Dell Precision 470 CPU upgrade.

briardman

Hi

Hope somebody on these boards can give me some advise with the following. I have a Dell Precision 470 workstation. Its currently running 2 Intel Xeon 2.8Ghz processors. Its MOBO is : OP7996 / BIOS: A07

My hope is to upgrade to 2 x Intel Xeon/2.8GHz/4MB/DualCore/SL8MA processors. I have being told that my particular MOBO can only take the "Paxville" model of these particular cpu's. Can anybody with experience with Dell Precisions confirm if this is true or not. Have spent hours researching this on Dells Technical Forum only to get conflicting answers.

Any help greatly appreciated.

Solitaire

I'm no expert on servers but I'm guessing you're running dual Xeon 7030s, an early 90nm server variant of the Pentium D? On a seperate note - 330W TDP. Jesus. :eek::eek::eek:

I think you might be able to upgrade to Xeon 7041 (Paxville) but that's a pathetic speed increase for all that money. The Tulsa line also uses Socket 604 and an 800MHz FSB but they feature an L3 cache, so the mainboard might be incompatible or more likely Dell has disabled compatibility. The Xeon 7140M (Tulsa), with 16MB of L3 cache and a 3.4GHz clock speed is a better upgrade option if its compatible, but even if it was I suspect it would be a very expensive option

briardman

Hi Solitaire

Thanks for your reply. Sorry I did not make it clear in my original post. Its a desktop and not a server. Am running Windows 7. My choice of upgrade is either the already mentioned DualCores or Intel Xeon 3.8Ghz singlecore cpu. I have sourced both types in the USA for around 100 dollars a pair. My intention was to go for the dualcore upgrade. However one Dell source says that they will only work on the XC838/oX838 motherboards whilst another source says that the Paxville DualCore model will work with my board.

Solitaire

Wait What CPUs are in there now?? If its a Precision 470 there should already be two Xeon 7030s in there...

briardman

The current set up is two Intel Xeon 2.8 Ghz CPU's (ie it has 2 separate 604 sockets). I can either replace each of these CPU's with 2.8 DualCore's or 3.8 Xeons. Hope that clarifies things for you.:)

cellymann

The SL8MA can and will run on a Precision 470 if and only if you have the 0XC838 rendition of the motherboard and BIOS version A07. If anyone asks the question for the Precision 670, you need 0XC837. You'll sometimes see these boards referred to as XC838 and XC837.

Been there, done that. (Running duals in my Precision 470 with great results).

briardman

Thanks for the info. Much appreciated.:pac:

alphakry

Not to bring up such an old thread but some experienced 470 users are in this thread, so i'm hoping you can help.

Any of you know what is the top CPU that the 0XC838 supports?

briardman

As far as I know its a 2.8 Ghz dualcore or 3.8 Ghz cpu.

alphakry

do you know the Intel chip codes? Wouldn't want to get them somewhere like eBay just to find out they aren't compatible.

Also, any Xeon supported on this board above 2.8GHz isn't going to be a dual-core chip?

Seems that despite higher clock speeds, it makes a whole lot more sense in today's multi-threaded environment (vs back when the 470 was a top tier machine) to be running 2 x Dual over 2 x Single-Core

briardman

Hi

Cellyman is right. Your board (0XC838) will not support the 2.8 GHz dualcore. You need a 0XC837 to run them. Apologies for given duff info

cellymann

briardman wrote: »

Hi

Cellyman is right. Your board (0XC838) will not support the 2.8 GHz dualcore. You need a 0XC837 to run them. Apologies for given duff info

Actually, both the 0XC838 and 0XC837 support the 2.8 Ghz dual core (SL8MA). The only difference between the boards are the 838 is made for the Precision 470 and 837 is the Precision 670.

I am running dual SL8MA processors on my 0XC838 motherboard in my Precision 470 right now.

As someone said earlier, the top processors for the motherboard are the dual core 2.8 Ghz or single core 3.8 Ghz. I remember reading somewhere that the dual core are marginally faster. Might run hotter though (sorry, I can't remember the details).

alphakry

cellymann wrote: »

Actually, both the 0XC838 and 0XC837 support the 2.8 Ghz dual core (SL8MA). The only difference between the boards are the 838 is made for the Precision 470 and 837 is the Precision 670.

I am running dual SL8MA processors on my 0XC838 motherboard in my Precision 470 right now.

As someone said earlier, the top processors for the motherboard are the dual core 2.8 Ghz or single core 3.8 Ghz. I remember reading somewhere that the dual core are marginally faster. Might run hotter though (sorry, I can't remember the details).

Thanks cellymann! I went ahead and picked up (2) SL8MA's off ebay for $34 each and a VRM/Heatsink/Fan kit for $70 total

not too shabby for one heck of a boost in power. I also picked up (4) A0742803-AX 4GB Axiom chips, to max out the memory at 16GB. However my system won't post using these chips in slots 1-4. It just beeps. Any thoughts as to why?

