Mobo Bios-Processor Compatibality help :?

[vv1n]

Hi,
I'm thinking of getting a "Asus M2N68-AM PLUS" and a "Athlon II x2 250". My only worry is the listed motherboard does not support x2 250 out of the box but does after a bios update.
Currently I own:
Core 2 Duo E6300(1.86ghz)
Asus 946GZ model: P5B-TMX-GB-SI(OEM from HCL, sad bios, no OC, no updates for newer processors available from HCL)
1+2GB ddr2 667 Trancend
HD 5670 XFX 1GB.
HCL case(sad) and iball 400watts PSU(another sad).

Only reason I wanna upgrade is because I'm certainly sure my processor is bottlenecking my GPU, as I'm not getting expected performance from it.

Can anyone suggest me a cheap motherboard for Athlon II x2 250 for about 2-3k which supports it out of the box(and supports ddr2)!!!

 

[Jaskanwar Singh]

no use upgrading from that to x2. save up more.

 

[vv1n]

Thanks for advice, Hey did your gigabyte 880G support your athlon ii x4 635 out of the box of did u have through a bios update?
DAMN AMD is surely confusing me, with their processor revisions, most of the C3 revisions of the athlon ii's requires newer bios even for newer boards like 880G's !!!

 

[coderunknown]

AM3 boards don't need any bios update. only AM2+ boards need (DDR2 only).

WHAT? where you found that? AKAIK, its only true for AM2+ boards. AM3 boards support processor right out of box provided the TDP is within the board's capacity.

 

[Piyush]

now thats some interesting stuff

 

[topgear]

no use upgrading from that to x2. save up more.

his cpu is running at only 1.86 and I think he don't know much about OC anyway/his budget mobo does not allows it much further.

But Athlon II X2 is running at 3 Ghz - so he will get significant performance boost by upgrading anyway.

Thanks for advice, Hey did your gigabyte 880G support your athlon ii x4 635 out of the box of did u have through a bios update?
DAMN AMD is surely confusing me, with their processor revisions, most of the C3 revisions of the athlon ii's requires newer bios even for newer boards like 880G's !!!

It would be best if you can ditch the decision of buying that ages old mobo and get a DDR3 based mobo instead.

Get Asus M4A78LT-M LE @ 2.6k and 2GB DDR3 Meme at Rs. 1050.

If you want to stick with your current DDR2 memories then get Biostar 780L mobo @ 2.2K.

 

[coderunknown]

his cpu is running at only 1.86 and I think he don't know much about OC anyway/his budget mobo does not allows it much further.

But Athlon II X2 is running at 3 Ghz - so he will get significant performance boost by upgrading anyway.

good suggestion. the slowest Athlon II X3 (or Athlon II X2) will offer a good performance over his ancient processor.

 

[vickybat]

I have to agree with jaskanwar. Op has to move on to a quad in order to really see some difference. Athlon 2 x4 will be a better choice than the x2 as the e6300(conroe) is not that bad a cpu and is better than older pentium d's(smithfield) and amd 6 series(brisbane) dual cores.

Go for a low end am3 board and get athlon2 x4 635 or 640 alongwith 2 or 4gb ddr3 modules to really see some performance gains.

 

[Cilus]

Agreed with Vickybat. A dual core Athlon II X2 will provide better performance but not in such a scale that worth the upgrading.
And Core 2 Duo e6300 is a very good processor. I think OP can save the money and jump to Quad core. Within months the AMD Qud core prices will be reduced further.

 

[vv1n]

his cpu is running at only 1.86 and I think he don't know much about OC anyway/his budget mobo does not allows it much further.

Its an OEM board form HCL which does not allow OC !!

I agree E6300 is a good processor but not at 1.86ghz, all reviewers OC'ed it to about 3Ghz, and saddest part is a good OC Board(LGA 755) costs above Rs 5000, also I may hit memory freq bottleneck as its only 667mhz!!

DDR3 memory for rs 1050?? Really?? WOW btw 800 or 1333mhz??

Ok Guys thanks for the help and great suggestion, after considering your suggestions I'm thinking going for:
Athlon ii x 4 620 (AMD hasn't released C3 revision of this processor so it must be compatible with most boards out of the box, will OC manually later)
2GB DDR3
Asus M4A78LT-M LE
THANKS!!!

 

[topgear]

@ vickybat & Cilus - a quad core cpu will be better than a dual core cpu anyday but I only wanted to say that X2 250 with it's stock clock speed is better than E6300.

@ vv1n - That's the price of 1333Mhz DDR3 from reputed brands like Transcend, Kingston & corsair.

Get a 635 or 640 instead of 620.

Don't be bothered with C3 revision - even a quad core like 635 and 640 will work with that board and with default bios - you only need to update the bios to get optimum vcore and other some minor improvements.