I am putting together a 4th computer

[nickc]

for the house trying to use some old stuff gathered over the years. The first item is the processor ( Intel Q6600) which I got out of an old Dell a couple years ago. And I have tried 2 different Mother Boards which should be compact able. To day at lunch I was told the Dell processor would not run in anyone else"s Mother board which I thought was bull but would like a yes or no on this.


Thanks

 

[Vengeance76]

Well, DELL is very restrictive on their hardware. Like the fact that you can't usually find upgrades outside of the DELL website. They have their own special mobo's, so I think the person who said it would only work in DELL comps was right.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[dividebyzero]

The Q6600 only comes out as two models, sSpec SL9UM (B3 stepping) and SLACR (G0 stepping-by far the better of the two) and both are standard Intel CPU's. The heatsink and motherboard are probably proprietry to Dell, but the CPU certainly isn't. The sSpec will be marked on the heatspreader along with the FPO/Batch code which tells you about it's manufacture-you can decipher that using this:
1st digit/letter is the plant code : 0 or 3 for Costa Rica, 1, 7 or R for Philippines, 6 for Arizona, 8 or Y for Ireland, 9, L or Q for Malaysia
2nd digit is year of production (i.e. 7 = 2007)
3rd and 4th digit is calender week of the year
Digits 5-8 is the lot number
Last four digits are the serialization code

And that's probably more info than you ever wanted to know...be sure to drop the newfound knowledge at lunch on Monday!

 

[Vengeance76]

Interesting dividebyzero.

I do remember, back when I was sick of my old DELL, that I wanted to upgrade. As always, I had little money to burn. So in attempt to be frugal, I bought a barebones kit that supported the speed, size and type of memory in my old DELL. However, when building the new machine, I found it wouldn't post. Turns out it was the memory.

I had to buy new RAM because I found out the DELL sticks are compatible with anything but DELL... hardwired in a chip somewhere, somehow?

 

[dividebyzero]

Can't say tbh. Whenever I get handed a Dell I call the bomb disposal unit.

Seriously though, I did have a 486 socket Dell around for a time (always handy having a working system for testing as a lot of people still have P4/AGP based systems) but the board was remarkably tolerant in what brand of RAM it could use so long as the voltage and latency was within spec. The system is now departed (proprietry heatsink limited the CPU's I could test) and I haven't had much cause to revisit the brand. For Dell RAM upgrades I've usually found that A-Data, Kingston, Silicon Power and the generic loose timing sticks work fine in general terms.

 

[nickc]

Thanks gentlemen for all the news.

The Q6600 only comes out as two models, sSpec SL9UM (B3 stepping) and SLACR (G0 stepping-by far the better of the two) and both are standard Intel CPU's. The heatsink and motherboard are probably proprietry to Dell, but the CPU certainly isn't. The sSpec will be marked on the heatspreader along with the FPO/Batch code which tells you about it's manufacture-you can decipher that using this:
1st digit/letter is the plant code : 0 or 3 for Costa Rica, 1, 7 or R for Philippines, 6 for Arizona, 8 or Y for Ireland, 9, L or Q for Malaysia
2nd digit is year of production (i.e. 7 = 2007)
3rd and 4th digit is calender week of the year
Digits 5-8 is the lot number
Last four digits are the serialization code

And that's probably more info than you ever wanted to know...be sure to drop the newfound knowledge at lunch on Monday!

And I am assuming that means the boards I have tried are probably bad then, as the mem is tested an known good the boards were having problems when they made the side lines.


Thanks everyone.

 

[Adhmuz]

dividedbyzero you forgot one if not the most important piece of information relevant to a CPU... The socket, you explained everything else. Anyway, for the added touch the Q6600 is a socket LGA 775. Its a rather good chip with overclocking potential, more so if its a G0. More of a workhorse then anything however. Oh and its a 60nm process.

 

[nickc]

well i knew that piece of info thanks though.

 

[Vengeance76]

Ditto on the DELL bomb squad.

Good for college students who don't know d*ck about computers... hence why I had one... *cough*