HP Compaq Elite 8100 SFF PC Xeon X3480

[Tropick]

Hey everyone, so I've been on a mission to get the most performance out of my old 8100. It's a pet project and I'm totally aware that there are much more cost effective ways to get more performance, but I'm really bored given the current situation and thought this could be an interesting hardware experiment. Per this link, there's a user that supposedly got a Xeon X3460 running using the stock 1.13(?) BIOS. I currently have a i7-870 running in my machine, which is (basically) equivalent to a Xeon X3470. Therefore, is it reasonable to say that there's a chance that a Xeon X3480 (i7-880) could work? Could it be somehow the Xeon microcodes were included in this update (or forgot to be taken out)? I currently have a Xeon X3480 on the way from China that I was able to get for a really good price, but it isn't going to get here for a while cause, you know. I will update this thread with my results when the processor arrives, good or bad.

These are my current system specs:

i7-870

GTX 1650 LP

16GB DDR3-1333

120GB SATA III SSD (Running at SATA II speed)

240W HP PSU (High Efficiency revision)

[Tropick · Accepted solution]

Hey everyone! I got some really good news. The X3480 came in a couple days ago and it works perfectly fine inside an Elite 8100 SFF with the stock 240W PSU, zero hiccups or third party software/firmware modifications. That being said, you must have your BIOS updated to v1.13 before the install or else this upgrade will not work. I will put a link to the latest (v1.13) BIOS here.

If you're running Windows 10, you may encounter an error with Windows UAC preventing you from installing (the BIOS is only officially supported through Windows 7 so HP locked it down for safety) the update, however there's an easy workaround provided you have administrator privileges that I will link here. If you're one of the people (like myself) that needs to use this fix, make sure you run sp53945.exe (the 1.13 BIOS update) from the new administrator account that you just activated (aka log in to it and run it from the desktop) and not your current user account. This is a special, more powerful administrator account used to override baked-in security measures among other things, and it's important you spend as little time as possible inside it. Also always remember to disable the net admin account after you're finished with the upgrade, as leaving this account active on your PC is a massive security risk.

Given you've completed the above steps and your BIOS is now on v1.13, you should have no problem at all installing your shiny, new Xeon! Mind you this is the definitive, fastest CPU Intel ever made for the LGA 1156 platform, so if you're not happy with your CPU performance after this upgrade, you're gonna have to go with something on the LGA 1366 platform or higher. However, the performance of this thing really is nuts for it's age. With the X3480, GTX 1650 LP, and 16GB of memory, I can run Just Cause 3 on Ultra @ 1080p. Which is pretty crazy considering this CPU is nearing It's 11th birthday.

Anyways, if anyone has any questions about this upgrade or any other weird Elite 8100 hacks, I'll be monitoring this thread for the next few months so feel free to ask!

[Choolie69]

Hi, I have the same PC. How has it worked out? Is it still going strong?