Some questions about AMD 5000+

Hi all,

I am planning to buy a AMD Athlon x2 5000+, but I am not sure if I would take it or not. First of all, do I need to format my pc for it? I've heard that it is best to reset your BIOS, that's no problem. But, if I need to format the pc, that will be a huge problem.

Then there is my motherboard. I have a ASRocK NVIDIA GeForce 6100 AM2NF4G-SATA2 and I've updated the latest BIOS. So... My question is, will the CPU be compatible with my mobo? Because I've heard that you had to do a BIOS update before upgrating your CPU, which I already have. On this link it says for the latest BIOS: Support Rev.G CPU.
What does that mean?

And what's the difference between a 5000+ and a 5200+? I've heard that the 5200+ has +1 MB cache. Does it make that much difference?

I am not really a hardcore gamer, but I do game sometimes. I just need a Dual core CPU for my Vista and for some other applications. At the moment I have a AMD Athlon 3800+ (single core).

Thanks anyway.

Zangetsu.

No format required, just pop it in. If you've overclocked, you should reset the BIOS, otherwise you don't even have to do that. According to the link you've got, yes it will be compatible. The rev. G update is referring to chip stepping, your 5000+ could sport a revision G stepping, so get that one, if you haven't already.

The 2x1024kb of L2 cache the 5200+ has will make a difference, just not a tremendous one. Games will get a couple more frames, certain other applications will be speedier and the like. If the 5200+ is just a couple bucks more, get that one.. You can OC everything but cache, lol.

Hmmm, thanks. But... The 5200+ is couple bucks more then the 5000+, but the 5600+ is a couple bucks more then the 5200+. And we could go on and on...

But if the 5200+ OC's that well, maybe I'll go with the 5200+.



Mine 3800+ is overcloced... So I need to reset my bios for just in case.

If you load your default settings in your BIOS, do you still need to reset your bios?

If you load the default settings into the bios, it doesn't need to be reset.

Its not the fact that one is a little higher than the other and you could keep going, between the 5000 and the 90nm 5200. The 5200 has 1mb of L2 pre core