Optiplex 7010MT – can I replace an i3 with an i5?

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[glnz]

 

My company just gave me a used Dell Optiplex 7010 Mini-Tower with an i3 CPU.

1. If I find an i5 CPU in working order, can I insert it in place of the i3 without changing the motherboard?
2. (And what if I find an i7?)
3. If there are specific parameters / pitfalls to consider, please point me to them. Wooff!
4. This old PC has a sticker with a product key for Windows 7 Pro 64-bit. I will first wipe the hard drive and install Win 10 Pro 64-bit onto this PC while it has the i3 and using that product key (which is still a thing that works) ►Will then changing to an i5 upset the Microsoft activation of the Win 10?
5. By the way, one of my motives for switching to an i5 is to improve the PCIe in this machine from Gen 2 to Gen 3. i3 CPUs provide only PCIe Gen 2, and i5s can provide Gen 3. Do you think I’ll not get the Gen 3 even with the i5?

Please refer to my question numbers above when you provide your wisdom.

Thanks!

• This topic was modified 11 months, 2 weeks ago by glnz.
• This topic was modified 11 months, 2 weeks ago by glnz.

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1&2.  An i5 or i7 will have to be a specific one meant for the same socket as that motherboard.  Even if it is the same socket, there seem to be extra restrictions mentioned here https://www.buildcomputers.net/intel-cpu-socket.html

3.  A cpu will have to be installed with thermal grease (better) or a thermal pad (worse).

5. I believe the right cpu would give pcie 3.0.

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Go to dell.com click support and enter the service tag which should be on the case of the tower or the model number. the info will be found there.

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Because the CPU supports it doesn’t mean the mobo does.
And an I5 will consume more power than an I3, so the power supply may not be up to the job.
The CPU fan will probably need to be updated.

Maybe just run it as is and see how it performs.

cheers, Paul

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Dell Optiplex 7010 Mini-Tower uses the Intel Q77 Express “Ivy Bridge” chipset with a 1155 socket.

Best CPUs to replace the i3 are

i5-3570 (3.4/3.8 GHz, quad-core, single thread)

i7-3770 (3.4/3.9 GHz, quad-core, dual thread)

Complete list of all Intel Q77 Express 1155 socket processors.

Note: CPU numbers that end with a K don’t include on-board Intel graphics (i.e. you’d need a separate graphics card to drive the monitor.)

The 7010 “mini-tower” came with a 275W PSU for i3, i5 & i7 CPUs so power shouldn’t be a problem.

The owners manual can be downloaded from Dell here.

Drivers can be downloaded from Dell here.

The most current BIOS is A29 dated 07/18/2018.

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All – thanks.

Alejr – special thanks, and follow-up questions:

1. I saw many used i7-3770 for sale on ebay for $50 – 60 so I think I will try it.  But maybe I should confirm it is only 3770 with no letter after?  The on-board graphics are important.
2. If I install it in place of the current i3, do I need to download any drivers for it?
3. I’ve never opened up a heat sink to even look at a CPU before.  Never touched one.  Is there a good link for how to do this?
4. Since my 7010 is already activated for Win 10, will this change of the CPU mess up that activation?  (FYI – I installed the Win 10 on an erased, clean hard drive using the Product Key from the Win 7 Pro 64-bit COA sticker on the machine.  Worked fine.)
5. Anything else I should know?

Thanks to all, and all should chime in again with any hints, comments, etc.

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A CPU change could well mean that the activation software would think it is a new PC and thus mess with your activation. A phone call to Microsoft may fix that or a reinstall of Windows 7 then an upgrade to Windows 10.

--Joe

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1- I’ve successfully purchased “used” CPUs from eBay before and have these tips.

Important – check the sellers feedback scores (personally I only buy if it’s 95% or higher with no significant “negative feedback” over the past few months and they’ve been selling on eBay for at least a year.)

I always pay with PayPal in case something happens and I need to dispute the transaction.

BTW, if they provided “photos” of the actual product, an i7-3770 should look like this.

2- While the “chipset” on motherboards require drivers, CPUs don’t.

4- Changing the CPU won’t effect your Win10 activation. I recently upgraded my i7-8700K to an i7-9700K with no problems (I went with the K variant because I use an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 for my graphics.)

