oddity DDR3 RAM and Socket AM2

[PLB42]

Recently, a friend asked me whether I could give them an old computer. I decided to fix up one of the old, crappy towers my father still had in his companies basement with more RAM and a passable CPU. The Motherboard takes DDR3 RAM, and the manual states, that the Board has an AM3 Socket, which all makes sense. When tacking of the cooler, I, however, found the Socket to be marked as AM2.

 

To my knowledge, there never where any AM2 Boards with DDR3 Memory Support. 

Did any of you ever see something similar? Is there any actual layout difference between AM2 and AM3? If No, might this just be some kind of cost saving measure on an OEM Board that was never meant to be seen by a consumer?

Anyway, I found this kind of interesting. I hope you did too.

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

9 minutes ago, PLB42 said:

-snip-

I did some digging and it seems like AM2+ did support DDR3? Maybe? Though I haven't been able to find any pure AM2+ boards (not ones that are AM3/AM2+) with DDR3 slots. I guess this adds on the point Linus was making on the last WAN Show about why the upgrade with AMD can be so confusing to an average person. 

[AndreiArgeanu]

I imagine you have an AM3 cpu with a motherboard which has support for DDR3 ram or for both DDR2 and DD3 ram.

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

1 minute ago, AndreiArgeanu said:

I imagine you have an AM3 cpu with a motherboard which has support for DD3 ram or for both DDR2 and DD3 ram.

They would need different physical slots for DDR2 and DDR3 as the notch on DDR2 modules do not line up with the notch on DDR3. So I found that statement rather confusing when I read it on Wiki. 

[AndreiArgeanu]

Just now, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

They would need different physical slots for DDR2 and DDR3 as the notch on DDR2 modules do not line up with the notch on DDR3. So I found that sentence rather confusing when I read it on Wiki. 

Well it mention "both DDR2 and DDR3 memory slots" so it could be that 2 are DDR2 and 2 are DDR3, also if you can have 2 DDR3 slots on an AM2+ motherboard you could also probably have 4 so this could have been a cost saving measure for system integrators to use older and perhaps cheaper AM2+ sockets and chipsets with newer AM3 cpus.

[fordy_rounds]

To add to what others have said, I googled the part number from your CPU, and it is an AM3 CPU. The socket appears to have been mislabeled, and it's either an AM2+ or AM3 socket.

[PLB42]

10 minutes ago, AndreiArgeanu said:

I imagine you have an AM3 cpu with a motherboard which has support for DDR3 ram or for both DDR2 and DD3 ram.

 

There definitely are hybrid boards out there, but this one supports DDR3 RAM only, while the Socket is marked AM2 (allthough AM2+ Sockets were apparently also marked AM2), which is why I found it curious.

[PLB42]

5 minutes ago, fordy_rounds said:

To add to what others have said, I googled the part number from your CPU, and it is an AM3 CPU. The socket appears to have been mislabeled, and it's either an AM2+ or AM3 socket.

Well, if the photo on the Wikipedia article is to be trusted, AM2+ Sockets were marked as AM2. AM2+ would definetly make a tad more sense.

[fordy_rounds]

9 minutes ago, PLB42 said:

 

There definitely are hybrid boards out there, but this one supports DDR3 RAM only, while the Socket is marked AM2 (allthough AM2+ Sockets were apparently also marked AM2), which is why I found it curious.

Keep in mind too that this is an OEM motherboard, not a consumer board. There's a good chance they just picked the cheapest compatible part (the AM2+ socket) even though they were putting in an AM3 CPU and only DDR3 RAM. That wouldn't be a good idea for a consumer board (somebody would call and complain about their AM2+ CPU not working with the DDR3 RAM), but is just fine for an OEM board.

[PLB42]

1 minute ago, fordy_rounds said:

Keep in mind too that this is an OEM motherboard, not a consumer board. There's a good chance they just picked the cheapest compatible part (the AM2+ socket) even though they were putting in an AM3 CPU and only DDR3 RAM. That wouldn't be a good idea for a consumer board (somebody would call and complain about their AM2+ CPU not working with the DDR3 RAM), but is just fine for an OEM board.

That answer makes the most sense, I'd say. Still gave me a pause when I saw the socket after reading AM3 in the manual, though.

[Guest]

Phenom II processors, Along with Athlon II came with both ddr2 and ddr3 memory controlers on die.

 

So you can use AM3 Phenom II in AM2, AM2+, AM3, and lastly AM3+ boards making them versitile upgrade for those running Phenom I Agena core chips and wanted an upgrade path without the need for a new board and memory.

 

One of the things to look for in addition to ddr2 and 3 support where unlockable chips. Some Phenom Athlons and even chips like the Sempron 140 where unlockable. Either extra core or L3 cache and in some cases both!

 

Need any additional information, feel free to ask. Ill try and break it down to specifics where need be.

[PLB42]

23 minutes ago, ShrimpBrime said:

Phenom II processors, Along with Athlon II came with both ddr2 and ddr3 memory controlers on die.

 

So you can use AM3 Phenom II in AM2, AM2+, AM3, and lastly AM3+ boards making them versitile upgrade for those running Phenom I Agena core chips and wanted an upgrade path without the need for a new board and memory.

 

One of the things to look for in addition to ddr2 and 3 support where unlockable chips. Some Phenom Athlons and even chips like the Sempron 140 where unlockable. Either extra core or L3 cache and in some cases both!

 

Need any additional information, feel free to ask. Ill try and break it down to specifics where need be.

 

Thank you for offering advice.

 

I've ordered a Phenom II X4 840, due to this being the most powerful cpu that shipped in prebuilds with that board, at least as far as I know. Is that one of the chips that has some locked features? Can such features be unlocked on any board, or are specific boards/BIOSes needed?

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, PLB42 said:

 

Thank you for offering advice.

 

I've ordered a Phenom II X4 840, due to this being the most powerful cpu that shipped in prebuilds with that board, at least as far as I know. Is that one of the chips that has some locked features? Can such features be unlocked on any board, or are specific boards/BIOSes needed?

Most OC boards unlock processors, generally not OEM boards.

 

The X4 840 does not unlock cores but will unlock 2mb of cache. 

Cpu part number ending in AC.

 

Thuban x4 ending in CB will unlock to 6 cores.

 

 

[PLB42]

1 hour ago, ShrimpBrime said:

Most OC boards unlock processors, generally not OEM boards.

 

The X4 840 does not unlock cores but will unlock 2mb of cache. 

Cpu part number ending in AC.

 

Thuban x4 ending in CB will unlock to 6 cores.

 

 

I see. From what I've seen in this boards BIOS, I won't be able to apply this here, but it's still good to know in general. Thanks a lot. 

[Guest]

Just now, PLB42 said:

I see. From what I've seen in this boards BIOS, I won't be able to apply this here, but it's still good to know in general. Thanks a lot. 

You're welcome.

 

Look around for a cheap Am2+ or Am3+ motherboard. I imagine them to be very cheap. Ddr3 memory can be cheap too. Maybe later on you can upgrade the board and ram to play around with it.