Question about initial 1333 FSB support and inital Windows install with evga 680i

[Mibs]

Ok so it is almost upgrade time, less than a week or so and the EVGA 680i and the Intel E6750 will be here. But I have some worries about this. First of all only the P29 and P30 bios support the newer 1333 fsb cpus. And from reading on the evga message boards I think the boards are now shipping with the P26 or P28. Either way, assuming it doesn't ship with the P29, will I be able to boot and update the bios with the E6750 installed? Or will I have to put in my old P4 just to do the update. I figure the board will just push it down to 1066 MHz until the BIOS update but I want to make sure.

Also, I'm not upgrading my HDD right now as I just don't feel the need. Sure it will happen in the near future but not at this point. I've heard mixed responses about the question I have. Will I have to do a fresh install of Windows since I'm changing the motherboard? Right now I'm running some generic Asus board that is apparently called an Altair but I've never heard of it. It does have a 775 socket so I guess it isnt that old. Anyway I'm just wondering if I will have to do a fresh install right away as soon as I boot up. Or will it boot into Windows fine? I guess it probably all depends on the hardware.

All responses are appreciated, thanks!

[Jordan]

I realize this doesn't help very much, but when I bought this system and it had an older BIOS, I had to get an old P4 chip, flash it, then put the Pentium D in it. It supported all the previously released Pentium Ds (820, 830, etc.) but not the newly released 805 which ran at 533 FSB instead of 800. I guess it depends on the board.

You're right as far as Windows goes, sometimes it'll boot, sometimes it won't. I'd recommend doing a reinstall regardless, starting fresh is rarely a bad thing.

[enaberif]

You usually need to flash the bios with an older chip as putting the new one usually renders the board from posting.

If the board you are exchanging for is identical then no, but if its a different make, model and chipset then YES you will in fact need to re-install windows otherwise you're gonna get some random behaviour.

[JD]

No harm in trying the E6750 first. If it doesn't work, then you can just swap it out for the P4. I think it would just run it at a lower speed and maybe say its a E6700 or something. If you post on the eVGA forums I'm sure they would have a positive answer.

Definitely reinstall Windows, always the best way to go. Give yourself a nice clean start.

[enaberif]

Originally Posted by jdrom17

No harm in trying the E6750 first. If it doesn't work, then you can just swap it out for the P4. I think it would just run it at a lower speed and maybe say its a E6700 or something. If you post on the eVGA forums I'm sure they would have a positive answer.

Definitely reinstall Windows, always the best way to go. Give yourself a nice clean start.

Don't quote me but a p4 chip won't necessarily run in a c2d board... different chipsets.

[sswilson]

Originally Posted by enaberif

Don't quote me but a p4 chip won't necessarily run in a c2d board... different chipsets.

I've been through 3 different S775 boards in the last 3 months and every one of them would run S775 P4s.

Some question on celerys though...... :)