D
Dave
Ok, been preparing to build a system for friends of ours, and reading about
a bazillion reviews. Was leaning toward a Biostar 780G chipset mainboard
with a phenom something or other, but the Biostar version of this board is
flawed (3 phase power). Don't like Asus/Asrock/Gigabyte, so in a board with
3 PCI slots? ECS maybe? Somewhere along the line, I read that the ECS
version of the 780G chipset board for phenom would not handle 125W
processors. But I'm not sure which phenom to go with yet, so the ECS board
might do.
Went to check on the price, used Newegg for a quick reference. Found this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813135075
On that page, there is a combo deal for the ECS 780G board plus a phenom
9950 (140W!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
I thought that looked kind of fishy, so I checked the ECS web site. Just as
I thought I remembered, this board will handle a 95W processor, maximum.
There are two versions of that mainboard, and I'm not sure which one newegg
is selling, but they -both- go up to 95W, maximum. And that power limit is
not something that can be fixed with a BIOS flash. It is a hardware limit,
you can't code your way around it.
You are NOT going to have a good day if you try to fire up a new homebuilt
system with a Phenom 9950 in the ECS A780GM-A, like newegg is offering as a
combo. What is newegg thinking? -Dave
a bazillion reviews. Was leaning toward a Biostar 780G chipset mainboard
with a phenom something or other, but the Biostar version of this board is
flawed (3 phase power). Don't like Asus/Asrock/Gigabyte, so in a board with
3 PCI slots? ECS maybe? Somewhere along the line, I read that the ECS
version of the 780G chipset board for phenom would not handle 125W
processors. But I'm not sure which phenom to go with yet, so the ECS board
might do.
Went to check on the price, used Newegg for a quick reference. Found this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813135075
On that page, there is a combo deal for the ECS 780G board plus a phenom
9950 (140W!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
I thought that looked kind of fishy, so I checked the ECS web site. Just as
I thought I remembered, this board will handle a 95W processor, maximum.
There are two versions of that mainboard, and I'm not sure which one newegg
is selling, but they -both- go up to 95W, maximum. And that power limit is
not something that can be fixed with a BIOS flash. It is a hardware limit,
you can't code your way around it.
You are NOT going to have a good day if you try to fire up a new homebuilt
system with a Phenom 9950 in the ECS A780GM-A, like newegg is offering as a
combo. What is newegg thinking? -Dave