Conroe and what is needed

[aidanjt]

Too bad Conroe is not supported on my P5WD2 Premium. Why don't they just give it a new socket if its not compatible with many of the old boards.

It depends on the chipset, the 965 and 765 are conroe compatiable, they also work with P4s, PDs, and CDs, that's why they didn't change sockets (and it's unnessecery anyway).

[dancingmatt]

What's the considered likelihood that I'll be able to buy a Conroe E6600 for a home build, say from Scan or another online retailer, anytime close to July 23rd? I have read that Dell etc. are going to get first stocks of them, and that Intel are building up to only 25% of their CPUs to be Conroe by the end of the year.

So do you think I'll be able to buy one at the end of July, or should I expect August or later than that?

Thanks
DM

[-ChEM-]

these pics show 975 mobo compatibility for anyone with a d805 etc

http://images.dailytech.com/nimage/1932_large_badax.jpg
http://images.dailytech.com/nimage/1...rge_badax2.jpg

[aidanjt]

Intel are driving Conroe production hard, if they have any sense they'll be stoping production of it's Pentium D range (it's likely they've already done so awhile ago) and have their 65nm fab plants focusing on Conroes.. But still, the OEMs will get the greatest share of the new CPUs and it'll take awhile for the supply to reach demand.. Expect a late (end of) July delivery at best, end of Augest at worst.

[aidanjt]

these pics show 975 mobo compatibility for anyone with a d805 etc

http://images.dailytech.com/nimage/1932_large_badax.jpg
http://images.dailytech.com/nimage/1...rge_badax2.jpg

That's for Intel motherboards, not 3rd party companies like Asus, Abit, etc.

All 975X and P965 chipsets are conroe compatable with a supporting BIOS. All you have to do is flash your BIOS to support it properly when your motherboard manufacturer releases one, and that's assuming the board *doesn't* already have a supporting BIOS, most boards with 975X chipsets *will*.. this is more of a problem with 965 chipsets.

[kalniel]

All 975X and P965 chipsets are conroe compatable with a supporting BIOS. All you have to do is flash your BIOS to support it properly when your motherboard manufacturer releases one, and that's assuming the board *doesn't* already have a supporting BIOS, most boards with 975X chipsets *will*.. this is more of a problem with 965 chipsets.

Er... all models from 304 onwards have the correct voltage regulators. Before that and you probably can't. Don't think it's purely software, but the actual regulators have to be different.

[aidanjt]

Er... all models from 304 onwards have the correct voltage regulators. Before that and you probably can't. Don't think it's purely software, but the actual regulators have to be different.

voltage regulators only regulate voltage (funny enough), as long as the regulators can supply at least enough voltage it'll run fine, and since voltage requirements for conroe chips is much lower, i don't see a problem.. aghm.. P965 and 975X chipsets are recent and conroes voltage requirements have been known for some time now, the chances of getting a board that would fry a conroe are slim to none while talking about proper motherboards.

[Bourne]

Any more companies got these on Pre-order ?? Bar the usual suspect

[kalniel]

voltage regulators only regulate voltage (funny enough), as long as the regulators can supply at least enough voltage it'll run fine, and since voltage requirements for conroe chips is much lower, i don't see a problem.. aghm.. P965 and 975X chipsets are recent and conroes voltage requirements have been known for some time now, the chances of getting a board that would fry a conroe are slim to none while talking about proper motherboards.

Regulation means not giving too high a voltage as well.

The problem is that if you try and feed conroe too much voltage it will fry (well, just not work more likely). It's not like amps where you can just draw as much as you need. The problem with pre-304 model vrms is that they do not provide the lower voltage needed, only the higher ranges.

edit: a currrent example from my car - the voltage regulator on my alternator is duff, and it's only regulating the minimum voltage now (luckily that is still regulated), but it's not capping the over-volts. Rather than just drawing what's needed, the overvolts manefest themselves in pulsing lights and a pulsing engine on idle. It's actually pushing the overvolt through every system that's using it, effecting all electrical systems.

[aidanjt]

@kalniel.. what part of my post about voltage requirements/regulation did you not understand?

You're blathering on about Intel motherboards and voltages and you're not reading what I'm saying.

1) nobody in their right mind would use an Intel motherboard
2) pinouts for conroes have been known a long time to OEMs, as are their power requirements
3) OEMs don't suck (Asus, Abit, MSI, Gigabyte, etc)
4) Voltage regulators on modern boards (that is, everything with a 965/975 chipset) are very precise.
4) Chipsets control almost everything, including Voltage regulators
5) BIOSes have intentional limitations on board paramiters to stop people from destroying their own system.
6) thus a BIOS update will unlock lower voltages for conroe and list them to the board as offically supported
7) conroes are power friendly not power shy, they're manufactured with the same fabrication process as smithfield and presler, the difference is in the core architecture, energy efficency.

[kalniel]

And in turn you're missing what I'm saying (though I won't accuse you of blathering )

It's not as simple as a BIOS update. You actually need new circuitry for the VRMs.

All 965s have this, but not all 975s. Yes, OEMs have known about this for a while, so it's likely that any *new* revisions are fine. However there are still many older revisions being sold as new in shops - it'll take a while for the new revisions to fully filter through.