CPU upgrade

Hello.

As per the users' guide, I see two processors supported on this server; Intel Xeon processor E3-1225v3  & Intel Pentium processor G3220. Not so sure about Intel Core i7 4790K.

Not Sure? or will not work? Socket is the same...

BIOS Restricted?

Thank you for your answer.

My question is, T20 has the same chipset as the Precision T1700 however T1700 supports Intel® Core™ i7-4790 and why T20 doesn't seem to support aswell ??

Socket isn't the only consideration. Chipset must also support (and/or BIOS):

http://ark.intel.com/products/75522/Intel-DH82C226-PCH#@compatibility

Because it is a different machine, designed for different uses. The T1700 is a pretty moderate- to high-end workstation, the T20 is a VERY low-end server.

If the T1700 supports the i7-4790 (for which I can find no "Technical Guide" to confirm or deny), it would be for one of three reasons: 1) Intel's documentation is incomplete/incorrect (unlikely, based on past experience), 2) isn't "supported" even by Intel but works anyway (like putting a cheap $20 NIC into a server; and there may or may not be bugs in doing so), and/or 3) the BIOS has added specific support for it to bridge the gap for either 1 or 2. If BIOS support was added by Dell, that work may not have been done for the low-end T20.

Because there is no documentation saying that it will work (Dell does not publish documentation on what their systems "can't" do), it must be assumed it will not. That said, it doesn't mean it won't work, but it is up to you to try. People try "unsupported" stuff all the time, so you might try searching to see if someone has tried it already. If not, try it and post your results so others will know.

To add to what theflash1932 wrote, there can be many reasons why something may not work but my view is that it's simply a product decision by Dell to not include the required i7 microcode within the T20 BIOS. Their reasoning is likely that this machine was meant to be sold as a cheap server and not meant for upgarding that could cut into the T1700 sales, nothing more and no technical reasons for not allowing an i7.

Compare an OEM like Dell to say a motherboard manufacturer like ASUS and you will see that the later will update microcode and allow later versions of CPU's (where technically possible which is almost always the case) while Dell/HP and others will usually sit on their hands and not release updates that allow newer CPU's to be used (prefering you buy new replacement systems).

Case in point, my HP Z210 workstation, though likley capable of handling an E3 V2 chip, does not have the required microcode within its BIOS and HP has no interest in doing the simple update. Liklewise Dell isn't interested in T20 being updated to i7 and possibly cutting into T1700 sales so there will be no BIOS microcode updates. Such true customer support seems instead to be viewed by these big OEMs as lost new systems sales opportunities!

If the VW diesel debarcle has taught us anything, it's that we as a society need access to source code to see what is being done to us lest big business will continue to ignore laws and do unmentionable things like pioson the air we breath.

But instead of being open, OEMs like HP, Dell and others are closed with intent on putting the computer genie back in the proprietary bottle via UEFI and root kit styled 'lenovo' binary blobs thanks to M$ and their desire to 'help' us from computer theft.

Yeah, as i get older i get more synical but not without reason :emotion-4:

/rant

Happy to report that an i7-4790K works in a Dell PowerEdge T20, replacing the original E3-1225V3.

BIOS is A03. Initially, on power up after the CPU swap, all the fans went full blast. Then powered the machine off, and then powered it back on, started up normally, went into BIOS and enabled hyper-threading.

Booted Centos6, ran sysbench, and watched CPU temperature/frequency using i7z.

The new CPU will turbo to 4.4GHz, provided only 1-3 cores are loaded. When all 4 cores (8 threads) are loaded, then runs at 4GHz.

Frys was selling the i7-4790K for $299 today, so ran the experiment. Was earlier considering an E3-1246V3 for the CPU upgrade, similar to a companion T20 which was upgraded from a G3220.

Yes it works on A06.

Dell BIOS does not have any overclocking options - turbo is the best you can do.

Thanks a lot!

The 4790k is on sale currently and I'm tempted to buy it. 

One last question, did you feel any significant difference in gaming/work station performance after you upgraded from the E3-1225v3 to the 4790k ? Do you think the upgrade will be worth it? 

So, my processor recently arrived. Based on your post, I was looking in the bios A06 to enable hyperthreading. But currently the bios has no such option to do that. Does this option appear after the processor is installed? Or do I need to be on some other bios version ? 

Also, since the TDP of the 4790k is 88Watts, did you notice any problems with power delivery and heat dissipation of the stock heat sink ? 

I'd really appreciate your help, since you have already done this before.

It will work - I now have two systems running 4790K's with hyper-threading (4-cores, 8-threads) on A06. The BIOS option will only show up if the CPU can support it. I have a third T20 with a G3220 waiting for a good price on a 4790K - this one's A06 BIOS setup screen does not show the hyper-threading option yet.

No issues so far with both upgrades.

Hey tl_mdx,

I got a 4790k today and I've experienced the same thing you originally did where the T20 powers up, and the fans spin really fast.

Except when I went to shut it off and turn it back on, it just continues to do that everytime I go to start it.

Did some basic troubleshooting - checked the RAM, etc.  Same  results.

Not sure what BIOS version it's on, but I've not made any upgrades, so it should be whatever the factory default is.

Did you upgrade your BIOS in order to get it working?  Or is something just borked on my end?

So in my case, the same thing happened. I powered it on 2-3 times and every time the fans went crazy. I had a hunch it might have been the ram. So I pulled out the 4gb ECC ram module that the server orignally came with and used standard UDIMMs. Then I powered it back up, the fans went crazy, I powered it down and back up again and this time it did the diagnostics. I enabled the hyperthreading through Bios. Ever siince then there have been no problems it runs fine.

Try to use normal ram, since the 4790k is not supposed to support ECC.

I have actually put an E3-1280 v3 in a T20 that came with a Pentium CPU. The only issue I had was finding a Video card that would work since the 1280 does not have a GPU. I have tried 15 different PCIe cards and the only one that worked with the E3-1280v3 is an ASUS R7-240. I tried a Sapphire R5-230 and a couple of FX Quadro cards plus many other lower models and only the R7-240 worked. Not sure why, but if you got another card to work, post here.