Sharon said:
Being a novice, I am confoosed about what CPU to buy for my new K8M8MS
MOBO.
The manual specifies support for Athlon 64 Socket 764 CPU up to 3400+.
Web vendors seem to offer that CPU for this MOBO up to 3700+. Further,
unless it is a mistake, some vendors offer the Sempron CPU, while
others offer the Athlon 64 CPU for this MOBO. They are different
aren't they?
I am under the impression that the Sempron is a low-end CPU, and am
surprised that it would even work in the MOBO. Or is it that the
Sempron will work, only slower?
I want to get the fastest CPU this MOBO can handle.
Can anyone offer me some helps here?
Thank you
Sharon
That is a Jetway board.
Their CPU compatibility page is here.
http://www.jetway.com.tw/oldweb/evisn/CPU-support/cpu_support-amd754.html
You can select S754 from this page, to get a list
of possible processors and their stepping info. It
looks like the 3700+ is a CG stepping.
http://www.amdcompare.com/us-en/desktop/Default.aspx
So it looks like a K8M8MS motherboard supports a 3700+
CG stepping processor, with a minimum BIOS version of A03.
That might be the best you can do (since some other
S754 offerings may or may not work).
Note that Jetway has a unique way of spelling Venice
and Newcastle
If you go shopping for processors, and you see a code
such as "ADA3700AEP5AR", you can use this document
to decode what kind of part you are getting. For
example, the "AR" on the end of that code, stands
for a "CG" stepping processor with lidded (heat
spreader) on top of the chip. There is also a letter
that differentiates between S754 and S939.
http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/content_type/white_papers_and_tech_docs/30430.pdf
The Athlon P.R. rating compares to P4. The Sempron
P.R. rating compares to Intel Celeron. Thus the
Sempron rating is deceptive, and it is a weaker
processor due to whatever cache size is used. Also,
the feature set of Sempron can be different - so check
carefully whether the processor is 32 or 64 bit (a
Sempron issue), supports SSE3, CNQ, or whatever first.
I don't know of any resource that puts all this info
in one place. Maybe someone else has an answer for that.
AMD should have put that kind of info on their AMDcompare
web page.
Maybe, rather than shop for a 3700+ CG, you could shop
for a 3400+ E3 and overclock it. Assuming there are no
restrictions, like a bad BIOS on the Jetway board, to
stop your fun. The difference between the two, is a CG
stepping processor has a 1MB cache, while the E3 is 512KB.
Some applications are sensitive to that difference, while
others aren't. You might find the ADA3400AIK4BO is a bit
cheaper than trying to find a ADA3700AEP5AR. The 3700+
looks to be more than 2X as expensive, when I tried a quick
search.
http://www.amdcompare.com/us-en/desktop/SideBySide.aspx?opn=ADA3700AEP5AR&opn=ADA3400AIK4BO
Looking at the Jetway compatibility page again, I don't see
the 3400+ E3 listed. This is going to be a tougher selection
process than I imagined. There are some Sempron E3's listed,
so does that mean that an E3 in the Athlon64 section would
also work ? If Jetway had tech support, you could ask them
I suppose.
Paul
