We're barely credible, so believable
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There's no upgrade path to Phenom
JUST A FEW DAYS ago we mentioned it would be interesting to see some Phenom reviews that addressed the upgrader market, and it seems Tom’s boys – Patrick and Achim – have done precisely that.
Their tests can be found here . Adding insult to injury, it seems one of the greatest promises on the Phenom processor won’t be kept (ie: drop-in, upgrade compatibility). It seems AMD’s in bigger trouble than most expected (or wished).
RBMods is having a day with Corsair’s 2x1GB PC3-12800 kit. It’s a decent overclocker, they think, as well as having the Corsair lifetime warranty. Like most DDR3 out there it offers a lot of performance but it’ll cost you an arm and a leg, so unless you’re impervious to price/performance, you’re likely better off sticking to high-end DDR2. Get your serving here.
Camera Labs has given special attention to ASUS’ EEE PC and customised an installation to match their “demographic”: photographers. It’s one of those articles that’ll catalyse interest in the EEE PC even more. However strange image manipulation might sound on a device like the EEE PC, the chaps at Camera Labs sure enjoyed it. They worked over the 4GB version, though. Worth a read.
The first Black Edition Phenom reviews are popping up. AMDZone has theirs up, on a 9600 model. Yes, benchmarking an engineering sample is more or less the same as going after the BE, we know, but this is the retail box and it gives you an idea of what to expect as a consumer from both the CPU+heatsink/fan point of view. They also give you a (grim) pict ure of what to expect performance-wise with patched and non-patched BE Phenom.
SilentPCReview, as their name implies, is always looking for something to shoosh their PC’s. They got Artic Cooling’s Accelero S1 VGA cooler. It latches onto your graphics card like a friggin’ face hugger and tries to keep things at a workable temperature. They compare it to Zalman VF900-CU and VF1000 fans. Being a single slot solution it doesn’t quite do the job on an X1950XTX, but plug in an add-on fan (or Artic’s Turbo Module) and voilá! A snip at $20.
FrostyTech sticks a GlacialTech cooler on their test rig. It’s the Igloo 5750 PWM (pulse width modulation) with dual 92mm fans. They remind consumers this Igloo is identical to the 5750 Silent, except for the dual fans. The dual fans work well and the acoustics seem pretty much ok. For $29 USD it’s just about right, wethinks.
A BZ Series 700W Tagan PSU is on test at Proclockers. They think it’s a solid piece of kit, taking into account its performance, build quality and features. The unit’s module system is unique with LED lights to indicate the type of connector that screws into the PSU (yes, screws). Big thumbs-up from Proclockers. µ
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That's not "no upgrade path", that's "We're still waiting on some BIOS updates."
I dismiss anything that comes from THG, especially when they open the article with the definition of what the terms "BIOS" and "POST" are. Also, apparently they can't even count. They repeatedly mentioned "9 AM2 motherboards" yet their list includes 10!
I can't believe people that incompetent and down-right stupid are paid to write about technology.
So testing a phenom processor in an UNSUPPORTED BIOS does NOT work. Anyone who can read could have told this to these so called Journalists/engineers.

Only one "beta" BIOS which stated that it supported phenom failed to run. ALL those that had official support worked as advertised.

I think these people should be fired. Sensationalism can get you hits but it hurts your credibility a WHOLE lot more.
I am not the only one who would gladly pay $125 to upgrade ny S939 board to an X2 5600+

I am not worried about DDR2 vs DRR, as the former has little, if any, performance advantage. We do know that the AM2 processors could be compatible with Socket 939, except for the fact AMD decided they would not be.

So come on AMD. Why not put out a line of S939 Upgrade dual-cores? It's you last chance to do so and you need the money. Better keep those S939 owners in the AMD family as long as you can.
There's no upgrade path to Phenom....... there is but check your mobo makers bios update is ready
The Phenom needs more space in the BIOS.
A normal bios is 512Kbit but the Phenom needs more space, so it requires a 1Mbit chip.
Most boards don't have this, so many manufacturers are looking for ways to create a 512Kbit bios so the Phenom can be used.
This is harder then you think, so it takes some time.
Other option is to replace all BIOS chips with a bigger one, but they have to be preprogrammed else the board won't start.

See the problem?
E.g. the K9A Platinum is already that old that a Phenom wasn't even in sight when the board was on the drawing table.
So how could they have forseen it needed a bigger chip?

Each core needs BIOS space, simple as that.

So a cheap board has more chance of a Phenom bios as it has less features and probably enough space to store the extra code.

But knowing Tom, he doesn't tell the whole story as usual.
I was sure to get a conclusion from TH for sure on such a review, looks like they really have no clue about reality.

first off a mobo maker wants to sell as much mobo's as possible, support on older bios and mobo is just additional costs.

second, they try to make the mobo's as cheap as possible, so less size in bios that makes them non upgradable

third, if phenom would be a hit in the market without issues, you would see a lot more older mobo's in support.

last, probably microcode for phenom is changing to often to update all bios versions, so they stick with current new and high-end mobo's untill stable code is out, then it will be more ported to older ones.

so finally, it just media that blows it out of proportion , not to mention the lack of knowledge and common sense from TH.

thread should state that its mobo makers fault, not AMD phenom backward compatibility, because that is 100% ok.
If you had read Tom's article and looked closely at the mobo's offered you would have noticed several glaring anomalies ...they picked old AM2 mobos from crap manufacturers.

Mobo makers want you to buy their latest mobo ... hence bios support for these older boards is poor.

Why is that AMD's fault ??

Note the ASUS boards all worked fine ... 

Another rubbish Intel fanboi article from Achim and Roos ... !!

The most uneducated bunch of "IT" people on the internet gathered together in tom&jerry hardware guide wrote us a nice little "guide" to upgradeability of AM2 motherboards while using boards that have 1 YEAR OLD BIOS versions!
GREAT WORK GENIUSES!!!

Note to thg: Phenom has to have appropriate BIOS flashed on the motherboards in order to work with them...
I've just read said article and, truth be told, this looks more like sloppiness on behalf of the motherboard makers than a problem of AMD's making. By the way, I'm less than surprised, that Epox and Biostar haven't released updates. Both companies have been more or less "in hiding" for quite some time now. One might actually think they're about to close shop (let's hope not, though).
In regards to your article saying there is no upgrade path to Phenom, there is. The article you referred to even said so. A simple BIOS upgrade (if available) seems to do the trick - at least it worked for me and on the reviewers say it works for Asus boards in general.

Maybe companies should get with the times and provide updates to their motherboards instead of letting AMD take the blame?

And for all these articles I see that say the Phenom wont be available until 2008, why do I see them in stores everywhere?
Terrible article. It seems all it takes is a bios update but some mobo makers haven't bothered.

They blame AMD for this? Seems like another thin article from the site that used to be Tom's Hardware.

Terrible.
This is a surprise how? 

I for one will take note of which manufacturers are providing updates for Phenom compatibility and which aren't and adjust my purchases accordingly. 

On the bright side the AMD chipset board I bought is nicer than its NVIDIA predecessor. 

And enough with the TLB bug. Windows will crash a thousand times on its own before you ever run into that bug, if you do at all. It only matters if you're running a server with a reliable OS. If AMD chips weren't so popular with supercomputer builders we'd have never known about the bug.
It's a shame that my mobo isn't covered by the Tom's article. I would really like to know if I could replace my x2 with a phenom once the TLB bug gets fixed.