Difference between a SLB9K and a SLAPK E8500?

[Jack Mckenzie]

I plan to upgrade a old Desktop which i have laying around and i'm going to upgrade its Processor(LGA 775) to a E8500 but there are two different Step Codes which are SLB9K and SLAPK.

Could someone explain to me any of the differences and if there is a particular one which i should buy.

Thanks!

P.S Please no "Upgrade your mobo" It just isn't going to happen.

 

[__Miguel_]

From a quick search, it seems the SLB9K is the E0 variant of the CPU, which is the more recent stepping.

The E0 stepping apparently introduced power-related improvements to the Core 2 Duo line (you can see them on the linked page, they have to do with idle power states).

It's usually advised to go with the most recent stepping of a CPU, unless otherwise specified by your motherboard or current setup (multi-CPU setups should stick to the same stepping), because of the microcode updates.

Since you're upgrading, please check if the BIOS accepts the E0 stepping for that CPU. If not, update it (if there's an update available), since you can end up with a non-boot situation otherwise.

Hope this helps!

 

[Jack Mckenzie]

~Snip~

Thanks for the info(You never learn if you don't ask questions), i'm upgrading a nice old G33M02 mobo, which i can't really find anything on it, i found a Website which gives me some details but it's very limited and the Foxconn website isn't much better.

I'll update the Bios with what i can get off the FoxConn website and then i'll order the SLB9K Core2Duo.
Anything else that is useful would be appreciated!

 

[__Miguel_]

Thanks for the info

Don't mention it, I'm glad to help.

i'm upgrading a nice old G33M02 mobo, which i can't really find anything on it

Actually, you DID find just about everything about it

The Foxconn link you posted has a "Tech support" button. If you press that, it will show you the list of all the BIOS files available (as well as other stuff, in case you need it, but seriously, you're better off letting Windows update your drivers automatically, or getting newer ones from Intel and Realtek manually.

Now, if you look closely, you can see that, on the 722F1P33 BIOS revision (2nd one from the top, dated from 2007), they fixed stuff regarding the E8500 CPU. And THEN, on the 722F1P36 BIOS revision (2nd one from the bottom, already from 2008), they updated the microcode to support the E8x00 series of CPUs. The way I read those two pieces of information together is that, in 2007, the board already supported the E8x00 series, C0 stepping; and in 2008, they added support for E0.

Of course, I might be wrong, but it makes some sense. Which means that, with the 722F1P36 or 722F1P34, which are the latest BIOS revisions available, you should, at least theoretically, be able to use the E8500 E0 CPU you want

Also, that seems like a rather nice board. If you know your way around the BIOS, you should try and disable anything you are not planning on using. For instance, I never use COM or LPT (Parallel) ports, not to mention the FDD, and these days using an IDE drive is rare. so I tend to disable those components through the BIOS. It lowers power draw a tiny bit (maybe 1-2W tops), and since the BIOS doesn't need to initialize them at boot time, it can shave a few seconds of time when powering up.

That's about it, for my part. Again, I hope this helps.

 

[Jack Mckenzie]

Thanks for the info

Don't mention it, I'm glad to help.

i'm upgrading a nice old G33M02 mobo, which i can't really find anything on it

Actually, you DID find just about everything about it

The Foxconn link you posted has a "Tech support" button. If you press that, it will show you the list of all the BIOS files available (as well as other stuff, in case you need it, but seriously, you're better off letting Windows update your drivers automatically, or getting newer ones from Intel and Realtek manually.

Now, if you look closely, you can see that, on the 722F1P33 BIOS revision (2nd one from the top, dated from 2007), they fixed stuff regarding the E8500 CPU. And THEN, on the 722F1P36 BIOS revision (2nd one from the bottom, already from 2008), they updated the microcode to support the E8x00 series of CPUs. The way I read those two pieces of information together is that, in 2007, the board already supported the E8x00 series, C0 stepping; and in 2008, they added support for E0.

Of course, I might be wrong, but it makes some sense. Which means that, with the 722F1P36 or 722F1P34, which are the latest BIOS revisions available, you should, at least theoretically, be able to use the E8500 E0 CPU you want

Also, that seems like a rather nice board. If you know your way around the BIOS, you should try and disable anything you are not planning on using. For instance, I never use COM or LPT (Parallel) ports, not to mention the FDD, and these days using an IDE drive is rare. so I tend to disable those components through the BIOS. It lowers power draw a tiny bit (maybe 1-2W tops), and since the BIOS doesn't need to initialize them at boot time, it can shave a few seconds of time when powering up.

That's about it, for my part. Again, I hope this helps.

Once again you've been a big help, I think i will tinker with some of the BIOS features like you said and turn off what i won't use or need, or though its a fresh install of Windows 7 64-Bit so it already boots up in about 7 seconds.