Just when you thought polymers gave a PC eternal life! - The GX745 SFF Calamity!

[Behemot]

Re: Just when you thought polymers gave a PC eternal life! - The GX745 SFF Calamity!

Them graphics sit between 80 and 100 °C as normal temp since like GTX 260…

[Topcat]

Re: Just when you thought polymers gave a PC eternal life! - The GX745 SFF Calamity!

Oh yeah, I thought it had older chipset but not, so it should take Q6600. Look for the latest stepping, that one has 95W TDP.

I did a little reading (dangerous sometimes), this chipset should be able to accept any 1066FSB Kentsfield core C2Q.....any reason a GX745 couldn't/wouldn't run the C2Q 2.66GHz 1066FSB Q6700 (seems to be the fastest 1066FSB C2Q), if it can run the Q6600? They are the same core, same LGA package, same voltage, same TDP, and also cheap....I wouldn't buy one for the little I'd gain....but just for future reference incase anyone else has this question later on.

[stj]

Re: Just when you thought polymers gave a PC eternal life! - The GX745 SFF Calamity!

you would need the microcode for it in the bios.
there is software that can tell you what cpu support is in a bios.

[Topcat]

Re: Just when you thought polymers gave a PC eternal life! - The GX745 SFF Calamity!

you would need the microcode for it in the bios.
there is software that can tell you what cpu support is in a bios.

Given that a Q6600 will run, logic tells me the BIOS has the correct microcode....the only difference between the CPU's is the multiplier is one digit higher....but I could be wrong/you could be right....I don't have one to test with....

[stj]

Re: Just when you thought polymers gave a PC eternal life! - The GX745 SFF Calamity!

just make sure you update the bios before the cpu - that's my rule for avoiding un-necessary pain.

[Topcat]

Re: Just when you thought polymers gave a PC eternal life! - The GX745 SFF Calamity!

just make sure you update the bios before the cpu - that's my rule for avoiding un-necessary pain.

I employ the same rule as well. It's saved me lots of headaches for sure! Unless I come across another GX745, I likely won't try this....This system isn't worth spending another $10 on...lol

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Just when you thought polymers gave a PC eternal life! - The GX745 SFF Calamity!

Given that a Q6600 will run, logic tells me the BIOS has the correct microcode....the only difference between the CPU's is the multiplier is one digit higher....but I could be wrong/you could be right....I don't have one to test with....

Is the microcode really any different than a 65nm Duo? The big problem with Kentsfield, is that they use a lot of watts per clock. A motherboard that does fine with a 65nm Duo, could have Kentucky-fried MOSFETS with a 65nm Quad!
Kentsfields are basically a dual-65nm-Duo-sandwich.

[stj]

Re: Just when you thought polymers gave a PC eternal life! - The GX745 SFF Calamity!

a cpu can run without a microcode update,
that's not the issue - the issue is that most bioses wont run a cpu unless they have the cpu's ID bytes in an internal table.
think of it as whitelisting.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Just when you thought polymers gave a PC eternal life! - The GX745 SFF Calamity!

a cpu can run without a microcode update,
that's not the issue - the issue is that most bioses wont run a cpu unless they have the cpu's ID bytes in an internal table.
think of it as whitelisting.

What about the things that appear to be special cases, where an earlier socket 462 motherboard's BIOS reports "Unknown CPU", "Unknow CPU" or a similar string and seems to work fine?

I do know that when changing the CPU with one that has a lower-nm lithography, expect a boot failure, as they usually aren't even electrically compatible.

[stj]

Re: Just when you thought polymers gave a PC eternal life! - The GX745 SFF Calamity!

i have had 1 board that could boot "unknown cpu", it was a japanese custom P4 motherboard for arcade systems that had a custom phoenix bios on it.
every other board i'v put an unrecognised cpu in has told me to GTFO.

the voltage for core and i/o is set by a couple of pins with resistors in the cpu, the bios can interpret them but the system doesnt really need it to.

[Behemot]

Re: Just when you thought polymers gave a PC eternal life! - The GX745 SFF Calamity!

I did a little reading (dangerous sometimes), this chipset should be able to accept any 1066FSB Kentsfield core C2Q.....any reason a GX745 couldn't/wouldn't run the C2Q 2.66GHz 1066FSB Q6700 (seems to be the fastest 1066FSB C2Q), if it can run the Q6600? They are the same core, same LGA package, same voltage, same TDP, and also cheap....I wouldn't buy one for the little I'd gain....but just for future reference incase anyone else has this question later on.

Likely depends on stepping, later steppings need different microcode, as guys already said.

Could be that it's now so cheap it does not matter, but usually it is that the most powerfull CPU of any given type costs both arms and legs, and the second or third are way cheaper yet only little slower. Q6600s was selling like hot cakes back in the time, while Q6700s and QX6800s almost not at all. I'd expect availability and pricing according to that.

[stj]

Re: Just when you thought polymers gave a PC eternal life! - The GX745 SFF Calamity!

having said that, a Q6600 may not be as fast as say an E8400/8600
with it's much larger cach.

[Behemot]

Re: Just when you thought polymers gave a PC eternal life! - The GX745 SFF Calamity!

And much faster core speed, however being 45nm lito and totally different core, it needs at least G31 to run properly. I think there were some special cases of 965 chipsets with support for that, but that was from retail board manufacturers. Some branded PCs also could run these with manual microcode update, but being limited by FSB speed, these CPUs than run 1/4 slower.

[Topcat]

Re: Just when you thought polymers gave a PC eternal life! - The GX745 SFF Calamity!

Thanks for the input. The Q6600 is performing very nice in this system.

[elbrute]

Re: Just when you thought polymers gave a PC eternal life! - The GX745 SFF Calamity!

Hey Topcat, I noticed that you put in Polys of a lesser rating. I have several 745's and I'm pretty sure those were 2200uF originally. Obviously those work, but how'd you figure what size? I've got 4 systems to recap, 2 mini-towers and 2 SFF's. Will those 1800's do the job for me?

[Topcat]

Re: Just when you thought polymers gave a PC eternal life! - The GX745 SFF Calamity!

Hey Topcat, I noticed that you put in Polys of a lesser rating. I have several 745's and I'm pretty sure those were 2200uF originally. Obviously those work, but how'd you figure what size? I've got 4 systems to recap, 2 mini-towers and 2 SFF's. Will those 1800's do the job for me?

The rule of thumb I've always used when polymodding a board is half the uF value of the lytic...or thereabouts. It's been solid as a rock.

[elbrute]

Re: Just when you thought polymers gave a PC eternal life! - The GX745 SFF Calamity!

OK, the cap you replaced at the 1800uF position appears to be a 1500uF, maybe a 1000uF, can't tell pic is too blurry there. Anyway, thanks for the info.