Question Need Assistance Upgrading CPU on a Very Old HP Desktop

[toroca]

Hopefully this is the correct forum for this topic...

I would greatly appreciate some assistance in determining what the best processor I can upgrade to on a really old HP desktop is.

Before I go any farther, please do not waste your time or mine by replying if the only advice you have to offer is to "save up to buy a newer system." If that were an option for me right now, I would happily do so, but I cannot afford to replace the entire system at the present time. I can, however, afford to buy a replacement processor if I can just determine what will actually work.

Also, full disclosure, the computer in question is not connected to the internet; I do not at present have home internet access. I am writing this at my public library. Due to my work hours and the library's hours not being fully compatible, if you request additional details from me it may take me a day or three to provide them but I will do so as quickly as I can.

The motherboard on the system is a Foxconn 2ABF, Version 3.10 according to Speccy. After literally days of effort and research, I have managed to update the BIOS to AMI Version 8.14 dated 1/23/2013, from the 7.06 I started out with. I already know that the board will only support Sandy Bridge based processors (supposedly there are versions of the board that will also support Ivy Bridge with the right BIOS update, but I haven't been able to figure out how you determine whether you have that version of the board or not, short of buying an Ivy Bridge and trying it). Other possibly pertinent details reported by Speccy are:
Chipset Vendor Intel
Chipset Model Sandy Bridge
Chipset Revision 09
Southbridge Vendor Intel
Southbridge Model H61
Southbridge Revision B3
If any of those help narrow down the processor options, I haven't been able to find that information. Since every source I could find made it seem as if any Sandy Bridge CPU with a max TDP of 95W would work, I have already tried an i7-2700K. Multiple sources including this one suggested that model would work, but even with the updated BIOS, I get a message about an unsupported CPU being installed, and the computer shuts down. So either I've done something wrong, or not all 95W Sandy Bridge CPUs are in fact supported. Is the problem perhaps that the K series are designed for overclocking? Maybe an i7-2600 or an i5-2500 instead? I don't know what else to look for to figure out compatibility.

I have spent so much time trying to find these answers, and coming up with very little I feel confident in (especially after the failure of the i7-2700K). I simply want to extend the useful life of the PC for a little while longer until I can replace the whole thing. I'm not looking to play any modern AAA game titles or anything even close to that; while I do play some games on it, I don't think I have anything released in the past 8 or 9 years. I just want to make this system the best it can be for as old as it is, until I can finally replace the whole thing a year or two from now.

I thank you for your time, and any help you can provide.

 

[Lutfij]

So either I've done something wrong, or not all 95W Sandy Bridge CPUs are in fact supported.
You're dealing with a prebuilt that back in the day had a blacklist/whitelist for parts you could put on an HP or a Dell prebuilt/laptop. If that part was not on the BIOS microcode, it's unsupported as opposed to other board's like that from Asus or their ilk, you could drop in processors off of a list they had. You've mentioned the old HP desktop in your thread's title, I think you should've gone with the model/SKU of said HP prebuilt so we/you can look up the prebuilts options, and then move from there with regards to an upgrade inquiry(using Google). Prebuilts also tried to prevent users from tinkering with their builds to avoid false warranty claims or claims of user generated error.

This is what I've come to find;
https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Deskt...e-maximum-to-upgrade-CPU-and-GPU/td-p/9059908
but contrary to that thread, the H61 chipset will not allow you to run your memory at DDR3-1600MHz, they will be effectively running at DDR3-1333MHz.

Which leads me to this point you'd made;

Before I go any farther, please do not waste your time or mine by replying if the only advice you have to offer is to "save up to buy a newer system." If that were an option for me right now, I would happily do so, but I cannot afford to replace the entire system at the present time. I can, however, afford to buy a replacement processor if I can just determine what will actually work.

You're better off saving the money, and not investing in a platform that's more than a decade old and is s dead platform. You can however polish it an retrofit it to have it up on shelf for posterity's sake but all it's doing is being a money pit, with negative return on investments. You've also driven away people who could swap you to a cheap build as well.

 

[toroca]

You're dealing with a prebuilt that back in the day had a blacklist/whitelist for parts you could put on an HP or a Dell prebuilt/laptop. If that part was not on the BIOS microcode, it's unsupported as opposed to other board's like that from Asus or their ilk, you could drop in processors off of a list they had. You've mentioned the old HP desktop in your thread's title, I think you should've gone with the model/SKU of said HP prebuilt so we/you can look up the prebuilts options, and then move from there with regards to an upgrade inquiry(using Google). Prebuilts also tried to prevent users from tinkering with their builds to avoid false warranty claims or claims of user generated error.

