I found a new way to refurbish old computers with socket 755 with modded Xeon. (Installing a Xeon Socket 771 on 775 motherboard)
Its possible to have performance beetween a Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 and a Intel i7 920 from a old dual-core/Core2duo desktop tower.
We can found alot of cheap Xeon 771 around 25$ on ebay, more affordable then a Q9650 around 100 $
Xeon E5440, E5450, X5460, X5470 works good !
Why scrapping a working 775 desktop if you can do great things with :)
sounds great in theory.......How many returns are you getting on these units?
I have sell 2 Gaming Xeon computers with this process
To be safe I buy Xeon E5450 (12M Cache, 3.00 GHz, 1333 MHz FSB) for motherboard supporting Core 2 Quad Q9650 (12M Cache, 3.00 GHz, 1333 MHz FSB).
Its the same CPU ID and architecture.. Benchmark résult and Cpu stability software are very convincing.
No return for those gaming PC and customers very satisfied :)
The problem with 775 machines is that they're flooding the market right now. I have a couple hundred to take apart. Right now, that leaves a niche for this, but when the I-Series machines come out of retirement, anything with an LGA775 will be worthless.
I'm starting to see the newer machines entering the stream. They'll be here in full force towards the end of the year.
Most 775 sockets cannot reliably support the higher power demand, and the older architecture does not have a "safety" to prevent the pwm side of the cpu power downconverter (voltage regulator)from quite literally starting on fire. You have been warned. I've done this mod before when competing in benchmark competitions where they set standards like "socket limited to this" or similar. Ive seen voltage regulator side temps north of 240 degrees. As already stated be ABSOLUTELY sure the board supports the high current quad cores (hint...very few support the Q9650 or QX9650) Also I would not mod the socket itself...ever. Much better to simply buy the drill jig on ebay for like 12 bucks... the stickers for the pin swap can be had in 100 qty for 20 or 30 bucks. Still I warn everyone...I do not do this for retail purposes, xeons while in that era had nearly identical dies usually any die that had a thermal output or power requirement out of spec became a xeon...its just how they did things, similar to how AMD chose to shut cores off and sell the CPU anyways because a core wouldnt run at stock voltage.
FYI, I would not run X, X uses alot of electricity, I'd rather run a E5450
The office rig is a water cooled ASUS P35D ROG board with an X5492 and the voltage regulators are all heatsinked and have a dedicated set of fans. Obviously...its a computer not left running when I'm not there. Because I am a bit paranoid everything runs of a thermal monitor and shuts the computer off should the VR get too hot...
Also...xeons ARE more reliable...they can take more heat, more voltage irregularities and input instability than the core 2 quad. It's why they are server/workstation class. Some guys used to think there were some differences in architecture but Intel later said they are literally identical die architectures with the difference being the xeons were the top XX% from tested dies.
Honestly, I'd rather take my risks at unlocking an AMD than this. I unlocked my AMD Phenom X3 710 and ran it as a quad core for years until I retired the computer a couple of months ago.
In a little while, this will be a moot point anyways- once the First generation I-Series CPUs and motherboards start hitting us in bulk, that'll be the swan song for the already dying LGA775.