Lithography and other stuff

[aradf]

hi im very new to this cpu exchane stuff.i wanted to ask if the Lithography must be same on an exchange. nad what else should i check before buying another ? (except for the socket.)i have p5q4 motherboard and a intel core 2 q8200 @2.33 GHz and 2 2 gb rams 525 MHz.
And oh can you tell me the best cpu i can replace without replacing the whole motherboard?

 

[WyomingKnott]

It's not the lithography, it's the physical socket and the BIOS. (There have been rare cases where the same physical socket supports a new generation of CPUs but old mobos never get a BIOS update to handle them.) If that's the Asus P5G line, it's socket 775 .

The mobo specs state
"Intel Socket 775 Processors for Intel® Core™2 Extreme/Core™2 Quad/ Core™2 Duo/Pentium® dual-core/Celeron® dual-core /Celeron® Processors
Compatible with Intel® 05B/05A/06 processors
Supports Intel® 45nm multi-core CPU "

I'm looking for a compatibility list. Found it here; looks like you top out at a Core 2 Quad Q9650(rev.E0,3.00GHz,1333FSB,L2:12MB) - of you can find something that old on Ebay.
http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/P5Q_Premium/HelpDesk_CPU/
The P4's may have higher clocks but I think that they are single-core.