First, thank you for your reply.

I didn't realize companies were still doing that whitelisting thing, even back when this computer was new. I knew they had been even longer ago, when I bought my first PC back in the 90s, but I thought that had ended before this particular system was purchased. This one was actually a hand-me-down to me, so I wasn't involved in the original purchase.

At any rate, the computer is an HP P6-2220t. This page suggests that the i7-3xxx series is a valid upgrade path for this system, but that series is Ivy Bridge, and multiple other sources have indicated the motherboard will only accept those with a specific BIOS update. But I was never able to determine for certain this was true, and with what you've said about a whitelist, I suspect I remain out of luck on that score.

The BIOS I succeeded in updating to, by the way, (the AMI Version 8.14) was intended for the Pro 3500 Microtower discussed in the link you provided. Another HP support thread I can't seem to find right now had suggested it would work on my P6-2220t. I had previously attempted to upgrade from the 7.06 that was on my machine originally to the 7.16 Rev. A that yet another thread suggested would work, but that upgrade failed; even though it came from an HP support person who stated it would work for any P6 2xxx series computer. I decided to try the even newer 8.14 after I found the second thread stating it should work, and it updated with no trouble.

A question I have related to the whitelisting you've mentioned: if the whitelist/blacklist is in the BIOS, does updating the BIOS as I've done not change that? Because the BIOS I now have is about a year newer than what I started with, and newer than versions that have been said to support better processors than the i7-2700k I tried to upgrade to. Or is the whitelist specific to particular systems even with the newer BIOS version?

Continuing, this page lists four CPUs as compatible upgrades, three of which are i5s, but one of which is another Ivy Bridge chip. (the first processor it lists, the pentium G640, is what the system currently has)

This page features an argument about what processors would work, but since both posters' supporting links are dead, I can't see what they were referencing.

There are still more threads I could point to, but the library closes in a few minutes so I don't have time to continue.

Is there any way of seeing what CPUs are whitelisted and blacklisted in the BIOS?

Which leads me to this point you'd made;

You're better off saving the money, and not investing in a platform that's more than a decade old and is s dead platform. You can however polish it an retrofit it to have it up on shelf for posterity's sake but all it's doing is being a money pit, with negative return on investments. You've also driven away people who could swap you to a cheap build as well.

In all the research I've done, I have seen numerous threads where people replied saying nothing more than "you should just upgrade to a newer system" which is supremely unhelpful. I was hoping to head off any such replies myself, since as I've indicated I can't afford to do that right now. I can spend a little bit to get a small performance boost for now; most of the processors that are from the era in question are available used for less than $40, and even new unopened ones are only about $80 at most. Either option is financially doable and would get me a little bit of a boost until I can actually replace the entire rig with something up to more modern specs.

I do very much appreciate your thoughts and assistance, though. Thanks again.

 

[thestryker]

There's a reason why so many people are saying get something new just as an example: https://www.newegg.com/dell-optiplex-7040/p/1VK-0001-5JYT6?item=9SIABX7JRJ3904

It of course depends on where you're at, but there are usually a lot of refurbished business desktops available for low prices that are going to be much better than anything you could hope to do with what you've got.

The specifications on the 3500 show the following CPUs as options (only listing i5/i7):
i7-3770
i7-2600
i5-3470
i5-2500
i5-2400
i5-2320
i5-2310
i5-2300

In theory the BIOS has support for all of those and they should work. The fact that it posted with the 2700K and said wrong CPU leads me to agree that it's likely a whitelist.

 

[USAFRet]

Continuing, this page lists four CPUs as compatible upgrades, three of which are i5s, but one of which is another Ivy Bridge chip. (the first processor it lists, the pentium G640, is what the system currently has)

Those other CPUs are not necessarily "potential upgrades", but rather what that model may have been ordered with initially.

This is where the BIOS come in.
You may not be able to replace the existing CPU with a newer/better one, because your BIOS might not speak to a new/different CPU.

These things were not built to be upgradeable.


And in any case, you're not going to get magically better performance in 2024 terms.
That motherboard is stuck at 3rd Gen intel CPUs. Well over a decade old.