Can you change the CPU in a HPE Proliant MicroServer Gen10?

[Krisow]

I have an HPE Proliant Gen10 MicroServer and I've the RAM from 8GB to 32GB and I've put in some nice HDD to get some capacity, but from what I've found out the CPU is for some unknown stupid reason is Sothered onto the motherboard.

Which is a huge shame as the AMD CPU on it is complete trash, i would love to put in a CPU onto the server thats not close to 10 years old.

Can I take a soldering iron and remove the old CPU and put in a new AMD CPU on it? Or is the sothered CPU connected to the Motherboard with codings/bios/chips in a certain way so the server becomes useless without the original CPU?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

HP split into two companies back in 2014.

HP supports PC's, printers, tablets and calculators.

HP Enterprise (HPE) supports servers, switches, routers and tape drives.

You may also want to post your question on the HPE community support forum--Proliant Netservers section.

ProLiant Servers – Netservers Forum | HPE Blogs, Discussions and Forums Community

I highly doubt you can desolder the original CPU and resolder a newer one in its place.

A newer CPU would not be compatible with the motherboard your Microserver has.

[Krisow]

Well that sucks, can barely open a web browser or program before the CPU goes to 100% in Task Manager and everything starts to lag.

[itsmyname]

@Krisow -- everything starts to lag

Are you using a fast SSD or a slow mechanical HDD ?

When the CPU hits 100%, what does Task Manager show for disk-drive activity? How much I/O per second?

[Krisow]

I'm using HDDs only since they're cheaper and packs more storage, but the CPU is a AMD Opteron X3216 APU with 1.60Mhz speed only so its not the best. 

I will probably when the server dies on day and I get the newer Gen10+ server use an SSD for the OS and HDD for storage (got this server back in 2019 when I was still a new student in IT.

the Disks according to Task Manager is around 6-15% when I use an program.

[DGroves]

the answer to your question is itself answered by your question......

if you think a surface mount BGA chip can be removed by a soldering iron, you don't have the skill set to attempt this

surface mount chips require specialized equipment like a hot air station, a preheater for the motherboard and other bits of kit

next i doubt the bios would recognize any other cpu chip other than what came with the system due to missing bios microde

there's a saying that you can make a toaster fly, but at some point it's cheaper to just buy a plane and i think that fits in this case......... so if you want a faster microstation, then buy a faster one.   as in the long run it's going to be cheaper and more practical than trying to hardware modify your existing one

[itsmyname]

@Krisow -- I'm using HDDs only since they're cheaper and packs more storage

A HDD is slower than a SSD.  Definitely, from 5 to 10 times.

Cheaper? True. 

Packs more storage? True.

But, how much disk-space do you need?

The cost of a 500 GB SSD is about the same as the cost of a 1000 GB "spinning" disk-drive. 

The cost of a 250 GB SSD is not much less than the cost of a 500 GB SSD.

As you indicated, you could purchase a 250 GB SSD and make it your "boot" volume, and continue to use your current disk-drive as a "storage" volume.