IBM X3650 M4 CPU upgrade options

[DigitalDoofus]

Hi all, I am currently looking to upgrade my X3650 M4 from the e5-2620 inside it currently. However, IBM say its only valid for up to E5-2600v2 series processors, However, E5-4000v2 series processors seem cheaper. Same for some of the lower end E7-8000v2 series. Is this server only limited to E5-2600 series CPU's? I have struggled to find any additional info. However, I am going to assume it's hardware whitelisted for E5-2600 and E5-2600v2 series only. 

If anyone has any of these processors working in an X3650 M4 any insights would be greatly appreciated.

[Firewrath9]

E5-2660 v2s should be cheap and a good bit better

[leadeater]

In theory it should work, the chipset and socket support them.

https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/66243/intel-c602j-chipset.html

[DigitalDoofus]

1 minute ago, Firewrath9 said:

E5-2660 v2s should be cheap and a good bit better

I have found E7-4890V2's for rather cheap given 15 cores. 

1 minute ago, leadeater said:

In theory it should work, the chipset and socket support them.

https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/66243/intel-c602j-chipset.html

Well I Lenovo and IBM tend to have strict with hardware whitelists. So i'm a little iffy. 

 

 

[leadeater]

14 minutes ago, LazyChaz said:

Well I Lenovo and IBM tend to have strict with hardware whitelists. So i'm a little iffy. 

They have QVL lists but hardware locking out of CPUs isn't too common, not something I have tested though. I have an IBM x3500 M4 but I've got E5's in it. I have tested other unsupported hardware like LSI RAID cards which work fine and even integrate with the BIOS configuration like the IBM ones do (they are LSI OEM anyway) but that's a fair bit different situation than CPUs.

[DigitalDoofus]

Just now, leadeater said:

They have QVL lists but hardware locking out of CPUs isn't too common, not something I have tested though. I have an IBM x3500 M4 but I've got E5's in it. I have tested other unsupported hardware like LSI RAID cards which work fine and even integrate with the BIOS configuration like the IBM ones does (they are LSI OEM anyway) but that's a fair bit different situation than CPUs.

it does seem that the E7-4800 series xeons may use a socket called LGA 2011-1 which I haven't heard of up until now. But can't find anything beyond that Intel ark specifies them as LGA2011. Although IBM specify the x3650 m4 is only upgradeable to two 12-cores so I'm not sure. I can't seem to find any documentation of anyone even trying a E7-4800 series CPU in a X3650 M4. Only thing I can find is that the X3750 allows them. So maybe it's best to assume the X3650 does not as that would encroach on their existing higher end server line. 

[leadeater]

1 minute ago, LazyChaz said:

it does seem that the E7-4800 series xeons may use a socket called LGA 2011-1 which I haven't heard of up until now.

It does appear that it is different from LGA2011

 

Quote

LGA 2011-1 (Socket R2), an updated generation of the socket and the successor of LGA 1567, is used for Ivy Bridge-EX (Xeon E7 v2)^[6] and Haswell-EX (Xeon E7 v3) CPUs, which were released in February 2014 and May 2015, respectively.

 

[DigitalDoofus]

3 minutes ago, leadeater said:

It does appear that it is different from LGA2011

 

 

okay that Clarifies E7-4800v2 series which I am thankful for but not the E5-4600v2 series. I feel like this may be a wild goose chase haha. Seems like intel in their infinite wisdom have over complicated simple things again.

[Crunchy Dragon]

31 minutes ago, LazyChaz said:

Well I Lenovo and IBM tend to have strict with hardware whitelists. So i'm a little iffy.

The most problems I've had with Lenovo workstations are with RAM compatibility, our ThinkStation D30s will refuse to even POST without Micron or Samsung installed.

[DigitalDoofus]

2 minutes ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

The most problems I've had with Lenovo workstations are with RAM compatibility, our ThinkStation D30s will refuse to even POST without Micron or Samsung installed.

yeah I've found the same but thankfully I managed to dig up 16GB of 10600R samsung memory which works fine. 

[DigitalDoofus]

So from what I can tel the E5-4600v2 is 4 socket scalable whereas, the E5 2600v2 series is 2 socket scalable as for cross compatibility I haven't been able to find much. 

[leadeater]

12 minutes ago, LazyChaz said:

So from what I can tel the E5-4600v2 is 4 socket scalable whereas, the E5 2600v2 series is 2 socket scalable as for cross compatibility I haven't been able to find much. 

Intel does list them under the same product family.... that's something. Haven't seen anything that says they use the 2011-1 socket either.

https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/series/78582/intel-xeon-processor-e5-v2-family.html

[DigitalDoofus]

1 minute ago, leadeater said:

Intel does list them under the same product family.... that's something. Haven't seen anything that says they use the 2011-1 socket either.

https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/series/78582/intel-xeon-processor-e5-v2-family.html

Yeah this seems to just be a deep rabbit hole of ambiguous interoperability. From what I can tell the LGA 2011-1 is a different socket and is incompatible even if intel ark says they should be. LGA 2011 and LGA 2011v3 are of course different. But it still doesn't clarify is E5-4600v2 series processors are compatible with E5-2600v2 servers. Intel ark also says that E7-4800v2, E5-4600v2, and E5-2600v2 including non v2 SKU's are all of the same socket. So, I'm beginning to assume that even intel couldn't be bothered in getting to the bottom of this one  

 

[leadeater]

If we trust Wikipedia, heh, it lists them as 2011 where the E7's are listed as 2011-1. How much faith do you have in Wikipedia 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Xeon_microprocessors#Xeon_E5-46xx_v2_(quad-processor)

[DigitalDoofus]

3 minutes ago, leadeater said:

If we trust Wikipedia, heh, it lists them as 2011 where the E7's are listed as 2011-1. How much faith do you have in Wikipedia 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Xeon_microprocessors#Xeon_E5-46xx_v2_(quad-processor)

There is no spoon.