Dell 1955 Blade Server CPU Upgrade Issues

Question

I alluded to this issue in another thread, but the amount of information is growing and I felt a dedicated thread was relevant. As more and more of these very nice, and quite usable, Dell blade chassis' find their way to the home and small business, CPU upgrades are going to be a popular topic. When I refer to the Dell motherboard part number, I am referencing the Dell part number as defined in the original build sheet, listed as 'ASSEMBLY..., HOUSING..., BLADE..., A3, PE1955'. Both part numbers listed below have the exact same description. I'm sure this isn't the motherboard specifically, but most likely the motherboard, cage, and all related, embedded, accessories. I will eventually disassemble a unit and get actual motherboard part and serial numbers. A little hardware background: I have a Dell blade chassis containing ten 1955 blades. Configured as such: Slot 1 - Dual Xeon X5355 QC, 32GB, 146GB x 2 (RAID1); M/B Dell P/N: YM157 Slot 2 - Dual Xeon E5335 QC, 32GB, 146GB x 2 (RAID1); M/B Dell P/N: YM157 Slot 3 - Dual Xeon E5310 QC, 32GB, 146GB x 2 (RAID1); M/B Dell P/N: YM157 Slot 4 - Dual Xeon 5050 DC, 32GB, 146GB x 2 (RAID1); M/B Dell P/N: HC513 Slot 5-10 - Dual Xeon 5050 DC, 16GB, 73GB x 2 (RAID1); M/B Dell P/N: HC513 Not that it really matters in this case, but slots 1-4 are running ESXi 4.1 as a development cluster, 4-8 are running ESXi 4.1 as a sandbox cluster, and 9-10 are non-ESX machines running as standard standalone servers. My project goal was to upgrade the remaining, non-QC, systems to maximize my hardware. First upgrade was CPU, second memory. I ordered a pair of L5335 SLAEN CPU's off eBay. They were put into a HC513 blade and powered up fine, but gave a 'CPU incompatibility' error after POST. I figured it must be the low wattage CPU wasn't compatible, which is a shame, as I could save some real money using all low watt CPU's. Since I observed the E5335 was supported, I then ordered a pair of E5335 SL9YK CPU's off eBay. Tested them in an HC153 blade, same thing. My next effort, which overlapped the second effort, was to order a pair of E5335 SLAEK CPU's, which match the CPU's in the slot 2 blade identically. I'm going to have a bunch of CPU's to sell once I get this sorted out! The one thing I will be trying this weekend, is to put the L5335's, and both E5335 steppings, in the YM157 blade. If those all work, then I know I need to go through the process of finding what is different about the HC513 and the YM157 (if anything). They both have the same BIOS, BMC, ESM, etc. revisions, so it might be something similar to the regular 1950/2950 differences in the II/III series. What a mess.

Tony Berry · Answer

Some additional notes from this weekend. It appears that the motherboard may come in the following part numbers (in addition to those above): DF279 CU675 YW433 FW895

I was able to pull one of my currently running quad core systems and tried all CPU's... all of them worked fine, even the low wattage models! So there definately seems to be something directly relational to the physical motherboard as all of my servers are running the exact BIOS, ESM, BMC, etc. firmware levels. I'll be posting some pictures of the two motherboard serial ranges I have. This is good to know, but sad that I'm facing a motherboard upgrade for 5 blades. Ouch.

Tony Berry · Answer

I seem to having a bit of confusion over the Dell part numbers. I think the YM157 is the outer metal case, the motherboard is as listed above... CU675.

Tony Berry · Answer

I have received 'confirmation' from two 3rd party vendors (not Dell) that the CU675 is the motherboard I need for quad core support. I don't recall seeing a number like that on any of my boards though. I'll have to take a closer look later.

Tony Berry · Answer

Okay, I did quite a bit of testing/checking the last few days. The motherboards working with quad core CPUs are all 0CU675xxx serial numbered boards, or CU675 for short. The boards not working are all DF279 serials. I was able to find some YW433 on eBay that the seller, and several Google searched posts, indicate support for quad core CPUs. I ordered four and should be receiving them tomorrow.

Confirmed QC Support: CU675

Confirmed no QC Support: DF279

More to come...

Tony Berry · Answer

Received my YW433 boards via UPS last Friday. Just now got around to testing them. They're good. Confirmed QC Support: CU675, YW433 Confirmed no QC Support: DF279

rknelson · Answer

Tony,

Thanks for the information as I follow in your footsteps at a small business like you mentioned.

I appreciated your insight to the motherboard serial numbers. Which processors are supported from a YW443? Are the X54XX processors supported?

I also noticed that on my blades that have the YW433 motherboards under the outer blue handles a numeral II perhaps indicating the second revision? Is this outward sign consistent with your experience?

I guess my fundamental question is what processors are supported by the YW433 boards as well as the DF279's, i can not find any official documentation from dell.

Thanks

Dev Mgr · Answer

The 'Information Update' PDF under the online manuals section for the 1955 mentions that the 'II' model added support for the 5300 Quad cores. This was the same on the rack models (1950), but there is no mention of support for the 5400 (unlike the 1950 getting 5400 support with the 'III' model), so I would take that to mean that the 1955 never got a motherboard upgrade to support the Xeon 5400 series.

Tony Berry · Answer

None of my blades have stickers indicating "II" or "III". This could mean several things: they fell off at some point, they never had them, or the motherboards were upgraded within the older "I" chassis (which is certainly the case for the 3-4 that I did).

I have never located an official list of supported CPU's for the 1955 servers. It seems as DevMgr has managed to located something related though.

I just ordered a matched pair of X5472's and they should be here next week. We'll see what they do.

I also ordered a matched set of L5430's and they will also be next week. I'd prefer to use the low wattage models even though they are .33Ghz slower.

More to come...

Tony Berry · Answer

I received, and tested, the 54xx CPUs mentioned above. Neither of them worked in either motherboard. When installed, and the blade placed in the chassis, the power light came on green. When the power button was pushed, the green light blinked a few times, then turned amber and continued blinking. Nothing on the screen and no beeps. Both CPU models did the same thing. I didn't test the 54xx CPUs in the DF279 motherboard.

Confirmed QC Support: CU675, YW433

Confirmed no 54xx support: CU675, YW433

Confirmed no QC Support: DF279

PowerEdge Hardware General

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