DL120 G6 CPU - change from Pentium to Xeon?

[Global_One_Tech]

Hello,

We have a customer that has a DL120 G6 server with the following CPU:

Intel(R) Pentium(R) CPU G6950 @ 2.80GHz

The customer would like to upgrade their memory but is unable to go above 8GB.  The memory configurator tool says:

"For the DL120 G6, Registered DIMMs (RDIMMs) are only supported with Xeon processor family."

Our question is - is it possible to simply change out their CPU from that Pentium to a Xeon CPU?  Or would that require a different system board too?

[Torsten.]

According to the quickspecs it is always a xeon in this server:

http://www8.hp.com/h20195/v2/getpdf.aspx/c04128298.pdf?ver=3

Intel® Xeon® processor X3400 series

[Global_One_Tech]

Thank you for the reply.

I noticed that too, but then I found this document showing that there are other options:

http://h20564.www2.hpe.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?sp4ts.oid=3984624&docId=emr_na-c02281497&lang=en-us&cc=us

Does anyone know if the CPU can be changed from a Pentium to a Xeon?

[Torsten. · Accepted solution]

Looks like the early models have this pentium CPU, but using the same system board (compare partsurfer.hpe.com).

You probably need a BIOS update:

http://h20564.www2.hpe.com/hpsc/swd/public/detail?sp4ts.oid=3984624&swItemId=MTX_e25d7e52a93f4b988d6b52129a&swEnvOid=1005#tab-history

[Global_One_Tech]

Thank you for the reply.  

You're right, the 490930-001 model (that our customer has) that comes with the Pentium CPU uses the same system board (576932-001) as the models that come with Xeon CPUs (for example, from Quickspecs - model 490931-001), per the HP PartSurfer tool.

This information gives me confidence that we can switch the CPU from the Pentium to a Xeon.