[SOLVED] Best AM2+ CPU

[amdamsky]

So im looking at building a system on a old motherboard i recently got. Its an Asrock am2+ and I need to know what the most powerful cpu is for that socket. I have looked elsewhere but the only answers I could find were "just get a new motherboard2" and "Build a system from scratch"
Any help would be appreciated

 

[EpIckFa1LJoN]

Athlon X4 880K ($90) or Phenom II X6 1100T ($300).

Both are pretty slow by today's standards.

For a point of reference. An i3 7100 is marginally faster than either of those, costs about $110 and runs off a $75 motherboard, and a 7700k and Z270 board will run about $500 and will be more than twice as fast.

 

[daswilhelm]

We would need to know the actual motherboard you have. If you can find this, go to Asrocks website, find your board and there will be a list of supported cpus.

 

[Barty1884]

Unfortunately, those responses are pretty valid - it's hard to justify putting any money into a dated platform.

That being said, you can find compatible chips on the used market pretty cheaply.
We'd need to know the specific motherboard though - as there's more than just "AM2+" aspects that are relevant.

Most AM3 chips can be used on AM2+ boards, but does depend on BIOS support (and some other limitations like TDP).

The Phenom X4 980* would be the "best" chip IMO, 3.7GHz, Quad Core...... but it is 125W TDP.
If you needed a lesser TDP, you'd probably be looking at an X4 840* @ 3.2GHz (again, quad core) but 95W TDP.

*Both very dated (Q1 2011 release dates)

 

[amdamsky]

We would need to know the actual motherboard you have. If you can find this, go to Asrocks website, find your board and there will be a list of supported cpus.

this is the motherboard: Asrock A780FullHD

 

[daswilhelm]

We would need to know the actual motherboard you have. If you can find this, go to Asrocks website, find your board and there will be a list of supported cpus.

this is the motherboard: Asrock A780FullHD

http://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/A780FullHD/#CPU

here's a list of compatible cpu's.

 

[spdragoo]

Do you know the exact model of motherboard? For example, ASRock's 790GX boards (A790GX, A790GXH, A790GM, & AOD790GX) all officially list AMD's Socket AM3 Phenom II CPUs (including the X4 980 & X6 1100T CPUs) on their list of supported CPUs, but the K10N78-1394 only goes up to the X6 1090T & X4 965.

There are a lot of AM2+ motherboards (as well as a lot of AM2 motherboards) that ASRock made, so see if you can find the exact motherboard from their page (http://www.asrock.com/mb/index.asp?s=#AllProduct), then click on "Support", & click on "CPU Support List". The list of supported CPUs may seem confusing, but it's because they identify them by AMD's official SKU; you can always match them up here (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_AMD_Phenom_microprocessors).

As to whether it's worth it... ultimately that's up to you, no matter what anyone else says. You're already aware that this is going to be an older system, so it's not going to be a top performer. However, if your board can handle the X4 980 or X6 1100T (or even the X6 1090T), that gives you a system with a 3rd-tier CPU (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cpu-hierarchy,4312.html), which puts it roughly equal to a Skylake Core i3 or a Kaby Lake Pentium -- & depending on the motherboard's capabilities, you might be able to OC the Phenom II (those top-level ones are "Black Edition" unlocked CPUs) for a little extra performance. You would end up with a decent secondary gaming PC (one that will probably have issues with the most recent games, but older ones will be fine), or a really good HTPC.

EDIT: Well, there were a bunch of answers while I was researching mine. Long story short, it'll support the Phenom II X4 975 or 980, or the X6 1090T or 1100T. Those are absolute best Phenom II CPUs out there, & all 3rd-tier CPUs as I previously mentioned. You've got a PCIe 2.0 x16 slot, so you can plop a dedicated GPU into that;or (if you're using it as an HTPC) just use the onboard graphics. You're limited to DDR2 RAM, but if you have a 64-bit version of Windows max it out (16GB tops). Since you have SATA III ports, get a 250GB SSD as your primary drive & a couple of 1-2TB HDDs for storage.

Again, it won't be the best or fastest machine, but as a secondary gaming PC or HTPC it should do just fine.

 

[Embra]

something like this will work:
Phenom X6 1055T (refurbished with 30 warranty)

 

[Barty1884]

Looking at the options for the board, the 1055T is probably the smartest option, with it's lower (95W) TDP.

You could look at at 1100T, but pushes the board to it's TDP limit at 125W.