3- Here’s a Youtube video by Mxkdi showing the upgrade process for your PC.

Dell Optiplex 7010 Install Replace Upgrade Change Processor

A few notes:

I recommend you use the same Arctic Silver 5 thermal compound shown in his video but follow their instructions on how clean the old compound off the heatsink and apply the new compound (he does a “very sloppy” job this in his video.

Arctic Silver 5 is available here with a plastic applicator and a “lint free” cleaning pad.

After loosening all the screws holding the fan/heatsink combo in place, “gentle” twist it side-to-side a bit. This will break the seal between the heatsink and the CPU making it much easier to pull it off the CPU (don’t forget to unplug the cooling fan.)

After cleaning the old thermal compound off the heatsink using a paper towel, use the “lint free” cleaning pad to ensure it’s completely clean. Any residual compound left on it can cause hot-spots that would degrade the CPU’s performance.

When inserting the new CPU, be careful when placing it into the socket. The small gold arrow on bottom left must line up with the arrow on the bottom left of the socket (note: the “bottom” of the socket is the side facing the hold-down post.)

Don’t “force” the bracket down over the CPU. If it doesn’t easily push down over the CPU, then something’s not lined up properly. Open it back up and try re-positioning the CPU.

You’ll need to press down on the front of the bracket a bit as you pull the latch arm down so the bracket actually catches “under” the hold-down post.

Press the latch arm to the left once it’s all the way down til it firmly “locks” in place under the edge of the bracket.

While the order you “remove” the fan/heatsink combo screws doesn’t really matter, when you “reattach” it you need to “slowly” tighten them in an X pattern to apply even pressure to the heatsink (something else he doesn’t do properly in his video.) Note: the screws only need to be finger tight, so don’t over-do-it.

Don’t forget to reconnect the fan’s power plug.

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alejr and all – many thanks !!!!!  This forum and its community are among the very best!

But … question.  My main motive for upgrading the CPU is to make some or all the PCIe slots on this 7010 go from Gen 2 to Gen 3.  I was hopeful but no longer sure that upgrading the CPU from i3 to i5 or i7 will do that, at least in part.

See this thread on the Dell Optiplex forum and scroll down:

https://www.dell.com/community/Optiplex-Desktops/Optiplex-7010MT-can-I-replace-an-i3-with-an-i5/m-p/8182318

Please come back here and let me have your thoughts.

Thanks!

 

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As pointed out in the other forum, the CPU doesn’t determine whether the PCI bus is gen 2 or gen 3, that’s a function of the motherboard layout, which chipset it uses, and the particular BIOS configurations the manufacturer chose to use.

According to Dell’s 7010 MT owner’s manual, page 56, the blue slot on the motherboard is PCIe gen 3 (x16) supporting a bidirectional speed of up to 16 GB/s (actual PCI bus speed will depend on the bus clock setting and the CPU’s front side bus speed.)

The 3 other PCI slots (including the black x16 wired as x4) are only gen 2.

So…

Although a CPU upgrade “would” speed things up, if your only reason for the upgrade was to get at least one PCIe gen 3 slot, you already have one.

BTW, you can use CPU-z (available here) to display your PCIe bus speeds (they’re shown on the motherboard tab).

 

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All – just FYI – this is a link to a CPU-Z report on the Optiplex 7010 with the i3 that I am thinking of upgrading to an i5 or i7.

https://1drv.ms/u/s!ArpWuno4XUAMkmNarGPkcEIShhqu?e=n9n2nE

(You might have to download to see it correctly – it’s in HTML form.)

What do you think?

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A screenshot would have been better.

cheers, Paul

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The layout of that HTML doc doesn’t even begin to match what CPU-z actually displays and I couldn’t make heads or tails of it.

As Paul T pointed out, what we need is a screen shot of the motherboard tab of CPU-z like this.

BTW, since you indicated you’re not using a separate graphics card, why do you need PCIe 3?

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alejr – try this screenshot and text version of the CPU-Z report, at:

THIS LINK

(and I attached the screenshot below as well, but not the text report).

For this 7010, with its i3, Mainboard-Bus Specs. says “PCI-Express 2.0 (5.0 GT/s)”.
However, for a different 7010 with an i5, this Bus Specs. is greyed out and has no data at all.  (That different 7010 is my main home machine; it came with an i5.)

