# [SOLVED] Does my motherboard support the Athlon 64 X2 6000+ cpu?



## Silvor (Apr 28, 2007)

Hello.
I have a AcerPower M8 motherboard with a AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ AM2 1MB cpu.
I'm considering upgrading it to a AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ AM2 2MB cpu.
But I'm not sure if my motherboard supports this cpu.
Perhaps someone with a better computer knowledge knows if it is supported?

Here is some info on my motherboard from the "SIW" program:

Property Value
Manufacturer Acer
Model EM61SM/EM61PM

Chipset Vendor Nvidia Corp
Chipset Model MCP61 PCI Express bridge
South Bridge MCP61 LPC Bridge

CPU AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+
Cpu Socket Socket AM2 [Socket M2 ]
Processor Upgrade
Max CPU Speed 3000 MHz

I have also heard something about having to flash the bios in order for this cpu to work.
Is this true? I have not done this before, would it be a difficult task to do?


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## Jaymie1989 (Mar 25, 2007)

*Re: Does my motherboard support the Athlon 64 X2 6000+ cpu?*

Hi,

Short Answer - Yes It will.

Jay:wave:


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## 1 g0t 0wn3d (Jan 31, 2007)

*Re: Does my motherboard support the Athlon 64 X2 6000+ cpu?*

You only have to flash your board if the cpu does not work but according to that info it should work fine.


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## Silvor (Apr 28, 2007)

*Re: Does my motherboard support the Athlon 64 X2 6000+ cpu?*

Thanks for the reply. But according to another site it might be that this cpu is 125W and that my motherboard might not support 6000+ 125W.
Is this true. Altough it doesn't say anywhere that the cpu is 125W.


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## 1 g0t 0wn3d (Jan 31, 2007)

*Re: Does my motherboard support the Athlon 64 X2 6000+ cpu?*

What site said it could not?


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## Silvor (Apr 28, 2007)

*Re: Does my motherboard support the Athlon 64 X2 6000+ cpu?*

I'm from Norway so it was a Norwegian hardware helping forum.
Somebody pointed out that a lot of new motherboards didn't support the x2 6000+ 125Watt cpu's. Even with bios flashing.


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## mattlock (Dec 28, 2005)

*Re: Does my motherboard support the Athlon 64 X2 6000+ cpu?*



Jaymie1989 said:


> Hi,
> 
> Short Answer - Yes It will.
> 
> Jay:wave:





1 g0t 0wn3d said:


> You only have to flash your board if the cpu does not work but according to that info it should work fine.


Not necessarily so guys. While I think it will work (I'll need to look into this 125w thing) you can't assume that by what SIW, Everest, etc reports as it is only a theoretical max speed. According to SIW and Everest both my socket 939 boards will handle 3700mhz cpus. I actually think it's the theoretical max speed of the processor and has nothing to do with board, because it's listed under the Processor in Everest and SIW.

SIW
Property	Value
Manufacturer	ASUSTeK Computer INC.
Model	A8N-SLI DELUXE
Version	1.XX

Chipset Vendor	Nvidia Corp
Chipset Model	nForce4 Memory Controller
South Bridge	nForce4 PCI to ISA Bridge
SMBus	Nvidia Corp nForce4 SMBus @4C00h
SMBus	Nvidia Corp nForce4 SMBus @B000h

CPU	AMD Athlon 64 FX-60
Cpu Socket	Socket 939
Processor Upgrade	
Max CPU Speed	3700 MHz

Everest

[ Processors / AMD Athlon(tm) 64 FX-60 Dual Core Processor ]

Processor Properties:
Manufacturer AMD
Version AMD Athlon(tm) 64 FX-60 Dual Core Processor
External Clock 200 MHz
Maximum Clock 3700 MHz
Current Clock 2600 MHz
Type Central Processor
Voltage 1.3 V
Status Enabled
Socket Designation Socket 939


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## kodi (Jun 30, 2004)

*Re: Does my motherboard support the Athlon 64 X2 6000+ cpu?*

According to this it does 

http://browse.geekbench.ca/geekbench2/view/13209


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## Silvor (Apr 28, 2007)

*Re: Does my motherboard support the Athlon 64 X2 6000+ cpu?*

Thanks for the replies guys.
If I understood you correctly, it´s not given that my motherbard supports Athlon 64 X2 6000+ AM2 just because SIW says it supports up to 3ghz?
And now with this 125w thing it´s even harder to figure out if
it´s supported or not.


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## mattlock (Dec 28, 2005)

*Re: Does my motherboard support the Athlon 64 X2 6000+ cpu?*

Nice find Kodi. I found out that the chipset could handle the upto the 6000+ and the FX62, but couldn't find any reference to that Acer board doing it.ray:


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## Silvor (Apr 28, 2007)

*Re: Does my motherboard support the Athlon 64 X2 6000+ cpu?*

So does this mean that yes my motherboard does infact support the Athlon 64 X2 6000+? And what about the 125w thing?


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## mattlock (Dec 28, 2005)

*Re: Does my motherboard support the Athlon 64 X2 6000+ cpu?*

The link that Brian posted was to a benchmark of an Acer Aspire T180, that has the same board you listed running a X2 6000+, So yes it will run it. Will you need a Bios update?:4-dontkno

http://browse.geekbench.ca/geekbench2/view/13209

What model is your Acer?

