SLANP and SLBBA which one is better for cpu?

[Shihad_1]

Hello
I see two option in a website for xeon cpu
SLANP and SLBBA
Which one is more preferable?
Confused

 

[BFG-9000]

SLANP is the older C0 stepping that you would pick if your motherboard BIOS does not support newer steppings.

SLBBA is better if you can run it, it's the newer E0 stepping (same as Q9650) which adds the XSAVE and XRSTORE instructions

 

[Shihad_1]

Which one is better for intel mobo?
And which one is better for asus/msi etc mobo?

 

[BFG-9000]

It depends on the BIOS, not the brand of mobo. If you are modding the chip to run in Socket 775 then you also need to mod the BIOS to include the microcodes for Xeons anyway, which will guarantee E0 works.

If you intend to drop the chip into a Socket 771 board then you'll have to look at the manual and any BIOS updates to see if E0 support was ever added. If it wasn't but it claims support for X5460, then you are stuck with C0.

 

[Shihad_1]

It depends on the BIOS, not the brand of mobo. If you are modding the chip to run in Socket 775 then you also need to mod the BIOS to include the microcodes for Xeons anyway, which will guarantee E0 works.

If you intend to drop the chip into a Socket 771 board then you'll have to look at the manual and any BIOS updates to see if E0 support was ever added. If it wasn't but it claims support for X5460, then you are stuck with C0.

From where i will find the modified bios for my mobo(775 socket)

 

[BFG-9000]

You can modify it yourself using the instructions here. If your motherboard is on this list then someone has tried it before.

If you don't want to modify it yourself look for a pre-modded one at tanieprocesory.pl (Polish) or ideafix.name (Russian) or request someone to mod it for you at bios-mods.com or overclock.net. If you want a BIOS that allows the latest RAID drivers to be installed or a SLIC table inserted, the proper place is Fernando's at win-raid.com

Without the microcodes it may actually boot and run but any errata found after the chip was designed will not be corrected.

At this time a modded x5460 is half the price of a real Q9650 and also has a better 9.5 multiplier instead of 9x. The E5450 is even cheaper though with only a 9x multiplier.

 

[Shihad_1]

I have no idea about modded bios.
Can you help me?

 

[BFG-9000]

It is very difficult to mod a BIOS for Intel's own boards because their flasher checks for tampering. However there are reports of the C0 stepping working just fine on the latest genuine Intel BIOS with no BIOS mod required.

The 771 to 775 page reports that 1333FSB E0 also works fine on DG41RQ, but E0 on the similar DG41TY results in no Speedstep, SSE 4.1, and VT-X so it's safer to choose a C0 in case your BIOS isn't the latest one.

BTW the E5440 is 45nm so no worries about the also similar DG41WV not working with 65nm chips. It's just you'll be stuck at the stock 2.83GHz speed because Intel boards of this vintage don't overclock and 1333 is already the highest supported FSB.

 

[elvedin]

You can modify it yourself using the instructions here. If your motherboard is on this list then someone has tried it before.

If you don't want to modify it yourself look for a pre-modded one at tanieprocesory.pl (Polish) or ideafix.name (Russian) or request someone to mod it for you at bios-mods.com or overclock.net. If you want a BIOS that allows the latest RAID drivers to be installed or a SLIC table inserted, the proper place is Fernando's at win-raid.com

Without the microcodes it may actually boot and run but any errata found after the chip was designed will not be corrected.

At this time a modded x5460 is half the price of a real Q9650 and also has a better 9.5 multiplier instead of 9x. The E5450 is even cheaper though with only a 9x multiplier.

 

[elvedin]

Hi BFG, I have two xeon x5460, one of them is SLANP and second is SLBBA. Are they compatibile to work together in my PC? Or both of them must be SLANP or SLBBA?

 

[BFG-9000]

'Tis always better to use matching Xeons in a duallie board, because nothing else has ever been tested or validated.

That said, I've had different processor models with different amounts of cache running at different speeds in the same board before and everything worked just fine. As you already have the chips it's worth a try as I doubt it can damage anything. Just keep in mind that odd crashes may occur if for example the BIOS reads only one chip to determine what microcode to load. If you encounter this issue try swapping the sockets the chips are in.