade my computer with a new CPU and GPU,and since my budget at the moment is around 170(I know it is not much)i have found that the Phenom II x 2 555 3,2 GHz and Radeon 5770 1 GB DDR 5 would be around that price range and a significant upgrade(especially since I play games at resolution 1440x900).I have found on the motherboard's official site that it supports this CPU (even though it will result bus system speed decrease but wont affect CPU speed)and that with a certain BIOS update it could work.At first,I was thinking to upgrade it with the Athlon II X 3 445 3.1 GHz but as far as I can tell my motherboard does not support it(feel free to correct me).
Now,what I would really like to know is,has anyone actually done this(put AMD3 CPU on AMD2 motherboard)and of course did it work and is my RAM DDR 2 800 MHz compatible with that CPU?
Any help that you guys can provide would mean a great deal for me and I apologize for the fact that my English is not that good,but I hope that you did understand the majority of the things that I was trying to say,thanks in advance!
I've got a M61PME-S2 and for the last week I have been running a Phenom II X4 945 on it with the F5b BIOS... so you can get quite a performance boost on the board
I've also managed a slight overclock with the 945 so it's running at 3.225GhZ instead of 3GHz.... ;D
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Thanks for the info :).I thought that we couldn't do overclocking with this motherboard,can you please specify your hardware configuration?Did you use PSU with more or less watts?
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Thanks for the info :).I thought that we couldn't do overclocking with this motherboard,can you please specify your hardware configuration?Did you use PSU with more or less watts?
M61PME-S2 F5b BIOS
Phenom II 945
2x Micron Rendition 1GB DDR2 6400 800MHz Module
1x HDD
1xDVD-ROM
450W PSU
The BIOS doesn't really have much in the way of tweaking options, but it does allow the FSB to be increased.
You are limited to 95W CPU's, but you should be able to get a decent performance boost...
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Thanks for the info :).I thought that we couldn't do overclocking with this motherboard,can you please specify your hardware configuration?Did you use PSU with more or less watts?
M61PME-S2 F5b BIOS
Phenom II 945
2x Micron Rendition 1GB DDR2 6400 800MHz Module
1x HDD
1xDVD-ROM
450W PSU
The BIOS doesn't really have much in the way of tweaking options, but it does allow the FSB to be increased.
You are limited to 95W CPU's, but you should be able to get a decent performance boost...
Thank you very much,it's good to know that my PSU will do just fine :D
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Thank you very much,it's good to know that my PSU will do just fine :D
If your worried about whether or not your PSU could handle your system you can check it at http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp (http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp)
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If your worried about whether or not your PSU could handle your system you can check it at http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp (http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp)
Just checked it,and apparently it's more than enough,thanks again!
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Successfully updated BIOS thanks to you guys :D,now just waiting for the new CPU to arrive!
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Successfully updated BIOS thanks to you guys :D,now just waiting for the new CPU to arrive!
Well done!!!
So which CPU have you gone for?
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Cool! It is always nice to know that someone has been helped by the forum. 8)
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Successfully updated BIOS thanks to you guys :D,now just waiting for the new CPU to arrive!
Well done!!!
So which CPU have you gone for?
AMD Athlon II X 3 3.2 GHz cause apparently it's very good for gaming http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-gaming-cpu-upgradable-processor-phenom-ii-x6,2731-6.html and falls into my budget range :) .
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With any luck you might be able to unlock the extra core too. 8)
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Unfortunately,not with with this motherboard,but it's still a decent CPU I tell ya :) especially when I throw in a Radeon 5770, it will be an awesome mid-range gaming rig :) .
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Any reason you are goiing for such old hardware as opposed to the 6000 series cards ?
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I was considering a 6770 since they are in the same price range but overall it's pretty much the same card as 5770 and my budget doesn't allow me to aim higher.
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If nothing else the six series cards are less power hungry and therefore cooler than the previous generation of GPUs.
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Maybe others do but this two use exactly the same amount of watts http://www.hwcompare.com/5704/radeon-hd-5770-vs-radeon-hd-6770-1gb/ .
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I've got to say that I have two 6770's in my system and with hindsight I would have got hold of the 5770 instead. The 6770, although a pretty solid mid-range workhorse, is not all it's made out to be.
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According to the test that I have posted 5770 has better memory bandwidth while 6770 is just slightly better when it comes to pixel and texel rate.
