[urgent] PowerEdge 1850/2850 CPU support...

Documentation on that system does show it supports paxville processors. Not only those but Noconas and Irwindales as well. 2850 is the same story. So I don't see why these processors wouldn't work. The processor you're referring to is a paxville. You should be alright.

I'm not so sure. The processor referenced is a Xeon MP part, which is typically used in 4 socket and 8 socket servers. The two PowerEdge machines are 2 socket servers, with the E7525 chipset.

Even if the chipset can work with the Xeon MP processors about which I have my doubts, I suspect that BIOS support for them may not exist. Intel typically keep dual processor parts distinct from multi processor parts.

Unfortunately it's only recently that Intel put processors into families and documented clearly which chipset worked with what. The chipset supports "Xeon processors with 800MHz FSB". I suspect that this doesn't include Xeon MP processors.

I'm not sure that buying stripped down servers of an obsolete generation makes sense. It can be hard to find appropriate processors, memory modules and hard disks. These eighth generation machines use SCSI disks, whilst new servers have moved on to SAS. I believe that there's no quad core processors, and the dual core processors that are available use a great deal of power. The processor mentioned by the original poster is a scary 165W TDP; I have a 2950 III in my development rig with quad core processors at 80W TDP.

Unless you have a ready source of parts on tap, I question the worth of buying parts for dead-end machines. It may be better from a total cost of ownership point of view to buy new 1950 III and 2950 III machines - with energy efficient quad core 45nm Xeons and SAS disks.