Do you happen to know whether the BIOS is updated on the board? If it's still 'stock', you'll be limited to the older Dual Core Athlons or Agenta core Phenoms (like anX4 9850) from mid-2008

 

[Corwin65]

Do you know the exact model of motherboard? For example, ASRock's 790GX boards (A790GX, A790GXH, A790GM, & AOD790GX) all officially list AMD's Socket AM3 Phenom II CPUs (including the X4 980 & X6 1100T CPUs) on their list of supported CPUs, but the K10N78-1394 only goes up to the X6 1090T & X4 965.

There are a lot of AM2+ motherboards (as well as a lot of AM2 motherboards) that ASRock made, so see if you can find the exact motherboard from their page (http://www.asrock.com/mb/index.asp?s=#AllProduct), then click on "Support", & click on "CPU Support List". The list of supported CPUs may seem confusing, but it's because they identify them by AMD's official SKU; you can always match them up here (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_AMD_Phenom_microprocessors).

As to whether it's worth it... ultimately that's up to you, no matter what anyone else says. You're already aware that this is going to be an older system, so it's not going to be a top performer. However, if your board can handle the X4 980 or X6 1100T (or even the X6 1090T), that gives you a system with a 3rd-tier CPU (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cpu-hierarchy,4312.html), which puts it roughly equal to a Skylake Core i3 or a Kaby Lake Pentium -- & depending on the motherboard's capabilities, you might be able to OC the Phenom II (those top-level ones are "Black Edition" unlocked CPUs) for a little extra performance. You would end up with a decent secondary gaming PC (one that will probably have issues with the most recent games, but older ones will be fine), or a really good HTPC.

EDIT: Well, there were a bunch of answers while I was researching mine. Long story short, it'll support the Phenom II X4 975 or 980, or the X6 1090T or 1100T. Those are absolute best Phenom II CPUs out there, & all 3rd-tier CPUs as I previously mentioned. You've got a PCIe 2.0 x16 slot, so you can plop a dedicated GPU into that;or (if you're using it as an HTPC) just use the onboard graphics. You're limited to DDR2 RAM, but if you have a 64-bit version of Windows max it out (16GB tops). Since you have SATA III ports, get a 250GB SSD as your primary drive & a couple of 1-2TB HDDs for storage.

Again, it won't be the best or fastest machine, but as a secondary gaming PC or HTPC it should do just fine.

These CPU's have onboard graphics?

 

[spdragoo]

Do you know the exact model of motherboard? For example, ASRock's 790GX boards (A790GX, A790GXH, A790GM, & AOD790GX) all officially list AMD's Socket AM3 Phenom II CPUs (including the X4 980 & X6 1100T CPUs) on their list of supported CPUs, but the K10N78-1394 only goes up to the X6 1090T & X4 965.

There are a lot of AM2+ motherboards (as well as a lot of AM2 motherboards) that ASRock made, so see if you can find the exact motherboard from their page (http://www.asrock.com/mb/index.asp?s=#AllProduct), then click on "Support", & click on "CPU Support List". The list of supported CPUs may seem confusing, but it's because they identify them by AMD's official SKU; you can always match them up here (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_AMD_Phenom_microprocessors).

As to whether it's worth it... ultimately that's up to you, no matter what anyone else says. You're already aware that this is going to be an older system, so it's not going to be a top performer. However, if your board can handle the X4 980 or X6 1100T (or even the X6 1090T), that gives you a system with a 3rd-tier CPU (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cpu-hierarchy,4312.html), which puts it roughly equal to a Skylake Core i3 or a Kaby Lake Pentium -- & depending on the motherboard's capabilities, you might be able to OC the Phenom II (those top-level ones are "Black Edition" unlocked CPUs) for a little extra performance. You would end up with a decent secondary gaming PC (one that will probably have issues with the most recent games, but older ones will be fine), or a really good HTPC.

EDIT: Well, there were a bunch of answers while I was researching mine. Long story short, it'll support the Phenom II X4 975 or 980, or the X6 1090T or 1100T. Those are absolute best Phenom II CPUs out there, & all 3rd-tier CPUs as I previously mentioned. You've got a PCIe 2.0 x16 slot, so you can plop a dedicated GPU into that;or (if you're using it as an HTPC) just use the onboard graphics. You're limited to DDR2 RAM, but if you have a 64-bit version of Windows max it out (16GB tops). Since you have SATA III ports, get a 250GB SSD as your primary drive & a couple of 1-2TB HDDs for storage.

