Upgrade Options?

I'm currently using an Asus P5B Plus with an older Conroe running at 2.13
GHz. 4 Gig DDR2-800 memory.
The P5B uses the Intel P965 chipset and claims to support 1066/800/533
system bus speeds.
I now see all sorts of Core 2 Duo and Quad offerings, but I'm pretty sure my
older motherboard poses some limitations.

Which of the newer CPU's will work in the P5B and which are to be avoided?

http://support.asus.com/cpusupport/c...Language=en-us

Looks like you can use all most recent Core 2 Duo and Quad


"Peter van der Goes" wrote in message
...
I'm currently using an Asus P5B Plus with an older Conroe running at 2.13
GHz. 4 Gig DDR2-800 memory.
The P5B uses the Intel P965 chipset and claims to support 1066/800/533
system bus speeds.
I now see all sorts of Core 2 Duo and Quad offerings, but I'm pretty sure
my older motherboard poses some limitations.

Which of the newer CPU's will work in the P5B and which are to be avoided?

Peter van der Goes wrote:
I'm currently using an Asus P5B Plus with an older Conroe running at
2.13 GHz. 4 Gig DDR2-800 memory.
The P5B uses the Intel P965 chipset and claims to support 1066/800/533
system bus speeds.
I now see all sorts of Core 2 Duo and Quad offerings, but I'm pretty
sure my older motherboard poses some limitations.

Which of the newer CPU's will work in the P5B and which are to be
avoided?

With the proper BIOS version, it can support nearly all, if not all of
them:

http://support.asus.com/cpusupport/c...model=P5B-Plus

Note the BIOS version required to the right.
BIOS updates:

http://support.asus.com/download/dow...model=P5B-Plus

For some reason all versions of the BIOS that support newer CPUs are
betas, but I have 1002 beta on my P5B Plus, which installed without
incident and runs the system just fine.

I have a E6600 running with a 1333 MHz FSB at 3 GHz since I built the
computer more than a year ago. If I decide to upgrade the CPU, I'll
have no problems with updating the BIOS so it will be supported.

"RobV" wrote in message ...
Peter van der Goes wrote:
I'm currently using an Asus P5B Plus with an older Conroe running at
2.13 GHz. 4 Gig DDR2-800 memory.
The P5B uses the Intel P965 chipset and claims to support 1066/800/533
system bus speeds.
I now see all sorts of Core 2 Duo and Quad offerings, but I'm pretty
sure my older motherboard poses some limitations.

Which of the newer CPU's will work in the P5B and which are to be
avoided?

With the proper BIOS version, it can support nearly all, if not all of
them:

http://support.asus.com/cpusupport/c...model=P5B-Plus

Note the BIOS version required to the right.
BIOS updates:

http://support.asus.com/download/dow...model=P5B-Plus

For some reason all versions of the BIOS that support newer CPUs are
betas, but I have 1002 beta on my P5B Plus, which installed without
incident and runs the system just fine.

I have a E6600 running with a 1333 MHz FSB at 3 GHz since I built the
computer more than a year ago. If I decide to upgrade the CPU, I'll have
no problems with updating the BIOS so it will be supported.

I have the P5B Dlx WiFi and am thinking of upgrading to the latest
BIOS, 1236. I updated to 910 after I got the board, but that was before
I installed XP Pro. Did Windows start up after the update as though
nothing had happened, (no re-activation)? Also, did you have to
reinstall any drivers? My CPU is also an E6600.

Ian D wrote:
"RobV" wrote in message
...
Peter van der Goes wrote:
I'm currently using an Asus P5B Plus with an older Conroe running at
2.13 GHz. 4 Gig DDR2-800 memory.
The P5B uses the Intel P965 chipset and claims to support
1066/800/533 system bus speeds.
I now see all sorts of Core 2 Duo and Quad offerings, but I'm pretty
sure my older motherboard poses some limitations.

Which of the newer CPU's will work in the P5B and which are to be
avoided?

With the proper BIOS version, it can support nearly all, if not all
of them:

http://support.asus.com/cpusupport/c...model=P5B-Plus

Note the BIOS version required to the right.
BIOS updates:

http://support.asus.com/download/dow...model=P5B-Plus

For some reason all versions of the BIOS that support newer CPUs are
betas, but I have 1002 beta on my P5B Plus, which installed without
incident and runs the system just fine.

I have a E6600 running with a 1333 MHz FSB at 3 GHz since I built the
computer more than a year ago. If I decide to upgrade the CPU, I'll
have no problems with updating the BIOS so it will be supported.

I have the P5B Dlx WiFi and am thinking of upgrading to the latest
BIOS, 1236. I updated to 910 after I got the board, but that was
before I installed XP Pro. Did Windows start up after the update as
though
nothing had happened, (no re-activation)? Also, did you have to
reinstall any drivers? My CPU is also an E6600.

No, there would be no reason for Windows to require reactivation when
upgrading to another version of the BIOS, nor would you have to install
any drivers, since all you're doing is updating the BIOS so the BIOS
itself can recognize the newer CPUs, if you should install one of them.

If you do upgrade to another CPU, I still don't think there would be a
need for reactivation, but you never know with MS. ;-) It depends on
what they think a CPU upgrade means.

