Gigabyte GA-EX38-DS5. Will it work with Intel C2 Extreme QX9650 Stepping C1?

[Panayotis Melas]

Good day to the community.

This is my first posting in this community and first of all I would like give my best wishes to all for these days.
Happy New Year!

Knowing that I am discussing old gear, I own a Gigabyte GA-EX38-DS5 motherboard long time now, that was initially used with an Intel C2D E8400 CPU. That PC became obsolete, mainly because its Operating System went out of date (Windows Vista).

I had left it aside and I was using another PC with a Gigabyte GA-EP35C-DS3R motherboard and a C2Q Q6700 CPU for everyday use, while my main PC for demanding works (no gaming) is one that I have built, based on an Asus Z170 Pro motherboard, an Intel i7-6700k CPU and a Samsung M.2 SSD 960 EVO, matched with an Asus GeForce GTX1050Ti O/C Expedition GPU plus other hardware.

Not long ago, my son asked me to give him a desktop PC, to get rid of his small laptop, which has become very slow and it does not serve him for his everyday use.

I managed to get an Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 with Stepping C1 (SLAWN), which initially seems to be an excellent choice to pair it with my GA-EX38-DS5 motherboard. I also managed to get two matched sets of DDR2-1066 DIMMs of 8GB total (4x2GB) and it all seems to me a very decent set.

However, when I checked the CPU Support List of this motherboard, I saw that it supports the QX9650 with a C0 (SLAN3) Stepping. The list says that this CPU is supported from BIOS version F2 and up. In my case, I have managed to update the BIOS to the latest F5B version.

So, my question is very simple:
Will my CPU be supported by the motherboard, when I put it on it or not?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Mr.Scott]

It will work without issue.
Only time stepping comes into play is if the wattages are different between steppings.

 

[Panayotis Melas]

Thank you so much

It will work without issue.
Only time stepping comes into play is if the wattages are different between steppings.

Thank you very much, for your reply, mate. I really appreciate it.
Your writing forced me to check deeply into the specs of both steppings of the QX9650. I could not find any power differences.
Both are presented with 130W TDP. But the findings are elsewhere, not in Intel's page for this product.

Regardless my efforts, I have not been able to locate any details about these steppings in the Intel official page for the QX9650.

If there is something that I am missing, please, let me know about.

Thanks again.
You have been very helpful.
Happy New Year.

 

[Mr.Scott]

Steppings have no bearing on the microcode needed in the bios to make a processor supported or not. The C0 and C1 chips are identical in every way except manufacture date.
You will be fine.

 

[Nebulous]

Steppings have no bearing on the microcode needed in the bios to make a processor supported or not. The C0 and C1 chips are identical in every way except manufacture date.
You will be fine.

Das master hath spoken!

 

[Panayotis Melas]

Steppings have no bearing on the microcode needed in the bios to make a processor supported or not. The C0 and C1 chips are identical in every way except manufacture date.
You will be fine.

Das master hath spoken!

Thank you, both, for your responce
Very helpful indeed.

My best wishes for a Happy New Year.