[SOLVED] Does My Acer Aspire M3600 Support Quad Core CPU's?

[J Techy]

Hello I have a acer aspire M3600 and I was wondering if it supported any core 2 quad processors as I'm thinking of using it for a media server.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Nemesia]

That board support "LGA775 socket for Intel Core 2 Duo/Pentium D/Pentium 4/Celeron D CPUs only.

 

[J Techy]

That board support "LGA775 socket for Intel Core 2 Duo/Pentium D/Pentium 4/Celeron D CPUs only.

Okay Thank you. Just wanted to check as there was some conflicting info online. Looks like I'll have to use a different PC for my media server.

Thanks again.

 

[SamirD]

That board support "LGA775 socket for Intel Core 2 Duo/Pentium D/Pentium 4/Celeron D CPUs only.

This is incorrect. There is this entry in geekbench that shows someone benching with an core 2 duo e4500:
https://browser.geekbench.com/geekbench2/compare/1257200/1257200

And more than likely, because the e4500 works, the e2220 pentium would likely also work as it is slightly faster:
https://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/379/Intel_Core_2_Duo_E4500_vs_Intel_Pentium_Dual-Core_E2220.html

If the bios supports quads (which is a big unknown), you should be able to install the venerable q6600/q6700:
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compar...-Intel-Core2-Quad-Q6700/936vs1137vs1038vs1039

 

[J Techy]

This is incorrect. There is this entry in geekbench that shows someone benching with an core 2 duo e4500:
https://browser.geekbench.com/geekbench2/compare/1257200/1257200

And more than likely, because the e4500 works, the e2220 pentium would likely also work as it is slightly faster:
https://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/379/Intel_Core_2_Duo_E4500_vs_Intel_Pentium_Dual-Core_E2220.html

If the bios supports quads (which is a big unknown), you should be able to install the venerable q6600/q6700:
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compar...-Intel-Core2-Quad-Q6700/936vs1137vs1038vs1039

SamirD, Nemesia said core 2 duo as well. My one has a core 2 Duo e4500 as that was the stock processor it came with from the factory. that's why there is a geek bench score.

 

[SamirD]

SamirD, Nemesia said core 2 duo as well. My one has a core 2 Duo e4500 as that was the stock processor it came with from the factory. that's why there is a geek bench score.

Ooops! Sorry--I think I just saw the pentium/celeron part of that reply and stopped there.

My HP dx2300 was also speced for only dual core processors, but it is known to run a q6600:
https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c01056911

Might be worth just trying it as it would be a real boost. You might even be lucky enough to have bios support for new/faster quad cores like my gateway sx2803 that can run a q9650 even though it's not anywhere in the specs.

Happy upgrading!

 

[J Techy]

Ooops! Sorry--I think I just saw the pentium/celeron part of that reply and stopped there.

My HP dx2300 was also speced for only dual core processors, but it is known to run a q6600:
https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c01056911

Might be worth just trying it as it would be a real boost. You might even be lucky enough to have bios support for new/faster quad cores like my gateway sx2803 that can run a q9650 even though it's not anywhere in the specs.

Happy upgrading!

Okay thanks SamirD. I will have a look and give it a try. I have also seen there is a BIOS update for this machine so I could also try that if it doesn't work.

 

[SamirD]

Okay thanks SamirD. I will have a look and give it a try. I have also seen there is a BIOS update for this machine so I could also try that if it doesn't work.

Definitely check the bios notes before you upgrade. You're going to have to dig quite a bit to see what the chipset and motherboard will support. Most oems have someone else make the motherboard so you can find that out and then keep digging. If you discover even one confirmed install of something you think might work, you've got a solid shot.

For my gateway sx2803 I dug forever and finally found one that had sold on ebay with a q9650 installed. That was my confirmation and it's running great with its upgrade ever since. In theory it might even be able to handle 16gb of ram since it uses ddr3, but again no one has tried it yet. It's a project for me for a future date.

 

[J Techy]

Definitely check the bios notes before you upgrade. You're going to have to dig quite a bit to see what the chipset and motherboard will support. Most oems have someone else make the motherboard so you can find that out and then keep digging. If you discover even one confirmed install of something you think might work, you've got a solid shot.

For my gateway sx2803 I dug forever and finally found one that had sold on ebay with a q9650 installed. That was my confirmation and it's running great with its upgrade ever since. In theory it might even be able to handle 16gb of ram since it uses ddr3, but again no one has tried it yet. It's a project for me for a future date.

