AMD Recommended Motherboards for Dual Core

The AMD website has extensive lists of tested and approved motherboards for Athlon 64 processors. A listing on the AMD site is Official support for a CPU as established in AMD testing. AMD's Official list of motherboards supporting x2 processors is pretty short.

AMD Athlon<SUP><FONT SIZE=-1>TM</FONT></SUP> 64 4800+ X2 (Socket 939)

AMD AthlonTM 64 4800+ X2 (Socket 939)

Vendor

Model

Revision

Form Factor

Chipset

Key Features

Asus

A8N-E

2.0

ATX

nVidia nForce4 Ultra

· Cool'n'Quiet

· PCIeTM

· Supports up to processor stepping: E3

· Supports up to processor stepping: E6

A8N-SLI Deluxe

1.02

ATX

nVidia nForce4 SLI

· Cool'n'Quiet

· PCIeTM

· Supports up to processor stepping: E3

· Supports up to processor stepping: E4

· Supports up to processor stepping: E6

A8V

2.0

ATX

VIA K8T800 Pro

· AGP 8X

· Cool'n'Quiet

· Supports up to processor stepping: E3

· Supports up to processor stepping: E6

ECS

KN1

1.0

ATX

nVidia nForce4

· Cool'n'Quiet

· PCIeTM

· Supports up to processor stepping: E3

· Supports up to processor stepping: E4

· Supports up to processor stepping: E6

Gigabyte

GA-K8NXP-9

1.0

ATX

nVidia nForce4

· Cool'n'Quiet

· PCIeTM

· Supports up to processor stepping: E3

· Supports up to processor stepping: E4

· Supports up to processor stepping: E6

GA-K8NXP-SLI

1.0

ATX

nVidia nForce4 SLI

· Cool'n'Quiet

· PCIeTM

· Supports up to processor stepping: E3

· Supports up to processor stepping: E4

· Supports up to processor stepping: E6

MSI

K8N Diamond (MS-7100)

1.0

ATX

nVidia nForce4 SLI

· Cool'n'Quiet

· PCIeTM

· Supports up to processor stepping: E3

· Supports up to processor stepping: E4

· Supports up to processor stepping: E6

K8N Neo4 Platinum (MS-7125)

1.0

ATX

nVidia nForce4

· Cool'n'Quiet

· PCIeTM

· Supports up to processor stepping: E3

· Supports up to processor stepping: E4

· Supports up to processor stepping: E6

RS480M2 (MS-7093M)

1.0

uATX

ATI Radeon Xpress 200

· Cool'n'Quiet

· PCIeTM

· Supports up to processor stepping: E3

· UMA

WinFast

NF4K8MC

1.0

uATX

nVidia nForce4

· Cool'n'Quiet

· PCIeTM

· Supports up to processor stepping: E3

· Supports up to processor stepping: E4

· Supports up to processor stepping: E6

Updating DC BIOS & Revision E Memory Socket 939 Motherboards with Dual-Core BIOS
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  • Den - Tuesday, June 28, 2005 - link

    Both the ASUS A8N-E and A8V support the E4 (in addition to E3 and E6) stepping according to AMD's page though your article just lists E3 and E6. See cut and paste below...

    Asus
    A8N-E
    # 2.0 ATX nVidia nForce4 Ultra Cool'n'Quiet
    # PCIe™
    # Supports up to processor stepping: E3
    # Supports up to processor stepping: E4
    # Supports up to processor stepping: E6
  • xeizo - Tuesday, June 28, 2005 - link

    You forgot to mention in the text that there are indeed older K8T800Pro/agp-boards that supports dual-core, in fact they are on your list, like the Abit AV8 2.0 and the Soltek K8TPro-939 ....
  • Olaf van der Spek - Tuesday, June 28, 2005 - link

    > Date: June 28th, 2005
    > Topic: Business
    > Manufacturer: 3Com/U.S. Robotics
    > Author: Wesley Fink

    Did someone do too much copy/pasting?
    BTW, _new isn't a valid target for an anchor.
  • Houdani - Tuesday, June 28, 2005 - link

    Is there any value with including which SFF designs are X2 / Rev E compatible?

    I'm fairly certain the Shuttle SN25P does support the X2.
  • Aikouka - Tuesday, June 28, 2005 - link

    Just as a note, Gigabyte released the BIOS update for the GA-K8N Ultra-9 nForce 4 motherboard today.
  • Wesley Fink - Tuesday, June 28, 2005 - link

    $6 - While AMD did not officially support DDR400 with 4 dimms on earlier Athlon 64, the fact is almost every board we tested ran fine at DDR400 with 4 dimms. Check our earlier roundups. The boards that would NOT do DDR400 with 4 dimms stood out, since most would. Also 2x1GB has never been a problem at 1T in our testing.

    #7 and others - It's good to hear there are new BIOS' to support x2 on nForce3. The websites did not list any nF3 with x2 support when we suveyed the last few days, but readers with nF3 boards will be happy to know some are becoming available.

    #10 AMD says that if the board supports Rev. E the X2 chip should run in single core mode to allow BIOS update. If the board does NOT support Rev. E chips you will need a new BIOS chip or an earlier A64 to flash.
  • arswihart - Tuesday, June 28, 2005 - link

    this is what one user that I know of reported when he installed an X2 in an Epox 9nda3+ (NF3) mobo.
  • elpheer - Tuesday, June 28, 2005 - link

    Nice article.

    I'm unclear on one particular point though; am I correct in assuming that if you mount an X2 on a motherboad that has an outdated BIOS, it will successfully boot on just 1 core, thus allowing an OS installation?

    This in-case there is no immediate second hand PC available to make a BIOS disk to flash..
  • bigtoe36 - Tuesday, June 28, 2005 - link

    #6

    2x1gig dimms have been doing 1T for a while already with winchester and Clawhammer proving easliy capable of supporting the feature, it was however not guaranteed.

    4x double sided will always be 2t in my books, but E die seems to allow some good overclocking so much of the speed can be clawed back.
  • Wesley Fink - Tuesday, June 28, 2005 - link

    #5 - You're Correct and this has been updated.

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