Asus M2N-E and Phenom 9950 BE (125w) - Worth It?

masop

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Good afternoon. I've got an Asus M2N-E Motherboard and an AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+ (Brisbane, 65W) CPU with 4GB of OCZ PC2-6400 Memory (1GB x 4). I've considered picking up the fastest cpu available for this board, the Phenom X4 9950 BE (125w) for $130 from newegg. Without oc'ing, I'll be losing 300MHz each on the first 2 cores (in comparison to my current 2.9GHz dual core), but gaining an additional 2 cores in the process. Does this sound like a good idea for the money?

The alternative in my mind is to drop $170-$200 on an AM3 board, $200 on a Phenom II X4 955 BE, $50 on a Dark Knight fan/heatsink and $100-$120 for 4GB of PC2-8500 (1066) memory to replace my existing setup.

That is a hell of alot of bucks ($500 or so) to be dropping just to gain a couple extra cores, lol. I'm trying to save money, but I want the most bang for the buck as well with room to grow if not cost prohibitive. Any suggestions?

-- MaSoP

NOTE: My current gpu is an x1950 pro 256mb pcie dx9 card and is outdated after only 2 years of ownership. I will be upgrading that as well to either a 4870 1gb or 4890 1gb.
 
What are you hoping to gain? For FPS in games, get the 4870 or 4890, and see if that gives you the performance increase you want. The CPU/mobo/RAM is a lot of money, but just the CPU sounds like a band-aid; temporary at best, then discarded. And, without the GPU, you might not see the improvement you want.
 

jcknouse

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Moneywise...here's what I'd suggest:

AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition Callisto 3.1GHz Socket AM3 80W Dual-Core Processor Model HDZ550WFGIBOX - Retail - $115
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103680

MSI 790FX-GD70 AM3 AMD 790FX ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail - $170
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130223

mushkin XP 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model 996657 - Retail - $99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146871

XFX HD-487A-ZHFC Radeon HD 4870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail - $150
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150394

HSF is a good one. And u get a faster chip, plus you might get lucky and be able to unlock all 4 CPUs.

Good luck
 

masop

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As you'll notice at the bottom of my posting, I said I would be upgrading my gpu to a 4870 or 4890 as well. I suppose I could have mentioned it in the main part of my posting rather than at the bottom, lol. :)

-- MaSoP
 

masop

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Nah, I don't think it would make sense to toss my existing dual-core setup in favor of a more modern dual-core setup. The tradeoff is more money lost than performance gained; upgradability aside. As I mentioned at the bottom of my posting, I said I would also be upgrading my gpu to a 4870 or 4890. Between the gpu and 9950 be, I am considering whether those together would be signifigant enough to be able to avoid a $500 or more upgrade.

Obviously for most games, putting in a better gpu will make the biggest difference. I do other tasks that warrant more cores, more so than games. Still though, I want improved desktop performance in general as well as a noticeable improvement in gaming. GTA IV is one example of a game that is cpu hungry which I am unable to play right now, not just because of my gpu but because a dual-core barely meets the system requirments.

Pro's of going from x1950 pro 256mb to 4870 or 4890 1gb:

higher core clock
higher memory clock
faster gddr5 memory (gddr3 vs gddr5)
4 times the memory (256mb vs 1gb)
faster pci-e x16 bus (1.0 vs 2.0)
modern directx support (dx9 vs dx10.1)

Pro's of 9950 BE:

ability to play GTAIV, exceeding recommended system requirements
extra cores for other multi-threaded applications and games

Con's of 9950 BE:

slower core speeds for single threaded applications when compared to current 2.9GHz dual core

I could always OC the 9950 BE to at least 2.9GHz in order to eliminate the con of having a slower stock "per core" speed. I think that would be my best bet. It's only going to cost me $280 shipped for the 9950 BE and 4870 1GB from the egg. The OC'ing should be easily achieved with stock air cooling. Since I'll be using my existing PC2-6400 memory, I would simply increase the multiplier from 13 to 14.5 and adjust voltage as needed to get 2.9GHz. I likely wouldn't want to do much more than 3.0GHz without the need of picking up a Dark Knight to keep it cool. Any thoughts on this idea? I'm sure a few dozen users on here have already done this, lol. Could one of you 9950 BE OC'ers chime in?


