Who has done the LGA 771 Xeon to LGA 775 mod?

[cbn]

Recently, I converted a Dell Optiplex 360 slim desktop to a Xeon E5440 (2.83 Ghz with 12 MB cache) using the LGA 771 to LGA 775 adapter sticker and socket modification described here.

It turned out (in my particular case) to be a surprisingly easy mod (basically drop in a go for my desktop model). The E5440 was $25 shipped and the sticker was $3. I didn't have to update the BIOS (which was A01) on my particular desktop model either (although on some older Core 2 machines this will be a necessity).

On performance test 8.0 I scored 4103 cpu marks compared to the average of 3948 cpu marks for Xeon E5440--> http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Xeon+E5440+@+2.83GHz (While slow compared to modern quad cores this is definitely much better than something like a Athlon 5350 which only scores around 2614 on the same test---> http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+Athlon+5350+APU+with+Radeon+R3 )

Idle power consumption is high though due to it being a Core 2 era machine (61 to 65 watts with a GT 620 video card installed), but sleep mode reduces that to below 2 watts when I step away from the machine for more than 10 minutes.

 

[SPBHM]

I've done it a while ago, but I used an e5420 (2.5GHz) and a low end G41 motherboard, power usage was great in my view (for a good performance 2008 CPU) around 40W idle, 100W with 100% load encoding video

but unfortunately because of how bad the motherboard was there was basically no overclocking and being limited to DDR2 is not ideal, also the motherboard died after 6 months with the mod (and not much usage), not sure if it was related to the mod, but I guess not

but yes, if you can buy the stickers the mod is relatively easy

 

[cbn]

but yes, if you can buy the stickers the mod is relatively easy

Not sure what the availability of stickers was when you did the mod, but a bunch of folks sell the adapter stickers on ebay now.

P.S. Regarding DDR2, I have noticed there are also some Core 2 pre-builts with DDR3 that can be used (eg, Dell Optiplex 380, Dell Optiplex 780, HP 6000, HP 8000, etc). However, some of those models cannot use the 5xxx Xeons because they have a Q chipset, instead they must use 3xxx Xeons which are more expensive (but still cheaper than Core 2 Quad). (The Dell Optiplex 380 can however use DDR3 and 5xxx Xeon together).

 

[Yuriman]

I tried it on my Gigabyte X38 (replacing a Q6600) and found it wouldn't boot. Some searching revealed that my particular board had been tested to be incompatible with all Xeons, possibly because of something in the bios. I flashed a version with some added microcode, but could never get it to post. I eventually sold the whole setup and purchased a Haswell i3 + board at almost the same price for what I sold it.

 

[cbn]

I tried it on my Gigabyte X38 (replacing a Q6600) and found it wouldn't boot. Some searching revealed that my particular board had been tested to be incompatible with all Xeons, possibly because of something in the bios. I flashed a version with some added microcode, but could never get it to post. I eventually sold the whole setup and purchased a Haswell i3 + board at almost the same price for what I sold it.

Was it a 5xxx Xeon?

According to the following info, Q chipsets and X38, X48 will not work with 5xxx Xeon (3xxx Xeon should work):

http://www.delidded.com/lga-771-to-775-adapter/2/

 

[ArisVer]

I am thinking of doing this on my cousins board with a 965 chipset and 1066 FSB. This limits my cpus to 1.87 GHz and I wonder if that is going to be a big step from a C2D at 2.67 GHz. I believe the board will not take 45nm cpus. Otherwise I will have to get C2Q or Xeons LGA775, both are expensive.

 

[Replay]

Lucky to get SSE4.1 and VT-x from your Dell Optiplex 360 bios. Did you have to do a re-install of the OS? Gives me the idea to try this on a friend's Dell rig, where I wouldn't dare mess with the bios.

Wishing I had an X58 board for the six core Xeons.

10 pack of 771-775 stickers was $6 in April (alibaba). Most fun I've had with Intel for six years, since the 100% overclock days with the budget Core chips. Locking down all but the $200+ Ivy/Sandy enthusiast chips kept me away until the G3258 anniversary edition cheapskate chip came out.

