NXS

I know, right? It hits me right in the feels. Case is still in pristine condition, too.

I just needed a decent processor to sell an extra Optiplex I have and it just so happens that the i3-2130 supports both Q67 and H77 so for the $18 bucks I paid (including $8.00 for shipping, I think it'll be good enough to check the BCM board out, use it to upgrade the BIOS, and then slap an i5-2500k inside of it if the BCM board supports overclocking. It being a personalized industrial board, I'm guessing the BIOS will have some bells and whistles that the OEM Dell Optiplex BIOS lacks. I've got 8GB of ram, a 250GB SSD, and an older, but still wicked X-Blade Full ATX tower I can slap the BCM board in to check it out. Here's a picture of the case.

I do believe both of you are correct. I've never heard of BCM before, I just presumed it was a Foxconn due to the CPU Heatsink's bottom plate on the bottom of the motherboard. Have either of you ever seen one in the wild? Are they decent boards? I have one and I'll have an i3-2130 to toy around with (got it for an Optiplex 9010 but will try it in this board just to see what this board can do) by the 15th, so I'm excited to get to really check it out. Thanks so much for your help, both of you. Quick and valid replies, y'all have made my night .

I believe it is a Foxconn; it's an LGA1155 board with a Q67 chipset. I deduced this by removing the chipset heat sink where I saw "Q67." Other than that, I have no idea what version this board is or if it is even a Foxconn board. I do know that with the dual PCI-E slots, it's not an entry-level board, but that it literally ALL of the information I have been able to find. Here are pictures of the board. I have found similar looking 1155 Foxconn motherboards but none that are exact (i.e. missing the second PCI-E slot, missing the "Foxconn hard print that is usually present on the chipset heat sinks and other small differences). Someone make my year and help me identify this thing once and for all!

Bumping for fresh eyes and to add some insights. I've tried using DiskPart (Windows 10 ISO), selected Disk 0 (the faulty drive, apparently) Size (29 GB) Free (29 GB) Status: Online. Select Disk 0 Clean Create Partition EFI DiskPart has encountered an error: Data error (cyclic redundancy check). See the System Event Log for more information. No volumes are shown and no matter what type of partition I attempt to create (EFI, Extended, Logical, MSR, Primary) I receive the same CRC Data Error. What--if anything--can I do to fix this? I'd really greatly appreciate any help.

Sir, that Xeon is a beast of a processor built upon the Sandy Bridge architecture that has 4 cores and 8 threads running @3.6GHz and has 10MB of cache; the i7 has 8MB of cache and a lower base clock. If it were me, I would go for it over the i7; especially since they're both pre-built's and the Xeon comes with over double the memory if I am reading your post correctly, and the base frequency of the Xeon is 200MHz faster at stock and can TurboBoost up to 3.8GHz. Since they are both pre-built systems I'm guessing they can't be overclocked in any real capacity, you'll get better CPU performance out of the Xeon. If it were me, I'd save myself the money, get the Xeon system, and invest the extra cash into an SSD or a secondary hard drive. That's just my take, though.

Then honestly, you should be just fine. Like I said, just always be mindful of your temperatures of your laptop, your battery, and your power supply; like I said, you can get CPU temperature monitoring software for free on the internet, but with the battery and the power supply, that's kinda gonna have to be something you just feel out for yourself... if it's hot, then you need to ease off for a few and let things cool back down. If you notice it being a continuing trend of overheating in any of the aforementioned aspects, then you may need to lessen the load by not using as many peripherals. Hope I've been of help!

Could you elaborate a little bit on what type of gaming you're striving for? Are we talking older games such as Need for Speed, San Andreas, Counterstrike, etc.? Also, what is your processor? I've seen the HD 620 graphics play games like GTA 5 at a resolution of 768 at roughly 30-35fps. Either way, you're essentially looking at more power consumption resulting in higher temperatures. Download a temperature-monitoring application and keep an eye out on a range you feel comfortable with. As for overall power consumption, another good indicator would be watching your power supply's heat output to make sure it's not being overloaded. I'm certainly no expert, but more power usually equates to higher temperatures. I've used my USB expansion for a few years now and the original port it was plugged into still works like a charm; that said, the system is an Optiplex 9020 with additional fans and ample ventilation. They actually do make unpowered USB splitters.... I have a 4-port USB 3.0 expansion that plugs into one of my USB ports. https://express.google.com/u/0/product/10895349063277392258_18363952253652731964_118724597 <--- There's one similar to mine. Also, being able to game without an eGPU would be relative to what his expectations of gaming are. Obviously he can't run Triple-A titles at high or ultra settings, but there's a plethora of games out there that his Yoga is more than capable of playing quite well; especially some of the aforementioned classics like San Andreas, Counter Strike, and most of the Need for Speed series. It's all relative to what his expectations are.

To cut to the point, the on-board hard drive has apparently bit the bullet; it's built into the motherboard, so there's no traditional fix. That said, I've seen a YT video ( mods please delete if the link is prohibited) where a guy does bypass the on-board drive with some sort of SSD of comparable size to that of the wifi adapter that comes equipped in the Stream. I've compared the Stream's WiFi adapter with that of a traditional laptop and the design is different; I will attach a picture of the WiFi adapter below. My question is, what kind of drive is compatible, and has anyone here on the forums actually tested this to see if it actually works? The warranty JUST ran out and I don't need a super amount of storage; I think I could get by with anywhere between 64-128gb's of space for my needs regarding Office software and Windows Updates themselves. The questions are, what kind of drive would fit this slot, based upon the attached picture, and can this be done? I do know you can boot from the WiFi primarily via changing settings in the UEFI BIOS to make the Network Adapter the primary boot device, but this is something completely out of my normal realm. I'd really appreciate some input! ?

Bumping one last time in hopes of getting some assistance.

Bumping for more info or perhaps some fresh eyes and ideas.

That's what I'm concerned with as well. I've seen problematic PSUs cause systems to act funny, but I've got no way to test that out. I have tried different RAM modules but they render the same results.

Okay, when I pull the RAM, THEN both LEDs turn red and beep five times on loop. Placing the RAM back in, the lights return to green, but still beeps the five times. It's no longer doing the CPU fan overload, though (where the fan runs at full speed). DVD Drive is still functional, the little small LED on the motherboard is green, as well. That's about as much info as I have to give.

I found it here: http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c03612798 on pg. 303. Regarding pulling the RAM, I will do that and get back to you as soon as I am able to do so.