I’d like to upgrade CPU on Gigabyte GA-945GCM-S2L motherboard to E8500, but it’s written on official website that it’s only supported by overclocking “(F6(by Overclocking)”. What’s that supposed to mean? I know in general what overclocking is, but I can’t imagine what would I need to do in order to successfully boot up system after upgrade. Could you give me advise, maybe a tutorial on that one?
It’s also very weird for Core™ 2 Quad support. Judging by gigabyte.com support it’s supposed to be supported, but on unofficial ones, I’ve seen that it isn’t. Which one really applies?
F6 is the BIOS version. To be able to run the E8500, you will need to have version F6 (or better) before installing the CPU.
“By overclocking” means that the BIOS will NOT auto detect the proper FSB speed of 1333MHz (333MHz frequency). So to get your CPU to run at 3.16GHz (9.5 x 333MHz), you will have to manually set the CPU frequency to 333MHz, otherwise it will default to 266MHz (aka 1066MHz FSB) & your CPU will only run at 2.53GHz (9.5 x 266MHz).
And make sure to run your RAM at 333MHz frequency (DDR667) to match the CPU frequency. That means if you have DDR2-800, you should underclock it.
message edited by riider