Again, it won't be the best or fastest machine, but as a secondary gaming PC or HTPC it should do just fine.

These CPU's have onboard graphics?

Not the CPUs themselves, no. But some of the motherboards had built-in graphics. This particular motherboard, for example, had "AMD RV610 graphics" (http://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/A780FullHD/#Specification). That's basically the same as the Radeon HD 2400. It's far from even being a "good" option (roughly on-par with Intel's HD Graphics 3000 from their Sandy Bridge CPUs). But, for example, as a HTPC this would be fine (supports 1080p/Blu-Ray & DVD playback with the DVI-D port, max resolution 2048x1536@60Hz over VGA or 2560x1600@75Hz over DVI-D).

 

[razamatraz]

The 1100T is the best chip that is supported by that board but they are rare and still quite expensive. They also have boost clocks which the 4 cores don't have. 1090Ts are still often $100 and 1100Ts are often more since they are the best that worked on a lot of those boards. A better option if you are looking to stay budget is the Phenom 2 X4 955 or 965 which you should find used for <$35 but then you are only quad core not 6 core. Realistically this is a dying platform not much better than the venerable Q6600, Q8***, Q9*** which could still run a lot two years ago but have finally lost that ability and just can't keep up anymore.

I would save my money and get a Ryzen 3 1200 system.

 

[razamatraz]

Also, the Athlon X4 880K WILL NOT WORK WITH THAT BOARD. They are FM2 not AM2.

 

[jhibbard75]

go with the a10 7700 runs 3.8 ghz, A10 7870 4.1 ghz or A10 7850 3.7 ghz apu and has the R7 graphics you could pair with an r7 video card and 2 way or even3 way crossfire it later on down the road im assuming it is asrock a88x chipset

 

[Barty1884]

go with the a10 7700 runs 3.8 ghz, A10 7870 4.1 ghz or A10 7850 3.7 ghz apu and has the R7 graphics you could pair with an r7 video card and 2 way or even3 way crossfire it later on down the road im assuming it is asrock a88x chipset

That's an FM2+ chip, not AM2+

 

[jhibbard75]

get a fm2+ plus board

 

[Barty1884]

get a fm2+ plus board

The OP appears to already be aware the investing in AM2+ is not likely the best route, but they are looking for the most powerful CPU for the board they have.

Even if they were to invest in a new platform, FM2+ and an A10 7700K (or greater) is a pretty poor recommendation in 2017. If you're talking new, the chip + board alone is going to run you around $180 - for that kind of money, the OP could have a Ryzen3 + B350 board.

 

[spdragoo]

go with the a10 7700 runs 3.8 ghz, A10 7870 4.1 ghz or A10 7850 3.7 ghz apu and has the R7 graphics you could pair with an r7 video card and 2 way or even3 way crossfire it later on down the road im assuming it is asrock a88x chipset

So...rather than the suggested 4C/4T & 6C/6T CPUs that are compatible with his current motherboard (& thereby minimizing the amount of time he'll need to spend, i.e. won't need to reinstall Windows), you suggest he use a CPU that not only uses a completely different socket (& therefore isn't compatible with his motherboard), they're 1 step lower on the CPU tier (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cpu-hierarchy,4312.html) -- Phenom II X4 975/980 & X6 1090T/1100T are 3rd-tier CPUs, all 3 of those APUs are 4th-tier CPUs.

As for CrossFire, that's not going to happen with his motherboard. There's only one x16 slot; the "Hybrid CrossFireX" it mentions is if he wanted to add a Radeon HD 2400 to CrossFire with the onboard graphics. That level of GPU is so far down in capability (we're talking between Intel's HD 2000 & HD 3000 integrated graphics) that even a single R7 240 that you mentioned would blow it away...not that I would recommend that GPU anyway, as even a GT 1030 handily beats them.

get a fm2+ plus board

And again, he already has a Socket AM2+ motherboard. Telling him he should spend extra cash on a motherboard that will only work with a different CPU that is rated at the same/lower tier as the options with his existing board is the complete opposite of "good advice".

 

[razamatraz]

go with the a10 7700 runs 3.8 ghz, A10 7870 4.1 ghz or A10 7850 3.7 ghz apu and has the R7 graphics you could pair with an r7 video card and 2 way or even3 way crossfire it later on down the road im assuming it is asrock a88x chipset

Why would you suggest a less powerful CPU (yes all A8, A10, A12 are less powerful than a 1090t) that doesn't even work on his board? Seriously man, delete your answer.

Razz