Differences between Sockets

[truckpuller]

I have been looking at updating my junk, and i see a lot of different sockets out there for cpu's and would like to know some differences between like ..AM3 AM3+ then they have some that are AM3/AM3+ and now they have an FM1 socket. Also what would be the best way to go socket wise, im so far behind on technology. Im currently running a socket 754 on a Biostar TForce 6100 mobo.

[Taxmancometh]

AM3+ IMO

[Whir]

What? No way on the AM3+. Obviously want a SuperSocket7!!!

[Taxmancometh]

OMG How old!

[ShyguyXPC]

AM3/AM3+ is just a way of saying the board supports ALL AM3 & AM3+ Socket Chips.

AM3+ is supposed to be for some of the newer AMD Bulldozer Architecture CPU's coming out. STILL No word yet on exact release dates, SUPPOSEDLY it is soon, but so far nothing... Soon was 2 months ago, and from what I've been reading could be another 2 months from now...


AM3 is the current evolution of the AM2 Socket. All current AMD Consumer products are AM3.

Boards that show AM2/AM2+/AM3, or AM2+/AM3 are DDR2 Only equipped Boards (anything capable of running AM2 or AM2+ chips is DDR2 based), ones with AM3 or AM3/AM3+ are DDR3 only.


FM1 socket is for the AMD Fusion, Llanos based CPU's (Small form factor, HTPC, etc, based CPU's, currently available in Dual & Quad core), Small Power efficient, CPU's with Embedded AMD Radeon 6300/6500 GPU's on the CPU core.

newer FM1 socket CPU's (I think they will be FM1...) later in beginning of next year, based on the newer AMD Bulldozer, or Piledriver cores, will be released and replace current Llanos chips.

Yeah, I know AMD is making it absurdly hard to know what is what with all these damn codenames for their CPU's, not to mention the codenames for the Radeon 5K, 6K, and soon to be released 7K series as well.

Its almost like their mocking intel for doing the same over the years to consumers.


Socket Wise right now. best thing is for AMD, go with an AM3+ or AM3/AM3+ board that uses DDR3.

Though if you have the money, and not insistent on sticking with AMD, Intel's Socket 1155 platform and a good i5/i7 CPU would be the best bet... Performance wise.

[truckpuller]

Im kinda an AMD guy, for some reason always had them. I m also thinking going quad core if i can afford it.

Thanks guys.

Oh Whir i ordered 2 of the super socket 7's 1 for you also.

[ShyguyXPC]

If AMD, then an AMD 800 series or 900 Series Chipset board, the latter being AM3+, and the former AM3/AM3+... really little difference in CPU support, but the 900 is the newest, and probably best bet.

[truckpuller]

I read a little bit about the new bulldozer CPU, they had it over clocked to 8.4GHZ. I also found out the 3 core AMD CPU can be unlocked for the forth core and L3 cache.

[ShyguyXPC]

Yeah, that 8GHz Record, that I think was only for ONE core on the CPU, and cooled with LN2 as well, so not exactly a realistic measurement of the CPU's performance.

Are you talking about the Current Socket AM3 Triple cores? If so, yeah, there were several over the years that allowed that, some Tri Cores unlock to Quad, and single core Sempron 140's unlocked to a Dual Core, though after awhile I think AMD started physically severing the 2nd core on the Semprons so it wasn't possible to do that anymore. When you can get a Single Core Sempron 140 for less than $35-40, and all you needed was a motherboard with an AMD 710 or 750 Southbridge Chipset, you had a pretty good chance of unlocking the 2nd core. versus Buying the dedicated Dual core that it more or less turned into once unlocked, that was I think $60 or so, cutting into AMD's profits.

I Think for any Core Unlocking, you need a 710 or 750 Southbridge chipset, at least with the AMD 700 series chipsets, not sure what you need for the 800/900 series chips/boards though.

[bigBonehead]

I've recently upgraded to an AM3+ 900 series board in anticipation of Bulldozer:
Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-970A-UD3 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

Very nicely made and I would recommend it to others...