SE7501HG2. Can it run the E5-1607 v2 Xeon?

[CGust1]

My board is nearly 10 years old. In the Intel pages, there is one which lists Server Products, and for the SE7501HG2 there is a list of "Supported processors".

http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/server/se7501hg2/sb/cs-007331.htm Intel� Server Board SE7501HG2 — Supported processors

To my big surprise I find brand-new Xeons in that list, e.g. under 3.00 GHz the E5-1607 v2.

Q.: is it really possible to upgrade that old board to a brand new Xeon?

Should the answer be yes, that would really please me.

Regards,

Ch

[Daniel_O_Intel]

Ch -

Sadly, no, that won't be possible. If you look at the rest of that table, the 3.00GHz must also have a system bus speed of 400 MHz, and the table even provides the order code of the one that works.

I can see why it would be misleading, since the url runs a search on ARK for "Search.aspx?q=3.00%20GHz", which just returns all possible processors that have that speed.

[CGust1]

Dan_0,

Thank you very much. However, I am not familiar with "system bus speed". In the server-board product specification it says: "The Intel Server Board SE7501HG2 accommodates one or two 400MHZ FSB or 533 MHz FSB Intel Xeon processors with 512 kB L2 Cache via two SKT604 604-pin ZIF sockets." Thus there is at least some speed mentioned that agrees with the one you cite.

Do you refer to another speed?

Furthermore: The text above the tables of the above mentioned links says, and I copy the text:

"Note: All processors listed below are supported by the Intel® Server Board SE7501HG2."

Could you please indicate a bit more clearly why I have to give up my hope of being able to upgrade the processors?

Ch

[DSilv11]

Dan O is correct,

The FSB (front Side Bus) which ran at 400Mhz or 533mhz between the processors & the North Bridge chip which connected to a memory controller and a south bridge chip to PCI slots, Network controllers and HDD controllers.

In 2008 the QPI bus replaced the FSB and opened a new leap forward in processor speed

QPI buses run speeds up to 8 Gigatransfers per second. The features of a North Bridge are all inside the CPU as well,

Not enough yet?

The old Xeon's in your board have 604 pins that plug into the board,

The E5-1607 (which is not a dual CPU processor) has 2011 "pins" on the mother board that connect to pads on the CPU. (reversed)

Intel has a Tock \ Tic strategie so that customer can upgrade a board's CPU. This means when they design a board for a new CPU, (the tock), about 1 year later the Tic CPU releases and is usually a drop in replacement as far as the hardware is concerned. In the current CPU's the E5-1607 would be the Tock and the E5-1607v2 is the Tic. The computer technology leaps ahead so fast that the CPU's that come after the E5-1607v2 are going to need new mother boards to support the newer features.

[CGust1]

Thank you both for clarifying the matters; especially the interesting details that follow "Not enough yet?".

Case closed.

Ch