"Peter van der Goes" wrote in message
...
I'm currently using an Asus P5B Plus with an older Conroe running at 2.13
GHz. 4 Gig DDR2-800 memory.
The P5B uses the Intel P965 chipset and claims to support 1066/800/533
system bus speeds.
I now see all sorts of Core 2 Duo and Quad offerings, but I'm pretty sure
my older motherboard poses some limitations.

Which of the newer CPU's will work in the P5B and which are to be avoided?

First, thanks very much for the info, guys.
Now the follow-up. Looking at the Asus web site, I see there is a P5B Plus
and a P5B Plus Vista Edition, and that the BIOS updates for the Vista
Edition seem to parallel those for the plain P5B Plus, *but* stop at 1002,
while those for the plain P5B Plus go on (1102, 1103).
I've looked at my box, and although there is a sticker saying the board is
Vista-ready, nothing says Vista Edition. Any ideas on how to tell the
difference, or if it really matters?

I have the P5B Dlx WiFi and am thinking of upgrading to the latest
BIOS, 1236. I updated to 910 after I got the board, but that was
before I installed XP Pro. Did Windows start up after the update as
though
nothing had happened, (no re-activation)? Also, did you have to
reinstall any drivers? My CPU is also an E6600.

No, there would be no reason for Windows to require reactivation when
upgrading to another version of the BIOS, nor would you have to install
any drivers, since all you're doing is updating the BIOS so the BIOS
itself can recognize the newer CPUs, if you should install one of them.

If you do upgrade to another CPU, I still don't think there would be a
need for reactivation, but you never know with MS. ;-) It depends on what
they think a CPU upgrade means.


Thanks. I am thinking along the lines of a Q9xxx series quad, which
requires a 1333 MHz FSB. Still trying to decide between a 6 MB or
12 MB cache chip. The 6 MB is about $70 less than the 12 MB for
the otherwise same spec'd CPU series. I run the MS flight sim FSX,
which would definitely benefit from the extra cache. I have 4 GB of
800 MHz RAM which I could drop to 667 MHz to run syncronously.

Peter van der Goes wrote:
"Peter van der Goes" wrote in message
...
I'm currently using an Asus P5B Plus with an older Conroe running at
2.13 GHz. 4 Gig DDR2-800 memory.
The P5B uses the Intel P965 chipset and claims to support
1066/800/533 system bus speeds.
I now see all sorts of Core 2 Duo and Quad offerings, but I'm pretty
sure my older motherboard poses some limitations.

Which of the newer CPU's will work in the P5B and which are to be
avoided?

First, thanks very much for the info, guys.
Now the follow-up. Looking at the Asus web site, I see there is a P5B
Plus and a P5B Plus Vista Edition, and that the BIOS updates for the
Vista Edition seem to parallel those for the plain P5B Plus, *but*
stop at 1002, while those for the plain P5B Plus go on (1102, 1103).
I've looked at my box, and although there is a sticker saying the
board is Vista-ready, nothing says Vista Edition. Any ideas on how to
tell the difference, or if it really matters?

I didn't know there WAS a Vista edition. If so, I can't imagine what
the difference would be. Mine is a P5B Plus; the box has a sticker on
it that says it has "Vista Support" and another sticker that says
"Effort Free FSB 1333 supporting future processors", as well as a number
of other things.

The box is black and has P5B-Plus in large letters on it and the sticker
with the S/N and other info on it has a part number of:
90-MBB5W5-G0AAY00Z and it says it's a P5B-PLUS GREEN

I don't know if that helps or not.

Ian D wrote:
I have the P5B Dlx WiFi and am thinking of upgrading to the latest
BIOS, 1236. I updated to 910 after I got the board, but that was
before I installed XP Pro. Did Windows start up after the update as
though
nothing had happened, (no re-activation)? Also, did you have to
reinstall any drivers? My CPU is also an E6600.

No, there would be no reason for Windows to require reactivation when
upgrading to another version of the BIOS, nor would you have to
install any drivers, since all you're doing is updating the BIOS so
the BIOS itself can recognize the newer CPUs, if you should install
one of them. If you do upgrade to another CPU, I still don't think
there would be
a need for reactivation, but you never know with MS. ;-) It depends
on what they think a CPU upgrade means.


Thanks. I am thinking along the lines of a Q9xxx series quad, which
requires a 1333 MHz FSB. Still trying to decide between a 6 MB or
12 MB cache chip. The 6 MB is about $70 less than the 12 MB for
the otherwise same spec'd CPU series. I run the MS flight sim FSX,
which would definitely benefit from the extra cache. I have 4 GB of
800 MHz RAM which I could drop to 667 MHz to run syncronously.

Same here, actually. I have 4 GB 800 MHz memory (although I know it
can't address it all, but it does address 3 GB) and am thinking of
upgrading to a quad core, since I do a lot of DAW work and video editing
and transcoding.

Generally, the more L2 cache the better, so you have to figure out if
twice the cache memory is worth another $70 to you. I would get the
larger cache myself, if I had the extra $70 to spend.

IIRC the vista edition has a trusted computing module, and there was a fancy
LCD display that plugged into the motherboard.