Why do I care?  See this interesting article –

Install and boot from an NVMe SSD on a Dell OptiPlex 3010, 7010 or 9010

In the 7010 I am focused on (with the i3), my newly installed NVME M.2 is running very nicely at about 1,700 Mbps, about eight times faster than the hard drive did before, but not at the 3,500 Mbps that is described in the article.

I am fairly sure that all my PCIe slots in this 7010 are Gen 2, and so it would be very interesting to get at least one of them (the x16) up to Gen 3.

 

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As stated before, the CPU does not control whether the PCIe bus is gen 2 or 3, that’s determined by the motherboard, chipset and BIOS.

The only effect changing the CPU will have is how “fast” it can access the PCIe bus (i.e. a faster CPU can access the PCIe bus faster.)

Since you have a second 7010 with an i5 CPU, a few questions:

Does it also have a OKCR95 model motherboard as shown on you i3 screen shot?

Is the BIOS also A29 as shown on your i3 screen shot?

Was its BIOS also modified to allow booting from an NVMe?

If so and it’s also using an NVMe, what speeds does it get?

I’d Suggest you attach (i.e. don’t upload and provide a link) the same CPU-z screen shot from the i5 7010.

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alejr – see attached screenshot of the CPU-Z report from my SECOND 7010 with an i5.

That 7010 does NOT YET have an NVME M.2 drive – only its original HDD, so I do not yet know whether I have only PCI-E Gen 2 or maybe Gen 3 in my PCI-E slots.

PLEASE NOTE that, for this i5 7010, the field “BUS Specs” is greyed out and does NOT say “PCI-Express 2.0 (5.0 GT/s)”.  That gives me hope that SOME of its PCI-E slots are, in fact, Gen 3, but I don’t know that.

As you can see, the motherboard is different from my i3 screenshot.  The BIOS, however, is the same A29, which is the last one Dell provided for the 7010 line.  I have NOT YET modified this BIOS to boot from NVME M.2.

So, going back to my first 7010 with the i3 and its OKCR95 model motherboard and (now) its NVME M.2 SSD with modded BIOS per the article – Do you think that if I replace its i3 CPU with an i5 or i7, I might get PCI-E Gen 3 on at least some of its PCI-E slots?

Thanks for bearing with me.

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Interesting…

From what I could, find the 0KRC95 & 0GY6y8 were both used in the 7010 MT so they’re basically the same motherboard (since Dell doesn’t actual make its own motherboards, they’re most likely from two different Dell parts suppliers.)

So why is the Bus Spec. greyed out on 7010 with the i5?

Does it have a PCIe card in it? If not, that might explain it.

Anyway, as I’ve pointed out before.

THE CPU DOES NOT CONTROL WHETHER THE PCIe BUS IS GEN 2 OR 3, THAT’S DETERMINED BY THE MOTHERBOARD, CHIPSET AND BIOS.

If the i3 on your motherboard is not giving you PCIe 3.0 speeds, you will NOT get PCIe 3.0 speeds by swapping it out for an i5 or i7!

The best you can achieve is the PCIe speed will increase by the “percentage” speed difference between the current CPU and the new one (i.e. if the new CPU runs 10% faster, you’ll see a 10% increase in the PCIe bus speed.)

The number of cores and threads between two different CPUs also plays a part (more cores and threads = better PCIe speeds) but it’s not a direct percentage increase like the CPU speed.

Your best PCIe speed increase would be to replace the i3-3220 (3.3 GHz, dual core, dual thread) with an i7-3770 (3.4/3.9 GHz, quad-core, dual thread) but doing that WILL NOT change your PCIe 2.0 into PCI 3.0!

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glnz

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joep517 wrote:

A CPU change could well mean that the activation software would think it is a new PC and thus mess with your activation. A phone call to Microsoft may fix that or a reinstall of Windows 7 then an upgrade to Windows 10.

no joep517, a CPU change/upgrade will NOT mess with the Windows activation status.
I’ve done many CPU upgrades myself on several PCs to confirm this and have not lost any Windows activation status on those machines.

only a motherboard change that has an entirely different chipset can trigger re-activation of Windows

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EP – thanks for your info.

