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Hey TL tech savvies,
I have a ASUS M3A motherboard sitting around (and 2gig of DDR2 Ram) that I picked up ages ago in the hopes of building a new computer, but never got around to it. I expect the gear is out dated now, but not as out dated as my current desktop and laptop.
So I was wondering, what kind of gaming rig could I build with it, and approximately what would it cost (ballpark figures are fine, I live in Australia). I was thinking (or at least naively hoping) that given it is so dated, then the other hardware that goes with it that used to be top of the line would now be rather cheap.
My question is what kind of beastly *cough* rig could be made with it, and is it worth it? Could it run the next generation of games rather well?
Edit: If it helps/makes any difference, I have a monitor with resolution 1680 X 1050
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It's an AM2+ board that doesn't even support second generation Phenoms. First generation phenoms were utter garbage and second generation Phenoms were also garbage in terms of performance wise. Both of AMD's Phenom lines of processors are at least five years old in terms of performance. I guess it's worth something if you can pick up a first generation Phenom for free?
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It depends on what you're doing (gaming? editing? streaming?) and what resolution you play at (doing Eyefinity?)
Lucid has a poorly optimized configuration with money wasted on the graphics card, memory, motherboard, and power supply. Not to mention that the power supply is shit but hey if you want to entrust a $1000 configuration with a shit unit, be my guest.
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Gaming of course, I am posting on TL after all =)
Thanks for the advice. Looks like I'll just keep letting that motherboard collect dust. Maybe it will collect enough dust such that the dust is worth something....one day. If I ever get serious about building a computer, I sure hope you're around =)
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On September 03 2011 21:53 skyR wrote:
It's an AM2+ board that doesn't even support second generation Phenoms. First generation phenoms were utter garbage and second generation Phenoms were also garbage in terms of performance wise. Both of AMD's Phenom lines of processors are at least five years old in terms of performance. I guess it's worth something if you can pick up a first generation Phenom for free?
Doesn't an AM2+ board support AM3 processors? So he could get a decent quad core for around $150 on tigerdirect or something right?
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I would say that you could get another 2G of RAM and a decent Phenom processor, if your current computer is outdated compared to AM2+. Be a decent, cheap upgrade. But it depends on your current computer.
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On September 03 2011 23:46 gavin101 wrote:Show nested quote +On September 03 2011 21:53 skyR wrote:
It's an AM2+ board that doesn't even support second generation Phenoms. First generation phenoms were utter garbage and second generation Phenoms were also garbage in terms of performance wise. Both of AMD's Phenom lines of processors are at least five years old in terms of performance. I guess it's worth something if you can pick up a first generation Phenom for free? Doesn't an AM2+ board support AM3 processors? So he could get a decent quad core for around $150 on tigerdirect or something right?
Certain AM2+ boards support AM3 processors but the M3A has no official support for AM3. Sure, there are accounts of AM3 processors working on the board so you can possibly get an Athlon II X4 or a Phenom II X2. But since it's an old board that was purchased a while ago, you'll still need an older first generation Phenom or Athlon to boot it and flash it to a BIOS that will support the newer processors.
AMD's second generation quad Phenoms also don't cost $150, more along the lines of $130 or less. You can get a hex core from AMD for $150.
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On September 03 2011 21:53 skyR wrote:
Certain AM2+ boards support AM3 processors but the M3A has no official support for AM3. Sure, there are accounts of AM3 processors working on the board so you can possibly get an Athlon II X4 or a Phenom II X2. But since it's an old board that was purchased a while ago, you'll still need an older first generation Phenom or Athlon to boot it and flash it to a BIOS that will support the newer processors.
Asus's CPU support list for this motherboard claims full support for, as far as I can tell, all existing AM3 CPUs (including X6), apart from the >125W chips. I'm not sure what you mean by "no official support".
Second point is valid. You may need an older AM2 CPU to flash the BIOS before the newer CPUs will work. The old single cores like the 3200+ cost next to nothing on ebay though.
As the board has integrated graphics and you have 2GB DDR2 handy, it makes it a good candidate for throwing together a non-gaming desktop with a $60 CPU and a bunch of old junk. It wouldn't need much more to run SC2 reasonably well, but trying to build a high-end gaming system with it would be a false economy.
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My suggestion would be remove all the projecting pieces, laminate the whole thing, and cut it into coasters.
Gives you something nifty and geeky, without ending up with a bad PC. Or build a low end legacy machine for DOS games.
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On September 04 2011 03:29 jaj22 wrote:+ Show Spoiler +On September 03 2011 21:53 skyR wrote:
Certain AM2+ boards support AM3 processors but the M3A has no official support for AM3. Sure, there are accounts of AM3 processors working on the board so you can possibly get an Athlon II X4 or a Phenom II X2. But since it's an old board that was purchased a while ago, you'll still need an older first generation Phenom or Athlon to boot it and flash it to a BIOS that will support the newer processors.
Asus's CPU support list for this motherboard claims full support for, as far as I can tell, all existing AM3 CPUs (including X6), apart from the >125W chips. I'm not sure what you mean by "no official support". Second point is valid. You may need an older AM2 CPU to flash the BIOS before the newer CPUs will work. The old single cores like the 3200+ cost next to nothing on ebay though. As the board has integrated graphics and you have 2GB DDR2 handy, it makes it a good candidate for throwing together a non-gaming desktop with a $60 CPU and a bunch of old junk. It wouldn't need much more to run SC2 reasonably well, but trying to build a high-end gaming system with it would be a false economy.
Sorry but where do you see support for second generation Phenoms? The only one listed is an X3... http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_AM2Plus/M3A/#CPUS
Other M3A such as the M3A-H has support for the processors but the OP specifically mentioned M3A with no other suffixes.
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Sorry, bad search. Typed M3A, got M3A-H 
Pretty useless board then, as you said.
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EPT
