Socket 939 and AM2+/AM3, heatsink still compatible?

RaptorZX3 · Post by **RaptorZX3** » Fri Nov 06, 2009 8:07 pm

ok i got a job lately, and soon, i might do a computer upgrade.

But i want to know if S939 heatsinks are still compatible with AM2+/AM3 motherboards?

i'm looking at the Asus M4A78T-E right now, and the bracket seem to be the same, and the clearance seem to be good enough so i won't have any problem installing my actual Scythe Ninja on this one, but that big chipset heatsink seem to take a lot of space. Now i know if this one can be installed, yes it would be very quiet still, but will it be as efficient heat-wise as with my Athlon 64 monoprocessor?

i'll probably reuse this Sonata 2 for this new setup, since i never had any problem with it, except maybe the hard disk i'm suspending (vibrations, and also seem to be less noisy that way)

so here's the setup i planned on a wish list:
-Western Digital Caviar GP 750GB
-Corsair XMS3 TR3X3G1333C9 3GB DDR3 3X1GB DDR3-1333
-ASUS M4A78T-E ATX
-AMD Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition Quad Core Processor AM2+ 3.0GHZ

as i said, i'll maybe reuse my 200gb hard disk in it, and reusing my case, dvd-writer, power supply. Thing is i can't find a WinXP 64bit OEM in french out there, so 3gb would probably appear as 2.7Gb or something

psiu · Post by **psiu** » Sat Nov 07, 2009 2:08 am

It should be compatible. Might need to check if there's any different mounting hardware required, not sure. I put a Ninja rev. B (I think) on an AM2 board no problem.

All that horsepower, and a green drive? And XP?

Olle P · Post by **Olle P** » Mon Nov 09, 2009 4:36 am

You're correct that the frames are the same (more or less), so any cooler with a clip mounting will fit any of them.

The only difference is in screw through mountings, where S939 only has two holes and AM2/2+/3 have four holes.

Cheers
Olle

RedAE102 · Post by **RedAE102** » Mon Nov 09, 2009 11:05 am

Yes, I've tried both my Alpine 64 and Ninja Rev. B each on both my AM2 and S754 systems, and they all work fine. AM2+ brackets (for the ones mounted with clips) are also identical, or at least the two I've come across are.

I have to agree with psiu. I had originally run my system off a 1st gen (250GB platter) Caviar GreenPower 1TB. I have since upgraded to a 640GB SE16 WD6400AAKS, and later added an additional WD6400AAKS, albeit a Caviar Blue branded one. I wouldn't recommend using a green drive as a system drive, even when I had paired mine with a 1.9 GHz Athlon X2 and only 2GB of RAM. The latency is just too high.

I'm surprised no one else caught this, though: There are three problems with the CPU, RAM, and motherboard pairing.

First of all, the M4A78T-E is an AM3 board, which does not support AM2+ processors. The Phenom II X4 920 and 940 are AM2+ processors, while the rest of the Phenom II and Athlon II lineup are AM3. AM2+ processors only have a DDR2 memory controller, and you have selected DDR3, which requires an AM3 processor and board.

3x1GB RAM? The Phenom IIs and Athlon IIs have dual channel memory controllers, just like AM2 processors. Only the Bloomfield (LGA1366) Core i7s have triple channel memory controllers. You're better off going for a 4x1GB setup, or better yet, a 2x2GB setup for better expandability in the future.

After having Vista x64 for the past year and a half, I'd highly recommend going for that or Windows 7 x64 over XP, as the 64 and 32 bit processes interface much better, and driver support these days is as good as or better than XP 32-bit. There's really not much reason not to these days.