I have one doubt and request about this motherboard. Is it possible to mod his bios to make work any other CPU for this socket?
For example, I would like to buy one Core 2 Duo and put on this board... In some other place, I heard that I need to only update the microcodes in the bios, but I am not sure.
05-02-2010, 07:23 AM (This post was last modified: 05-02-2010, 07:26 AM by 1234s282.)
This board supports Celerons and Pentium 4's. Therefore i do not think it possible to use a core 2 chip as they are based on different technologies and have different power requirements.
If the board supported say, low end Core 2 chips and you wanted to use a mid range core 2 chip then it may be possible but not adding support for a completely different generation of CPU's!
The only way forward looks like a new motherboard im afraid
Sorry
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05-02-2010, 10:55 AM (This post was last modified: 05-02-2010, 11:19 AM by chantak741.)
(05-02-2010, 07:23 AM)1234s282 Wrote: This board supports Celerons and Pentium 4's. Therefore i do not think it possible to use a core 2 chip as they are based on different technologies and have different power requirements.
If the board supported say, low end Core 2 chips and you wanted to use a mid range core 2 chip then it may be possible but not adding support for a completely different generation of CPU's!
The only way forward looks like a new motherboard im afraid
Sorry
Admin
Are you sure it is not possible?
Well, first, this forum seems to be the one that is dedicated to to bios modding, dont caring about if the board have full support or not, as this sub-forum is also dedicated to put CPU support in the motherboard.
If I just give-up this motherboard will be leaved in dust, and without use. I would like at least to try to push up this board to the limit.
So, in the case of my motherboard, for example, I know that this motherboard can run CPUs until models Pentium 4F [Pentium 4 662: 3,6 GHz, Pentium 4 672: 3,8 GHz], these are known as Prescott-2M, following this come Pentium 4 "Cedar Mill" that are all based on Prescott-2M... but "Cedar Mill" are newer...
Quote:Pentium 4F
Prescott-2M built on 0.09 µm (90 nm) process technology
2.8–3.8 GHz (model numbers 6x0)
Introduced February 20, 2005
Same features as Prescott with the addition of:-
2 MB cache
Intel 64bit
Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology (EIST)
Cedar Mill built on 0.065 µm (65 nm) process technology
3.0–3.6 (model numbers 6x1)
Introduced January 16, 2006
die shrink of Prescott-2M
Same features as Prescott-2M
As you can see, Cedar Mill cores could be considered a high-end if you compare with old Prescott-2M cores, because it is built in 65nm instead of 90nm, it have less problems with heat, and more...
Here, also another case...
Quote:Pentium D
Dual-core microprocessor
No Hyper-Threading
800(4x200) MHz front side bus
LGA 775 (Socket T)
Smithfield – 90 nm process technology (2.66–3.2 GHz)
Introduced May 26, 2005
2.66–3.2 GHz (model numbers 805–840)
Number of Transistors 230 million
1 MB x 2 (non-shared, 2 MB total) L2 cache
Cache coherency between cores requires communication over the FSB
Performance increase of 60% over similarly clocked Prescott
2.66 GHz (533 MHz FSB) Pentium D 805 introduced December 2005
Contains 2x Prescott dies in one package
Presler – 65 nm process technology (2.8–3.6 GHz)
Introduced January 16, 2006
2.8–3.6 GHz (model numbers 915–960)
Number of Transistors 376 million
2 MB x 2 (non-shared, 4 MB total) L2 cache
Contains 2x Cedar Mill [Prescott-2M] dies in one package
In this case, I could take the Pentium D Presler, that is dual-core, and is based on Cedar Mill, it seems to be compatible... and would be more easy to find to buy than the older P4 Prescott-2M.
Quote:Pentium Extreme Edition
Dual-core microprocessor
Enabled Hyper-Threading
800(4x200) MHz front side bus
Smithfield – 90 nm process technology (3.2 GHz)
Variants
Pentium 840 EE – 3.20 GHz (2 x 1 MB L2)
Presler – 65 nm process technology (3.46, 3.73)
2 MB x 2 (non-shared, 4 MB total) L2 cache
Variants
Pentium 955 EE – 3.46 GHz, 1066 MHz front side bus
Pentium 965 EE – 3.73 GHz, 1066 MHz front side bus
Here, another case of compatible models... not considering the ones with 1066 MHz FSB, that could gave problems because Asus P5GD2 have the limit of 800Mhz, IMO.
