Intel Xeon 3065 in a Dell Poweredge 860

[ZippyDan]

I have some old Dell Poweredge 860 servers that currently have a Pentium Dual E2160.

I got four Xeon 3065 chips for really cheap.

The Xeon chips support virtualization, so... cool.

I checked the Poweredge 860 spec sheet: http://www.dell.com/downloads/ap/products/servers/en/PE860_spec_ap.pdf

"Single Dual Core Intel® Xeon® 3000 Sequence processor at up to 2.66GHz"

Well, 3065 is in the 3000 sequence and is only 2.33GHz: http://ark.intel.com/products/family/28330/Intel-Xeon-Processor-3000-Sequence#@All

I'm running the latest A05 bios.

When I put the 3065 in (I have four and I tried all four), the system turns on, but does not post.

Only thing I can figure is based on these bios release notes that the 3065 isn't supported even though up to 3050 and X3220 is: http://ftp.us.dell.com/bios/PE860-BIOSA05.TXT

Any ideas?

 

[Burpo]

Not a 1066 mhz FSB chip, so unless your mo-board has a mod or custom BIOS to run @1333mhz it won't work.

 

[heymrdj]

Not a 1066 mhz FSB chip, so unless your mo-board has a mod or custom BIOS to run @1333mhz it won't work.

This. Servers are extremely picky devices, normally doesn't work to just go grab parts for them sadly.

 

[Burpo]

I had the same problem so I got the X3230.. The good news is your Dell supports quad core!
Sell the 3065's on ebay and upgrade to bigger cache & more cores X3230

 

[ZippyDan]

Not a 1066 mhz FSB chip, so unless your mo-board has a mod or custom BIOS to run @1333mhz it won't work.

Ugh how the hell did I miss that...

I think it was because they visually have the 3065 sandwiched between the X3220 and X3230 (which are both 1066mhz) and also because they numerically have the 3065 sandwiched between the 3060 and 3070 (which are both 1066mhz). Confusing Intel ...

I had the same problem so I got the X3230.. The good news is your Dell supports quad core!
Sell the 3065's on ebay and upgrade to bigger cache & more cores X3230

Yea, I thought about that, but the price...

the X3210s are going for about $30 each on eBay
the X3220s are going for about $50 each on eBay (what's with the big jump in price there?)
the X3230s are going for about $60 each on eBay

In comparison, I can get 3050s for about $5 each (3060s and 3070s are about the same price too and have the same FSB, will they work?)

The Poweredge 860 is only worth about $50 itself ... is the performance difference really worth the price difference on such an old platform?

 

[Burpo]

It depends what you're doing with it. I use a 7 yr old Gateway w/quad core Xeon & it works/multitasks well.
You can also get Q6600s for $35. 4 cores will extend the service life of your old Dell