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Well I accept your explanation of the reasoning and it seems fair enough to me. As you say there is very little to choose between the two it would appear.
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I forgot to tell you guys that I have noticed that since I have updated the BIOS,my computer sounds kind of different when I turn it on ,is that normal,I mean,is that because of the new BIOS?
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The difference in sound that you can hear is probably that the BIOS has changed the fan speeds. Apart from that everything should sound the same.
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Yep that's definitely it,checked my CPUID HWMonitor Pro and I can definitely see the difference of the FAN speed,is there any way to reverse it like it was through the BIOS?
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I was thinking,since I will play games on resolutions not higher than 1440x990,do I really need 5770 1GB or the 5770 512 MB will suffice(it's 15 euros cheaper as well)what do you guys think?
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Personally for the extra 15 Euros I'd go for the 1GB version as it's always nice to have some headroom.
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OK ,thanks.
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Do you guys think that a graphics card with a pcie 2.1 will work on this motherboard since it is pcie x16,I 've read around other forums that it should work since it is backwards compatible,some say that there might be performance downgrade and others that it might not even work?
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I can't see there being a problem and it should work fine.
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OK,thank you!
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This is kind of odd question,well here it goes,do you guys know what's the cheapest(not more than 50 euros)Gigabyte motherboard that will allow me to unlock the fourth core and do some overclocking as well with the AMD Athlon II X 3 450 3,2 GHz?
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Hi there,
a little tricky to give you a specific motherboard as I'm not sure what is available where you are in the world. Best advice would be to look for a series 7 motherboard or above for core unlocking capabilities.
If you can locate a motherboard you think might be suitable, post back with a link so we can check it out for you before you spend your money.
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This one supports "Core Unlock" - the M68MT-S2P and falls within his budget.
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3726# (http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3726#)
Not sure about the overclocking potential though, not having seen the BIOS, but would suspect the BIOS is similar to the M61PME-S2 and M68M-S2P, which basically only allow you to tweak the FSB.
I have 2 of the slightly more expensive MA78LMT-US2H boards which I believe can unlock cores. They have much more overclocking potential.... Using this board I have my 1055t running at 3.5GHz and got a 955BE up to 4.3GHz before backing it off for stability.
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I have just built a system for a mate using a MA78LMT-US2H and he opted for a 560Black Edition.....
And I can confirm this motherboard does unlock cores.... I have got the 560 running as a B60 with 4 cores.... Over the weekend I will see how it overclocks... I think he will be quite happy to have 1 quad-core running at 3.5GHz.... :D
The specs are:-
MA78LMT-US2H - using on graphics
560BE X2 running as B60 X4
Coolermaster TX3
250 + 1TB HDD
Sammy DVD-Rom + DVD-RW
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Hi guys,sorry for not responding but for some reason I was banned from this forum but I am back now :D .Anyways,decided to stick to the old motherboard,new CPU Athlon II x 3 455 arrived and working well just as the new GPU Radeon 6770 1 GB DDR5 is too.Now,as always there are some downsides.Heatsink that came with the CPU is crappy quality which means very noisy and sometimes goes even up to 6000 RPM!?I used Easy Tune 6 and it's SMART option to put minimum Fan Speed 30 % if the temperature is under 40 degrees(it s around 1880-2000 RPM)and maximum Fan Speed 60 % if the temperature is below 66 degrees,Now two thing bother me:1)TPMIN0,TPMIN1 and TPMIN2 temperatures went slightly higher(0 is 49 degrees,1 is 48 and 2 is 43) and 2)Voltage on + 5V VCCH is around 5,62 which I think is not normal.
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Hi again,
yes, the stock AMD coolers leave a lot to be desired which is why there is a good line of third party coolers available to swap it out. I actually use the Noctua NH-D14 on my system and it is practically silent. Most probably too much cooler for your needs but almost any other cooler will probably be quieter and at least as efficient as the stock cooler and is a good thing to consider buying.
Overall I don't think your temperatures are too high and I would have expected them to increase as you are now using a more powerful CPU and graphic card than previously.
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OK,thanks for your reply.
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Do you guys know how can I find out what s the maximum allowed temperature for my motherboard's chipset it's nVidia nForce 6100-405/430.It currently stands at 65 C and I'm a bit worried.