Rejuvenated two rigs with X5260 dual cores @ 3.7 & 4 GHz (under $10). Abit IP35-E has a $18 E5440 E0 quad @4 Ghz (hit a wall with cheap ram & fsb limitations). Customized a replacement block of the newest Xeon & Core microcodes and modded some really outdated Abit boards.

 

[cbn]

Rejuvenated two rigs with X5260 dual cores @ 3.7 & 4 GHz (under $10).

Yep, I just noticed those dual core X5260 Xeons (3.33 GHz, 6MB cache) are listed at just under $10 "Buy it now with free shipping" by numerous vendors on ebay.

Not bad (although an adapter sticker will bump that $10 price up), considering E8400 goes for around $12 "Buy it now with free shipping" and E8500 for around $15 "Buy it now with free shipping". (E8600, which has the same clocks as X5260, is a big jump up in price at ~$35).

 

[Schmide]

I just did this and put the chip in wrong. It didn't fry and booted after I noticed my mistake.

Board EVGA nVidia 780i.

 

[Conroe]

I have a few X5450'es. One can do 4.2 ghz. (1.4v, air.)

 

[cbn]

Lucky to get SSE4.1 and VT-x from your Dell Optiplex 360 bios. Did you have to do a re-install of the OS? Gives me the idea to try this on a friend's Dell rig, where I wouldn't dare mess with the bios.

I'm not sure because I don't use Virtual machines, but I have read getting Virtualization to work in certain Dells does require a few extra steps:

http://lifeofageekadmin.com/enable-virtualization-on-dell-optiplex-755-to-run-oracle-virtualbox-4/

Enable Virtualization on Dell Optiplex 755 to run Oracle VirtualBox 4

Recently I ran into an issue when working on creating a test cluster environment for Windows 2008 R2 with Oracle VirtualBox running on Fedora 16 64 bit on a Dell Optiplex 755.

The issue was VirtualBox would complain about VT-x/AMD-V not being enabled and would stop the VM from loading. After doing some digging around found that there is a specific setting in the BIOS to enable what is needed to enable the settings for 64 bit VM’s to run. These changes will also work in enabling Hyper-V to run properly on Windows systems.

To fix this, boot the computer and press F2 to enter the BIOS.

In the BIOS you need to change the following settings

Security > Execute Disable (set to On)
Performance > Virtualization (set to On)
Performance > VT for Direct I/O Access (set to On)
Performance > Trusted Execution (set to Off)

Save and exit the BIOS, then power the computer down. it is important that the system be powered down.

After the system was powered up, the VM started properly with 64 bit support.

http://www.shnake.com/?p=419

How to enable virtualization on a Dell Optiplex 755 to run Hyper-V

I have been building some test Windows 2008 Hyper-V server’s on Dell Optiplex 755 workstations with 8GB of RAM recently, and I thought I would let you know what settings to change in the BIOS to make this work.

At first I was getting some errors like these below:

Hyper-V launch failed; Either VMX not present or not enabled in BIOS.
Hyper-V launch failed; at least one of the processors in the system does not appear to provide a virtualization platform supported by Hyper-V.

This was happening because I had missed the Execute disable setting in the BIOS. To fix this, boot the computer and press F2 to enter the BIOS.

In the BIOS you need to change the following settings

Security > Execute Disable (set to On)
Performance > Virtualization (set to On)
Performance > VT for Direct I/O Access (set to On)
Performance > Trusted Execution (set to Off)

Save and exit the BIOS, then power the computer down. You must power it down for the settings to take affect.

You will now being able to run Hyper-V on your Dell workstation!

 

[maluckey]

I still have a Gigabyte GA EP45-UD3R box that runs a Xeon E5450 CPU. It's Rock solid at 3.8 Ghz (8.5 x 450) at only 1.298v. The mobo is solid as rock at 450mhz FSB witht the RAM at 1080mhz with 5-5-5-15 timings (CAS 2). Runs cool with the Corsair H75 from another rig I killed.

Cost me a total of 25 bucks including the stickers off of flea bay for the CPU, and it made a BIG difference from the q9400 that I was running.

My son games at 1080P just fine with a GTX 770 on a similar box.

These CPU are a great deal for any LGA 775, and as far as I'm concerned, I don't feel a need to upgrade with what I do with the computer....for now at least.