Directcanada sells used CPU?

[eatmeh]

Since most of you guys are saying this is normal(including Linus). I'll be replacing a motherboard and ram. Let see how it goes after I buy it off of DC again. FYI, I have 3sticks of DDR2 ram (6GB).

[elmorejohn46]

Looking at the board it is just a AM2 ,are you sure just a bios update will let it accept a Phemon II and do you know what the motherboards TDP is if it is just 95watt that could be a problem
Motherboard Specifications, M2N78-LA (Violet) - HP Customer Care (United States - English)
Since it is just a AM2 and just supports DDR2 that could be a problem.I thinking if it is possiable to work you will need a bios update.

[great_big_abyss]

Originally Posted by eatmeh

M2N-78(violet) Motherboard (AM2) *supports Athlon II and Phenom II*
6GB RAM DDR (SAMSUNG)
450watt rosewill PSU
HD4650 GPU
500GB WD HDD
DVD Burner
Hp pavilion case
EDIT: I forgot to tell you, when I first got the PC, it had an athlon II x4 620 .

There's three types of M2N78-LA motherboards.

(Viola) has a yellow PCB and is AM2+ compatible with a 125W TDP. Compatible with the first gen Phenoms up to 9700

Viola


(Violet) has a green PCB and is AM2 compatible with 1st gen Phenoms up to 9850. This is the one that you say you have.

Violet


(Violet3) has a dark green PCB and is AM3 compatible with Phenom IIs (up to Deneb)

Violet3

You can spot the differences between the two Violets (Violet and Violet 3) by the battery location and the inclusion of a PS/2 Mouse on the rear I/O panel.


Violet


Violet3.

Which one do you have?

Once again, Violet3 is compatible with Phenom IIs, Violet is NOT.

EDIT: Also, you can see how all of these boards are missing the 4-pin power connector at the top left corner.

[dandelioneater]

wow those oem boards look flaky. I haven't seen one in a while. Time to get a new board. I'm sure you could get a proper AM3 board for 100 bucks or less.

[great_big_abyss]

M5A78L-M for $60 at NCIX

[TedShackley]

I got my i5 from their sister store bestdirect, and it was new and on sale for cheaper than anywhere else I could find online in Canada, I got my XFX 750W silver rated PSU for a good deal from DC. Good so far...

edit: read through the posts, as for the scratches, assuming they were from something sloppy at the factory....it won't matter a bit. As for a core not working, is there any other fully AM3 board you could try the X6 in, maybe even a local computer store??? Just to see before you RMA it.

[eatmeh]

Originally Posted by great_big_abyss

There's three types of M2N78-LA motherboards.

(Viola) has a yellow PCB and is AM2+ compatible with a 125W TDP. Compatible with the first gen Phenoms up to 9700

Viola


(Violet) has a green PCB and is AM2 compatible with 1st gen Phenoms up to 9850. This is the one that you say you have.

Violet


(Violet3) has a dark green PCB and is AM3 compatible with Phenom IIs (up to Deneb)

Violet3

You can spot the differences between the two Violets (Violet and Violet 3) by the battery location and the inclusion of a PS/2 Mouse on the rear I/O panel.


Violet


Violet3.

Which one do you have?

Once again, Violet3 is compatible with Phenom IIs, Violet is NOT.

EDIT: Also, you can see how all of these boards are missing the 4-pin power connector at the top left corner.

Mine is a violet3 because i can see the cmos battery on the bottom. But on the edge of the socket, it says its am3.

[great_big_abyss]

Okay, it's compatible up to the quad cores, but not the hex-cores.

EDIT: Also, just found the 4-pin connector. It's in the middle of the board. Doh

[BigPhatPaulie]

Yea you dont even need to read the specs list of that board to tell it wont support a 95w- 125w phenom2. The VRM alone doesnt look beefy enough

[supaflyx3]

Originally Posted by eatmeh

Mine is a violet3 because i can see the cmos battery on the bottom. But on the edge of the socket, it says its am3.

Not quite sure how you're running DDR2 RAM then, the violet3 board uses DDR3.