[SOLVED] LGA 775 - Upgrading from E8400 to Q9500

[Adi88]

Hello everyone,

I recently bought a Q9500 processor for $10 and would like to replace the E8400 on an old system of mine with it.

The motherboard is an Asus P5KPL-CM, just wondering how do I know if I'll need a BIOS update or something or if I can just swap them? Also have a newer graphics card I'll be putting in (Nvidia 9600gt to AMD RX580).

Also, would a new install of windows be beneficial to this process? It has an Windows XP currently installed. Was thinking of maybe putting Windows 10 on it.

 

[Wolfshadw]

The motherboard is an Asus P5KPL-CM, just wondering how do I know if I'll need a BIOS update or something or if I can just swap them?

ASUS P5KPL-CM - CPU Support List
This list shows all the compatible processors for this motherboard and what BIOS version is required for each processor to be compatible. The Intel Core2Quad Q9500 requires BIOS version 0608 for it to be compatible with the motherboard. If you are running an earlier version of BIOS for this motherboard, you will need to update it to at least version 0608.

Also have a newer graphics card I'll be putting in (Nvidia 9600gt to AMD RX580)

As long as your power supply is up to the task. Personally, I wouldn't go with that high-end of a card. Probably nothing more than a GTX760.

Also, would a new install of windows be beneficial to this process? It has an Windows XP currently installed. Was thinking of maybe putting Windows 10 on it.

If this system is running Windows XP, you should definitely install a newer OS. However, this board only has drivers through Windows 8.1. If the default Windows 10 drivers do not work, you may need to try either Windows 7 or 8.1 drivers.

-Wolf sends

 

[Adi88]

ASUS P5KPL-CM - CPU Support List
This list shows all the compatible processors for this motherboard and what BIOS version is required for each processor to be compatible. The Intel Core2Quad Q9500 requires BIOS version 0608 for it to be compatible with the motherboard. If you are running an earlier version of BIOS for this motherboard, you will need to update it to at least version 0608.

As long as your power supply is up to the task. Personally, I wouldn't go with that high-end of a card. Probably nothing more than a GTX760.

If this system is running Windows XP, you should definitely install a newer OS. However, this board only has drivers through Windows 8.1. If the default Windows 10 drivers do not work, you may need to try either Windows 7 or 8.1 drivers.

-Wolf sends

Thank you for the quick help! I will double check the BIOS version before I start then. I got a different power supply for free awhile back that I had put in. I feel it should still be up to the task. It is a Thermaltake TR2 600W.

 

[Wolfshadw]

Thank you for the quick help! I will double check the BIOS version before I start then. I got a different power supply for free awhile back that I had put in. I feel it should still be up to the task. It is a Thermaltake TR2 600W.

Sorry. I didn't mean I wouldn't use the RX 580 because of the power supply. I mean I wouldn't use an RX 580 because it too much for your ancient system. Something more along the line of the GTX760 would probably be as powerful, performance-wise, as I would go.

-Wolf sends

 

[artk2219]

Sorry. I didn't mean I wouldn't use the RX 580 because of the power supply. I mean I wouldn't use an RX 580 because it too much for your ancient system. Something more along the line of the GTX760 would probably be as powerful, performance-wise, as I would go.

-Wolf sends

Agreed, your Q9500, while still a very valid daily driver for web surfing etc, is a bit on the ancient side when it comes to gaming. Honestly Anything above like a GTX 770 \ 960 \ 1050 TI or Radeon HD 7970 \ R9 280 \ 380 \ 385 \ RX 560 would not be used to its fullest potential on that system as that Q9500 wouldn't be able to get the full performance out of it, i mean unless you gamed at 4k in which case the GPU would be your bottleneck again (please dont do this ). That being said, you could roll with it, then move to a new motherboard, cpu, and ram combo in the future and get a nice performance boost from it, just dont expect all the latest games to run silky smooth in the meantime with a cpu bottleneck like that.

So the process I would recommend if you are 100% intent on going with that Q9500 would be as follows:

1. Upgrade your BIOS to the latest stable version.
2. Install that Q9500
3. Get an SSD installed if you dont already have one, its completely worth it.
4. Install windows 10 on that SSD, it'll actually use all 4 threads available to that Q9500, and itll let you use more than 4GB of ram if you have it.
5. I would also highly recommend upgrading to a minimum of 8GB of RAM if you haven't already, but finding decently priced 4GB DDR2 non ECC DIMMS can be a bit of a challenge, and honestly you're better off just upgrading the motherboard, cpu, and ram.

 

[SamirD]

As far as upgrading from xp--it depends on what you are doing with it. Anything modern, you'll need to upgrade to at least win7, but you'll also need more than 4GB ram and a lot of those boards could do only 8GB max. You may also run into problems with the gpu since the bios is probably not uefi-ready.