Returning to the fold but I never left!

[robbicfc]

Hi All,

Expecting delivery of a Phenom II 550BE on Monday, one of those impulse buys. It will drop into a system used originally for light surfin and a few games (Silent Hunter III and IL2 Sturmovik 1946) but mainly now for my photography, converting RAW to JPEG and very light P/P.
Saying that I think I have a nice cooling setup to hopefully stretch a 550 a little, i'm aiming for 3.5Ghz, anyone know where I can go specifically for bios tips on the M3A79?, and is there any pitfalls with this CPU and MB combo

Thanks in advance

R

[richierich]

Hopefully you get a good batch so you can unlock two extra cores.

[BeepBeep2]

I'd try to flash the latest BIOS before sticking it in there, but that's a kicking system if you can pull 2 more cores out of it and get to 3.6 Ghz.

What cooler do you have?

[robbicfc]

EK Supreme water block via a Feser 240 rad

[BeepBeep2]

I'm retarded, and didn't read your sig. :X

[charged3800z24]

I had that board till just a few days ago where it found a new home. I did not get the 550BE unlocked on it, but the board definently is solid. I don't see any issue with 3.5ghz with that setup. I had 4.2 semi benchable and 3.9 100% stable with 4 cores on a MA790FTX-UD5P.

[Daveburt714]

robbicfc: The M3A79-T Dlx is an excellent board! It was my favorite until I went DDR3...

With your cooling you shouldn't have any problem hitting 3.5Ghz with an X2 550, in fact if you get a good one you can probably push ~4Ghz if your not afraid to give it a little juice. ;)

Unlocking extra cores may be another story though. I've never tried my 550 on this board, but it wouldn't unlock a 720 on any of the release Bios.

There was a beta that I heard would unlock, but it was also a little squirley from my understanding.... I never flashed it because the board rocked my 940 on release bioses. :up:

Heres a link that may put you on the right track if thats what your looking for. :D

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=219183
Check out Msg #20 for a link to the M3A unlock beta....

I know gOtVoltage tested it pretty extensively with some amount of sucsess, and sxs112 is the man when it comes to Asus Bios.
I'm pretty sure you could shoot either one of them a PM if you need more info....

Hope this helps..... Dave