Need CPU info on old MSI MS-7309 MB

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excitron

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Feb 6, 2003
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Hi folks, I have an old Win XP machine that I recently replaced the old system drive with an SSD, and was surprised how much life that simple process brought back to this machine. It started to make me wonder if there was anything I could do to bring a little more umph out of this old clunker.

The reason I want to keep it is because it was used as an audio workstation around a Behringer board I've been rather fond of that has no new OS drivers.

So I wondered if there was a significant upgraded CPU I could run on this MB, which was my next train of thought in trying to breathe some life back into this old clunker. I started looking around and found this list which, unless I'm misinterpreting it, shows every CPU that will run on this board. What I wasn't ready for was HOW MANY CPUs seem to be able to run on this board. I'm totally overwhelmed and confused.

So I'm wondering if anyone can more clearly see than I what would be the best CPU to replace it with. I see 4-core Phenoms in there, that strikes as a significant upgrade, although there was a note about it not supporting multiprocessing, which struck me as rather odd. Not sure if that's a MB or CPU limitation.

Sooo, sorry to drag this out, but let me know what you think if the CPU upgrade is even worth it, and if so what's the spunkiest sucker I could put in that board? Thanks for any info on this.

EDIT: I forgot to mention what the present system is, it is this below:
AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4000+
DDR2, PC2-5300 (333 MHz), 1024 MBytes x 2
Crucial 525GB MX300 SATA III system drive
Hitachi HDP725050GLA
nVidia GeForce 210
 
Solution
clutchc


The CPU-Upgrade site or the MSI site? The MSI link I sent above is probably not up to date. Use this one instead. It should have what you're looking for in the CPU support list. The Phenom II CPUs are the latest and fastest, followed by the Athlon IIs. They are all obsolete, of course. But ebay usually has a lot of them at times.
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Here is a list of supported processors for that motherboard. Take note of the BIOS file needed to recognize the CPU(s) correctly, as well as the green check mark signifying that it is still supported.

The Phenom II CPUs are the newest and fastest, followed by the Athlon II.
Is that MSI 7309 a Gateway computer by any chance? If so, I believe the motherboard for it is the same as this one.
 
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Thanks for your reply. Yeah that list threw me for a loop, I wasn't expecting that many CPUs supported, I didn't know which to choose. The 4-core Phenom seemed like the best candidate to me, but I simply don't know the hardware enough.

The MSI 7309 system is a project computer I built back around 2007 or so.
 
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The CPU-Upgrade site or the MSI site? The MSI link I sent above is probably not up to date. Use this one instead. It should have what you're looking for in the CPU support list. The Phenom II CPUs are the latest and fastest, followed by the Athlon IIs. They are all obsolete, of course. But ebay usually has a lot of them at times.
 
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Solution
Sorry for the late reply, but thanks. So I just ordered a Phonom on eBay, only to find the system now doesn't start up LOL. Thought it may have been the PS, so I changed it, still no sign of life from the system. Checked the on-off switch, it's OK. So I'm at a loss as to why this system all of a sudden acts like it's not even plugged into the wall. I'll have to assume the MB died for some reason.
 
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What Phenom CPU did you get? What BIOS revision does your board have?
 
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"What Phenom CPU did you get? What BIOS revision does your board have?"

Phenom X4 9550 CPU Processor HD9550WCJ4BGH 2.2 GhZ Socket AM2 95W Agena

However it wasn't installed when the system crapped out, the existing system just died overnight and the only thing I can think of at this time is the MB. I changed the PS and checked the on/off switch and it's still dead to the world. Really weird.

At this time I'm not sure which BIOS it is. the MS-7309 hardware is V1.0.

 
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Oh, this just happened before you made any changes?
Try unplugging everything from the board except CPU/cooler, PSU, RAM, video. Use integrated video if possible. No drives, mouse, KB, etc. With all the FP wiring unplugged, try starting the system by momentarily shorting the two pins that the case's power button would connect to. See if the system comes to life. If no joy, then I would have to agree that the board decided to die just when you wanted to swap out CPUs.
 
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You're still running XP? You are aware it is no longer updated for security updates and Internet Explorer is open to attack, right? If you absolutely need to keep using XP, please follow these safety guidelines.
 
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It's not a networked unit. It's an old secondary machine I use it for legacy audio apps that I have projects in. So no worries. I just think it's really weird this thing just died the way it did. A dead BIOS battery wouldn't kill it, right?

I'm just gonna pick up the same MB on eBay and rebuild the sucker. I recently had cloned the system to an SSD system drive that added new life to it, and then started thinking if there was a CPU update that I could put in it to give it a little extra oomph, and then, as Hendrix once put it, "surprise attack kill him in his sleep that night". 😀

I noticed there are at least two versions of this MB, mine has "Version 1.0" print on the MB, and there is a V 1.5 as well, but I can't find out what the differences are. Every time I search all I get is BIOS versions instead. I'd grab the newer version if it offered anything useful.
 
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A dead battery would still allow the machine to come alive. You'd just lose any BIOS changes and the real time clock settings you made.

It's been awhile since this thread was fresh in my mind. You are wanting a BIOS update for the K9N6PGM2-V (MS-7309) V1.0 to recognize the Phenom X4 9550? From what I've found online, it appears that the PhIIX4 9550 upgrade is only available for v1.3 or later of that board. What have you found?
 
