Replacing i7 in z400

[sensors]

Thinking of replacing the HP Motherboard and processor with an i7 core and compatiable MB. Not gaming, real work: Solidworks, pcb design, FEA. Can keep the HP M Board and try to upgrade as well. Any of this make sense?

 

[maxh22]

Thinking of replacing the HP Motherboard and processor with an i7 core and compatiable MB. Not gaming, real work: Solidworks, pcb design, FEA. Can keep the HP M Board and try to upgrade as well. Any of this make sense?

What i7 do you want to upgrade to? and what motherboard are you buying?

What are the specs of your current system?

 

[sensors]

You would think I might have said so in the first place...sorry. Its an HP Z4 workstation, Intel Xeon Quad Core 2.66GHz. WOuld swap to Intel Core i7-3770S Ivy Bridge 3.1GHz or something close. Would prefer to keep HP motherboard but willing to change. The new MB has to be very reliable. If this works we will use this as a roadmap for upgrading the other Z400s we have.

 

[maxh22]

You would think I might have said so in the first place...sorry. Its an HP Z4 workstation, Intel Xeon Quad Core 2.66GHz. WOuld swap to Intel Core i7-3770S Ivy Bridge 3.1GHz or something close. Would prefer to keep HP motherboard but willing to change. The new MB has to be very reliable. If this works we will use this as a roadmap for upgrading the other Z400s we have.

I guess it would work well but Xeon's were ment to be be workstations cpu's, is there something wrong with your xeon?

Is it too slow?

 

[cjl]

Also, which Xeon is it, and how old is it? A lot of the more recent Xeons are basically i7s with a different label.

 

[lazyboy947]

I think the xeon is a W3520 since its the only 2.66ghz cpu to come on the hp z4 workstation

 

[cjl]

If so, that's effectively already an i7, although it's an older gen one (comparable to an i7-940 or so). I really doubt it would be cost effective to replace it with an Ivy, since it would need an entire new motherboard, and the speed gain would probably not be all that great.

 

[sensors]

Will have to open it up to double check what we have. They are good machines, however I am pushing it a bit by running Solidworks and Altium (circuit and pcb design) at the same time with multiple parts. It is just as possible that that I am the guilty party and should come up with a better approach to our modelling. I suppose we could considr filling up the old memory banks - I am running 12 gig and the others have 15 gigs

 

[sensors]

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