Motherboard Question

[Fear Deer]

Hello to all you fellow's.

I have a little question. I have an ASUS M4A78LT-M motherboard, which oficially supports AM3 CPU's, but not AM3+.

The AM3+ socket has 1 more pin than the AM3, but AM3 Cpu's do not use all the pins on their sockets, so possibily AM3+ CPU's do not use the extra pin, as some manufacturers offer bios upgrades to make their AM3 motherboards run AM3+ CPU's.

AM3+ CPU's such as the Bulldozer's are 32nm CPU's. My motherboard, according to asus, supports 45NM cpu's, such as mine. Asus does not offer any upgrade for my motherboard to support AM3+, however, a friend of mine has a computer running with AM3+ CPU on an AM3+ Motherboard, and his motherboard has exactly the same chipset as mine, which is AMD 760G/SB710 (AMD 780L/SB710)

His motherboard is the Asus M5A78L-M LX.

So, would i be able to run an AM3+ Cpu on my motherboard? even without official support, even unoficially.

Even if its impossible, can anything go wrong if i plug in my friend's AM3+ Cpu?

Also, last question, what if i flash my bios with a bios from his motherboard? :s i mean, only difference is actuall AM3+ support and his sound card (onboard) is 2.1 while mine is 7.1

thank you!

[Andriy242]

Here is the down low for you.

 

It won't work for you. End of discussion. Why?

Cause of this.

[ATTACH]17265[/ATTACH]

[Fear Deer]

Hey :)

I've seen that image, but the fact that some AM3 boards had bios upgrades to be compatible with AM3+ Chips leads me to believe that "The Missing Pin" Is un-used.

Can anything go wrong if i try to fit AM3+ Cpu on my board, and incase it fits, power it up?

[Camel]

If there hasn't been a BIOS upgrade for your motherboard, then the answer is more than likely going to be a no.

 

The difference in pins is most likely down to the different feature sets in the CPUs. If an AM3 motherboard supports AM3+ CPUs, there will be some features on the CPU that won't be enabled. Things like extra power-saving stuff.

[Ryzza5]

Why you're asking us instead of your mobo manufacturer confuses me. Get the authoritative answer on it.

 

Or even better, just use your PC and stop drooling over all the latest hardware. Build a new one from scratch every 3 years or so.

[Fear Deer]

Because the mobo manufacturer, even if knowing its un-officially possible to run on my mobo an am3+ cpu, will tell me its not :p so i have to buy a new one, anyways, would there be any danger in trying to run am3+ cpu on mine? just to see if i get any result?

[Camel]

Because the mobo manufacturer, even if knowing its un-officially possible to run on my mobo an am3+ cpu, will tell me its not :p so i have to buy a new one, anyways, would there be any danger in trying to run am3+ cpu on mine? just to see if i get any result?

 

Yes. All motherboards are different. Just because it works with one doesn't mean it won't cause damage to yours.

 

Is it worth the risk? You could damage far more than just the motherboard and CPU.

[Ryzza5]

While you're testing that would you also mind checking if sticking a metal fork into toaster our power output plug is dangerous.

 

JUST BE HAPPY WITH WHAT YOU'VE GOT.