Do you agree with alejr (who is very knowledgeable) that inserting an i5 or an i7 will NOT get me CPI-E Gen 3 on any of my PCI-E slots?

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After all the very good help above, I wanted to notify the world that, in my test Dell Optiplex 7010 Mini-Tower:
– I have FINALLY replaced the original i3 processor with a used i7-3770 that I bought on eBay,
– I now have PCI-E 3.0 in the x16 PCI-E slot, and
– my M.2 NVMe is showing the full expected speed of 3,400 MBps per the article I link to below.

Before I go on, you need to know why I did this.  It was to replace the HDD in the 7010 with an NVMe M.2 SSD and get the full, blazing-fast speeds of an NVMe M.2 even though an Optiplex 7010 is not designed to accept an NVME M.2 at all.  See this amazing article:  <Install and boot from an NVMe SSD on a Dell OptiPlex 3010, 7010 or 9010>

Before I upgraded my i3 to this i7, I was getting only 1,700 MB/s on the recently installed NVME M.2, because (as I now know), the i3 provides only PCI-E 2 in this motherboard.   Now I know that an i7 will provide PCI-E 3, at least in the x16 PCI-E slot.

Well, it’s alive !!!

This is on my test used Optiplex 7010 Mini-Tower, which might become a fourth computer in my wife’s mini-office.

Now, my personal computer is also an Optiplex 7010 Mini-Tower with its original i5 3470 and HDD. I wonder whether that i5 would also provide PCI-E 3 in the x16 slot.

On the now-fast i7 NVMe M.2 test machine, CPU-Z’s Motherboard tab says “Bus Specs. PCI-Express 3.0 (8.0 GT/s)”
On my personal i5 HDD machine, CPU-Z’s Motherboard tab has “Bus Specs” greyed out with no info showing.

Questions:

1) Any thoughts on whether an i5 will already provide the needed PCI-E 3 in the x16 slot?

2) Are my power supplies enough to handle the faster i7 CPU? I imagine yes because that i7 was always listed as an option for the 7010, but what do you think?

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glnz wrote:

1) Any thoughts on whether an i5 will already provide the needed PCI-E 3 in the x16 slot?

Visit Intel’s Products formerly Ivy Bridge (Desktop) page, click on the specific i5 CPU in your PC to open its specs page, expand “Specifications” on the right-hand side and then select “Expansion Options” to see if it supports PCI Express Revision 3.0.

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glnz wrote:

2) Are my power supplies enough to handle the faster i7 CPU? I imagine yes because that i7 was always listed as an option for the 7010, but what do you think?

While how fast a CPU runs plays a part in this, it really boils down to how much “power” (in Watts) the CPU actually draws.

A quick check of the manual shows, while the Dell Optiplex 7010 MT came with 3 possible CPUs (i3-3220 55 W, i5-3470 77 W & i7-3770 77 W) it always used the same 275 W PSU.

So, unless you add a PCI card that requires a LOT of power, you’re good to go!

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glnz wrote:

On my personal i5 HDD machine, CPU-Z’s Motherboard tab has “Bus Specs” greyed out with no info showing.

You must have at least one PCI card plugged into one of the PCI slots for it to display Bus Specs (i.e if nothing’s using the Bus, there’s nothing for it to display!)

1 user thanked author for this post.

glnz

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alejr wrote:

Note: CPU numbers that end with a K don’t include on-board Intel graphics (i.e. you’d need a separate graphics card to drive the monitor.)

(I skimmed through and didn’t notice any correction of the above statement.)

CPU numbers ending with ‘K’ require overclocking ‘boards to reach their full potential and CPU coolers aren’t supplied with them. Whilst there may be a few Ivy ‘K’ processors that don’t have built-in graphics, most of the commonly found variants do, and they often have higher graphics capabilities than lower spec CPUs.

i5 3570K, i7 3770, Xeon E3-1230 V2 (no graphics version) comparison, all are Ivy and will fit 75/77 ‘boards and give PCIE 3.0: https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/compare.html?productIds=65520,65719,65732

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My bad!

That should have said “CPU numbers that end with the letter F don’t include on-board Intel Graphics.”

K indicates the cores are unlocked and can be overclocked.

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