ProLiant Servers (ML,DL,SL)
1748146 Members
3524 Online
108758 Solutions
New Discussion

Re: Upgrading CPUs on a DL585 G2

 
yorgasor
Occasional Visitor

Upgrading CPUs on a DL585 G2

The Opteron 8400 series CPUs uses the same socket as the 8300 & 8200 CPUs.  If I update the BIOS in my DL585 G2 to the latest available one, will I be able to upgrade the CPUs to 6 core 8400 series opterons?

 

If they will work, do I need to upgrade anything else (like the VRMs), or is it just a simple CPU swap?

11 REPLIES 11
Suman_1978
HPE Pro

Re: Upgrading CPUs on a DL585 G2

Hi,

 

ProLiant DL585 G2 server uses AMD Opteron Processor 82xx Dual-Core series.
82xx and 84xx processors differ in Cache sizes, voltage and wattage even though they support Socket F.

 

I would not install 8400 series processor on a system board that is ment for dual/quad core processors.  If you try to install just to test, you might end up damaging the processor or the system board itself.

 

HP ProLiant DL585 G2 Server - Overview
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&objectID=c00778263


List of AMD Opteron microprocessors
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_AMD_Opteron_microprocessors

 

 


I work for HPE.
[Any personal opinions expressed are mine, and not official statements on behalf of Hewlett Packard Enterprise]

Accept or Kudo

yorgasor
Occasional Visitor

Re: Upgrading CPUs on a DL585 G2

When the G2 came out, the only processor for it was the 8200 series.  The docs said it would support quad core cpus when they came out, and that's the 8300 series CPUs.  I've found other posts on here saying people have installed the 8300 series CPUs in the G2.  

 

Since the 8400 series CPUs were supposed to be backwards compatible, as long as the bios supported them, and (if I understand correctly) the G2 uses the very same bios as the G5 & G6, I thought there was a very good chance that the 8400 series CPUs would work.  I'd be surprised if no one has tested and reported success or failure on the subject, but in all of my googling, I haven't found any stories.  I was hoping someone here might know.

 

I've looked at some processor kits for these servers, and it looks like the VRMs look different on the G6 servers.  Does anyone know if the VRMs are compatible between systems, or if there are requirements of certain VRMs be paired with certain CPUs?   Compatibility-wise, it looks like the same VRMs are used in opteron & xeon based systems, but I don't know if they've changed interfaces between generations of these servers or not.  If I were to try this, would I need a VRM specific to a G2 server and an 8435 opteron?  or the VRM that comes in the CPU kit with the 8435?

 

I'm more of a hobbiest, and I like to see what I can make work on a smaller budget.  I'm less interested in what is supported as opposed to what I can make work.  I expect that puts me more in a minority with this class of hardware.

MAZMX5
Occasional Visitor

Re: Upgrading CPUs on a DL585 G2

Hi,

 

I have a DL585 G2. It was originally installed with four dual-core processors. The first upgrade involved four quad core processors (AMD 8360). I did not change the VRM's that were originally installed. Today I have installed four six-core processors (AMD 8435).  I chose the 8435's because of the lower thermal  / power rating. Again, I used the original VRM's. Interestingly I bought an upgrade kit designed for the G6. The G6 VRM's do not fit - they are slightly longer, with a few extra pins.

 

The BIOS was updated to the latest release prior to doing the upgrade (compatible with G2, G5 & G6). I did not encounter any problems.  The server now uses slightly less power. I also noticed the diagnostics are showing a significantly better temperatures for each processor (around 35 - 38 desgrees).  I haven't tried the 8439's, but it's possible they might work too.       

Jan Soska
Honored Contributor

Re: Upgrading CPUs on a DL585 G2

Very interesting thread. From our experience, we installed 4core opterons 83xx from bl685cG5 to bl685cG1 (opteron 82xx). There was no real problem except some features are not available. In our case we can not use deeper power savings states as there is no hw support on motherboard. It is similar to normal pc segment - there is AM2,AM+, AM3, AM3+ socket and if you want live without some special power features/ turbo modes it works OK.

Anyway, our bl685cG1 with 83xx Opterons run now 3 years without any issue, we use them for very intensive Vmware virtualization, so we really do not need deep power saving there.

I think it will be similar in your case, just to be sure the new opteron support your RAM types (both DDR2 and DDR3) as there was generation change in last Opterons. BUt I think 6core 84xx Opterons can use DDR modules.

 

Jan


MAZMX5
Occasional Visitor

Re: Upgrading CPUs on a DL585 G2

A couple of things i've noticed since the upgrade;  The server is now reporting itself as a DL585 G6. This changed when the new processors were installed (the BIOS was updated a few months ago).  I wasn't expecting the processor to work given that the G6 VRM modules don't fit. However, the processors work fine with the original VRM's. 

 

It also seems that some of features that were introduced with the 'Istanbul' design are working too, including the faster QPI (bus speed). I'm not sure about the low power states. I've noticed that applications seem to run more evenly over the cores, rather than bunch across one or two cores as seemed to be the case with the AMD 8360se that was installed previously (not a terribly scientific test...).

 

Anyhow, it makes for a good upgrade to an older server.

 

Andy

VarSyn
New Member

Re: Upgrading CPUs on a DL585 G2

Hey just saw this thread and was wondering seeming how the quad core 8360 worked, would a 8347 work? only reference i can see are them being put into a G5

 

and the G2 and G5 are both the same chipset and seemingly identical other than the Max memory

danman
Occasional Advisor

Re: Upgrading CPUs on a DL585 G2

I have successfully upgraded two DL585 G2's to 8439SE CPUs (from 8356 originals).  I run Windows Server 2008 R2 with no problems whatsoever.

bunter6
Advisor

Re: Upgrading CPUs on a DL585 G2

This is good to know as I have just bought a DL585G2 as a development mule & planned to upgrade to quad cores at some point but I may jsut go straight to hex cores now after a bios update.

martyscholes
Occasional Advisor

Re: Upgrading CPUs on a DL585 G2


@bunter6 wrote:
This is good to know as I have just bought a DL585G2 as a development mule & planned to upgrade to quad cores at some point but I may jsut go straight to hex cores now after a bios update.


I am about to do the same thing. I have a G2 with 8216 processors and was contemplating an upgrade to 8300 to double the core count and hopefully recover some memory bandwidth lost by populating all of the memory slots. Now I am thinking that a set of 8435 chips is the best bet to pump more life into the server.