Upgrading From Athlon AMD 64 to Athlon AMD X2???

[jgilbreath04]

awsome thats what I already figured but just thought that I would ask

[jgilbreath04]

just to let eveyone know I decided to go ahead and upgrade and I made the choice of going with the Opteron 185. I do a lot a gaming and a lot of video processing and editing. It should be here on Wensday so I'll check back in to tell you how the pop in upgrade goes.

[jgilbreath04]

Well after taking more of a second to think and reanalyze I relized a few things.

Ok first of all I know I need to upgrade my Bios. The question is though does this have to be done from a A: drive, or can I use a Flash drive to do this to boot from?

[BeepBeep2]

you should use a floppy, and some mobo manufactuers let you flash from windows (the stupid proof way)

as i have been told.......edit your posts> dont make new ones

[LeftyAce]

The 'from windows' method uses the ASUS utility that can be found on your motherboard CD. If you don't have the cd, check ASUS's website; it should be a free download.

If you want to do it the 'proper' way with a floppy, you can probably yank a floppy out of another computer temporarily to perform the flash. Or purchase one, they're pretty cheap at this point.

*EDIT* This should do the trick: http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/S...-Utility.shtml

And here's instructions: http://support.asus.com/technicaldoc...Language=en-us

[jgilbreath04]

Lefty thats just perfect! Just the exact thing I was looking for! Thanks a ton this is trully appreciated!

[audiophile]

Whew!

After further research and some nerve-wracking tinkering, my system finally recognizes both cores. Turns out I did need a bios update after all. Thanks everyone for the advice, information and moral support!

_________________________________

Lian-Li PC-V1000
Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 510 SLI
MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum SLI
AMD Opteron 180 Denmark
Corsair Value Select DDR400 PC3200
eVGA nVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, 256MB, PCI-E
Western Digital 74GB Raptor SATA
Seagate 200GB 7200 RPM SATA
Windows XP Pro w/SP2

Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS Platinum
SONY DRU-700A Double Layer/DVD+/-RW Drive
ViewSonic VX900 19" LCD
Klipsch ProMedia Ultra 5.1 Speakers

[LeftyAce]

Glad you got it working. Enjoy the new processor!

[jgilbreath04]

Just to let eveyone know that was curious, the Asus Updater worked like a charm... somewhat...

The instillation and the BIOS flash went just fine couldn't ask for better. Although I did have to download the BIOS from Asus and us the "Update from File" instead "Update from Internet." Everytime that I tried updating from interent there was always an error message saying "To many people on FTP Server. Try again later."

But besides that I would definatley suggest using this program if you are a Asus MB user, very quick and painless. I would also suggest this to anyone that hasn't updated there BIOS in a while. Before the update using Asus N.O.S I couldn't overclock the system more than the 3%. After the BIOS update I can take the N.O.S. all the way up to 10% overclocking, (putting my processor at 2.2 from 2.0 very stable and only a couple degrees hotter) the jump must have been a good one. Also fixed some other minor bugs like showing how many GB my HD where instead of KB.

Anywho, thanks for all the help guys and hopefully proc installation goes as easy tomarrow as BIOS did last night.

[jgilbreath04]

Ok, well I got in the Opteron 185 yesterday and got everything set up and poped it in, and before I could realize it the thing was installed and running just fine. (well more than fine). Well my 3dMark06 score went from 5760, to 9680... talk about a huge jump. Thats running Opteron 185, 8800GTX BFG OC, 2 Gigs Corsair XMS Pro Series, WD 150 Gig Raptor, Samsung 22" Widescreen 226BW. The coolest thing about it was when I went to uploud my scores to 3DMark06, I was ranked #1 in my Compartive class for pc optimization and performance!!!! How cool is that! Right now im using the Asus N.O.S. Overclocking and am running it at 5%, which puts the processor running at 2.73 stable and at the same relative temp it was running at stock (which is 39-40c). Under load it it running at about 43-44.

My next question is now since im not getting all that get temps with the heatsink I have on right now, the Thermaltake Volvcano Extreme; should I try the Opteron heatsink that came with the cpu because I have heard many people say really good things about them. Or would it not bring my temps down any?

[kmillerusaf]

Hard to say without testing it... Just make sure you are wiping off the residue and putting a new coat of thermal grease on there when removing and installing the heatsinks

[jgilbreath04]

Yeah I definatly made sure to do that when installing the new cpu, and reinstalling the heatsink. Well I guess I might try it, but its suck a pain, and its not really getting all that warm. After I have done some reading the temps im getting really are not all that hot. I think i'll be happy with what I have and stick with the Thermaltake.

[kmillerusaf]

Those temps aren't bad at all. It also depends on the ambient temperature of your room so if it's hot/cold in your room, the case is going to be hot/cold and will in turn make the rest of your components hot/cold. I think those temps are fine though unless you just want to experiment.