Yes, you can use an Xeon CPU with a P5G-CMX1333 motherboard.
Yes, you can use an Xeon CPU with a P5G-CMX1333 motherboard.
Hey, same setup but with a much better board (EP45 DS4P). These parts work fine, though the good performance chips are E8600 and X5260/70. My E8400 only hits 4.4 1.4V (fully stable) and 4.7 1.5V (bench stable). Not great in terms of OC, but it’s a solid budget option. You can probably run it just fine for office use, though not ideal.
These components are tough against wear, so you can skip worrying about long-term degradation as you’ll be cooling or managing BIOS limits first. Just keep an eye on voltage—don’t exceed 2.6V for the NBS, and be careful with VPLL since I’ve had issues there before.
If you’re looking to boost OC, swapping to a Giga G31 would be better. It offers around 440 FSB stable and over 540 FSB max (my G31M S2C hits 542 max).