There is also some Core 2 Duo and Quad that have a 800Mhz FSB, but I am not sure about the compatibility.
About the power requirements, well, I think it is not a problem, right? Because newer CPUs are all prepared to use lower voltages, and lower watts, so I would only need to lower the voltage in the BIOS, and/or mod the BIOS to unlock voltage capabilities, and get a good air cooling. :-)
It also would be cool if I do benchmarks of different CPUs in the same motherboard... and see how much one Cedar Mill core is better than Prescott, or, how much a Pentium D is better than P4, or a Core 2 Duo is better than Pentium D and P4. It is because, comparing CPU architectures in different motherboards with different memory bandwidths, or different memories, it is a dirt comparative to me, it will not give a good and solid data about different CPU performances.
(05-03-2010, 03:11 AM)1234s282 Wrote: This looks like a chipset limitation The 915P chipset used on your board can only accomodate P4's or Celeron chips)
I will continue to search for a board that hold support but im not sure whether il be able to do anything!
Admin
OK, Thank you for the effort.
Well, I am not sure about the compatibility... but I have some reasons to believe that it is possible:
- One example of one chipset that is compatible since Celeron, Pentium 4 until Core 2 Quad is ASRock ConRoe865PE [ASRock is a low-end line of motherboards done by ASUS]. This motherboard also uses the old DDR memory type, what would imply in bandwidth, but CPUs runs very well. http://www.petitiononline.com/865pe/petition.html http://www.cpu-upgrade.com/mb-ASRock/ConRoe865PE.html http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=ConRoe865GV
As you see, this motherboard only got support for newer CPUs because a petition of users that certainly had the knowledge that the BIOS was heavily locked, but can run very well any Intel processor. AND, chipset 865pe is older than 915p, is not?
- The chipset is Intel, and Intel have the costume of lying... and it means that what the technical documents says are not real, some or most of times...
- The motherboard is ASUS, and as Intel, ASUS also lye most of times
- Much like the processors, the chipsets are done only as a incremental evolution of the old one... this means that it have some or much backward compatibility...
My conclusion about the chipset on my motherboard is that maybe it is not used by manufacturers to use for Core CPU series, maybe because no one thought about the possibility of use it with Intel Core series. This means that no one will find any technical doc about it. The only way will be trying and testing it with the hardware. The one real problem I found maybe is with the voltage control, that, in the current BIOS, does not exist any voltage control.
If possible, tell me what are the tools used to mod my BIOS.
05-04-2010, 01:47 AM (This post was last modified: 05-04-2010, 02:00 AM by 1234s282.)
Seems the Conroe865PE has twice the microcode that the stock P5GD2 BIOS Has!!
I can attempt to merge the microcode from the Conroe865PE and add it into the P5GD2 Bios. But theres was not enough free space in the bios. I have removed the german language file , the logo , the splash screen and some of the older microcodes (P4 , dated 2003/2004). In return , ive added the microcodes relating to Dual Core , Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad.
(05-04-2010, 01:47 AM)1234s282 Wrote: Seems the Conroe865PE has twice the microcode that the stock P5GD2 BIOS Has!!
I can attempt to merge the microcode from the Conroe865PE and add it into the P5GD2 Bios. But theres was not enough free space in the bios. I have removed the german language file , the logo , the splash screen and some of the older microcodes (P4 , dated 2003/2004). In return , ive added the microcodes relating to Dual Core , Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad.
WOW, You done it so fast like this? Thank you a lot...
I think the removed things are all unnecessary, since my language is english, I dont care about logos and splash... and I will not put an older CPU than the one I actually have,
But I remember you... I think there is missing to unlock somethings... voltage options, and if there exist something more to unlock or unhide, it would be cool, but, for now, I appreciated what you done. ;-)
For now, I dont have any core 2 duo to test here... b ut when I test I will do somethings like a benchmark, CPUid, and temperature monitoring...