Nice SamirD. All I have found out about mine is that it is an Ecs 946GZT-AM. So ill try and find some eBay listing and see if anything comes up. Thanks

 

[SamirD]

Okay so I went ahead and did some deep diving research.

Your motherboard was used in the M5600 as well, but the cpu was about the same. But Acer did have a tendency to not test the hardware to the max (like many other oems like Dell and HP) as evidenced in this thread:

Intel 946GZ Chipset and 1066 FSB

Hi, i have a Acer Power 2000 Ultra Slim Line Desktop and i am looking for a faster CPU. Therefore i tried to find some infos about supported CPUs. The chipset is a 946GZ revision C1. And the factory built in CPU is a Conroe Core 2 Duo E6300 @ 1,86 GHz with FSB 1066. Now what i wonder about is...

forums.tomshardware.com

And then I found the holy grail that confirms that the q6600 and q6700 should almost definitely work in a comment by someone at the end of this page:
https://www.cpu-upgrade.com/mb-ECS/946GZT-M2(V1.0).html

And another one of ECS's boards also supports quads outright:
https://www.cpu-upgrade.com/mb-ECS/965PLT-A(V1.0).html

Acer bought out Gateway and used the same manufacturing for both lines during this era, so just like my Gateway, I think your Acer also can take processors it was never really tested for. I would try a q6600 as they are really cheap and see what happens. If it works, you'll get a solid kick in the pants, and it may even work for the media server that you were thinking of--the case is fantastic for drives, that's for sure.

 

[J Techy]

Okay so I went ahead and did some deep diving research.

Your motherboard was used in the M5600 as well, but the cpu was about the same. But Acer did have a tendency to not test the hardware to the max (like many other oems like Dell and HP) as evidenced in this thread:

Intel 946GZ Chipset and 1066 FSB

Hi, i have a Acer Power 2000 Ultra Slim Line Desktop and i am looking for a faster CPU. Therefore i tried to find some infos about supported CPUs. The chipset is a 946GZ revision C1. And the factory built in CPU is a Conroe Core 2 Duo E6300 @ 1,86 GHz with FSB 1066. Now what i wonder about is...

forums.tomshardware.com

And then I found the holy grail that confirms that the q6600 and q6700 should almost definitely work in a comment by someone at the end of this page:
https://www.cpu-upgrade.com/mb-ECS/946GZT-M2(V1.0).html

And another one of ECS's boards also supports quads outright:
https://www.cpu-upgrade.com/mb-ECS/965PLT-A(V1.0).html

Acer bought out Gateway and used the same manufacturing for both lines during this era, so just like my Gateway, I think your Acer also can take processors it was never really tested for. I would try a q6600 as they are really cheap and see what happens. If it works, you'll get a solid kick in the pants, and it may even work for the media server that you were thinking of--the case is fantastic for drives, that's for sure.

Thanks SamirD I will purchase a Q6600 and test it out. Thank you so much for looking into it for me. Yes this case is brilliant for drives so hopefully I might be able to use it as a media server.

 

[SamirD]

Thanks SamirD I will purchase a Q6600 and test it out. Thank you so much for looking into it for me. Yes this case is brilliant for drives so hopefully I might be able to use it as a media server.

You're welcome! I hope it works! Definitely post back and let me know.

 

[J Techy]

You're welcome! I hope it works! Definitely post back and let me know.

Well I thought I would update this. I ordered a Q6600 and it worked. However I couldn't do any further testing to see if it was stable as my acer would not install an operating system for some reason and the cost to get the machine up to media server spec would be too costly but thank you for your help.

 

[SamirD]

Well I thought I would update this. I ordered a Q6600 and it worked. However I couldn't do any further testing to see if it was stable as my acer would not install an operating system for some reason and the cost to get the machine up to media server spec would be too costly but thank you for your help.

Sweet. Interesting that an OS wouldn't install. You can try booting up a linux live cd/usb and test it out there. I would use the ultimate boot cd and boot the parted magic and there's some testing software in that live os.

 

[J Techy]

Sweet. Interesting that an OS wouldn't install. You can try booting up a linux live cd/usb and test it out there. I would use the ultimate boot cd and boot the parted magic and there's some testing software in that live os.

Well I managed to get it to work. I had to disable intel speed step or step speed (can never remember which way round it is) and after a long wait it finally installed windows 10. Q6600 temps are great at 75c at full load, which it does get to when its streaming and converting raw mkv files. So I installed a 92mm fan in the back of the case as that's the size the acer supports. I may try and do the tape mod on this to get it to overclock to 3GHz but for now its fine as my plex sever.