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
news:_Gxwk.44449$...
> 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.

Ian D wrote:
> "RobV" <> wrote in message
> news:g9uitq$pp9$...
>> 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
news:_Gxwk.44449$...
> 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?

Peter van der Goes wrote:
> "Peter van der Goes" <> wrote in message
> news:_Gxwk.44449$...
>> 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.

"RobV" <> wrote in message news:g9vbok$t1g$...
> Peter van der Goes wrote:
>> "Peter van der Goes" <> wrote in message
>> news:_Gxwk.44449$...
>>> 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.
>

Thanks! It helps a lot. Your box description is the same as mine, so I tried
the 1100 series BIOS and they work.

Peter van der Goes wrote:
> "RobV" <> wrote in message
> news:g9vbok$t1g$...
>> Peter van der Goes wrote:
>>> "Peter van der Goes" <> wrote in message
>>> news:_Gxwk.44449$...
>>>> 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.
>>
>
> Thanks! It helps a lot. Your box description is the same as mine, so
> I tried the 1100 series BIOS and they work.

Excellent! Glad it helped. Thanks for the update.

"RobV" <> wrote in message news:ga376d$gi0$...
>
> Excellent! Glad it helped. Thanks for the update.
>

To close things out...
Got an 8400 and it is working fine at stock 3.0 GHz with the 1103 BIOS. I
guess it's time to start the overclocking adventure :-)