[IvanV]

I'm thinking of finally making an upgrade and I'm eyeing an AMD Athlon II X2 240 + an inexpensive motherboard combo. I'll probably end up with some AMD 780G board, but what worries me is compatibility. They all support the CPU, but they need a BIOS for that. So what happens if I get a motherboard that shipped with an older version of BIOS? Will it play dead or just not recognize the processor model correctly?

I haven't got an AM2 CPU lying around and all my friends I could remember have Intel machines so it's really bugging me.

[mkk]

Boards sold today from vendors that have some volume in their sales should come with relatively new BIOS'es since the factory lines are fairly well updated. Also check on the manufacturers website how long ago they provided a BIOS with support for that CPU. A 785G based board would be safer and perhaps worth the extra cost. If it's a small vendor that might not clear out their stock often enough then it's best to mail them and ask for assurance. A board with a slightly too old BIOS might not necessarily fail to boot but the risk is high enough to consider this.

[kris23]

785G has a new HD 4200 GPU if that helps sway you

[IvanV]

So all 785 boards support AM3 processors from day one? Hmm...

I was thinking about this board, it seemed perfect, a reputable manufacturer, the chipset is okay (780 + SB700) and it provides nice upgrade options (4 memory slots and 140W CPU support) at a really low cost. Also, it received a BIOS that would work with Athlon IIs in March, so it's reasonable to assume that everything would work out all right, but as mkk said, I'll be buying from a small local dealer, so you never know.

On the other hand, this board isn't all that much more expensive either. I must say that I prefer the ASUS board a bit, though, because with this one I lose the only PCI-E 1x slot which is something that may be an issue one day. The graphics core is much better (similar, with higher clock + 128MB of dedicated memory which does make a difference), but I decided to treat myself to a Radeon 4670 (slightly stretching the dedicated budget a bit) so it's not really important.

I think I'll ask about the first board first, thanks for the input, guys.

[OldBuzzard]

You might want to check out the ASRock boards as well. The have been building a very good reputation lately.

They have been producing some very nice, high quality, wallet friendly MBs. Especially the ones with the ATI chipsets.

ASRock M3A785GMH/128M mATX board:
Newegg.com - ASRock M3A785GMH/128M AM3 AMD 785G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - AMD Motherboards

Reviewed:
ASRock M3A785GMH/128M AMD 785G+SB710 Mainboard Review - Introduction

They also have the ASRock M3A785GXH/128M which is the full ATX sized version of the above board for $10.00 US more.

[IvanV]

That full ATX board looks really good for the price, but, unfortunately, availability of 785 boards isn't that great around here and they are slightly pricier than they ought to be (I found only one full ATX 785 board, by Gigabyte, costing a bit over $130 with one or two surprisingly bad solutions in it's layout). ASUSTeK Computer Inc. seems to be the most appealing choice among the micro-ATX bunch (all solid capacitors and it somehow looks decent).

I was told to call again on Monday about the 780V ASUS board from the previous post. They said they'd have to see about the BIOS version but that their boards usually don't sit around for too long so they mostly have the latest BIOSes and hardware revisions, which makes it my first choice and the 785G ASUS board from this post will be plan B.

Thanks again.

[IvanV]

A bit of update on the situation: I bought the new kit!

It's the ASUS M3A78-CM motherboard and I must say tat it's tremendous value for the 60e I payed for it. It's got a comprehensive CPU support list, heaps of connectors of all kinds (some of which require an additional bracket) including, among others, 3 video outs (VGA, DVI and DisplayPort; the latter can be used even when a discrete graphics car is used) and a Trusted Platform Module connector (not that I'll find it of a great use). Despite the high level of integration and the small form factor, it's very neatly laid out with all the connectors lined along the edges of the board. It also came with a three year warranty.

I paired the motherboard with the Atlon II X2 240 and it seems very nice, decently performing and cool even under the slightly crude looking stock heatsink.

I also bought 4 gigs of RAM, a 4670 by Gigabyte and, since I sadly blew up my hard drive, the 1TB DeskStar.

And now for the slightly less cheerful part: I've been having some booting problems with the new system. Occasionally, Vista will hang at the beginning of the process (at the rotating progress bar). And it's not just Vista, I've had problems with OS install media and some Live CDs, practically nothing would work. It seemed that it had to do with RAM not being properly seated, although the issue reemerged some time after the reseting. I've reseated a couple of more times, also trying the other pair of slots and, for several hours, things have been looking fine, finally. The odd thing is that the freeze either happens just as the OS starts loading or not at all. I tested the system with memtest86+, Sandra and 3DMark06 and it endured the stress perfectly: no stability issues, expected results and normal voltages and temperatures. Any ideas what I could try if it happens again?