CPU support in D101GGC mobo?

I have a Gateway T3512 system with a D101GGc motherboard. I want to
upgrade the anemic Celeron D to a dual-core CPU. According to
http://www.intel.com/design/motherbd/gc/gc_proc.htm the 820, 915, 920, 930
etc Pentium D processors are supported if you have 0304 or 0312 or later.

My BIOS identifies itself as GC11010M.15A.0009.2006.0420.1045.
http://downloadmirror.intel.com/1173...leaseNotes.pdf shows
the BIOS ID for various BIOS updates, and my BIOS's ID doesn't match. The
datecode (2006.0420) seems to put it between 0307 and 0312, but ...

How can I find out what rev my BIOS is, and which dual-core CPUs it
supports?

Thanks,
Gary

Gary Fritz wrote:

> I have a Gateway T3512 system with a D101GGc motherboard. I want to
> upgrade the anemic Celeron D to a dual-core CPU. According to
> http://www.intel.com/design/motherbd/gc/gc_proc.htm the 820, 915, 920, 930
> etc Pentium D processors are supported if you have 0304 or 0312 or later.
>
> My BIOS identifies itself as GC11010M.15A.0009.2006.0420.1045.
> http://downloadmirror.intel.com/1173...leaseNotes.pdf shows
> the BIOS ID for various BIOS updates, and my BIOS's ID doesn't match. The
> datecode (2006.0420) seems to put it between 0307 and 0312, but ...
>
> How can I find out what rev my BIOS is, and which dual-core CPUs it
> supports?
>
> Thanks,
> Gary

This information needs to be obtained from Gateway. Intel has never
supported the OEM releases of its motherboards, no matter how closely
matched they are to their retail, boxed contemporaries. Even the bios
chips could be different although the chipsets may be the same. It will
be the "board revision" number that determines whether the retail or OEM
board is supported (paying particular attention for the presence of the
"AA" prefix).

Ghostrider <-00-@fitron.142> wrote:
> This information needs to be obtained from Gateway. Intel has never
> supported the OEM releases of its motherboards, no matter how closely
> matched they are to their retail, boxed contemporaries.

Hm, OK.

> will be the "board revision" number that determines whether the retail
> or OEM board is supported (paying particular attention for the
> presence of the "AA" prefix).

It's AA D54032-300, if that tells you anything.

I'll go check with Gateway. Or better yet, emachine-upgraders.

Thanks!

Gary Fritz wrote:

> Ghostrider <-00-@fitron.142> wrote:
>
>>This information needs to be obtained from Gateway. Intel has never
>>supported the OEM releases of its motherboards, no matter how closely
>>matched they are to their retail, boxed contemporaries.
>
>
> Hm, OK.
>
>
>>will be the "board revision" number that determines whether the retail
>>or OEM board is supported (paying particular attention for the
>>presence of the "AA" prefix).
>
>
> It's AA D54032-300, if that tells you anything.
>
> I'll go check with Gateway. Or better yet, emachine-upgraders.
>
> Thanks!


Re-visit: http://www.intel.com/design/motherbd/gc/gc_proc.htm.

Drop down to the note on Board Revision.

Ghostrider <-00-@fitron.142> wrote:
>> It's AA D54032-300, if that tells you anything.
>
> Re-visit: http://www.intel.com/design/motherbd/gc/gc_proc.htm.
> Drop down to the note on Board Revision.

I see your point. I was looking at the "D54032" part, but that note says
only the "-300" matters. All the 9xx processors say they're supported by
"D35788-308 or later, D33947-308 or later". Since my board's "-300" is not
later than "-308," I guess my board does not support any of the 9xx
processors, even if I was able to update the BIOS. Bummer.

The only question remaining is whether it supports the 820, which requires
BIOS version 0304 or greater. Unfortunately I'm not quite sure WHICH rev I
have, since the eMachines (not Gateway, sorry) BIOS ID doesn't fit in with
the Intel ID's listed at
http://downloadmirror.intel.com/1173...leaseNotes.pdf.

My board's BIOS ID is GC11010M.15A.0009.2006.0420.1045. All of the Intel
BIOS ID's start with "GC11010N.86A." and the BIOS rev is right after that.
Which would be "0009" in mine. Apparently the OEM BIOS doesn't follow the
same schema.

The datecode seems to be 2006.0420, which would be after rev 0307
(2006.0316). So you would think it would be later/better than 0304. I
would think the 820 would be supported. That seems to be the best/fastest
CPU that this board might support.

I guess I'll give the 820 a try and hope it works. And hope it's actually
significantly faster than the Celeron D 352 I have now, even if it doesn't
have HT. And hope it doesn't burn itself up, since a lot of people at
newegg say it runs hella hot.

Gary Fritz <> wrote:
> I guess I'll give the 820 a try and hope it works. And hope it's
> actually significantly faster than the Celeron D 352 I have now, even
> if it doesn't have HT.

OK, I got the 820. So far I have to say it is *dramatically* faster than
the Celeron D it replaced for the real-world applications I needed. And
during the stuff that was bringing the Celeron to its knees and grinding
the whole system to a halt, the 820 seems to be loafing. I'm a happy
camper.

The heatsink that came with the 820 is worthless, as far as I can tell. I
haven't swapped out all that many CPUs but all the heatsinks I've used have
had spring-loaded screw-in mounts. So did the heatsink on the Celeron D.
The heatsink with the 820 uses some bogus plastic plugs with a "punch the
center pin through to spread the plug" attachment mechanism. I couldn't
even get the plugs in the screw holes. I gave up and used the heatsink
from the Celeron D, which seems to be doing fine so far. SpeedFan claims
my CPU is running at 43C at idle, but it also lists an "Ambient" (45C) and
"Remote" (54C). Given that the "Remote" is the hottest, I'm guessing
that's probably actually the CPU. But 54C at idle is still not at all bad.
If I spike the CPU at 100%, the "Remote" jumps pretty quickly, but it maxes
out at about 66C within a few minutes. It drops back to the high 50's
within 10-15 seconds or so when the CPU usage drops.

Gary