CPU/Mobo AM2+ vs AM3

S

sri_rng

Adept
Hello,

Is there any significant difference in motherboards supporting AM2+ and AM3. I currently have an AM2 rig and want to upgrade my mobo. I will upgrade my CPU after 6 months or so. So AM2+ boards sound perfect for me.

Also, please suggest a good AM2+ mobos, with 4 RAM slots and HDMI out.
 
Mate,

There is no significant performance diffrence between AM2+ & AM3 Board,
It depends on wether you want to upgrade your Ram also. if so then Socket AM3 is the way to go.

BiostarTA790GX A3+ @ 5.8K is the best value for money AM3 mobo with all the requirement you mentioned.
 
Don't upgrade your mobo. Search forums to see the success people have had using AM# cpu's with your motherboard, and upgrade your cpu based on that. While AM3 cpus do work on AM2 motherboards, manufacturers haven't provided bios support. So while the cpu's do work in most cases, they often show up as 'unknown cpu'.

AM2+ mobos use DDR2 RAM, and AM3, DDR3.
 
it's only a matter of DDR3 support..that's it.

what is the current TDP support of your board?

also check bios updates from the manufacturer..

the main specification difference between am2 and am2+/am3 is that your am2 board will support HT link only upto 1GHz.

Cool n Quiet will may also work at CnQ 1.0 specs (AM3 cpus have CnQ 3.0)

not sure about CnQ though..
 
Upgrading a mobo with just AM2+ does not make sense right now. DDR3 comes with significant performance boost. In 6months, DDR3 would have become much more mainstream than it is now with more stable and higher speeds. So you dont want to be spending your money unnecessarily. Going for a AM2+/AM3 mobo is possible. But you will be restricted to be DDR2.
 
AMD CPUs prefer tight timings (that DDR2 offers currently) rather than wider bandwidth (that DDR3 offers currently). High MHz of DDR3 RAMs is the choice for Intel i5/i7 CPUs which prefer higher bandwidth instead of tight timing. 1066-1333 MHz with tight timings is the ideal specs for the memory for an AMD chip.
 
Do remember that AM2+ processor cannot be used in AM3 motherboard. If you want to use AM2 processor on a new board, you have no choice but to go for AM2+ board.
 
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