Upgrading cpu, what's best for motherboard asus M2N68-VM

[Bruno Batista]

Hi everyone. I'm looking to upgrade my cpu, atm i have a amd athlon 7750 2.7GHz on asus M2N68-Vm motherboard. I recently bought 2 more memory slots (6gb ddr2 atm), and a Nvidia Geforce 9600Gt. I've already seen threads regarding this subject, also in one i saw that this mobo could handle a AMD Phenom II X4 955 with a bios update. Thing is i never messed with bios update and im a bit afraid doing it, and i have a couple questions such as upgrading the bios, will that mess up with anything i have atm installed? Will it require any extra work as configurations and such? Or else, what would be the best am2+ processor i could get into this mobo?

 

[GhislainG]

You'll find all required info at https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/M2N68VM/HelpDesk_CPU/ It tells you what BIOS and PCB version (several processors are supported only by PCB 2.01G) is required for each supported CPU.

 

[Bruno Batista]

You'll find all required info at https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/M2N68VM/HelpDesk_CPU/ It tells you what BIOS and PCB version (several processors are supported only by PCB 2.01G) is required for each supported CPU.

What does PCB means?

 

[GhislainG]

It's the motherboard (printed circuit board) version and it's printed somewhere on it. If the CPU that you want to buy is supported by all versions, then you don't care about it.

 

[Bruno Batista]

It's the motherboard (printed circuit board) version and it's printed somewhere on it. If the CPU that you want to buy is supported by all versions, then you don't care about it.

ah, i see it. So in this case my pcb is 2.01G and the processor says its supported by all, only thing i have to do is the bios upgrade, which is the only thing that scares me, since there are some risks doing it.. WOuld you be able to tell me which am2+ processor is the best?

 

[GhislainG]

The Phenom IIX4 955 or the Phenom IIX6 1055T (better overall performance, but the cost difference may not be worth it).

 

[Bruno Batista]

The Phenom IIX4 955 or the Phenom IIX6 1055T (better overall performance, but the cost difference may not be worth it).

But the phenom II X4 955 is am3, and it seems the other its am3 aswell. My main problem here is going from am2+ to am3, cause am2+ my mobo supports it, and am3 it requires the bios update which leads me to the afraid of damaging it..

 

[GhislainG]

If your PC has the ASUS EZ Flash Utility, then flashing the BIOS is easy. Download the file and copy it to a USB key. Then follow the instructions in the manual or have it done by someone else. It can also be done through Windows, but it's a bit more risky.