Final Spec - Please Help...

RoEy

RoEy

RoEy

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Hi all,

Right looks like I'm going to go with the following spec for my Dads PC. What I need to know is will the ASUS P5K Pro be able to support the E8200 Wolfdale CPU I've chosen right out of the box? Or will I have to update the bios first?

If I do have to do that, what’s the best way to do it because I don't have a spare Intel cpu so it would need to be done from the moment I turn it on (with the E8200 in) for the first time. I've heard stories of it booting up and asking to be updated but then because people didn’t have it with them prior to it they've turned the system off to find it wont boot up again - so you kind of get one chance to do it. The last update to support the 45mn cpus was 18th Jan so will it be likely that I get a board with this already on?

Am I worrying for nothing? Or should I have it all ready just in case it needs the update? What’s the best way to do it seeing as I wont have a FDD. I've got a mem stick.

Help?


Spec:

MOTHERBOARD - Asus P5K Pro Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £72.99 (£85.76)

CPU - Intel Core 2 Duo E8200 LGA775 'Wolfdale' 2.66GHz (1333FSB) - Retail £99.99 (£117.49)

RAM- Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C5 TwinX (2x1GB) £29.99 (£35.24)

GPU - PowerColor ATI Radeon HD 2400 PRO SCS3 SILENT 256MB DDR2 HDTV/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £24.99 (£29.36)

HDD - Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (WD2500AAKS) £37.99 (£44.64)

OPTICAL DRIVE - Samsung SH-S203D 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99 (£17.61)

CASE - Antec Solo Quiet Mini Tower Case - No PSU £51.99 (£61.09)

PSU - Akasa Ultra Quiet 500W Paxpower Active PFC ATX2.2 PSU - Black Nickel £44.99 (£52.86)

OS - Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition inc. SP2 - OEM - 1Pk (N09-01991) £47.99 (£56.39)

THERMAL COMPOUND - Arctic Ceramique Thermal Compound (2.5g) £1.99 (£2.34)

Total: £502.78

Apart from everything else does the spec look like it will work with one another? Sorry for posting so many times.

Thanks all,

RoEy
 
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you need to update the bios, flash drive in from the start is the best bet. I fell into the trap of not updating it first time :(

Other than that it all looks fine, you wont need thermal compound as the intel HSF has it pre-applied. I take it he wont be overclocking it then.


Lee
 
According to the Asus website the P5K Pro supports all 45nm CPUs but having read the above post it appears not to be the whole story.

You probably don't need the thermal compound since the CPU is retail and the cooler will come with a thermal paste/pad pre-applied.
 
Kearney_1988 said:
you need to update the bios, flash drive in from the start is the best bet. I fell into the trap of not updating it first time :(
Lee
Click to expand...

So what happend Lee? What did you have to do? Is it worth me just getting a E6550 conroe instead so I'm not taking the risk? No, no overcloking will be done.

RoEy
 
I just borrowed a 775 Socket, slapped it in and updated and changed back and it was fine. should be fine really as long as you put the bios of a stick and put it in the comp before you turn it on for the first time

Lee
 
Would I just have to go stright into the bios and tell it to boot up from flash drive then? What files do you have to put on the flash drive, you got a link that can tell me step by step guide for updating the BIOS on the Asus P5K Pro board?

Will it allow me to select what to boot up from then restart or not? cause it wont boot up from flash drive by default will it?
 
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you just have to go on the ASUS website and download the latest bios, will just be a small file. put it on a stick and plug it in, when you boot up you can go into option called EZflash or something like that and go from there. its all explained in mobo instructions

Lee
 
So everything I need to do is explained in the motherboard manual. Ok I think I'll download it now and have a look. Like I said before though will it allow me to change boot to flash drive then reboot?

RoEy
 
Yeah just read that in the manual, seems easy enough. Thanks for your help Lee. If I get the latest bios version for the board that will contain all previous bios updates yeah? Will it be "del" key to get into BIOS? It is for most boards I've used.

Thanks again,

RoEy
 
the lastest one will be fine, cant remember what one i put on mine. ill have a look tomorrow night when im in and let you know. yer Del gets you into BIOS

Lee
 
Cheers Lee.

One last thing: It says on the ASUS site :

"Download latest ASUS BIOS from ASUS WWW and rename the BIOS filename to "xxxxx.ROM" (xxxxx represents the motherboard model you used, eg. P4C800 BIOS is named p4c800.ROM), and save the file in a floppy disk."

So when I downloaded the P5K PRO latest BIOS 'P5K-PRO-ASUS-0806.ROM', would I need to rename it like the instructions say and if so what would I rename it too? would it be 'P5KPRO0806.ROM' ? or would it be 'P5KPRO.ROM' ?

Thanks again, owe you a pint lol,

RoEy
 
Ethics said:
I had to do it for the E8400 Wolfdale on that board, i named the file p5k.ROM and it worked fine.
Click to expand...

You're a life saver! nice one mate! That's deffo the pro version you did it on?

I'll name it that then. How well is the E8400 running on it?

When you download the latest BIOS it also puts a file called AFUDOS.EXE with the rom too, shall I leave this with it? So theres two files on my flash drive when I flash it?

Thanks,

RoEy
 
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