There are four main types of AMD Cooler being used worth mentioning today and are NOT in chronological order but are in order of most popular and in use today.

AM2, AM2+, AM3

AM2 – Released on May 23rd, 2006 is a replacement for Socket 754 and 939. They house 940 pins and support DDR2 SDRAM but not DDR RAM. Reports are confirmed and being up to 7% faster than Socket 939 equivalents.

1. Athlon 64

2. Sempron

3. Athlon 64 X2

4. Athlon 64 FX

5. Phenom Series

6. Opteron

AM2+ – Released November 2007. Successor to the AM2 CPU socket. It is a part migration from AM2 to the AM3 sockets and also support 940 pins like the AM2. AM2+ and AM2 processors are backwards compatible on either motherboard that is supported by both AM2 and AM2+. Please bear in mind though that when using an AM2+ CPU on an AM2 motherboard then the CPU will be limited to the operational limit of the motherboard.

1. Athlon 64

2. Athlon 64 X2

3. Athlon II

4. Opteron

5. Phenom Series

6. Phenom II Series

AM3 – Released February 9th 2009. Successor to the AM2+ CPU socket. They house 938 pins and supports both DDR2 and DDR3 SDRAM. They are backward compatible with both AM2 and AM2+ sockets provided that there is a BIOS update to support the AM3 chip.

1. Phenom II (AM3 models only)

2. Athlon II

3. Sempron

4. Opteron 138x

What AM2, AM2+ and AM3 cooler should I use?

Choosing a CPU cooler for this category is actually very simple. As they all have the same physical size and shape of socket. All sockets will fit all coolers but this doesn’t mean you can choose one randomly. Remember that the more powerful AM3 socket would be more suitable with an AM3 CPU cooler as this will be able to dissipate more heat that is generated.

For AM2+ and AM3 CPUs it is best to see what the wattage rate of the particular chip is (this can usually be found on the box or online by checking the model number). Once your wattage rating has been found you will then be able to choose a more suitable CPU Cooler as they are also usually specified for wattage thresholds.

AMD Socket 754/939/940

Socket 754 – As the name suggest they house 754 pins and were released in Mid 2003. Succeeded the Socket 462. The first CPU to support 64-bit processing. They were more of a budget CPU for both the ATHLON 64 and Sempron range. There was no dual channel support of memory.

1. Athlon 64 (2800+ – 3700+)

2. Sempron (2500+ – 3400+)

3. Turion 64 (ML and MT)

4. Mobile Athlon 64 (2800+ – 4000+)

Socket 939 – Released June 2004. They succeeded the Socket 754 and house 939 pins. Single and dual core CPUs were manufactured for the socket 939 and supported dual channel DDR SDRAM. The motherboards can be found with both AGP and PCI-e x16 slots for their graphics housing.

1. Athlon 64 (3000+ – 4000+)

2. Athlon 64 FX (51 – 60)

3. Athlon 64 X2 (3600+ – 4800+)

4. Some Opteron (1xx series)

5. Some Sempron 3×00+ (Step E3, E6)

Socket 940 – These were intended for server use and were able to accept registered memory. Although both the AM2 and 940 sockets have the same amount of pins they are incompatible as the Socket 940 has an integrated DDR memory controller, the AM2 models do not integrate and rely on a separate controller.

1. Athlon 64 X

2. Opteron

What AMD Socket 754, 939 and 940 cooler should I use?

You will notice that the frames that surround them appear to be completely different. But as we’ve found on opposite sides of these frames are lugs. All of the lugs are the same distance apart and are of the same dimension, one will fit all three meaning that they are backward compatible.

Once again it is always best to find the wattage rate of both the CPU cooler and the CPU itself to ensure that the proper cooler is fitted to best maximise the heat dissipation.

AMD Socket F

Socket F was designed to accommodate the Opteron range of CPUs. Released on August 15th 2006, it houses 1207 pins and although the difference in pin numbers is considered to be in the same generation as the AM2. There are 2 main iterations of the Quad FX Platform name for the Socket F, one by AMD themselves and one by NVIDIA. They are called the ‘Socket 1207 FX’ and ‘Socket L1’ respectively.

1. Opteron (2xxxx, 8xxxx series)

2. Athlon 64 FX (FX-7x series)

What AMD Socket F cooler should I use?

Once again with this type of CPU there is very little choice and as the CPU itself is for such a specific market there will be specialist socket F coolers that will provide enough heat dissipation as they are all very similar.

AMD Socket A/462

Socket A is also known as 462 and is an old CPU architecture which is no longer in use. There are actually 453 pins with 9 blocked off to ensure that 370 range of CPUs could not be accidently inserted as they were not backward compatible.

1. Athlon (650 MHz – 1400 MHz)

2. Athlon XP (1500+ – 3200+)

3. Duron (600 MHz – 1800 MHz)

4. Sempron (2000+ – 3300+)

5. Athlon MP (1000 MHz – 3000+)

6. Geode NX (667 MHz – 2200 MHz)

Which AMD Socket A/462 cooler should I use?

This is a nice easy one. There are very few of these cooler around now and so it’s a case of finding any cooler should do the job. There will rarely be wattage conditions on the packaging and so you should not worry about this.

Ryan Smith is the chief article writer for Cool and Quiet, a PC based website situated in the rolling hills of Herefordshire in the UK. AMD CPU Cooler AM3 CPU Cooler AM2 CPU Cooler

Ryan Smith is the chief article writer for Cool and Quiet, a PC based website situated in the rolling hills of Herefordshire in the UK. http://www.cool-and-quiet.co.uk/cpu_coolers/amd_cpu_coolers_C95.html AMD CPU Cooler http://www.cool-and-quiet.co.uk/cpu_coolers/amd_cpu_coolers_C95.html AM3 CPU Cooler http://www.cool-and-quiet.co.uk/cpu_coolers/amd_cpu_coolers_C95.html AM2 CPU Cooler

Author Bio: Ryan Smith is the chief article writer for Cool and Quiet, a PC based website situated in the rolling hills of Herefordshire in the UK. AMD CPU Cooler AM3 CPU Cooler AM2 CPU Cooler

Category: Computers and Technology
Keywords: AMD CPU Cooler,AM3 CPU Cooler,AM2 CPU Cooler