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MSI's motherboards now support 125W AMD CPUs
Author: Richard SwinburnePublished: 14th April 2008
MSI's K9A2GM-FIH/FD based on the AMD 780G chipset will be launched with 125W CPU support, but should still be inexpensive.
MSI contacted bit-tech to inform us of about the change in its motherboard strategy - while mainstream and inexpensive boards are very cost sensitive: so more power phases could be the difference between competitive and uncompetitive products, four out of six MSI boards in this market have been launched with full 125W CPU support: K9A2GM-FIH (AMD 780G), K9N2GM-FIH (Nvidia GeForce 8200), K9A2VM-FD ( AMD 780V), K9N2GM-FD (Nvidia GeForce 8200).
The two boards that only support up to 95W CPUs are the more basic K9A2GM-F v2 (AMD 780V) and K9N2GM-F v2 (Nvidia GeForce 8200).
MSI still hasn't updated its K9A2 CF where we still feel its needed most and when asked if it was intending to, MSI said it was undecided at the current time (releasing a new board will hurt current board sales, however releasing a revision will make it hard for the consumer to know which they are buying).
Kudos to MSI for taking the initiative, although we could find none of these boards available just yet. It also clearly labels its website to make sure people take note - something other companies fail to note, usually citing broad "AMD Athlon/Phenom" support.
We still won't recommend the K9A2 CF until it's updated with a power greater overhead either - but it's one in a minefield of support for 125W processors, so if you're looking for a cheap upgrade with the mind to overclock - check carefully before buying.
Are you overclocking an AMD chip? Do you buy mainstream boards? Let us know in the forums.
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Comments (18)
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http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?v=1&func=prodcpusupport&prod_no=1333&maincat_no=1&cat2_no=&cat3_no=#menu
There is however a new K9A2 CF-F V2 with an improved PWM section & that claims 125W support.
http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?v=0&func=prodcpusupport&prod_no=1333&maincat_no=1&cat2_no=&cat3_no=#menu
Thanks for the update!
Link: http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=prodcpusupport&prod_no=1333&maincat_no=1&cat2_no=171&cat3_no=#menu
That would lead one to think that the PWM rating is ok just the cooling is rubbish, could fittimg a heat sink to the PWM's on the original CF enable those of us with the board and a 125W cpu to run it at what is was supposed to be? ( Currently my X2 6400 is clocked at 2.8 Ghz )
On the global web site they have put the V2 with the original board but the V2 cpu support for 125W X2 6000, 6400 is listed as " under test "
And now AMD is releasing the 140W 9950 Quadcore Phenoms, try to beat that MSI!
145W? I believe that is epic fail...I seriously hope they measure TDP differently from Intel or AMD's quadcores are in more trouble then they may have already been, since all of Intel's non-extremes have a 95W TDP and even the 9770 only has a rated 136W TDP, but that is at 3.2GHz as opposed to the 2.5GHz of the Phenom.
Which makes sense. The other 790X board, Gigabyte's GA-MA790X-DS4, also appears to suffer from the same problem as v1. More than one review on newegg states that it smoked, caught fire, etc.
And if you'll note, both K9A2 CF-F v1 and the GA-MA790X-DS4 lack any sort of cooling over the chips beside the CPU slot. v2 of the K9A2 appears to fix that problem, whereas it looks like Gigabyte is just ignoring the issue.
My problem is that, in Canada, the v2 is unavailable. So I'm trying to find out if I can buy v1, and slap an aftermarket heatsink (like a bunch of the ones Zalman uses for GDDR RAM on video cards) and essentially have a homemade v2. But if a BIOS update has completely removed compatibility with 125w processors in the v1, then... well, I'm screwed until v2 becomes available in Canada.
I'll let you folks know what I find out. In the meantime, does anyone have the K9A2 CF-F and a 125w processor? Did you update to the latest bios, and it still works? Any heating issues? etc?
OMFG I thought about swapping the K9A2 CF for the gigabyte DS4 board now I won't, thanks for the link.
I don't think putting after market heat sinks on the PWM's would work well as plastic is a poor conductor of heat
and the plastic case on the pwm's is all you can put them on unless you desolder them, stand them up so the metal of the PWM is in contact with the heat sink.
I have a ThermalTake BigTyp 120 heat sink on the cpu which does blow air over the PWM's which is working fine with the X2 64 6400 clocked @ 2.8 Ghz and has been since early Feb. I lack the intestinal fortutide to clock it @ 3.2 Ghz. As the system does what I want in this configuration ( play UT3 ) I will go with plan B which is wait until AMD come out with a 95 watt or less, faster Phenom. The Bios is the same for the V1, V2 boards so unless it knows the difference between a V1, V2 board then it still should support 125 watt cpu's for the V1 board, if you find out that it doesn't support 125 watt cpu's on the V1 board I would like to know as I will leave my bios at Ver 1.3.
Another option you may consider is the DFI LANPARTY DK 790FX-M2RS which does have a heat sink on the PWM's, unfortunately it is a bit more expensive and a review I read somewhere said they considered the cpu power section a bit light for 125 watt cpu's.