The 125w has to do with power consumption and max temp of the CPU. The voltage required to run the processor is still 1.35-1.4v.


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## Silvor (Apr 28, 2007)

*Re: Does my motherboard support the Athlon 64 X2 6000+ cpu?*

I´m not sure if I need a bios update
According to SIW I think the model is:
Model: EM61SM/EM61PM
Hopefully I won´t need to flash the bios.
It that´s not the correct model number I´ll hawe to check the cabinet after I get home from work.


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## mattlock (Dec 28, 2005)

*Re: Does my motherboard support the Athlon 64 X2 6000+ cpu?*

Sorry you stated in you opening post that you have an Acer Power M8. If you need to update your Bios you can get the update here. 

http://support.acer-euro.com/drivers/desktop/power_m8.html


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## Silvor (Apr 28, 2007)

*Re: Does my motherboard support the Athlon 64 X2 6000+ cpu?*

How will I know if I´ll need to update the bios exactly?
What would happen if I turned on the pc with the new cpu wihtout the update?


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## mattlock (Dec 28, 2005)

*Re: Does my motherboard support the Athlon 64 X2 6000+ cpu?*

Not sure with the Acer board, but on most boards you would get an error message saying "unknown processor" at POST.

Acer doesn't provide any Bios rev history but the latest Bios Rev for your board was released last month. It's version R01B4. You can check your version using CPU-Z Download and run the program then click "Mainboard" and you should see the Bios version and date in the middle of the window.

Post back with that info.


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## Silvor (Apr 28, 2007)

*Re: Does my motherboard support the Athlon 64 X2 6000+ cpu?*

Ahh I see.
Well then thanks alot guys for all the help.
Hopefully It´ll all work out.
Not completely 100% decided If I´ll purchase it yet tough. Not entirely sure if the performance boost from my current cpu is enough.

EDIT Ahh didn´t see that last part of your post there. Will post back when I get home from work. Tough my pc is atleast 6 months old and I never updated the bios so I guess it´s a pretty old version.


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## mattlock (Dec 28, 2005)

*Re: Does my motherboard support the Athlon 64 X2 6000+ cpu?*

They had a release in Jan. 07 also.

Here's a few benchmarks for you if it helps.

http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/02/20/does-amds-athlon-64-x2-6000-have-any-kick-left/page5.html

With this one you can compare them head to head. Just choose them in the drop down menu and choose the benchmark you wnat to see.

http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu.html


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## Silvor (Apr 28, 2007)

*Re: Does my motherboard support the Athlon 64 X2 6000+ cpu?*

Thank you for the benchmark links.
It does seem to be a bit faster. But perhaps not a whole lot.
I´ll hawe to think about this a bit.


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## mattlock (Dec 28, 2005)

*Re: Does my motherboard support the Athlon 64 X2 6000+ cpu?*

Well, let us know what you decide and how it goes, just post back to this thread.

I'm going to call it a night....well morning now.:smile: 

Catcha later.:wave:


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## Silvor (Apr 28, 2007)

*Re: Does my motherboard support the Athlon 64 X2 6000+ cpu?*

Yeah will do.
And thanks again for all the help.


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## Silvor (Apr 28, 2007)

*Re: Does my motherboard support the Athlon 64 X2 6000+ cpu?*

I hawe now used the cpu-z program to check the bios version and date. Unfortunately it seems that my bios is from 09/14/2006, meaning I probably need to update the bios should I purchase the new cpu.
The bios version was R01-A2


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## mattlock (Dec 28, 2005)

*Re: Does my motherboard support the Athlon 64 X2 6000+ cpu?*

You'll be fine. 

Updating the bios is fairly easy. When you download the update it comes with a DOS program and also Winflash for flashing via windows (although it may not work with Vista). I couldn't find ant flash instructions on the Acer website though, but if you contact them I'm sure they'll send it to you. If not post back here and we can give you some generic instructions. It's better to get them from the vendor if possible.


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## Silvor (Apr 28, 2007)

*Re: Does my motherboard support the Athlon 64 X2 6000+ cpu?*

After careful consideration I've decided that I'm not going to upgrade.
The speed gain is just too small.
Thanks for all the help from everybody who's contributed to this thread. You've all been very helpful.


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## mattlock (Dec 28, 2005)

*Re: Does my motherboard support the Athlon 64 X2 6000+ cpu?*

You're welcome and thanks for the update.


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## retardedpcuser (Feb 22, 2009)

i'd like to know the general instructions on how to flash bios. never done it before.

i have an AM2 3600+ BE cpu and amdcpuid doesnt recognize it. says it's not an amd model or something.

i know this thread is a bit old i apologize.


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## mattlock (Dec 28, 2005)

Welcome to TSF. :wave:

Please post your motherboard make and model.

Your apology is accepted, but in the future please start you own thread rather than posting to an old one.


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## retardedpcuser (Feb 22, 2009)

i posted here because i have the same motherboard and was hoping I could those directions on how flash my bios.
the ast 180 acer mobo 
regards
anthony


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