-- MaSoP
 

masop

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Alright. Yeah, it would probably be the most prudent course of action, though there are games that even the 4870 1gb alone won't be able to effeciently handle without a quad core cpu like GTA IV. I don't want to use GTA IV as the only reason to go quad, but it is one reason I've considered it. I could use the extra cores for other apps I use.

Seeing that the cpu and gpu make the largest system performance increase, I figured I would upgrade both at the same time. Perhaps I'll go with the GPU first and see how it runs, as you suggested. Thanks.

-- MaSoP
 

masop

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You sure about that? I know the 9950 has alot more cache available (2mb L2 and 2mb L3, vs 1mb L2 only) than my 5600+ has. If that is the case, than OC'ing would just be icing on the cake. Thanks.

-- MaSoP
 

masop

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Nah. According to asus, this is an am2 board with support for am2+. AM3 based processors are not supported. I have read one report of someone putting a 720 BE (AM3) on their m2n-e board with bios 1701 or something like that and it reported an unknown processor but booted up fine. That isn't impossible but is doubtful. The 9950 BE (AM2+) is the fastest supported processor. If I had a newer board, I'd get the 955 BE.

-- MaSoP
 

masop

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I'm getting impatient with new games and the lack of performance, which is why I've decided not to wait for DX11. I figure a 4870 1GB dx10.1 card would be a good choice and cover all existing games. At only $150 with a $20 rebate card, it isn't much to spend for a signifigant performance improvement.

My current PSU which is brand new (brand new upgraded RMA replacement from Ultra) is an Ultra X3 ULT40312 850-Watt Modular PSU. Although it only has one 12v rail, it is rated at 55Amps. Check out this link at tigerdirect for details and pricing:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4267964&CatId=2534

I originally was running an Ultra XVS 700-Watt Modular PSU but it started failing (constant whining) after 2 years. I got lucky, as nothing else in my system was damaged by the incident. They sent me the 850 as a new replacement. I was obviously happy, as that gave me more flexibility in upgrading my system. :)

-- MaSoP
 

masop

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My bad. I forgot about those 2 models. I was thinking of the 45 and 55. Well, according to asus the board does not accept phenom ii based processors, even if they are am2+. I have to look into that issue further. I'm not sure why?

-- MaSoP
 

masop

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I just read in a forum posting from January 2009 that this dude has an m2n-e board (pcb rev 1.03g) with bios 1701 and has a phenom ii x4 920 running with no problems. That is interesting. Another person on the same forum said he tried it but it won't post half the time, lol. Who knows...

-- MaSoP
 

belial2k

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That is about the same time those chips came out. You probably need a bios update for them to run correctly, but according the the Asus website that MB supports all AM2+ processors, which is what the 920 and 940 are. So you should have no problem with a bios update....if not you have a good reason to rma!
 

masop

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Well, I read the asus forum for the M2N-E model yesterday and it seems those who successfully got their board flashed and functional with bios 1701 have the best chance. The odds seem 50/50 though, as the official stance is 45nm phenom ii cpu's are not supported on this model and there is no new microcode being programmed so the 1701 bios can properly recognize the phenom ii models, for those who get it working.

I may try to flash my bios with 1701 using the ezflash utility built into the board at post. If it works, i'm alright. If not, then I'll have to do an emergency restore of 1202 from the motherboard CD. Worst case is I will have to rma my board under warranty and buy a replacement nayways in order to stay up and running. Being able to save the $110 - $170 on a new motherboard would be a good thing. I would rather do an upgrade that is going to give me another 2-3 years of usefulness though. :)

-- MaSoP