A few weeks ago I was upgrading a couple of old IBM machines, both dual CPU servers which came with Xeon E5606 processors.
At the time memory cost a fortune and upgrading processors was out of the question.
Now 8 years further on and after looking through the IBM documentation I found that upgrading to the “top of the range” at the time, was affordable on eBay and I purchased a couple of Z5675 devices as drop in replacements, together with a bunch of 8GB ECC Reg. Memory.
The machine worked like a dream with the new processors and memory but at the time I was also aware that even “better” processors were available as prompted in an earlier thread. It was suggested:-
X5675 - why not Xeon X5690/Xeon X5680? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o…icroprocessors
Update BIOS before installing CPUs.
Use 3 modules for each CPU to get 2*3 channels. Up to 6 sockets for memory modules for each CPU are available.
You can attach NVME drive via cheap adapter M.2 → PCIe 4x.
I sourced a couple of X5690 processors from China and tried them but the machine wouldn’t boot. I have reverted
to another pair of X5675 devices.
As far as I can see all the CPUs I tried were all in the same group of 6 core machines. Any ideas why the X5690 devices didn’t work?
Hi Malcolm,
I was not able to update the BIOS when I last tried. The tools from Lenovo showed promise but failed in the end.
Since then I have been unable to communicate with them. Many changes to website etc.
However when I last looked I was only upgrade below the final and the changes had nothing to do with the processors and the manual gave X5675 as the highest certified.
Not had time to look at this but while on the topic what are the options for the HP Z620 & Z640 with which you are familiar.
I ask because for some reason the computers have additional version numbers. My machine is Z640 v3 and this seems to vary with numbers of cores etc. supported.
Hi
Maybe it’s could be the M/B power specifications since the X5675 is TDP 95W, the X5790 is TDP 140W? Aside from that both are the same except clock speed?
For my HP Z440, only thing I’ve done it up the RAM to 64GB and added a memory fan (needed when running 8 dimms), the 12 core E5-2690v3 Processor I’m happy with, for the cost of a say a 18 core CPU (E5-2699v3), be cheaper to save more $$$ and get another system The intel dq77mk board I have running Leap 15.3 could use a cpu upgrade (Xeon i5 pure 4 core), but the other intel dq77mk system already has a Xeon 4 core/8 thread cpu, so know what works…
The intel dq77mk board I have running Leap 15.3 could use a cpu upgrade (Xeon i5 pure 4 core), but the other intel dq77mk system already has a Xeon 4 core/8 thread cpu, so know what works…