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This Intel Q9550 quad core processor was purchased on June 11th to replace the Intel Pentium E2180 dual core processor fitted to my old PC with Gigabyte S series motherboard (GA-G31M-S2L) - circa 2008. The processor wasn't supposed to arrive in the UK until July at the earliest so I was very pleased and surprised to see it arrive on June 19th. Fitting was quite straight forward after I had purchased separately a tube of thermal compound. The improvement in speed is so impressive and I am very pleased with the overall performance after updating the motherboard BIOS from the Gigabyte website. The old PC now has a new lease of life which will hopefully continue for another 10 years or so - brilliant!!
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
The cpu arrived way faster than I expected and enables a 12 year old pc to run win10 effortlessly. A few years ago i upgraded an HPdc7800 with a core2duo e8500, the 2nd fastest core2duo. The pc ran winXP then win7 then with 8GB ram win10. At the time none of the core2quads could meet the 8500's combination of clock speed, bus speed, L2 cache/core (3MB!), tdp, advanced instruction set and price. Then I found the q9550 and q9650. The 9650 is much pricier so that left the 9550. The clock speed is 320MHz slower than the e8500, and the tdp 30w more (but that's to be expected considering the extra cores on the same 45nm lithography) but everything else is the same, with double the cores. A no-brainer for maxing out an old pc and keeping it capable for a few more years.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
I am satisfied with the condition of the CPU and it is working really well. It is probably the most high-performance CPU in 775 platform. I leave my desktop idle for almost every day and no blue screen or errors happened. The thermal paste is great and I used twice for both my laptop and my desktop. A tip: Do not use too much thermal paste. The amount of the paste can let you apply two times.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
This is the second fastest Core 2 Quad availabe (only the Q9650 at 3.0HZ is faster) and was a good speed boost over my original Q8200 running at 8.33HZ. Also the L2 cash is 12 MD vs. the 4 MB of the Q8200. I installed the Q9550 in my Asus computer that has the P5Ql-VM EPU motherboard. You may need to upgrade your bios for your computer to accept the new CPU. To do this, do a Google search "P5QL-VM EPU bios update", go to where the list of bios is, and download the bios onto a USB flash drive which you will then need to unzip. Now put your flash drive into a USB port, and restart your computer (usually need to press the "delete" key as you boot to get into the bios). Asus has as EZ Flash tool (most computers do) that you then bring up, choose your drive that has the saved new bios release on it and download. For some reason, my bios would not flash, and Asus technical support (big thank you to them as they walked me through all this and told me how to find the bios chip) suggested that I replace the bios chip on the motherboard with one that has the latest release on it. I found one on EBay for $13. Replacing the bios chip was easy - just a chip with 8 prongs that you pull straight up to remove, and then push straight down (be careful) to replace. I then installed the new (well used really) faster CPU and my computer recognized it and ran just fine. If all this sounds a little complicated and intimidating, don't worry. I never did any of this before. I looked at YouTube videos for how to install a CPU, how to find and install a bios chip, how to flash (update) your bios before I did any of this, and for me this was essential. Don't forget to buy some thermal paste (ESSENTIAL or your CPU will overheat) before you try to install your CPU. It is not easy to find at a retail store so I suggest getting it on-line. Silver-based Artic Silver 5 is the thermal paste most raved about, but I bought a generic silver-based thermal paste for half the price and it works fine. You can go to the Artic web site and check out their recommended procedure for applying paste to the Core 2 Quad or any other chip. There are photos to guide you. Also, before I did any of this I downloaded a little app to monitor the heat of my CPU, GPU and other things. I can't put a link here (EBay won't allow links), but Google "list of 14 freeware cpu temperature monitoring software" and you should get the list as the first search return. I chose the Moo0 System Monitor. It is small (don't even have to unzip it), and works fine. I was able to check out my system before I did the faster CPU install, and then monitor the computer after the CPU upgrade. Really neat, and helps give you piece of mind that you did the CPU install correctly. Well, that's all. Hope this is helpful for those who don't know much about computers (like me).Read full review
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
For those systems that are not i3,i5,i7 compatible, still use DDR2, and are still relevant, such as the DELL Optiplex 755SFF (system this chip was purchased for) this chip will breathe new life into a lot of the dual core IE core 2 duo systems and allow them to play today's games, run today's business programs and multimedia things such as YouTube, Netflix, Hulu and other streaming services that a dual core will often times hiccup on. Easy no-pin install (these chips use a force insertion tech in the socket with a spring-loaded bracket. You just set the chip correctly, pull the bracket down and lock, and you're done!) VERY simple and no possibility of bent pins! Depending on amount of RAM (6-8 GIG recommended) and what VIDEO CARD (at least 128 BIT 1GB V-ram recommended) you pair in the system with this chip, It's one of the over-looked workhorses of the last decade. As there are several speed configurations for this chip, I chose the 2.83 due to its price point, and FSB (1333 which is the most popular DDR2 speed to date and still very available) I recommend anyone with a core 2 duo system to upgrade to this CPU! Google is your friend and has many upgrade compatibility charts for many systems to determine what Motherboards you can use this CPU with. Feel free to contact me for any help! Read full review
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
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