my housemate plans on getting an AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz but needs a decent am3 mobo for it. not necesarilly for ocing but perhaps with some potential. i dont know much about amd so i thought i would hand it over to you guys, roughly about £100 and preferably for ddr2 any ideas appreciated. also, is it a good chip? or is there something better for a similar price (he prefers amd). taa
The ddr3 ram will end up costing more than the mobo. If this is a temporary solution just get a am2+ board and ddr2 ram. IIRC am3 motherboards require ddr3. The am3 chips have both ddr2 and ddr3 controllers so their backwards compatible.
If I remember correctly, its as llamafur said, AM2+ boards are DDR2, while AM3 are DDR3 only. You an probably pick-up most 790FX motherboards (obviously AM2+ thus DDR2) for under £100. Scan has an Asus 790FX one on clearance for just under £100.
I have an MSI790GK-G65 (AM3 so DDR3) with an AMD Phenom IIX2 550 BE 3.1. With the latest Bios I have been able to unlock the 2 disabled cores (although this is a bit hit & missy, I just got lucky) and have overclocked a little and all four are running at 3.44 Mhz, with no signs of unstabillity although admitedly I haven't run a stress test yet. The board is £89 at Scan but you quallify for free delivery.
Have a look at the ASUS mA4-78-EM under £60 great little board , runs on ddr2 and as you already have a quad core going into it, you dont have to worry about core unlocking and the chip you've already got is a good one
