Does the HP Pro 3400 MT support 1155 xeon processors?

[kocothehooman]

I want to upgrade my HP Pro 3400 MT's processor (a Pentium g630) to a Xeon E3 1220. However looking up compatibility online hasn't given me a precise answer. Officially from HP there is no mention of Xeon. On the H61 socket, Xeon is also not listed on intel's compatibility website. However for example ASRock's H61 boards DO support Xeon's and I've found some threads where it's said that HP often supports Xeon.

So which is it? WIll my HP board support Xeon processors or no?

[BeemerBiker]

Looks like some users have been able to upgrade  I have i5-2500s on my Pro 3400.  The real problem is upgrading the video

[kocothehooman]

Are you saying some people have been able to upgrade to a newer processor or to a xeon, since the  link you have given leads me to an info page for the i5-2400?

[BeemerBiker · Accepted solution]

Sorry, did not make it clear what that site shows.  I have Pro 3400 and had upgraded to i5-2500s.  If you double click the "g630" you will see how many users have successfully upgraded from that cpu.  To upgrade from g630 to i5-2500 there is %93 success rate.  However, the motherboards are not listed.  The only requirement to be in that table is to have a Sandy Bridge core and a 1155 socket.  There are 857 motherboards that accept the G630 but the Pro 3400 may not have been one of the motherboards tested for this list.

Based on you wanting to upgrade from G630 to an E3-1220 there is a %50 chance of success.  There is no list of the motherboards that passed or failed so one doe not know if the 3400 was tested.  Failure could  be the user did not upgrade the bios first, forgot to clear the CMOS or the motherboard is an early version or simply it just didn't work as not compatible.   If googling does not show the 1220 working on Pro3400 then ask the seller if you can return the CPU if it does not work.

Because of the problems with the video slot and low watt power supply there is not much you can do to upgrade the Pro3400.  

[BeemerBiker]

PROBLEM - Even if the XEON works, you will end up with an even  bigger problem:  The XEON does not have built in video.  You will have to find a non-UEFI bios video card as discussed here You cannot put an RX-560 or NVidia 1050 into that x16 slot, it will not work.  You would have to find a really old card, lower power, made back before 2012 and then make sure it did not have UEFI bios.

[kocothehooman]

Ok that's very helpful. I don't have a problem with wattage because I have a PSU with enough wattage to run a GPU on it. The only problem that is left is with the UEFI GPUs compatibility with the board.

[NonSequitur777]

Kocothehooman, according to Ellis 34xx_35xx_MT_Win8 IPSM.fm (hp.com) your HP Pro 3400 MT will support the Intel i7-3770, as the fastest CPU listed for your system.  That means, in my opinion, that your PC will likely also support the i7-3770K and the LGA1155 socket supported Xeon E3-xxxx v2 family of CPU's.

I know, because I run or have run the i7-3770K and the Xeon E3-1280 v2 on HP Elite 8300 USDT and HP Pro 6300 SFF platforms -see my discussion threads under the Desktop Hardware and Upgrade Questions if you're interested.

However, as pointed out, because these Xeons don't have integrated graphic capabilities, you will need an internal GPU -meaning, a GPU that will fit inside your PC chassis, or an external GPU, connected by a data-ribbon cable from your motherboard to outside your PC. For the latter case, a minor chassis modification will be needed.

Btw, researching online, I haven't seen any HP Pro 3400 MT's fitted (yet) with i7-3770K or Xeon E3 xxxx-v2 CPU's, but then again, neither was that the case for the HP Elite 8300 USDTs before I happened to introduce it.

What I did before buying the much more expensive E3-1280 v2, is that I bought a cheap "try-out" E3-1220 v2 via ebay, where you can still get them for $20 or less.  This Xeon worked just fine on my Elite 8300 USDT and Pro 6300, and indicated that the Xeon E3 xxxx-v2 family was compatible.

[kocothehooman]

Thanks for the answer- that's the last straw needed to convince myself that it will work. 
As for the GPU as far as I've seen the HD 7950 is not UEFI compatible(or most BIOSes I've seen online aren't UEFI compatible), so I'm 90% sure it will work. 

Geez saying that out loud (or typing it) makes me very exhilarated, because I have a laptop with average specs, but they don't run well at all because of probably temps and single-channel memory, and if these 2 parts work I would've payed like 100 bucks for something that runs WAYYY better than my laptop.