On Thursday, August 18, 2016 at 5:04:59 PM UTC-4, Terry Coombs wrote:
Yeah , I'm still dickin' around with my desktop . I've decided it's time
to upgrade to a quad core in this comp , Asus M2A-VM mobo , socket AM2
currently running an Athlon X2 2.3 Ghz processor .
I have determined (from the Asus support website) that this mobo will
support a Phenom 9150 quad processor which is socket AM2+ , but I'll have to
update the BIOS . The question is , do I update before I install the new
processor or after ?

BIOS updates that I've seen are always backwards compatible, ie the
update should work with the old processor. If it won't there should be
a warning on the Asus website. So, I'd do the BIOS first, that way
if it bricks it, you don't have to go any further.

Whether it's worth this upgrade may be questionable. How much benefit
you get with a quad core versus a dual core, etc depends on how much
the code you're running can make use of it. And the MB is I guess
10+ years old, no? IDK what the new CPU costs, but for a little bit
more you might be able to get a whole used or refurbished MB with CPU
that gives you a lot more.