Adam Kozak, product marketing manager at AMD, has just published a blog post on the AMD website titled, “Get Your Rig Ready for the AMD FX Processor”. As you can probably surmise from the title, Adam outlines the steps necessary for do-it-yourselfers to get their machines ready to work with upcoming AMD FX 8-Core processors, a.k.a Zambezi, which are based on the Bulldozer architecture.
This was the chip that has set the new Guinness World Record last month for overclocking at 8.43GHz.
In the post, Adam talks about getting the right motherboard, i.e. a socket AM3+ motherboard based on the 9-Series chipset, flashing it with a Bulldozer compatible BIOS or UEFI, and he throws in a plug for some Radeon HD 6000 series graphics. “To unleash the power of the AMD FX CPU when it launches, you’ll of course want an equally powerful graphics card. AMD recommends matching the AMD FX CPU with an AMD Radeon HD 6850 graphics card or higher.”
Although an AM3+ motherboard is recommended, it’s likely some motherboard manufacturers will enable Bulldozer support on AM3 motherboards as well though a BIOS or UEFI update, but the extent to which those boards will be able to exploit the power saving features of AMD’s upcoming processors is not yet known. We here at TOT think your best bet is take and follow what Adam tells you when it comes to motherboards.
