Question Is Core2 duo E8500 compatible with Asus P5LD2-SE?

Sep 23, 2019
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I want to upgrade the current pentium 4 cpu 3.0 GHz. This is not my main system so I don't want to go for a new build. I want to upgrade the cpu and the ram.


Question 1:
In the Asus website Core2 E8500 is not listed as supported in the list. But in the website userbenchmark i noticed one build using this cpu. What do you think?

Question 2: The asus specs says the maximum supported ram is 4GB. But in the userbenchmark website, I saw a lot of builds had more than that. (one build had 8GB of ram of which 1.7 GB was only free meaning that the system was using more than 4GB) So how is it possible?

(Side note: I have rev 2.0 of this mb so it supports core2 as the asus websites mentions)
 
The QVL does not list any 45nm Core 2 CPU so the factory BIOS may not have the proper microcodes for them, even if the VRM is flexible enough to be programmed to run them. Windows 8 and later pretty much require the updated microcodes but you can run earlier OSes without them (using the original, errata-filled microcodes embedded in the CPU back when it was designed). Or you can insert them yourself--note though that usually this drops Pentium 4 support so you'd no longer be able to run your old CPU in Win 8 or later.

Also note the 945 chipsets do not support 1333FSB so you'd have to overclock the board just to run those 45nm chips at their stock speeds.

Being able to install RAM and have it recognized is not the same as being able to use it. A goodly number of the 945 chipsets are not able to remap addresses above 4GB so are unable to even use all of 4GB (the rest is shown as "reserved" and untouchable). Some of the 945 chipsets are further crippled intentionally to ignore anything above 2GB.