95W cpu in a 125W mobo?

If your MOBO supports up to 125W CPU's then there should be no problem if it'd be 95W, 125W etc.

+1^ Just be sure your board will accept the Ph2.

yup board is listed to support the ph2 945 with a bios update
great! that means i can go get the 95W version.

It should work just fine for you. If you want to decrease power usage even farther you can undervolt the CPU some. The 95 W 945 is already an undervolted 125W 945 but you should be able to drop the voltage even more which will let you drop the temps and CPU power consumption fairly significantly.

well in terms of speed and performance, a 125W PH2 vs a 95W PH2 (both 945s) the 95W one performs the same as the 125W one correct? its just that the 125W is older and released first with a different manufacturing process? correct me if im wrong but thats what it was for my 6000 i think

There are two 95W 945s, the C2 stepping ones are simply ones that were capable of reliably being stable at lower voltage than the 125W C2 stepping 945s. There are some C3 stepping 945s which are just slightly more power efficient so they are able to run under 95W without special undervolting.

Performance of all 3 models is identical.

oh yes i forgot about the revisions. im probably going to just aim for a 95W and not undervolt

got me a 95W 945 (or a "B95" business model) and its running awesomely and sucking 30w less power and running 10deg cooler! love it! thanks all!