Upgrade Dell 650 poweredge server

[shebmeister]

Yo,
I work for a company that does NOT believe in buying anything NEW! (quite weird, but what da hey).
I came across an old Dell Poweredge 650 server (2004) that I want to build something useful out of. Does anybody know if I could bump the CPU from 2.4 GHz to something faster? Heres the specs from the Dell site:
--------------------------------------------
1 0X096 KIT..., CABLE..., INTERFACE..., POWER..., DORADO/ATHENS/TUALATIN/ALMODOR..., PE650
1 H1483 Processor, 80532, 2.4GHz, 512K 533, SOCKET N..., DECISION ONE...
1 6878T Cord, Power, 125VOLT, 10Feet, SJT..., Unshielded
1 D3433 Kit, Documentation On Compact Disk, Document Object Model V3.7, World Wide
2 9U174 Dimm, 512, 266M, 64X72, 8K, 184, 1U
1 9K646 Card, Controller, IDE (INTEGRATED DRIVE ELECTRONICS) ..., LSI LOGIC..., ATA100/4CH
2 4W941 Assembly, Cable, Auxillary, Power, HDD
1 8W522 Kit, Cable, Interface, IDE (INTEGRATED DRIVE ELECTRONICS) ..., REDUNDANT ARRAY OF INTEGRATED/ INEXPENSIVE DRIVES/DISKS...
1 K3963 Hard Drive, 40GB, I, 7.2K WD-XL80S, 80G/PA
1 K3963 Hard Drive, 40GB, I, 7.2K WD-XL80S, 80G/PA
1 J1679 Card, Network, ETHERNET..., Intel PRO1000MT
1 J1797 TECHNICAL SHEET..., DOCUMENTATION..., UPDATE..., P650, V2, WORLD WIDE...
1 G1197 Kit, Rack, Versarail 1U/1P-Network Access Server, V3
1 J1778 GUIDE..., GETTING STARTED..., P650, V2, DAO/BCC
1 5W591 Assembly, Panel, Backplane, QTA, PowerEdge 650
1 8X523 Heatsink, PowerEdge 650, QTA
1 P2753 KIT..., DOCUMENTATON ON FLOPPY DISK..., COST EFFECTIVE RAID CONTROLLER..., ATA-4CH
1 R1944 Assembly, Bezel, Metal, Paint Front, PowerEdge 650 Pentium4, 2
0 5R203 INFORMATION..., FLYER, DOCUMENTATION...
1 T1344 TECHNICAL SHEET..., CARD (CIRCUIT)..., NETWORK..., ETHERNET..., INTEL...
1 5W872 GUIDE..., REGULATORY..., POWEREDGE..., DELL AMERICAS ORGANIZATION...
1 M1523 Assembly, Chassis, System PE650, 2
1 K2499 Kit, Heatsink, Clip, Copper Quanta, 2

Thanks a bunch - the sheb

 

[tf1]

The clue may be to look at any BIOS updates that were made available by Dell. The release notes for the BIOS updates should list if they were to recognise newer CPUs.

You can certainly fit other CPUs from that series, but it is down to the BIOS whether they will be recognised and work.

Other than using it as a (very inefficient) firewall or similar task, I don't see there's much you can do with that old beast bearing in mind its small disks and miniscule memory!

Regards: Terry

 

[goombawaho]

Better to drop a little solder on the motherboard and say "oops, it's broken" than to fool with ancient equipment.

Companies like that are dumb in the long run. If a piece of equipment is too old, it starts costing them more money trying to upgrade and keep it running than getting new stuff. The pain of down time is a huge factor.

 

[wahnula]

Getting a faster CPU would not be that apparent performance-wise, but according to this PDF:

http://www.networkeleven.com/dedicated/650_specs.pdf

...you can put a 3.06 GHz P4 533 in it, if you can find one.

Right now the best performance increase you can make is maxing out the RAM to 3 GB and perhaps changing out the HDD for a SSD. These improvements would improve performance but not perceptibly increase heat or power consumption. Yes, there are PATA SSDs available.

I don't think the jump from 2.4 GHz to 3.06 GHz would be worth the trouble, but it could be done. Just remember to upgrade the PSU and HSF as well if you swap the CPU.

Tony

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