AMD Phenom II x4 940 w/ Biostar TF560 Motherboard?

Setan

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 11, 2004
Messages
217
Hey Guys,

I just purchased a new AMD Phenom II x4 940 processor from the egg.

The problem is I have a Biostar TF560 A2+ motherboard, and I can't find any information stating that the processor will work on my board. Anyone know? Has anyone had any luck?
 
I'd grab the latest bios for it, and then try and see when you get it.
 
Yea I know how that is, I have the 550 version of that board, which never even got got Phenom support. See this is the reason why companies like Biostar are never seriously in the enthusiest market. Meanwhile, companies like ASROCK are providing support on Phenoms going back to Nforce 3 chipsets. I loved my Biostar motherboard for the Athlon x2 overclocking it worked great. Too bad they never update chip support very often (or never in this case), often times links on their web pages to the supposed chip support list or memory list don't work, and when you email them to ask questions, you usually get a confused sounding response from a person who you know doesn't speak english from the first time you read one of their sentences.
 
Yea I know how that is, I have the 550 version of that board, which never even got got Phenom support. See this is the reason why companies like Biostar are never seriously in the enthusiest market. Meanwhile, companies like ASROCK are providing support on Phenoms going back to Nforce 3 chipsets. I loved my Biostar motherboard for the Athlon x2 overclocking it worked great. Too bad they never update chip support very often (or never in this case), often times links on their web pages to the supposed chip support list or memory list don't work, and when you email them to ask questions, you usually get a confused sounding response from a person who you know doesn't speak english from the first time you read one of their sentences.
It has nothing to do with Biostar. You are comparing apples to oranges with the NF3 vs 550. One is a NVidia chipset, one is an ATI chipset. The chipset designed by ATI had certain specifications which Biostar met. Complete future-proofing is never possible with electronics. Older AM2/AM2+ motherboards that do support Phenoms may be limited to a HT Link speed of 1000mhz like you see for that TF560+. Newer chipsets like my 770 were updated with full or full enough Phenom and PhenomII support (except for AMD Overdive and who needs that). Furthermore another limiting factor between a board that supports Phenom and one that doesn't is the dual-plane power. This is most likely the reason your 550 could not be updated for Phenom chips. BIOS revisions are merely firmware after all, they cannot work magic on hardware every time and expecting that is certainly a road to frustration.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/archive/index.php/t-131961.html

http://www.chw.net/foro/noticias-br...e-amd-a-fabricantes-de-placas.html#post795047
 
I'm not sure yet if you read my full post or did the research from the links I posted. To start with, you never gave a model number for any of the boards you were comparing up until now. Now that you've provided one of them, from your own link:

*If you use AM2+ CPU on AM2 chipset motherboard, the system bus speed will downgrade from HT3.0 (5200 MT/s) to HT1.0 (2000 MT/s), but the CPU frequency will not be influenced.
Your ASRock is clearly an AM2 board, not AM2+. Yes, it says "Support for Socket AM2+". Unfortunately that's the real deal with Setan's TF560 too. While marketed as AM2+ it isn't quite up to par either and only supports HT Link speeds up to 1000mhz as well. You still haven't mentioned which particular 550 you had that you blame Biostar for not adding Phenom support to. Looking around their website I see three listed. All of which are clearly labeled as AM2 boards, not AM2+ boards. Checking the supported CPU list for them the highest power draw models listed are 89w K8 dual-cores. As I mentioned earlier AM2+/AM3 Phenoms moved to a Dual-Plane power design. The links I provided were supposed to explain the differences.

. . .the new AM2+ and AM3 (H2 2008) performance motherboards will use 125w 95A Dual-Plane VRMs. . .

. . .mainstream and value parts, motherboards will use single-plane 89w 80A VRM. . .

Here's something else that may shed more light:

http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/con...d_tech_docs/GH_43375_10h_DT_PTDS_PUB_3.14.pdf

Dual-plane. Platforms in which the VDD and VDDNB (Northbridge) planes are isolated on the platform and controlled as separate voltages.

Single-plane. Platforms in which all the VDD and VDDNB power planes are connected together on the platform and controlled as a single power plane.
If you look at the specs for the high wattage Phenom X4s you'll see that in single-plane mode they draw more amps than in dual-plane mode. Now let's look at what X4 Phenom isn't on the support list for your ASRock motherboard hasoos - the 140w 9950. For single-plane we have a figure of 105.9 A. Clearly above the 95 A max previously stated for the dual-plane. In dual-plane mode that same chip draws 89.6 A, below the threshold. The margins are much larger once you go to the new Phenom IIs and the TDP gets raised from 125w to ~140w and the amps raise from just under 80 to over 100. Now take a look at your "550" and I think you'll understand why Biostar could do nothing at all via firmware to make it compatible with today's Phenom chips. You'll also be able to conclude that your ASRock has a better/beefier vCore section and thus continues to provide support (minus the HT3.0 of course) for Phenoms.

On-Topic Synopsis:
Is it a great or foolproof idea for Setan to use a Phenom II in his TF560? NO!
Will it work at stock speeds or light overclocking for the time being until he upgrades his board? Yes, as far as I can tell from the link I provided in my first reply. This would require adding heatsinks to the mosfets and/or direct air flow over them constantly and would also mean avoiding anything like Prime95 on all four cores at once.
Would I recommend he try hitting 4.0ghz with it? Not unless he likes the smell of magic smoke.
 
Back
Top