Socket 775 Quadcore upgrade for 35 Euro!

[naquaada]

Maybe somebody has from earlier builds a Socket 775 board with a Core 2 Duo laying around. With aged DDR2 RAM. Meh. But that's no problem. Just modify your board that a Quad-Core Xeon fits and you have a great system again.

 

First let's compare some common CPUs. They're about in the same price range, about 25 Euro or less.

 

Core 2 Duo E8400: 2 cores, 3.00 GHz, 6 MB L2-Cache, 65W TDP

Core 2 Quad E6600: 4 cores, 2.40 GHz, 8 MB L2-Cache, 105W TDP

Xeon E5450/E5472: 4 cores, 3.00 GHz, 12 MB L2-Cache, 80W TDP

 

So the Core 2 Quad is slower than the Core 2 Duo and the Xeon, but has a higher power consumption than the more powerful Xeon. And it lacks the SSE4.1 instruction set. The Xeon E5450 is in fact a double C2D E8400, but the TDP is just 15W higher. The Xeon E5472 is the one used in the MacPro3,1 and is identical with the E5450.

 

So, the Core 2 have Socket 775 and the Xeons have Socket 771. What to do? You need a Xeon, and on ebay you get small stickers which are connecting two pins on the processor. They're about 4 Euro, so CPU + sticker + postage are about 35 Euro. The sticker is not too tiny and has a special shape, it's easy to apply it. Then the socket has to be modified. Mark the position clearly where the golden edge of the CPU is. Then you have to cut the direction notches completely out of the socket, best use a scalpel. Now you can use Socket 775 and modified Socket 771 CPUs, but they could be turned in any direction.

 

That's the modification, now build your computer together. If the BIOS recognizes the Xeon, it shouldn't create problems. If it does, you can use a Socket 775 CPU again. A Xeon E5450 has a Windows 7 speed index of 7,3. In OS X Leopard with a Radeon HD2600XT it is fast enough to stream three Full-HD movies from a NAS at the same time.

 

This method allows to build inexpensive MacPro3,1 systems: Socket 775 CPU + Board + RAM bundles are cheap on ebay, then add 35 Euro, do the modification and you have a nice and fast computer.

 

Here are two Xbench speed tests. Setup is A Zotac GeForce 9300 ITX with 8 GB DDR2 800 MHz RAM and a Sapphire Radeon HD4870 Vapor-X 2 GB.

The first test is without HD, the second includes the WD Black - this thing is really fast, even on SATA2.

The Xbench Thread test isn't possible in OS X versions after Snow Leopard.

 

Greets, naquaada.

[bankkopf]

Just as additional information: Most BIOS have the Microcode for the Xeons included. If not, you can add it manually. There are instructions floating around in the internet.

Also, the Xeons are better than the Core 2 Quad counterparts as they are binned and have the better silicon.