CPU/Motherboard Compatibility Issues...

You will have to stick to either a 65nm cpu or change boards . The board will run it but not at spec and won't detect the cpu properly. Unfortunanitly no bios update can get around the physical short comings on the board its design wasn't intended for the 45nm cpu.I personaly haven't tried the combo. I did see that board not run the 8400 which is also 45nm so I would us that as a indicator. Have you already put your money down on that board?

Yeah, that's not going to work.  As an alternative you could get a low cost board such as the DG31PR (Pearl Creek) that offers good features as a decent price.  It also gives you forward compatibility for quad core cpu's to upgrade to in the future, as well as a dedicated PCI-express slot for graphics. 

warlord:

You will have to stick to either a 65nm cpu or change boards . The board will run it but not at spec and won't detect the cpu properly. Unfortunanitly no bios update can get around the physical short comings on the board its design wasn't intended for the 45nm cpu.I personaly haven't tried the combo. I did see that board not run the 8400 which is also 45nm so I would us that as a indicator. Have you already put your money down on that board?

 Are you sure about that 65-45nm thing, because i've been searching quite a bit around other forums and most people said that it doesn't matter, and that I should be concerned with socket type (which is supposed to be compatible with the e7200). Also, what do you mean "wont detect cpu properly", is that like a big problem you're talking about or little annoyances. As for the second answer, I've had this board for a long time and I wanted to upgrade my cpu and I've heard lots of good things about the e7200. I've checked everything that has to do with compatibility and everything seems to match I cant seem to figure out what's the problem. Either its like warlord said (the 45-65nm compatibility) or some bios update issue. Does anyone have a sure answer to this??

From Intel support: 

'Due to the voltage load lines of the 45nm E7000 and E8000 series Intel processors, the 945 series of chipsets is NOT supported.  Possible damage may occur, and therefor any use of these processors on said chipsets would immediatly void the processor warranty and/or mainboard warranty.'

So that should answer your question.  While the processor may theoretically work, I'm not sure I would chance the damage to either product.

johnysums:

 

 Are you sure about that 65-45nm thing, because i've been searching quite a bit around other forums and most people said that it doesn't matter, and that I should be concerned with socket type (which is supposed to be compatible with the e7200).

When most people say it doesn't matter, what boards are they talking about? If you are looking at other forums, I would assume they are enthusiast forums with people with "enthusiast" motherboards. I guess my motherboard is pretty "old" in that it was the first Nvidia chipset to support the Core 2 series. But with a BIOS update, it can support the new Wolfdale processors. But boards like the one that comes with a Dell system probably don't fare as well since they weren't designed with the upgrader in mind. Dell just needs a cheap board that can support a few processors which appear as the options when you configure a pc.

1nteljunki3:

From Intel support: 

'Due to the voltage load lines of the 45nm E7000 and E8000 series Intel processors, the 945 series of chipsets is NOT supported.  Possible damage may occur, and therefor any use of these processors on said chipsets would immediatly void the processor warranty and/or mainboard warranty.'

So that should answer your question.  While the processor may theoretically work, I'm not sure I would chance the damage to either product.

 Thanks, just what I needed to know. Well, then, I guess I need the cheapest possible motherboard that can support this processor. ANy Ideas? I was looking for something that can handle a little upgrades further down the line...any help would be much appreciated.