Hello to all.

I've done a bit of my own research, and well, I know that the socket is 775, but I have seen mixed details about if it supports higher than the Core 2 Quad 6600 CPU.

While this is an old system, it serves me perfectly well, and while I have very little money, if I could upgrade this to make for a mid-ranged computer by today's standards for a few tens of dollars, I will.

I would like to put in one of the Core 2 Quad Extreme's in this, such as the Q9650, however, I find mixed results when looking around at motherboard specs.

I didn't find anything from Asus, but HP has a page and says the board is not compatable with anything above the 6600 CPU (Source: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01324212&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en#N116)
Another site says that it is fully compatable with pretty much anything on the LGA775 socket (Source: http://www.pc-specs.com/mobo/Asus/_Asus_IPIBL-LB-Benicia-GL8E/6/Compatible_CPUs)

Does anyone have a difinitive answer so I don't go and use what little money I do have on the wrong processor? I would personally believe that if it fits into the socket, it would work fine.

I think the only REASON the extreme line isn't listed as supported by HP is maybe the absense of an integrated graphics chip. I am running a graphics card. this wouldn't be an issue if it were the case.

Any help greatly appreciated. Thank you. Looking at HP's listing here, they state:

Processor upgrade information
Motherboard supports the following processor UPGRADES:

    Intel Core 2 Quad (Y) Q9xxxx
    Intel Core 2 Duo (W) E8xxx
    Intel Core 2 Quad (K) up to Q6600
    Core 2 Duo E6x00 (C) up to E6700
    Core 2 Duo E4x00 (C) up to E4400


http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01324212&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en#N116

So it looks like it should work... however...

Concerns I would have are:

#1 do you need a bios update to support this CPU?
#2 will your current PSU handle the additional load?
#3 will you be upgrading your heatsink to draw the heat away from a very hot running 130Watt TDP CPU or risk overheating with a stock cooler from a lesser underrated 90 watt TDP CPU?
#4 will the VRM's handle the load/heat from driving a 130watt CPU or will you cook your motherboard eventually killing it? ( Better boards have heatsinks on their VRM's to draw heat away and this is a cheap stock board with minimum heat protection since it wasnt intended by HP to be a higher end system )

*** As far as upgrading HP's with ASUS boards, I have been successful with CPU upgrades of series CPU's that they state they support such as my wifes HP came with a 1.8Ghz Core 2 Duo E4300 and I got cheaply a Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4 Ghz with 4M Cache to stuff into her HP Pavlion a6010n which took what was a lesser powered system that lagged with games into a system that no longer lagged on games due to the much better CPU. Now it runs Windows 7 32-bit very well on 3GB 667Mhz DDR2 RAM with GeForce 9800GT 1GB VRAM Video Card. As well as my friend had an older HP with the 900Mhz Celeron in it and I was able to upgrade him to a 1000mhz ( 1Ghz ) Pentium III which ran way better. He wanted to go to the 1.13Ghz Pentium III, but I told him that its not supported and it probably wouldnt work. The $20 upgrade to a Pentium III 1Ghz with 512MB RAM turned his laggy Windows XP Home system into an ok system for older games and multitasking online. The multitasking the Celeron 900Mhz struggled to do.

Also at the site you provided about the CPU they state this fact:

[ Core 2 Extreme QX9650 3.0GHz COMPATIBILITY review ]

Overall, the Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 3.0GHz has very good performance. Its 4 cores clocked at 3 GHz provide swift processing speeds and allow multiple processes to be run simultaneously.

The CPU is now over 6 years old, which means it is extremely out of date and is BASED on very aged technologies. This processor will be dwarfed in performance by its modern counterparts, and will likely have very little support from Intel.

Created with lithographic technology sized at 45 nanometers, the Core 2 Extreme QX9650 3.0GHz is not efficient at all by modern standards, and with a Thermal Design Power of 130W, the poor efficiency of its physical build is matched by the large amount of power that is necessary to run it.
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Although this CPU has a healthy benchmark of http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core2+Extreme+X9650+%40+3.00GHz and would still run many games well. This CPU is at the lower of the mid-range, I feel since the mid-range CPUs SCORE in the 6500 range.