What is the current motherboard socket type?

I've got a 939 mobo with An Athlon 4000+ CPU. How high can I upgrade the CPU to with this motherboard? Should I get a new mobo?

new mobo. I think (off the top of my head) that 4800+ is as high as you can go.

Irritatingly, you'll need an AM2 board. Even more irritatingly, AM3 is due within the next 6 months. Oh, and you'll need new memory for your AM2 board. New memory needed for AM3 boards too.

Isn't this fun?

vinylpusher, are they doing that crap on purposes just to make more money out of people having to upgrade near all their hardware to comply with the new motherboards, or are they really necessary?


Currently on a 939-socket mobo here myself, not looking forward to upgrading it in the near-future.
(will probably end up just making it live as long as possible, then get a fresh new PC when the times comes, probably cheaper that way)

I've countered this problem by buying an Opteron 165 (Dual Core, 1MB L2 cache per core), and overclocking that proc to 2.8Ghz. That is the cheapest and fastest solution to the S939 problem. Not even sure if they still sell Socket 939 Opterons, but they should. The 165 cost me very little money for what it can be when overclocked + decent cooling.

_33: That's a decent solution. Scan computers still sell a good variety of 939 Opterons, even the dual-cores.

This could be the solution I'm looking for, because I certainly am not changing my motherboard and RAM again before 2009.

First though, I need to upgrade my gfx card if I'm to play the games I want to play (Coline McRae DiRT for instance) at 1920x1200. I'll wait for a single-slot card that equals the performance of an 8800gts and draws comparable power to an 8600gts. Oh, and costs around £150 ;)

I upgraded my 939 socket 3200+ to an X2 4600+ at the start of the year. There are smatterrings of stock around still, but the best you can possibly get for 939 is X2 4800+ (or the FX60?).

You're probably best leaving it while and getting a new AM3 (or intel) mobo I reckon.

Thanks, I will get an A3 when they come out.

The newer Athlons use an AM2 slot. When I was looking at an AMD-based motherboard myself in the pat I've seen some that had a conversion kit option available that would enable a 939 motherboard to be ready for AM2 CPU's as well... Might be an option too.

Personally I went with the Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 myself, after being all-AMD for quite a few years. Intel simply offered more bang for the buck...

If you plan to upgrade soon i'd just go intel core duo.