Oh joy! Wait...no...argh! e8400 E0 & MSI P35 Neo2

So yeah, apparently I didn't do my homework well enough which is quite out of character for me but this purchase was sort of a hurry-up-before-the-weekend-ends thing.

I purchased a new system from newegg comprised of the following:

Hitachi Deskstar 1TB
MSI P35 Neo2-FR
MSI Radeon 4850 (usual 512Mb)
2 X 2Gb Corsair XMS RAM (DDR2 1066MHz...I used the same type of RAM in my current system since Feb. 07 and no problems)
Intel Wolfdale E8400 E0 3.0GHz
and am reusing my current case and cd drives (although I will be buying a Blu-Ray DVD player since the new vid card supports it and my computer is hooked up to my 50" plasma)

Got the last of the components in today (MB and HD), got home from work and assembled everything, pressed the power button...and proceeded to develop a nasty case of the ****ed-offs I could not get it to POST at all and kept getting a weird error about how the OC settings failed and it was reverting back but then it would lock up. CPU was showing up as 3.0GHz and all 4Gb of RAM showed...but no post. Usually it would lock up on the MSI splash screen.

Anyway, after some quick googling I discovered that my e8400 was an E0 and apparently this mobo does not support the E0....not with the BIOS V1.8 that I received with it. To flash I need to use a USB flash drive or a floppy OR find an older model 775 socket CPU and boot with that and reflash the BIOS from that config and then put my new CPU back in.

So now I'm royally screwed since A) nobody I know has an Intel chip that I can borrow, B) I can't get one in from online prior to the weekend, and C) no local retailers sell CPU's (closest is multiple hours away...3 hours I think, one way). I am going to ask the AutoCAD Electrical instructor I am taking a training class with tomorrow if he might have one since he lives down the road from me and is an obvious geek (not meant in a bad way). If he doesn't I wonder if newegg would send me a mobo with the new BIOS version on it (V1.9) and let me return the other one without a restock fee. I'm willing to pay overnight delivery to get it for Monday

Anyway...just a word of warning to anyone considering this mobo/CPU combination, maybe it's already well known *shrugs* Maybe my boss may happen to have one...I'll have to get up early and call him.

And I was so looking forward to getting HL2: Episode 2 and playing some other games I have on my new "beast" this weekend C'est la vie...

Well that sucks.

Why did you go for the MSI P35? I'm sure its a nice board and all, but why not go for a P45 flavor? Was the price pretty good?


Edit:
I've read about a lot of issues w/ Blue-Ray playback on PCs and getting everything working right. You might want to look into it before throwing down money that would be better spent on a stand-alone player.

I was rushed...I may return the mobo and get a P45 for the FSB increase. It was my bday this weekend, I was faaaaar from sober, wanted to order before the weekend sales were over, and my gf was unintentionally harassing me. Not my usual operating procedure lol.

Thanks for the heads-up about the Blu-Ray, that probably won't happen until maybe Decemberish when/if it does.

i have the same problem as you... is there anyway to flash the bios without having to put an older cpu in?

Not that I've been able to find and I dug quite extensively via Google...my solution was to spend more money lol. Since you're having the same issue as I am you are well aware that if you can't even get the board to POST then there's no way you can use a floppy or USB device to flash the BIOS, your only choice is to throw in an older processor to get it to POST, flash, and then reinstall the new CPU. Garbage...but that's just how things work since the E0 stepping is still pretty new. You may be able to RMA the mobo to MSI and ask them to flash the BIOS for you or maybe have a local specialty shop do it for you...

I ended up ordering an EVGA 780i SLI mobo which newegg had a nice combo deal on with a GTX 260 (saved $40). Going to return the MSI mobo and MSI vid card as well as the Corsair XMS2 RAM, I ordered some 800MHz OCZ Reaper RAM instead for the same price.