Replacing a Core 2 Duo with another

[Cyanide36x]

Hello. I recently had a friend give me an Acer Veriton M661 motherboard with an Intel Core 2 Duo E7300 at 2.66ghz. I am looking to replace it with an E8400 3ghz but am skeptical that it will work. I just want to know if it's doable. Preferably without a BIOS update. Thanks for any help.

 

[jmeister]

You don't even need to replace this cpu, you can bump the fsb up to 1333 from 1066 by just putting a very small peice of electrical tape over a pad on the cpu. I've done it to my core 2 quad q6600, and it runs at 3ghz up from 2.4, on a motherboard that doesn't even support overclocking in a dell xps 430. I calculate that this will bring your cpu up to 3.33ghz.

There is a very good guide for this here: http://techreport.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=59874

It's worth trying before you spend money on anything.

 

[Cyanide36x]

I will have to check into this. Thank you.

 

[ilovepats2000]

I've found this computer on sale with an E8400 in it... so you should be able to install an E8400.

M661 with E8400:
http://www.cnet.com/products/acer-veriton-m661-ud8400c-core-2-duo-e8400-3-ghz-2-gb-320-gb/

 

[Cyanide36x]

Sweet. The processor is very inexpensive on Amazon. 20 bucks plus 4.95 shipping. So that helps as well. But I do need to look into the tape method before hand. Either way is fine though 😛