Processor upgrade

[DeJay]

I'm considering upgrading my AMD Phenom II X6 1100T to the AMD Piledriver FX-8 Eight Core 8370, both AM3+ socket. The motherboard in the Asus M5A88-V EVO and is supposed to support this. Can anyone tell me what else I may have to do to achieve it? Oh, and I'm currently using Linux Mint on it, although I'm not sure that's relevant.

Thanks for any information you can offer.

[fritzi93]

It should be no problem in an AM3+ mobo. I checked the supported processors on your Asus M5A88-V EVO to be sure, as you did.

I have to ask: Why the upgrade?
You'll get perhaps a 20% improvement in multi-thread performance, depending what you're doing.
That's what a quick search of comparative benchmarks told me.

Some years ago, I relegated my 1090T to the office and built a desktop specifically for encoding X264 with an FX-8350.
It wasn't a big upgrade. If memory serves, I too got around 20% or so.
And the sucker runs pretty hot with the stock cooler when encoding.

The Thubans were a darn good deal in their day, the FX series, not so much.
I kinda wished after building the FX computer that I'd gone with an i7 instead of the FX, but it's okay.

Good luck.

[EDIT] If you have any problems, I'd look at the available BIOS versions for your mobo to see if there's a later version more compatible with FX processors.

[redwudz]

I did a similar upgrade a few years ago, going from a Phenom 1100T to a FX8350. I felt the FX8350 was a better value than the FX8370 at the time.
The FX8350 also performed much better than the 1100T with H.264 encodes.

Details of the upgrade here:
https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/360866-Motherboard-CPU-RAM-upgrade-to-8-core-AMD-C...hlight=corsair

I used a Corsair H50 water cooler with both CPUs and
I would definitely recommend a similar setup instead of air coolers.
Both CPUs run in the mid 40C range at 100% CPU utilization on all cores.

And both CPUs are 125W processors, so good cooling is important.
Both are still in use, but not my main PCs at present.

[usually_quiet]

If you have any problems, I'd look at the available BIOS versions for your mobo to see if there's a later version more compatible with FX processors.

My understanding is that it is better to do this before running into any problems. So, make sure there is a BIOS version available which supports the new CPU and install that BIOS version before replacing the old CPU.

[Edit] I went to the ASUS website and looked at the CPU support page. BIOS version 1801 or later is required to install an AMD Piledriver FX-8 Eight Core 8370.

[DeJay]

Thnks for the replies gents, it's just the kind of information I was looking for. Sorry for the tardy reply but I've been away for a few days.

I have to ask: Why the upgrade?

Like I said, I'm only considering it, but I would rather consult you folks first before making any decision, rather than complain after the money is spent. It appears to be the cheapest option to gain a little extra oomph for rendering, editing playback etc., but it won't be the end of my world if I don't do it.

I am edting mainly 1080p video, using Cinelerra-GG 5.1 on Linux Mint. As well as the machine I described I have a high spec. laptop with an Intel i7-6700HQ @ 2.60 GHz CPU and the same amount of RAM (16Gb), not sure about the mobo, so it is capable of editing if the PC dies. Putting two different sections of movie with several effects into the same Cinelerra on the laptop and test rendering each, I find the PC takes about 40% longer to do the same renders. The machines are set up as close to the same as I can get. The PC has 2 internal drives dedicated to video and I render from one to the other, I connected two USB 3.0 drives to the laptop and worked the same way.

usually_quiet. Thanks for the link, I'll look into the BIOS.

redwudz. Thanks for the link, I'll read that too. I have an Arctic Freezer A30 which keeps the Phenom at around 50C under full load, I could start with that perhaps. The laptop Intel gets up to over 80C and I do have it on a frame to raise the base and improve airflow!

I now have another project to edit, so I'm going to put that on the laptop and try editing on it for the first time, just to see how big a PITA it is. Edit: Soon got fed up with that!

I'm not sure I can be bothered to start all over again and put in a much more expensive Intel board and chip, especially after the hassle I had trying to find a Linux distro that would work properly on the laptop (UEFI and can't disable secure boot separately). If I could gain around 20% better performance for a modest outlay, I think I would be happy with that. Then again I could leave things as they are and do something else while rendering.

You chaps have given me the info I need and for that I thank you again.

[sophisticles]

I'm considering upgrading my AMD Phenom II X6 1100T to the AMD Piledriver FX-8 Eight Core 8370, both AM3+ socket. The motherboard in the Asus M5A88-V EVO and is supposed to support this. Can anyone tell me what else I may have to do to achieve it? Oh, and I'm currently using Linux Mint on it, although I'm not sure that's relevant.

Thanks for any information you can offer.

I wouldn't even consider this an upgrade, the Piledriver "8 core" cpu's only really showed a huge increase over the older X6's under a very limited set of circumstances, like one archiving utility that made use of lots of integer operations but in some cases it was barely any faster, even with the faster clock speeds.

[DeJay]

Thanks Sophisticles. After quite a bit of research, it's the conclusion I also came to and it's not going to happen. I also concluded that the alternative of going Intel, new RAM plus anything else I haven't listed and adding an SSD along with a new case, mine's early XP vintage, wouldn't fall far short of the cost of a new machine. So a new machine it will be. It's certainly going to be several times more expensive than a Piledriver, but better value for money methinks.