Hello,
I was thinking about upgrading my processor from a 6400+ to a phenom 9850. After doing some research, I found that my motherboard (M2N-SLI Deluxe) has the 570 chipset which only allows for up to 1000/2000 HT FSB. The new chipsets (770/790) have 2600/5200 HT Mt/S.

My question is this. How much real world difference does this make? If i pop the Phenom 9850 in my MSN-SLI Deluxe 570 board, how much performance am I loosing vs. buying a new board with the new 3.0 architecture to handle the higher HT of 2600/5200? Is it a huge difference? If I have to buy a new board, I would also have to buy a new OS because I purchased Vista OEM. So, I'm trying to avoid buying a new board if possible.

Thanks!

Well the 6400+ is a 3.2 Ghz CPU anyway and it'll perform better than the 2.5Ghz 9850 except maybe in the few select games/apps that are coded to utilize more than 2 cores. Plus, it depends on what you do on your machine as to whether or not you'd notice the difference between the two bus speeds.

What do you need to do that your 6400+ doesn't do and you think a 9850 will? I guess I mean do you have a purpose for this upgrade or is it just to upgrade? If it's just to upgrade, I'd wait until you were ready for a new board. The newer boards not only have the newer HT 3.0 architecture, but also have better phase power management, the newer SouthBridges, PCI-E x16 2.0 slots, and there are others.

Personally, I'd wait to upgrade to a newer 790FX board before going quad-core of I were you.

790gx is good as well

There are a few boards that are coming out soon hopefully with SB750. Foxconn has had a board in the works for a while that has been changed quite a bit (A79A-S) since Computex 08'. Gigabyte's SB750 board is supposedly GA-MA790GP-DS4H. Their website lists GA-MA78GPM-DS2H as their next board with side port memory to enhance onboard graphics. Here is MSI and DFI's as well http://www.tweaktown.com/news/9640 [...] index.html .

I wish they would hurry up and release these 790FX + SB750 boards. Now that ATI's new video cards are out, all I'm waiting for are the new motherboards so that I can build me a new computer.

Agree w arson and thx for all that info Aura.

Is it too early to expect any good reviews on boards w 700series chipsets? I suspect so.

I am hoping they pick up all the hdmi features as did the 780g mobos but also use a roadworthy mosfet that doesn't do the eventual blow up - see anandtech - I don't buy unless this issue is specifically addressed.

(anand's brutal tests on the new 9950 cpu's is a slap to all those smug mobo manufaxrs - they get pretty quiet when there's a problem and the cover is blown) pop goes the mosfet - hahaha........

780G reveals that it is possible to make a cheap hiperf mobo - just add a good mosfet - how expensive can that be?