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It's been a bit of a comedy of errors on my part. Yes I read the info for the wrong MB, I bought a Phenom for it, but it was 125 watt, so I got the wrong one. I then got the correct chip and ALMOST bought another version 1 MB, but caught myself just in time and got a 1.3 board.

The MB just came in today, so I'm gonna throw it all together tomorrow and cross my fingers. :) I may use the 2-core chip first to check that it has the right BIOS for the Phenom.
 
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Well, for some reason I can't get this system to go. It won't recognize the old 2-core 4000+ at all (blank screen), but will begin to startup with the 4-core, but immediately reboots after the ram check. Just keeps cycling that way. Not sure what to do, I may have to write this project off as a loss.
 
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Not sure where you're getting your parts from, but the system you are attempting to build is pretty old. Parts may not be in 100% working condition anymore when you get them. Hope they are returnable for refund.
If you still have the original CPU and motherboard, maybe put it back together and make sure the original parts still function together.

One other thought...
The MSI MS-7309 motherboard you have appears to not be a retail board. It appears to be one that MSI made for an OEM (like Gateway or HP, etc.). That is why links to the MS-7309 point to the MSI K9N6PGM2-V2. That means that retail board and the OEM board may not share the same BIOS. They usually don't, in fact. Bottom line: you may have to know the original machine the board was installed in to find a BIOS list that IDs the CPUs it accepts.
 
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Well, I was able to return the board. I was trying to keep the hardware the same on the old system, but I gave up on that idea and decided to just throw another old board I had hanging around, an MSI 870-G45. I picked up an old 6-core Phenom and 4 gigs of ram for $65, so I put the system back together with that. The new old system is running fine save for the CPU fan control seems to not be working and the fan is running full tilt on the Cooler Master Hyper T2 I threw on it. It was working properly in it's original guise with another Phenom and it's stock fan, so I'm trying to figure out why it's not doing so now.
 
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I presume you didn't forget to enable Smart Fan in BIOS and set an appropriate target?
It could be that the reason the board was sold was that it had a problem with the Smart Fan function. As a work-around if all else fails, you can insert a resistor inline to slow the fan speed down. But on a CPU cooling fan, that may not be a good idea. The fan will never run any faster if needed. Although the 130W cooler on a 95W PH II X6 might be acceptable using the resistor. But if you have one of the 125W PH II X6, then I'd pass on that idea.
 
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"I presume you didn't forget to enable Smart Fan in BIOS and set an appropriate target?"

Hmm, rather odd that it was disabled. The old system with the stock AMD fan ran automatically, I wonder if the fan communicated with the board somehow? I set it to 40° and 12.5% minimum fan speed, the lowest allowable settings. I now hear the old data drive, so I may hunt around for a modern quiet mechanical drive for data storage (the system drive is on an SSD), and this sucker should then be pretty quiet. Do you know of any good quiet mechanical drives in the 2-4TB size? Thanks for your, and everyone's help.
 
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Are you saying that the CPU cooler fan is now operating normally? If so, good. Moving on...
What is the hard drive you are using? Make/model? Age?
Are you hearing motor noise or clicking sounds from the drive?

HDDs are really cheap now. Good time to buy. I have always used Western Digital and Seagate. Except for a few Hitachis, those are the ones I'm most familiar with. Never had a bad one yet, and I've had a lot. Noise was never an issue for me (poor hearing).
 
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"Are you saying that the CPU cooler fan is now operating normally? If so, good. Moving on..."
Yeah sorry, wasn't clear on that.
"What is the hard drive you are using? Make/model? Age?
Are you hearing motor noise or clicking sounds from the drive?"
It's mostly resonance. The drive is a Hitachi DeskStar P7K500 HDP725050GLA360 3.5-Inch 500GB, 7200 RPM, 16MB Buffer Hard Disk Drive.

I pulled the drive out and have discovered that the power supply, an Eagle ET-PSVTX550E-BK Voltas appears to be quite loud, which is surprising to me.

The other thing I've discovered is that the old case appears to resonate everything in it, so it's hard for me to say if the power supply is really that loud or if the case is just making everything loud. I recently bought a Thermaltake Versa H22 SE case to replace the old case, only to find the PS location is on the bottom, and the 12v MB power cable has to go from the PS over the entire board to get to the socket, rendering it useless. I'm noticing all new cases appear to have the PS located on the bottom, so I'm not sure how to solve this other than to get a third PS, which is kinda annoying. Are you aware of any modern cases that have the PS location above, like in this pic of my old case? Thanks again for your replies.
http://www.mediafire.com/view/jlrph2u4wl33xxy/system.jpg/file
 
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That is one strange-looking old case. Is the picture sideways, or does it actually lay that way?
There are still cases that have the PSU top-mounted. It looks like you have an ATX motherboard, so you'd need a case that accepts one. What can you spend for the case?
Might be cheaper and less work to just replace the PSU if you don't need too powerful of one.
 
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"That is one strange-looking old case. Is the picture sideways, or does it actually lay that way?"

No, it's just laying sideways on a chair. I think the case is just really resonant. I'm thinking of replacing the data drive with an additional SSD and just backing it up more frequently, and trying to float the PS somehow. Then the only other resonant sources would come from the CPU and GPU fan, which should be fairly low, as they're both fairly low RPM (the front-mounted fan is disconnected). I do have a brand new 80 Plus Bronze 650W PowerSpec PS from Micro Center, I could try that, and perhaps get another case as well. This project has dragged on more than I'd like. 🙂
 
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