Q: Dimension E520 - Does it support Kentsfield Core 2 Quad processors or just Conroe Core 2 Duo processors?

Dear Dell Community Support, My girlfriend has an ageing Dimension E520 which I am attempting to breathe a little more life into. Currently it houses a Conroe Core 2 Duo E4300 and is on bios version 2.2.1. The motherboard is 0WG864, which appears to be based on the P965 Express chipset. I have read through another post here (http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/desktop/f/3514/t/19287896.aspx) which seems to suggest that only Conroe processors are supported with the latest bios (which I believe is 2.4.0). That said, there seems to be some suggestion that Kentsfield processors (which are essentially just quad core versions of Conroe) might be compatible also. I have also checked the Intel site here (http://ark.intel.com/products/27730/Intel-82P965-Memory-Controller) and if you click under compatible products for this, you will see two quad core processors listed: Intel® Core™2 Quad Processor Q6600 (8M Cache, 2.40 GHz, 1066 MHz FSB) Intel® Core™2 Quad Processor Q6700 (8M Cache, 2.66 GHz, 1066 MHz FSB) Please could someone officially confirm whether either of these two processors would work with this motherboard with the latest bios? Kind regards

anselhelm

Only 65 nm processors with 800 or 1066fsb will work with the E-520.

Either the Q6600, or the Q6700 should work, but before installing the processor, check that you have BIOS version 2.2.1 [or higher], when additional CPU support was added.

Bev.

Thank you for your reply.

Both Conroe and Kentsfield are 65nm processors with no faster than 1066MHz FSB, so I'm somewhat sure that Kentsfield Core 2 Quads in the form of the Q6600 or Q6700 could work, but I am uncertain as to whether this is a certainty or not.

Is there perhaps any official confirmation that Kentsfield would work?

I am thankful for your reply nonetheless :)

Thank you very muchly for that :)

It answers my question perfectly and confirms what I thought would be the case.

Thank you again :)

anselhelm

Happy to have helped.

Bev.