Will a Dell R710 function properly with mismatched CPUs? I've got 4 Xeon CPUs CPUs. 2x E5645, and 2x E5503. I have two R710 servers. I want to keep the two balanced. I could buy more E5645s if I need to, but that'll be a week of shipping. I'd like to get it up and running as two 'identical' systems tonight and tomorrow if possible. Is it possible? I've tried googling and searching here and haven't found an article discussing this issue yet.
Dell R710 with mismatched CPUs
- Thread starter aarcane
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Quoting,
1. CPUs must have the same QPI and RAM speed to work together.
2. CPUs must have the same thermal profile (TDP) to work together.
3. The CPUs must have the same number of physical cores to work together.
4. The CPUs must have the same number of logical cores to work together.
5. Stepping does not matter.
6. Clock speed does not matter.
So, you can only mix 2 CPUs that has only clock speed or stepping difference. And both CPUs will simply run at the lower clock speed.
Long story short, it's impossible to "balance" CPU power. Both sockets would end up running at exact same spec, which is the lower spec of the two.
1. CPUs must have the same QPI and RAM speed to work together.
2. CPUs must have the same thermal profile (TDP) to work together.
3. The CPUs must have the same number of physical cores to work together.
4. The CPUs must have the same number of logical cores to work together.
5. Stepping does not matter.
6. Clock speed does not matter.
So, you can only mix 2 CPUs that has only clock speed or stepping difference. And both CPUs will simply run at the lower clock speed.
Long story short, it's impossible to "balance" CPU power. Both sockets would end up running at exact same spec, which is the lower spec of the two.
Different processors on a dual socket motherboard?
Can you put two different processors (same family) on a dual socket motherboard? I want to do some work with dual processor development while still being able to use the PC for a gaming PC (not high end but capable enough). I'm looking at putting an Intel Xeon E5502 and Intel Xeon W5590...
forums.tomshardware.com
@aarcane My experience with refurbishing Dell severs tells me that while the server may initially go through POST, it will squawk about mismatched CPUs of the same generation and halt. You will not be able to mix a 5600 series and a 5500 series on the same machine and have it boot.
I'd strongly suggest pairing equal CPUs and dividing up your proposed workloads between the machines.
I'd strongly suggest pairing equal CPUs and dividing up your proposed workloads between the machines.