Athlon x2 3800 + MSI nforce mainboard - compatability

jayneemac

hoepfully someone can help me out here, I'm thinkin of getting this board:

MSI K8N NEO4-F, nForce4, Socket-939
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=307784&cks=PRL

and this CPU:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=311700&cks=SER


Now the mainboard bios can be upgraded to support x2 but what i need to know is, if the CPU will work with out the x2 bios upgrade as i'm building it the system from scratch & if it doesn't boot then i'm in trouble!

thanks...

commited

Yup - should do.
Dont bother with the 3800 though, go for the opteron 165: http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=313936&cks=PRL
Another 1mb cache and only 200mhz slower, but easily overclockable

jayneemac

commited wrote:

Another 1mb cache and only 200mhz slower, but easily overclockable

Is the Athlon 3800+ a poor overclocker? (not that i'll need to OC it just yet mind)

AnCapaillMor

Actually read in an article, it's great for OC'ing. Altho the opterons are meant to be perfect for oc'ing. If you're not into overclocking go for the 3800. Read reviews on it and it's impressive, i got the 4400 myself and it's amazing.

commited

No, I'd still get the opteron over the 3800 if you arent overclocking purely for the extra cache!

jayneemac

thanks for the advice guys, gonna wait another couple of weeks & check the price of the new opterons