1. My 0XC838 motherboard bios is A07
2. I have memory fan jumpers bridged via a DIY wire

Would the motherboard require dual CPUs, possibly specific ones, before it allows a post at 16GB?

cellymann

alphakry wrote: »

Thanks cellymann! I went ahead and picked up (2) SL8MA's off ebay for $34 each and a VRM/Heatsink/Fan kit for $70 total

not too shabby for one heck of a boost in power. I also picked up (4) A0742803-AX 4GB Axiom chips, to max out the memory at 16GB. However my system won't post using these chips in slots 1-4. It just beeps. Any thoughts as to why?

1. My 0XC838 motherboard bios is A07
2. I have memory fan jumpers bridged via a DIY wire

Would the motherboard require dual CPUs, possibly specific ones, before it allows a post at 16GB?

I'm at 8GB and scored them from a seller that knows the Precision 470/670 line intimately. He told me that the board is VERY finnicky about what the specs are for the RAM. Make sure it's "Server Ram" and has ECC etc. The board simply doesn't recognize a lot of RAM which you think might work (so I was told).

I'm using a Kingston fan. Way cheaper than the Dell offering and more effective. Scored it from a guy on eBay (who also sold me my RAM a few years back).

Nice score on the SL8MAs. Like everything else PC, they've sure come down in price. I think they once ran at $1000 each and I saw them everywhere at around $500 even two years ago.

The Precision 470 is like a space heater, so I'm all about using all the fans under the hood that I can, hence why I didn't want to jumper anything.

alphakry

valid suggestions...

I know the seller you speak of and they charge an arm and a leg for that modified Corsair fan. Thankfully, I have one of those going unused - so i'll be doing the fan modification myself and putting it in there.

I am in contact with Axiom support at the moment, to troubleshoot the issues. They suspect the chips themselves on the memory were flashed incorrectly to run at unsupported speeds - so they'll be sending out some replacements that should resolve the issue.

cellymann

alphakry wrote: »

valid suggestions...

I know the seller you speak of and they charge an arm and a leg for that modified Corsair fan. Thankfully, I have one of those going unused - so i'll be doing the fan modification myself and putting it in there.

I am in contact with Axiom support at the moment, to troubleshoot the issues. They suspect the chips themselves on the memory were flashed incorrectly to run at unsupported speeds - so they'll be sending out some replacements that should resolve the issue.

I know the Corsair fan was priced a lot more than "stock". I didn't know how do the mod itself and I had it bundled with the RAM and they threw in a 64 Bit Dell OEM version of Windows XP Pro as well. That disk was instrumental in me doing my upgrade to Win 7 64 bit so I'm not complaining.

One more thing, the Corsair fans suck. I had to replace 2 of the 3 fans because they got so loud. I emailed the seller recently letting him know about the noise problem and how I had to replace the individual fans. I wanted to know of the Kingston fans were better.

Without urging, he sent me the modified Kingston fan....for free including shipping. He didn't even ask for proof of previous purchase (which was a year earlier). He just asked me for my mailing address and had it in the mail with tracking info 20 minutes later. He didn't have to do that. It's been a MUCH better fan too. Whisper quiet. I can do without the blue LEDs, but you don't really see them anyhow.

Needless to say, I like this seller a lot.

App007

I have been following this thread - 1 quick question, cellyman stated that you have to use ECC - however all 4 ordering codes + specifications I read from Intel say that the SL8MAs do not support ECC...so which is it? I have a 0XC837 board I am trying to upgrade from singles to duo cores. The machine is a Dell 670. Thanks for any reply!

cellymann

App007 wrote: »

I have been following this thread - 1 quick question, cellyman stated that you have to use ECC - however all 4 ordering codes + specifications I read from Intel say that the SL8MAs do not support ECC...so which is it? I have a 0XC837 board I am trying to upgrade from singles to duo cores. The machine is a Dell 670. Thanks for any reply!

All I know is, I ordered my RAM from a seller who knows what's compatible with Precision 470 and 670 motherboards. As per attached, my Kingston RAM is ECC (slot 1 of 4 filled with 2GB ECC RAM for a total of 8GB).

I've been running SL8MA CPUs for almost two years now. I got the idea to try the 0XC838 board from a guy using a 0XC837 board in his Precision 670 so you should be fine.

App007

Gotcha - as long as you had it working then I am good...just wanted to confirm before I plunk down cash. Thanks again! :cool:

mannyramirez

Hi everyone,

Is there any way to get my Dell Precision 470 to support Hyper-v? I have attached some screenshots of my CPU/Board Specs. If not is there a faster processor worth upgrading to?

Thanks,
Manny

Ojassy

cellymann wrote: »

The SL8MA can and will run on a Precision 470 if and only if you have the 0XC838 rendition of the motherboard and BIOS version A07. If anyone asks the question for the Precision 670, you need 0XC837. You'll sometimes see these boards referred to as XC838 and XC837.

Been there, done that. (Running duals in my Precision 470 with great results).

Hi Cellymann i was wondering if you could help me out i brought a XC838 Mobo and 2 Intel Xeon Dual Core SL8MA's and i am getting the incompatible error and the mobo is running A07

Please Please Could you help soon

Thanks in Advance Ojassy