So I have an old Gigabyte board model : GA 880GM-D2H. I ran a Athlon II X3 450 in it for several years. I recently upgraded to an SSD and performance increased quite a bit. Now, when I stream the CPU is pegged at 100%. This machine is in my bedroom and used almost exclusively for streaming video (Netflix and YoutubeTV). I wanted to try and buy a CPU on the cheap that would breath some new life in the machine and maybe squeeze a few more years out of this old hardware.
So here is the question - Gigabyte had 3 revisions to this board and each have a different CPU support list. the Rev. 1.x boards (which is what I have) support the Phenom II X4 980, 960T, 955, 945 (and a bunch more). The newer revisions 3.x aned 4.x support a bunch of AM3+ CPUs but in the Phenom II X4 department they have the 980 along with the 975 and 970 (along with several others). If the Rev. 1.x board supports the 980 why wouldn't it support the 975 and 970 as well. Same architecture, specs, etc. just slower speed. I was trying to get a 980 on eBay but there aren't too many. There are some 975s and 970s but those aren't officially supported despite being basically the exact same CPU witha slower clock speed. I don't want to go from 3.7 GHZ (980) down to 3.2 GHZ (955) which is the next officially supported CPU. Question is, what is the liklihood that one of the in between CPUs would run on my machine? Should I strictly stick to the supported list or would I be okay with the 975 or 970? Again this isn't a gaming or power machine by any means. Just trying to squeeze a few more years out and get the most bang for my buck. Thanks for any insight!
So here is the question - Gigabyte had 3 revisions to this board and each have a different CPU support list. the Rev. 1.x boards (which is what I have) support the Phenom II X4 980, 960T, 955, 945 (and a bunch more). The newer revisions 3.x aned 4.x support a bunch of AM3+ CPUs but in the Phenom II X4 department they have the 980 along with the 975 and 970 (along with several others). If the Rev. 1.x board supports the 980 why wouldn't it support the 975 and 970 as well. Same architecture, specs, etc. just slower speed. I was trying to get a 980 on eBay but there aren't too many. There are some 975s and 970s but those aren't officially supported despite being basically the exact same CPU witha slower clock speed. I don't want to go from 3.7 GHZ (980) down to 3.2 GHZ (955) which is the next officially supported CPU. Question is, what is the liklihood that one of the in between CPUs would run on my machine? Should I strictly stick to the supported list or would I be okay with the 975 or 970? Again this isn't a gaming or power machine by any means. Just trying to squeeze a few more years out and get the most bang for my buck. Thanks for any insight!