Tower Plus EBT2250, processor upgrade

The EBT2250 tower plus desktop can be upgraded up to a top tier Arrow Lake Ultra 9 285K.  https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-desktop-computers/dell-tower-plus/spd/dell-ebt2250-desktop/useebt2250wcto01?redirectTo=SOC

Unless you are referring to the Arrow Lake Refresh CPUs.  There is no one able to predict the future release of BIOS update with microcode.

@Chino de Oro​ Yes, I meant the Arrow Lake Refresh CPU - sorry if that wasn't clear.

But it's good to know I have the 285K as an (expensive) upgrade option. I will be watching future BIOS updates for Arrow Lake Refresh CPU additions.

I am thinking of buying one of these too, but I noticed than the Advanced Air Cooling option also seems to include VRM Heatsinks, do these come when you buy the fan separately I wonder ?

@GaryC123​ My EBT2250 came with VRM heatsinks even though I ordered the 265 processor and received the small air cooler. I ordered the advanced air cooler from Dell in anticipation of upgrading the processor, it did not come with VRM heatsinks.

Awww brilliant mate, thanks for letting me know ! Very useful info

@GaryC123​ Here is a picture of my motherboard the way it came from Dell.

Note the VRM heatsinks and small CPU air cooler.

@PismoXPS , are you having any progress on your plan to upgrade CPU to Ultra 7 270K Plus.  It has been released late last month and pricing around $320.  The overall performance is significantly better than the Ultra 7 265.

The latest BIOS firmware released in April did not include CPU microcode change but it did included the 2023 secure boot certificates.  No need to wait for a new BIOS update, just select seller with easy return policy in case your motherboard does not support the new CPU.

@Chino de Oro​ I've just been waiting for the prices to come down. Intel released the 270K at a suggested retail of $299 but all of the retailers were pricing it at around $350.

Now that the prices I see around $325, I'm close to pulling the trigger.

On release, Intel said the 270K would run on motherboards and BIOS that supported the existing Arrow Lake processors, so I'm not too worried about that. I've already updated to the latest v1.15 BIOS.

@PismoXPS​ Thank you for starting this post. I'm wondering the same thing as a 270k is cheaper to buy than a 285k. I'm also running the basic core ultra 265. Have you been able to try it yet?

@Dr Patrick​ The 270k price has come down to the level where I would consider buying.

I am very close to ordering one. Have the v1.15 BIOS so I think it will work.

@PismoXPS​

Good to hear, let me know how it goes as I am planning on doing the same as well. hopefully it works.

@Chino de Oro​ I just ordered a 270k processor from Newegg. $322.

I will let you know how the install goes.

I installed the 270k processor this morning. The results were not exactly what I expected.

The physical install went fine. The Dell 125 watt heatsink is very large compared to the original!

The v1.16 BIOS recognized the 270k processor. As an unexpected bonus, an overclocking screen appeared which was not there before. It gives the options of no overclocking or "OCLV1" overclocking.

Now for the not so good news. Without overclocking, the Geekbench 6 single core benchmark CPU score went from 3064 to 3220 (only 5% improvement). The multi core score went from 18108 to 19418 (7% improvement).

That's a disappointing improvement going from a 265 non-k to a 270k processor. Enabling overclocking only improved the scores to 3230/19579, almost no further improvement.

Is Geekbench 6 a poor benchmark for measuring Ultra 7 processor performance? I'm also wondering if the v1.16 BIOS is not optimized for the 270k processor? I rechecked BIOS and all the processor performance options are enabled.

@PismoXPS​ Thank you for posting this. Did you install the special intel drivers for the intel 270k? A lot of articles say performance will be lower without them. You can also try cinebench r23 and 2026