upgrading my dell cpu

Hello,

Hello, congrats for the system. This said... as far as I know there are different revisions of the motherboard, and the initial one/s are not so happy with Gen2 processors.

With this i mean that part of the 7820 can install both Gen1 and Gen2 , and the rest just Gen1, so your upgrade is not a 100% sure thing (obviously aside the need for a bios update prior to attempt the upgrade).

Can you look at the motherboard p/n with hwinfo or any other software you may prefer, and post it ?

As for the installing proper, @Chino de Oro updated some of these units for his family, so he should be able to offer some words about that part.

I know that the 4 screws should be screwed at a certain torque and not more, ideally ( like wheels for cars ). He may direct you to the right tool ( or to the correct trick to use a standard screwdriver )

Before working on the upgrade, verify that your system board will support the platinum CPU (already show you how on your other thread).  Expect the fan noise as you are going from dual 125w to dual 165w.

There is not much to CPU swap.  Just be careful with matching the CPU to the carrier and again, when snapping into the heatsink.  The plastic carrier might break, do not use heavy force.

Follow the printed label on top of the heatsink for order of removal and installation.  Use Torx 30 driver and tighten with fingers force instead of full hand force.  Prepare plenty of thermal paste for the job.

For visual, see this video  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=834eA6MXePk

For User Guide, start with page 50  https://www.metservers.com/assets/images/Dell-Precison-T7820-Podrecznik-ENpdf59e9939e09406-METServers.pdf

@mazzinia_​

Thanks for your advice, I think this motherboard can handle Intel Xeon 8260 Platinum if we take Geekbench as a reference. Please have a look at this link:
https://browser.geekbench.com/v6/cpu/993038

Regarding the motherboard reference, I used hwinfo and the information obtained are:

Motherboard ---------------------------------------------------------------

 [Computer]
  Computer Brand Name:                    DELL Precision 7820 Tower
 [Motherboard]
  Motherboard Model:                      DELL 05WNJ2
  Motherboard Chipset:                    Intel C621 (Lewisburg-1G) PCH
  Motherboard Slots:                      1xPCI, 1xPCI Express x1, 1xPCI Express x4, 1xPCI Express x8, 5xPCI Express x16
  PCI Express Version Supported:          v3.0
  USB Version Supported:                  v3.0
 [BIOS]
  BIOS Manufacturer:                      Dell Inc.
  BIOS Date:                              07/12/2024
  BIOS Version:                           2.42.0
  UEFI BIOS:                              Capable
  Super-IO/LPC Chip:                      SMSC FDC37C93xAPM
  Trusted Platform Module (TPM) Chip:     Present, version 1.2

and i found this information on the motherboard:

DP/N 05WNJ2 CN-05WNJ2-FCW00-84J-00F6-A02.

I saw some videos on YouTube that the LGA 3647 socket has very fragile pins that can be damaged or bent during the upgrade process. Some friends advised me to check the pins with a magnifying glass and if I find bent pins I should put them in their places with a needle. This what made me afraid to do this operation knowing that my workstation is working fine until now.

@Chino de Oro​ 

Thanks for your advice, I think this motherboard can handle Intel Xeon 8260 Platinum if we take Geekbench as a reference. Please have a look at this link:
https://browser.geekbench.com/v6/cpu/993038

Regarding the motherboard reference, I used hwinfo and the information obtained are:

Motherboard ---------------------------------------------------------------

 [Computer]
  Computer Brand Name:                    DELL Precision 7820 Tower
 [Motherboard]
  Motherboard Model:                      DELL 05WNJ2
  Motherboard Chipset:                    Intel C621 (Lewisburg-1G) PCH
  Motherboard Slots:                      1xPCI, 1xPCI Express x1, 1xPCI Express x4, 1xPCI Express x8, 5xPCI Express x16
  PCI Express Version Supported:          v3.0
  USB Version Supported:                  v3.0
 [BIOS]
  BIOS Manufacturer:                      Dell Inc.
  BIOS Date:                              07/12/2024
  BIOS Version:                           2.42.0
  UEFI BIOS:                              Capable
  Super-IO/LPC Chip:                      SMSC FDC37C93xAPM
  Trusted Platform Module (TPM) Chip:     Present, version 1.2

and i found this information on the motherboard:

DP/N 05WNJ2 CN-05WNJ2-FCW00-84J-00F6-A02.

I saw some videos on YouTube that the LGA 3647 socket has very fragile pins that can be damaged or bent during the upgrade process. Some friends advised me to check the pins with a magnifying glass and if I find bent pins I should put them in their places with a needle. This what made me afraid to do this operation knowing that my workstation is working fine until now.

If you have confirmed that your board is compatible with the new CPUs, just proceed with the upgrade.  The CPU is attached to the heatsink and the whole unit has guiding posts to exact match to the socket.

As chino said ( geekbench is a perfect source to doublecheck, and the link/sample you posted confirms it will work ). Bending pins on a xeon is not as easy as on a normal socket, due to the guidance / harness. What you need to pay good attention is to not apply too much force tightening the screws otherwise you may damage the socket ( that's why techs use screwdrivers that can be set to stop at various strengths ) ( is the same they use when you go change a tire )

You can use also thermal pads instead of paste, there are some good ones ( like the ones sold by LTT )

Pay attention to dust / hairs if you keep the socket empty for a while

@mazzinia_​ 

Thank you for this valuable information, but I still have another concern.
I bought two 64GB DDR4 2666 MT/s ECC registered modules and I already have four 64GB DDR4 2400 MT/s ECC registered modules installed. Should I keep the 256GB 2400 MT/s memory and if so will the Xeon Platinum 8260 run at that frequency or should I use the 128GB 2666 MT/s which I bought and if so will the Xeon Platinum 8260 run at that frequency as well? Note that the Platinum 8260 runs at 2900 MT/s. Can I use standard DDR4 RAM at 900 MHz? i.e. it is not ECC and is not registered

@Chino de Oro​ 

Thank you for this valuable information, but I still have another concern.
I bought two 64GB DDR4 2666 MT/s ECC registered modules and I already have four 64GB DDR4 2400 MT/s ECC registered modules installed. Should I keep the 256GB 2400 MT/s memory and if so will the Xeon Platinum 8260 run at that frequency or should I use the 128GB 2666 MT/s which I bought and if so will the Xeon Platinum 8260 run at that frequency as well? Note that the Platinum 8260 runs at 2900 MT/s. Can I use standard DDR4 RAM at 900 MHz? i.e. it is not ECC and is not registered

@larabi​ no, you cannot use standard ram.

And with 2 cpu, you cannot use just 2 x 64gb ram modules (or at least is not officially supported. Only 2 x 8gb is officially supported.. obviously you can try to put the 64gb dimms instead of the 8gb shown in the Memory Matrix but any issue / instability that may or may not happen would be on you to handle. 

Same reasoning goes for using 6 x 64gb modules. Is not officially supported ( but you can try to put the 2 new modules in the slots that the 16gb x 6 configuration uses for the extra 2 x 16gb and see what happens ).

The ram would work at the lowest common speed ( 2400 in case you mix 2666 with 2400 )

https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/en-us/precision-7820-workstation/precision_7820_om_pub/memory-configuration?guid=guid-ce1561c8-88a9-45e3-bc3b-762cbb37e073&lang=en-us

Note : dell workstations can be picky about ram added after purchase (brand of the chips etc etc etc )