Can an out-of-date Intel E7221 MOBO handle Pentium Dual Core?

[sillyperson]

bump up an old question.

Dell SC420 uses Intel E7221 MOBO which is believed to use i925x technology.

I saw some Mail Server (DELL PowerEdge SC420 Server with Pentium D 2.8GMhz , ECC DDR2 1GB RAM) for sale.

Does anyone have experience in upgrading Dell SC420 with Pentium D 960 or Pentium Dual Core E5400?

Both Pentium D 960 and Pentium Dual Core E5400 have 800MHz FSB and are LGA775 compatible, though I am not sure if any Pentium E6X00 can work at a lower speed 800MHz as well.

If either Pentium Dual Core E5400 or E6X00 works, it would be great! since they are made with 45nm technology which supposedly provides better performance with lower power consumption.

Since SC420 uses Intel E7221 chipset, which is believed to be the one using i925x technology. In fact, you can software hack E7221 chipset so that DirectX9 can be used with Intel GMA915 driver.

BTW, I have a Pentium 4 HT 651 on SC420. It works great!

Reference

http://www.tkdan.com/SC420/
http://caulfield.info/emmet/2008/03/...edar-mill.html
https://sites.google.com/site/shuwang2000/
http://www.serveredge.net/showthread.php?t=2386

 

[StrangerGuy]

http://www.serveredge.net/showthread.php?t=2386

"almost identical with Intel 915G/GV/GL" = Most likely means no Conroe-based CPU support. Sorry, bud.

 

[RebateMonger]

I've used a ($200) Dell SC420 Celeron D as my main company (SBS 2003 Premium) server since 2005. It's worked perfectly, with zero down time. I also bought my mother the same, using it for XP Professional for Internet/browsing/email.

The Dell case is horrible for expansion, it's designed to discourage the installation of a PCI-E video card, and there's no indication anywhere that it'll support a dual core or Core2 processor. Some people have reported damaging their PCI-E slots during the modification process.

I'm replacing my SC420 with a Dell SC440 that I bought for $200 last fall. That includes 8 GB of ECC RAM support and I put a Q6600 Quad-Core in it. Dell offers other low-end servers for as low as $250 and they all support modern CPUs and additional memory and, unlike the SC420, will hold at least four hard drives.

I'd certainly be interested if you found you could put a Core2 processor in your SC420, but you are probably going to be the one to do it because there's no indication that anybody else is working on this any more.

 

[sillyperson]

I am thinking about getting most of my SC420, which is intended to be a family PC.

I found one linking showing the combination of SC420 and Pentium D.

http://goods.ruten.com.tw/item/show?11081024489738


Since E7221/915G can support hyperthread, maybe they can support dual core as well like E7230/945.

Any comments?

I've used a ($200) Dell SC420 Celeron D as my main company (SBS 2003 Premium) server since 2005. It's worked perfectly, with zero down time. I also bought my mother the same, using it for XP Professional for Internet/browsing/email.

The Dell case is horrible for expansion, it's designed to discourage the installation of a PCI-E video card, and there's no indication anywhere that it'll support a dual core or Core2 processor. Some people have reported damaging their PCI-E slots during the modification process.

I'm replacing my SC420 with a Dell SC440 that I bought for $200 last fall. That includes 8 GB of ECC RAM support and I put a Q6600 Quad-Core in it. Dell offers other low-end servers for as low as $250 and they all support modern CPUs and additional memory and, unlike the SC420, will hold at least four hard drives.

I'd certainly be interested if you found you could put a Core2 processor in your SC420, but you are probably going to be the one to do it because there's no indication that anybody else is working on this any more.