When your old Phenom 720 went on the fritz, what were the symptoms? I'm having big problems with my PC now, where it will all power up, but will not POST. The motherboard looks perfectly fine and I've cleared the CMOS several times and checked the RAM, so I'm wondering if I'm having CPU problems.

i think it was the memory controller part of the chip. it would not boot with dual channel installed (after the 1st or 2nd day), but 2 sticks in single channel worked fine....for about 3-4 months.

when it ran it was typically fine, but usually after i put it to sleep it wouldn't always come out of sleep without a hard reset. sometimes when it was running it would act like it was in sleep mode with no warning when it happened, requiring another reset.

the good thing is, if you figure out it is the chip, AMD returns seem to be good. the process is fairly fast. if my x3 ever goes again, i prolly wouldn't get another x3 since they stopped selling them, which would be awesome or bad. lol

Ok. It looks like my motherboard exploded, then. That's what I get for plugging in a GTX 470.

Ok. It looks like my motherboard exploded, then. That's what I get for plugging in a GTX 470.

lol!

$h!.

Exploded 'may' be a slight exaggeration, but I think something went bust in the PCIe circuitry.

Can't wait to RMA to MSI, and wait a month!!!!!

Exploded 'may' be a slight exaggeration, but I think something went bust in the PCIe circuitry.

Can't wait to RMA to MSI, and wait a month!!!!!

if you got the money.. buy another board in the mean time, then resell the rma'd one if they ship you a new one.

I'm looking at that option, but right now, there's no AM3 (DDR3 support) board on my local Craigslist. I don't want to be out more money than I have to. If I was desperate enough, I can use the media system in my living-room with a AMD 5000+ and 2GB of RAM, but then that'd just make the 470 jump back into the box and return itself when I'm asleep.

So, time to find some games for the netbook.

MSI sent me a new 790FX board a few days ago. I'd certainly recommend them for their super fast service.

Bad news is that it's the CPU that's the problem, so I've had to RMA my chip to AMD. Hopefully it'll work out and I get a C3 stepped 955! Anything's better than this Craplon 5200+ that cannot break 3GHz. >:/

MSI sent me a new 790FX board a few days ago. I'd certainly recommend them for their super fast service.

Bad news is that it's the CPU that's the problem, so I've had to RMA my chip to AMD. Hopefully it'll work out and I get a C3 stepped 955! Anything's better than this Craplon 5200+ that cannot break 3GHz. >:/

lol...sucks doesn't it. it took AMD maybe 1 full week for me to get mine back. good luck with getting a c3 chip out of it.

curious where you sent yours.... mine went to florida.

any notification about it yet?

LOL, you AMD humpers.

LOL, you AMD humpers.

i like the price/performance... ...and for graphics. intel can't compete with the graphics lol

what will intel fans have to say when amd has actually taken a moderatly different path then the one it's followed previously. bulldozer looks promising, and it's fusion chips should be a homerun with mainstream to netbook

but there's nothing wrong with intel's offerings...they're just starting to get a good whole system package by themselves...chipset wise.

and how about VIA? hahah you don't see their products but supposedly they're doing some quite good things with what they've been trying to do.

I have not used the intel's consumer processors for a while. Xeons have no AMD competition.

You are right when it comes to price/power/performance AMD is better for consumer procs.

I have not used the intel's consumer processors for a while. Xeons have no AMD competition.

that may change with server bulldozers...quad channel ram....8 modules for a total of "16" procs...it will be interesting

i know AMD is still basically 1 downsizing behind, but hopefully by '12 they will be at...22 nm just like Intel. but at least TSMC is hoping to be at 28nm next year... barely smaller than the 32 intel is at, but we shall see what wonders are coming our way...

hopefully storage mediums that will be less of a bottleneck. ....or the return of ramdisk. lol

curious where you sent yours.... mine went to florida.

any notification about it yet?

Mine's off to Florida too. Based on Canadian shipping, I'll be seeing it sometime next year, as we need to have our snow back before Canada Post can send the dog sleds to the US Border.

LOL, you AMD humpers.

I would've bought Intel, but the last time I did, my Prescott set my desk on fire. Consequently I had to buy AMD in order to save money for a new desk.

any update?

you know, the 970's were just released... lol

Yep. AMD approved the RMA, and sent me a new 955. Unfortunately, AMD somehow managed to find a C2 stepped 955. I was hoping for a C3 because that'd be my ticket to 4GHz. I figured AMD was out of the C2's anyways, but oh well, I won't complain too loudly.

Everything works fine so far. I'm trying to get it to run stable at 3.8GHz, but it heats up quite a bit compared to my previous one. Right now, I'm at 3792MHz (18.5 multi, 205 FSB, 1.37V). It can shoot up to 55 Celsius real quick even with an HDT cooler, so either I need to do a new application of thermal grease, or the chip just wasn't cut from a winning piece of silicon.

On the other hand, I needed considerably more voltage to reach the same speed with the previous chip, so it could very well be I was a little too stingy with the grease. I might have a winner here, yet.

Definitely a thermal problem there. I am glad that you got the chip.

Did a regrease. At stock voltage, with 3.6GHz, it will idle in the low 30's, touching 28 Celsius. However, adding the voltage still kicks it up to an idle of about 37.5, and stressing it still shoots it to 55/56. I think the added heat is due to my raising the 'HT' (FSB) by about 400MHz along with a slight voltage tweak, but that's often necessary in order for stability.

It sits comfy at 3.7, and I think I'll leave it there. Anything more, and it's diminishing returns in terms of energy and heat in relation to speed.

With graphics cards becoming the major peripheral in gaming and graphics, all-out CPU performance has become far less important within only a few years.