Processor upgrade for Dell Precision Tower 3420

You could easily just install windows 11 on unsupported hardware, for example if you get the iso and then burn it to a usb stick using the free and opensource program rufus, you can remove the requirements for a newer cpu tpm and secureboot.

@JOcean​ 

My E3-1240 v6 is the ONLY component in my Precision 3420 SFF that does not meet the Win 11 system requirements, and the MS list of those that do is LONG. I want to stick with a Xeon so can you tell me which compatible mobo will work in my SFF case?

Thank you!

You can hack windows 11 on it with a few tweaks. The easiest way is to flash a windows 11 iso to a usb drive with a software called rufus, and check remove tpm, 4 gb ram requirements before flashing.

Good grief, all these "answers" are wrong. Microsoft provides the list of approved cpu's for Windows 11 that goes clear back to i3-genration chips. It has very little to do with the cpu's specs or "newness", but is rather just an arbitrary list of chips that Microsoft has blessed with their almighty approval. There are some i8's and i9's that are not on the list, so they would fail the upgrade. It's arbitrary, based on Microsoft's mood.

The correct answer is:  replace your CPU with one that is ON THE LIST, and the list is long. There is bound to be one that works with the 3420 motherboard. All the Windows 11 upgrade program does is check that the CPU model number is on the list. You could actually downgrade the CPU to qualify for the Win11 upgrade! It just has to be on the list.

Thank you for your response and clarification. Now, on to the TPM.

My SFF has Version 1.2, which is enabled, so I followed the steps to determine whether I can update it to 2.0 - enter my service tag number, go to “Drivers & Downloads” tab, select “Security” from the drop down menu, look for Dell TPM 2.0 Firmware update utility. There is no drop down menu in the Drivers & Downloads tab, but the website did find a BIOS update, version 2.33.0 issued in December 2024. However, the description for it says nothing about TPM. So…there is no 2.0 version for my system?

@avt24​... Thank you. I have read about that elsewhere, but doesn't that method shut me out of Win 11 security updates?

More digging – Found the TPM upgrade page and my systems IS listed there as eligible for that.

On my desktop – PC Settings, Windows Security

Manufacture Version 1.3.2.8 (same as my tpm.msc reports)

Specific Version 2.0

PPI Spec 1.3

TPM spec sub – 1.16 (6/16/2016)

PC Client Spec 1.0

So looking at all this, do I have 1.2 or 2.0???

Thanks!

@Lacytt51​ I read somewhere that precision 3420 SFF is compatible with intel CPU i5-12600k. This CPU is also compatible with windows 11. Can I down grade my i7-6700 CPU to i5-12600k to allow window 11 upgrade?

No.  The 3420 is limited to 6th & 7th gen CPU's.  12th Gen is out of the question.

@RowaM​ @bradthetechnut is spot on with that information. In addition to his comment the socket for the i7-6700 is 1151 and the i5-12600k is 1700. The sockets are completely different.

Another difference in sockets:  12th gen is rectangular.  6th & 7th gen were still square.

Thank you all, looks like either i upgrade to windows 11 using methods described or get a new system 

@RowaM​ The system restrictions can be bypassed and there are a number of YouTube videos describing the methods such as Windows 11 LTSC, etc. I am running Windows 11 on a 6th Gen CPU and it runs smoothly and far better than Windows 10 ran on my system.

@JOcean​ I want to try