1) If I put an AMD Athlon64 x2 6400+ 125w processor into the K9A2 CF-F v1, will it run?
Answer: Athlon 6400+ still can run at V1 MB without any problem but we won’t officially support it. Because PWM design spec is not fully support 125W CPU and it might reduce MB life-time if MB running 100% loading. The circuit of PWM might not handle more than 3 years. That is why we say that we can’t support it.
2) If I get aftermarket heatsinks and place them over the chips that have heatsinks in v2, will this minimize overheating issues? Or were there more fixes in v2 than just a heatsink?
Answer: Additional thermal solution might extend lifetime but not real answer. So it can reduce overheating problem but still can’t say that it can support 125W CPU fully.
The motherboard is only about $100 bucks, so it's not like I'm taking a huge risk here. But it has all the features I wanted, so I'm going to give 'er a shot.
I'll keep you folks posted about the results. I'll be upgrading at the end of the month.
Upon finally getting the money together to get my upgrade, the K9A2 v2 was still unavailable in Canada - so I did what I said I'd do. I bought a bunch of VRAM heatsinks, and placed them on top of the voltage regulators.
http://sneaker98.no-ip.org/Downloads/PDR_2709.jpg
You can clearly see them to the left of the CPU slot - the purplish-blue things.
The 8 that came in the pack were the exact length I needed. I only had to take a pair of tin-snips and trim the "fins" that stuck out on the sides of the heatsink so that it could fit between those capacitors.
http://sneaker98.no-ip.org/Downloads/PDR_2727.jpg
So far, so good. Haven't had a problem, though I've only been running the new rig about a week now. The heatsinks feel slightly warm to the touch, but not alarmingly. And no, I don't plan on overclocking my 6400+ 125W ;)
I just wanted to say thanks for posting those pictures. I bought a 6000+ and I heard how the k9a2 cf rev1 had problems with 125w processors but I mistakenly ordered a rev1 anyways. I was searching around for awhile to see exactly which part of the motherboard had heat problems and finally, I found your post.
I'll be putting my computer together soon. The only thing I have left to get are the ZM-RHS1's (that you are using?).
Hopefully everything will be ok, I'll post and update if I remember.
It's been about a week since I put my computer together. I slapped on the heatsinks on the PWM's and have been running the 6000+ (125w) on my MSI K9A2 Rev. 1 without any problems for awhile.
As noted before, the heatsinks do feel a bit warm on touching.
So far it's been working like I expected.
Cool I was thinking the same thing when i saw the new rev on this motherboard. At the moment im using a 5000+ X2 OC 3.3GHZ its around 110w at this setting. Also would like to know are you using the latest Bios, im using the one in the CD, that came with the board.
My motherboard is still running with the self-made heatsinks, and I have yet to have a problem.
In answer to the questions, I used the following for my heatsinks: http://www.zalman.com/ENG/product/Product_Read.asp?idx=136
Again, I had to snip off the fans that stick out. I used a pair of tin snips to do that, but just about any sort of cutting tool will do it. Hedge trimmers would probably even work.
Hi, sneaker98. After seeing your pic with the mosfet coolers. I bought some yesterday and put them on. thanks for the idea, also wanted to ask what cpu are you using? heres a link to my board with the heatsinks placed http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x183/froy76/DSC01822.jpg
I'm currently using an older 125W CPU, the Athlon64 X2 6400+. I'm waiting for the Phenom's to drop in price before picking one up next summer, hopefully.
Hi, I am new to this forum and from USA. I've read this whole forum and review/award about the K9A2 CF.
I orginally bought the version K9A2 CF V1 in January2008 and later bought the version 2 (K9A2 CF V2) at the end of April 2008.
Please note: that the 4sqare regulators between the the PWM and cpu 1 R50 AND 3 R25'S. Tthe k9a2 CF V1 are all R25. The new K9A2 CF V2 has 4 R50'S and included the heatsink for the PWM. I am using a Phenom 9750+ Quad. It runs great and I have been using this over 10 hours a day including the time I have spent with crysis and need for speed using the ati Radeon HD 4650 1GB 128-bit GDDR2. It runs cool and does fine with the 125 watt 9750+.
The k9a2 cf V1 was a great board as well, it seemed like a rock solid board that could work under demanding loads. I liked the board so I bought the K9A2 CF V2 when I finally purchased the Phenom back in April 2008. I had the same idea to add a heat sink and fan to the north bridge and PWM. Be aware that the K9A2 CF V2 has Higher Power regulators.
Regarding:
jim48509 15th April 2008, 09:13
Looking at the original K9A2 CF and the V2 the only visible difference appears to be a heat sink on the PWM's.
That would lead one to think that the PWM rating is ok just the cooling is rubbish, could fittimg a heat sink to the PWM's on the original CF enable those of us with the board and a 125W cpu to run it at what is was supposed to be? ( Currently my X2 6400 is clocked at 2.8 Ghz )
On the global web site they have put the V2 with the original board but the V2 cpu support for 125W X2 6000, 6400 is listed as " under test "