Q9450 Chipset Compatibility

D

davewolfs

Limp Gawd
Joined
Nov 7, 2006
Messages
338
Hello everyone,

Have any of you tried these chips on the P35 Series Motherboards. Specifically the Abit IP35 Pro or Gigabyte P35-DS3. I've noticed that the bioses for both of these boards were recently updated. So what happens if you try to boot one of these boards with an older bios? Will it even recognize one of these chips?

Thanks,

Dave
 
The P35 series does support the Q9450 quad core processors as do I'm sure both of those boards as long as you have flashed to the latest BIOS. With an older BIOS that doesn't support the new Yorkfield chip it may just not POST.
 
my abit ip35 pro was revision 1.1 (bought in early january and i think still the latest revision) and it came at that point with bios 14. that bios would not boot my q9450 until i flashed the board to one of the beta 16 bios versions. all beta 16 and the official 16 bios version boot it fine.
 
Thanks for the info. Do you think the new boards are shipping with bios 16 or am I better off buy an old chip?
 
I do no think that current IP35-pro ships with bios 16. It will take a few weeks before it happens.
 
i agree with rad. if you want the abit board, then either borrow a processor from a friend or buy a cheap celeron that you can boot into and change bios with ..why i kept my dual core 6400:)
 
Although I can't tell you for certain what version BIOS my IP35 Pro arrived with last week, I can tell you that I dropped in a q9450 and assembled my system and was able to boot after clearing CMOS. I installed windows, etc, no problems. Next step, upgrade BIOS.

This caused much rejoicing as the last thing I wanted to do was wait another week while I tried to find a cheap celeron to install just to flash the BIOS, etc.
 
I had no problems booting a new Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L (Rev2) with a Q9450. I can't remember what the shipping BIOS was, but after POST I flashed to F8b. No problem with OS install and burn-in. The one issue was the default "auto" cpu voltage set at 1.2375v, which was too high. I found the lowest Prime95 stable (11 hours) VID setting to be 0.99375v (0.960 Vcore idle, 0.944 Vcore load) and have had no problems running that low for a couple weeks now.
 
Probably most of you guys already know this information, but...

Officially, only x3x and x4x series Intel chipsets support Penryn CPUs, especially Quads. Not only do the chipsets were designed with Penryn in mind, but the VRM specs changed when these chipsets were introduced, and the reference BIOS has the ucode necessary for running the new CPUs, meaning every board based on them will also have (or at least should have) drop-in capabilities from older CPUs. Theoretically at least, you should be able to go from an E6300 (Netburst isn't officially supported by x3x and x4x series chipsets) to a Q9450 without a problem - the computer should at least boot and be stable enough to allow regular operation until a BIOS update unlocks the full potential.

Now, the funny thing is, CPU support on motherboards actually depends on four things: appropriate CPU ucode on the BIOS, correct VRM implementation, FSB support from the chipset, and enough power delivery capabilities of the board. And the last one is only to ensure premature component death doesn't happen.

What this means is, besides depending on a per-manufacturer BIOS revision (which might or might not happen) and correct VRM implementation on the PCB (which can be revised from PCB to PCB revisions), just about ANY Intel chipset should be able to handle ANY CPU, given the right circumstances...

That's why you can actually get 865G-based motherboards that accept Q6xxx CPUs, and 945G-based ones that support E8xxx CPUs. Of course, it would be unlikely for 915/925 chipsets to be able to handle over 1066MHz on the FSB, but that's because they just can't go over that speed, even when OC'ing. However, I'd like to know why aren't Qxxxx CPUs supported on ANY motherboard known to date. I mean, it doesn't seem to be a chipset limitation... 3-phase power the culprit, perhaps?

In practice, apart from the "odd ones out" (those being 865G/945G/GC/GZ/946GZ boards), and every x3x and x4x-based motherboard (depending on OC capabilities for some CPU/chipset configurations, of course), most P965-based motherboards (or at least those manufactured with the new VRM specs in mind) should also be able to support Penryn, including Quads. Those might need a BIOS update BEFORE the CPU replacement, though, since the reference BIOS doesn't include support for those CPUs.

Hope this helps.

Cheers.

Miguel
 
I am going to be putting a Q9550 in an Asus P5K. Grateful for confirmation that this combination is compatible without the need for a Bios Update to boot the first time. I am assuming that these two will work together on the basis of this:

http://event.asus.com/mb/45nm/

Thanks.
 
I bought an Abit IP35 Pro from Newegg on April 8th. It arrived with BIOS version 14 and it booted my Q9450 well enough to install Windows. I've now updated to version 16 and noticed that it corrected some bogus temperature readings in uGuru.
 
dhc014 said:
I bought an Abit IP35 Pro from Newegg on April 8th. It arrived with BIOS version 14 and it booted my Q9450 well enough to install Windows. I've now updated to version 16 and noticed that it corrected some bogus temperature readings in uGuru.
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Thank you for this info, I just received my Abit IP35 Pro yesterday and am still deciding what CPU to get. Without having to boot up is there a way to know, in the box or something, what bios is installed so I know if I need to get a cheap CPU to update the bios.
 
theDreamer said:
Thank you for this info, I just received my Abit IP35 Pro yesterday and am still deciding what CPU to get. Without having to boot up is there a way to know, in the box or something, what bios is installed so I know if I need to get a cheap CPU to update the bios.
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I didn't notice any indication of "14" anywhere, but I'll look for a date or anything useful tonight.

Keep in mind that Wolfdale and Yorkfield support was added in BIOS version 12 which was released on August. 15, 2007 so I would be surprised to hear of anyone receiving a board which couldn't at least boot far enough to upgrade.

BIOS ID:16 Bios Issue Date:2008/03/18
1. Update AHCI ROM version.
2. Update CPU Micro code.
3. Enhanced 45nm CPU compatibility.
4. Fixed C1E function abnormality.
5. Fixed Quick Power On Self Test function abnormality.
6. BIOS compiled date: 03/18/2008.

BIOS ID:14 Bios Issue Date:2007/09/06
1. Fixed the POST will show CPU has been changed message when first time SAVE & EXIT BIOS menu.
2. Enhanced the S3 compatibility with abitEQ utility.
3. BIOS compiled date: 09/06/2007.

BIOS ID:12 Bios Issue Date:2007/08/15
1. Update CPU micro code.
2. Support Wolfdale & Yolkfield CPU.
3. Support the pin definition of Front Audio adjusting function.
4. BIOS compiled date: 08/15/2007.
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Source
 
Just wanted to say thanks to the OP and everyone else that posted on this thread. I picked up an Abit IP35 Pro thinking I would go with a Q6600 but once I got to microcenter and say the Q9450 for 299 I had to have it. Was just afraid I might have to buy another cpu for a little to update but it looks like that wont be need. Thanks again.
 
InfinityVoid said:
Just wanted to say thanks to the OP and everyone else that posted on this thread. I picked up an Abit IP35 Pro thinking I would go with a Q6600 but once I got to microcenter and say the Q9450 for 299 I had to have it. Was just afraid I might have to buy another cpu for a little to update but it looks like that wont be need. Thanks again.
Click to expand...

Let us know how it goes, I still have yet to pick up a CPU yet (waiting a couple of weeks for something).
 
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