Whats the best am2 cpu?

-rascal- · September 10, 2015

I'm pretty sure the Phenom II 965 BE is the best AM2 CPU. Because the 6 cores were all AM2+.

Phemon II is AM2+. If that's fine then the best is Phenom II 980 BE. The best plain AM2 is Phenom X4 9950 BE.

Athlon 64 X2, and some of the later first generation FX Processors, are socket AM2.

First generation Phenom is socket AM2+.

Second generation Phenom II and Athlon II is socket AM3 -- with a few AM2+ exceptions.

As @Deagon mentioned, some of the early forms of Phenom II X4 were made on socket AM2+.

More specifically, the Phenom II X4 920 and 940 (that were available for non-OEM retail) were made for the socket AM2+ and DDR2 Memory.

http://www.legitreviews.com/amd-phenom-ii-x4-940-processor-review_860

The Phenom II's uses a hybrid memory controller, with support for both DDR2 and DDR3, but motherboard manufactures decided to not implement DDR2 in favour of DDR3 with the, improved, socket AM3 800 series chipset motherboards (i.e. 890FX, 890GX, etc). The Phenom II X4's could work on socket AM2+ motherboards, based off the 600 and 700 series chipsets.

That said, socket AM2+ processors could not be used on socket AM3 motherboards.

http://support.amd.com/en-us/kb-articles/Pages/CPU-6-socket-am2-plus-phenom-ii-compatibility-alert.aspx

Please note that Socket AM2+ AMD Phenom™ II processors cannot be used on socket AM3 motherboards. The socket itself is different and forcing installation of these processors on Socket AM3 motherboards will cause irreversible damage to the processor, and possibly the socket on your motherboard.

Although Socket AM3 processors can be used on Socket AM2+ motherboards (compatibility check with motherboard manufacturer required), the opposite is not possible. This type of damage is not covered under warranty.

Once the Phenom II X4 955 and 965 (along with the Athlon II line-up) were later launched, the general public consumer, I guess you can say including the enthusiast crowd, recommended going with a 800 chipset series motherboard -- to take advantage of the faster HyperTransport, better support for overclocking, DDR3 Memory, SATA III (6Gb/s) and USB 3.0, and other new features offered only on the new boards.

The 700 series was a mix; some used a AM2+ socket, while some others (or a later revision) were offered with a AM3 socket.

It a sense, it is like recommending a Z97 motherboard, instead of Z87, for a i7-4790K or i5-4690K system.

Additionally to that, most of the 600 and 700 series motherboards doesn't have an as powerful VRM system to support a 125W or 140W Quad-Core or Six-Core overclocked to "balls to the walls." A majority of those boards ran a simply 3+1, 4+1, or 4+2 VRM. The sad part is, those boards got carried over for socket AM3+.

socket AM2 > AM2+ > AM3 > AM3+

When you get a 3+ year old motherboard with a 4+1 power phase system, and trying to overclock a FX Eight-Core, you are asking for trouble.

The Phenom II X4/X3/X2 "Deneb" and Phenom II X6 "Thuban" 'Black Edition' were advertised to be paired with a 800 series motherboard -- specially the top-tier 890FX (i.e. ASUS ROG Crosshair IV Formula / Extreme).

@MrIceCremeLollipop

Your HP computer's motherboard uses a 780V chipset motherboard. Unfortunately, the 780V was a more budget oriented chip, and did not really get revised to support AM3. 780V was later dropped in favour of 780G.

Looking at more of the technical specifications of the Compaq dc5850, all the supported CPU's listed are rated with a TDP of up to 95W. It gives it away when the Phenom X4/X3 end with the letter "B." (i.e. Phenom X4 9850B).