There is no reason to buy AMD in the first place

Q6600 is cheaper, performs better, consume less power and overclocks better than Phenom 9850. And you don't need to buy an expensive motherboard for Q6600 just like the crappy Phenom 9850.

So, there is absolutely ZERO reason to buy AMD. There is no reason to buy those rubbish AMD processors....

Yes Intel has more incompatibility issues than AMD talking about chipsets.

Dont talk about AMD is a crap. If not by AMDs effort to exceed then you still get stocked with your Pentiumpoor architechture then. Let others decide which one and answer only what is asked here.

This is really stupid. Intel's chipsets get this right.

AMD had a similar problem with the K6-3. Higher-clocked K6-3s guzzled enough power to actually damage some of the cheaper Super 7 boards.

When did AMD decide that they were going to limit the compatibility of their top model CPUs to only a select few motherboards - shouldn't that be up to the user? And when did this get announced? I never saw any announcement from AMD stating "The X4-97 and X4-98 are only meant for high end motherboards."

If they're going to do that then they should make the X4-97 and X4-98 socket 1207 parts.

AMD has a poor 65nm process and they are having to deal with the fallout as it occurs.

To summarize: this is AMD's fault and no one else's.

Why isn't this the fault of motherboard makers?

Could you not get a 790X board? There are a few of those for less than $100.

Like I've been saying for a while now: Phenom is tainted and should be avoided.

I have a 9750 running just fine on an nForce 7050PV/630a mATX board that was technically never designed for Phenom but I have no problems with it at all. And nForce 7050 was designed and built before 780G ever was born. So I have to think this is a failing on AMD's part for not giving proper reference specifications to mainboard vendors for 780G, as well as making the poor judgement call that no one would ever want to drop 125W TDP processors into a mATX mainboard.

I would probably not have this system right now if the 9600BE I initially bought did not have the bad 'core2' that would not run at stock. I RMA'd that p.o.s. and took the credit for the 9750, which thankfully runs well and is very stable (and 'feels' significantly faster since the TLB fix in the BIOS does not affect B3 revs... I can't disable the TLB fix in my BIOS so it was a real problem for me... until the 9750 came along that is).

Hmmmmmmm. nm. :)

This is indeed AMD's fault.
Chips were supposed to be backwards compatible (i.e. you could plug a high-powered chip into an AM2 board, but you wouldn't get HT3.0 or OC'ing ability).

AMD probably should've used Socket F for its power-hungry quad-cores to avoid the AM2/AM2+ confusion.

I haven't been keeping up with the SPCR forum, but I wonder how well the Phenoms undervolt (again, I make a plea for TR to review undervolting in addition to OC'ing). That could probably solve a lot of the problem assuming one could get it to POST and enter the BIOS.

Somewhat old news.....

See page 2 of the following April 5 article:-

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3279

Seems as if AMD had little or no control on their 780G motherboard partners with respect to (a) conservative power-regulator design and (b) forcing their board partners to clearly state UPFRONT the processor list with which the board is compatible, if it does not cover the full range in the processor family. Probably too distracted fending off their lenders to pay much attention to these trivial issues.

"Decide in haste, repent at leisure" is so true in the case of DIY system-builds. Due diligence in advance research if you intend to buld a system yourself. If you are unable to correctly assimilate from technical specs and manufacturer's web-information the vital data required for a successful build to your requirements, then have a professional build the system for you.

Before any purchase of a motherboard, fully read and UNDERSTAND the motherboard manufacturer's specifications and other technical information on their website. Downloading and thoroughly reading the motherboard manual is an excellent way to avoid some of the nasty surprises. It is vital to check the CPU compatibility list on the manufacturer's website to verify whether the processor you intend to use is on that list. Also, check whether the board is designed to allow overclocking of that specific part if you intend any experiments in that direction and your processor happens to be the top power-consumer on the manufacturer's list !! Remember that CPU overclock radically increases the power-delivery requirements from the board's CPU regulators.

If a board is specifically stated by the MANUFACTURER to be DESIGNED for overclocking -- like the Asus Striker series, and the manufacturer is a tier1 supplier, then you do have serious recourse if you use a processor from that board's recommended list and the CPU regulators go boom. You can be pretty sure that the manufacturer has validated the power-regulator design up to the board's "FSB-clock" limits and with the highest-power parts. Also, the high-end motherboards have generous warranty periods - some up to 3 years. However, if you go down to (say) Fry's and buy a board solely on the basis its price, the marketing blurb on the box and the "salesman's" recommendation, you might just end up with a very expensive doorstop in very short order.

Good to see an official statement from AMD on this, especially after Anandtech's blog post on the subject.

I still don't understand why you'd want to put a 125W processor in a sub $100 micro ATX motherboard, though.

It probably has more to do with the motherboards' power distribution as AnandTech reported a few weeks ago than the chipset itself. I don't think it's a chipset limitation that's causing MOSFETs to fry. Probably more like AMD's reference design incorporated limitations that also ended up in production designs by the likes of Gigabyte.

http://anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3279&p=2

I mean, the problem isn't limited to the 780G alone. Despite the AMD guys touting the 790FX to be "enthusiast-class", I note that the Gigabyte GA-MA790FX-DS5 doesn't support the 9850BE.

http://www.gigabyte.us/Support/Motherboard/CPUSupport_Model.aspx?Pr...

Meanwhile, their high-end board, the GA-MA790FX-DQ6 does:

http://www.gigabyte.us/Support/Motherboard/CPUSupport_Model.aspx?Pr...

I lay the blame squarely at motherboard manufacturers' feet. I also expect they're busy producing new PCB revisions of these boards (780G as well as 790FX) that can support the 140 W power draw of the 9850BE.

Wow, Jake Whitman's half-arsed response is nearly as bad as anything I'd see from, say, Uwe Boll.

Bad AMD.

u can still get the 9750 95W

It's a blame on both. Mobo makers should be f'ing clear about what CPUs are supported right off the start. There are no stickers on 780G boards to indiciate only 95W phenoms can be used.

yikes, this is not good for AMD at all. Any research done for the 770 chipsets? My ax78 has stability problems with 9850BE at stock speeds, despite being able to OC the 9500 to the same frequency.