Motherboard - CPU - Compatibility - !!SOLVED!!

[Panonadin]

So this is fairly simple and I have done about 756 hours of searching myself. I cannot come to a ABSOLUTE answer without making assumptions.

I have a Benicia-GL8E motherboard (Also known as Asus IPIBL-LB)

It came with a E2140 Dual Core 1.6GHZ- 1MBL2 800Mhz FSB CPU.

I have a few leftovers lying around from some recent cleaning/consolidation and I want to throw a different CPU into it. My main candidate is a Pentium E6600(Wolfdale) Dual Core. However it's not listed as a DIRECT swap in on any technical website I can find for the Mobo. The tech specs on the Mobo Vs the E6600 all point to it working out fine. Compatible FSB - Chipset Support - Socket TDP etc.

I was wondering if anyone either

A: Has experience with swapping out a CPU on a Benicia that isn't a Core2Duo
or
B: Has any information I'm just not finding on this being a perfectly fine swap.

Thanks in advance for any help you guys/gals can be. I'm paying in cookies for definite answers. Yes. I'm serious. PM me an address and the Fiancé will send cookies.

[Carnildo]

Intel appears to have produced two chips under the "E6600" name: a Conroe/Allendale core marketed under the Core 2 brand, and a Wolfdale-3M core marketed under the Pentium brand.

The best reference I can find is this: it says your mainboard supports the Conroe/Allendale E6600, but doesn't list the Wolfdale-3M E6600. Since the Wolfdale is significantly newer than any of the CPUs listed on that page, it could simply be that it came out after the manufacturer stopped testing the board for compatibility.

[Panonadin]

I'm hoping that your assumption and my assumption are accurate!!

I'm going to give it a shot either tomorrow or the next and I will post results! I don't have your address or a secret PO box in my PM's so I'm going to assume you don't want cookies

I was looking forward to sending cookies to someone because then you know, I would get some too!

[Panonadin]

I know I have about a million people sitting on the edge of their seats waiting for updates on this life altering event I have here.

The more research I do, the more it looks like this isn't going to work. However, everything I can find is just "I found this online" or "I read this" rather than anyone actually trying and failing.

I guess I shall be the first!! I will post back here for all of the internet to know for SURE.

[PhoenixEnigma]

The internet will thank you for it.

Everything I can find suggests it should work - the chipset supports it, other people appear to have gotten other 45nm chips to work with that board, it sounds like some people have had not-officially-sanctioned chips works too, but no one has actually tried that particular combination.

Particularly encouraging are the people who seem to have gotten Yorksfield CPUs to work, since those are just a pair of Wolfsdales stuck to each other. Still, this is your chance to add a small but unique data point to the sum of human knowledge!

[Panonadin]

DRUMROLLLLLLLL

I am here to announce to the world wide web that this was the most uneventful CPU swap out in the history of internally hyped up CPU swap outs. Let me break it down for you.

Step 1: Turn off computer and remove old processor and heatsink/fan.
Step 2: Put in new processor and new heatsink/fan.
Step 3: Turn on computer.
Step 4: BEEEEEP BEEEEEEP BEEEEEEP BEEEEEEEP, read message on screen. "You are stupid and didn't plug in the fan"
Step 5: Plug in fan.
Step 6: Turn on computer.
Step 7: Computer freezes.
Step 8: Reboot, because you know computers are stupid and sometimes off and back on ACTUALLY works.
Step 9: Computer freezes.
Step 10: Replace old processor, boot up comp, navigate web browser to Motherboard support page on HP.com, download BIOS update, install, shut off computer.
Step 11: Swap out to new processor, turn on computer, log into Windows 7, run some tests, everything is A-OK.

Basically, this long winded post is to document for all of the internet that as long as you have BIOS update 5.43 and not 5.01 a swap out to a Wolfdale E6600 works just fine even though it is not listed as a supported processor. It runs at it's proper clock speed, recognizes both cores, etc.

<3 Panonadin.