Precision 5820: Xeon W-2255 upgrade from W-2155 Fails: BIOS 2.0.2 obsolete?

 

Still stuck in "lack of definitive information" purgatory despite all the chat sessions, phone-calls, private messages, and email.

 

I **think** where this is heading is that:

(a) The existing W-2100 based 5820's sold so far by Dell cannot be upgraded to the W-2200's.

(b) A motherboard replacement will be needed, but Dell will not sell one - instead a new 5820 will need to be purchased to get to a W-2200.

 

The key underlying issues are likely:

(i) Intel's inability to use a more advanced process technology than 14nm, thus not being able to meet the thermal/power envelope for a drop-in CPU replacement into all existing W-2100 boards;

(ii) Dell's existing W-2100 boards being not robust enough for incrementally higher power/thermal, unlike those from some other manufacturers.

 

This W-2200 upgrade fiasco is probably the last straw in my case, forcing a migration away from Intel based solutions.

The competition is already 1-2 process technology generations ahead courtesy of TSMC, and with 5nm just around the corner it will become 2-3.

Much easier to meet existing power/thermal profiles and provide customers with a smooth upgrade experience to higher core-counts and performance with more advanced process technologies.

 

All of this likely explains, why the W-2200's have to be sold for ~half the price of the W-2100's.

 

Dang... I can't find the release notes now, but I thought the bios 2.0.1 indicated w-2200 compatibility. Perhaps it didn't work, so they yanked it.

I think you could get a 5820 with a 10 core W-2155 chip (140W TDP), so they should be able to handle the lower core parts. Maybe the older MoBo doesn't have the signal integrity for the faster RAM, so they need to put in BIOS support to throttle it?

Yeah, AMD is kind of whipping intel, but it goes in phases. For what we do, we want intel MKL support, and it gets completely throttled when it detects it's running on a non Intel part. So they've got us. Glad to see the competition though!

As of now, the latest BIOS version is 2.8.0. Has anyone succeed upgrading to the Xeon W-2200 series?

After several calls and emails with Dell China, they replaced my motherboard and it worked.

A new motherboard is not enough, you need a new motherboard that IS COMPATIBLE with W-2200 series.(Different model but same size)

Hello! 

I have a precision 5820 (i bought in june 2020) and i am thinking about to change my processor W-2155 to W-2295 and i read your feedback.

I was seeing in Hwinfo 64 and my motherboard model is 0R23KR

What is your last MB who worked with 2295?

 

Thanks

In HWiNFO, model: DELL 00XNYP;

I think you should call Dell. The model identifier differs in different countries.