Installing a Server CPU in a Normal Computer by Hacking it - ($481 Billion Intel don't Like It)
I recently came in to possession of an old Lenovo ThinkCentre M800 computer. It came with an i5-6400 CPU and 8GB RAM. Upgrading the RAM to 16GB was simple as there were 2 free RAM slots. Installing a 2.5" SATA SSD was trivial as I have a 3D printer; I installed a bracket and I was away. Upgrading the CPU however required a lot of effort. Once upon a time, you could buy a server grade Intel Xeon CPU and install it in your consumer motherboard with no issues. I did just that with an LGA 1150 Intel Xeon E3-1230 V3. With this particular CPU generation (6th), and possibly later ones too, Intel made that impossible for a basic computer user.
The simplest thing to do would have been to install an i7-6700 in and call it a day but they cost £35. I wanted a cheaper alternative so I settled on an Intel Xeon E3-1230 V5 which cost me less that £7. It is pin compatible but Intel (and Lenovo) claimed it wouldn't work in my desktop due to "chipset incompatibility". If I wanted it to work, I needed a C232 or 236 server chipset. How convenient! To me, this is a coded way of saying corporate greed / planned obsolescence so I set about modding the machine to accept the new CPU.
As I didn't know the process, I asked ChatGPT for some help. It pulled together some information for me. I needed to know firstly if it was possible and secondly how long it would take; spending many hours making it work would have been fun but we all have bills to pay and “real work” to do I couldn't spend forever on it. Anyway, the forum posts I read suggested it was fairly easy which makes a nice change. In its most simplified version, you update the BIOS to the latest official version, make a dump of it, enable "ME Reserved", re-flash the BIOS, boot with your original CPU and then boot with the Xeon. I was pleased it was so simple, relatively speaking (past mods have required putting tape on CPU pins and modifying your CPU socket:
https://www.overclock.net/threads/mod-lga775-support-for-lga771-xeon-cpus.1431723/
I removed the side panel, located the BIOS chip and applied some flux. I heated the chip at 480 degrees C with 50% air speed to remove it. I could have used a SOIC-8 clip and left it attached to the board but I don't have one - you can also use low melt solder and some patience to remove the chip if you don't have a hot air station. I put the BIOS chip in my programmer and connected it to my trusty Samsung NC10 netbook which has a tool called XGPro installed. In XGPro, I made 2 copies of the BIOS and stored them separately from each other after confirming they were identical. It is essential to have a backup of your original, unmodified BIOS as it contains your unique MAC address, serial number, DMI information and so on.
Back on my main PC and begrudgingly in a Windows environment as the tool is Windows only, I booted Intel CSME System Tools and opened the BIOS dump. In there, after following some instructions, I found the "ME Reserved" entry. I changed it from "no" to "yes". When I tried to rebuild the image however, it instantly failed. There was an erroneous entry in the VSCC Entries. I ,after following some instructions, removed it. After pressing CTRL + B for the 2nd time, I was happy to see the image build. I should have checked it over and made sure it everything looked good but I lazily decided not to. I was perhaps too optimistic but I just assumed it would work fine and went straight to the next step. I got away with it but do as I say, not as I do I suppose!
Next came re-soldering the BIOS chip, a job that should have been easy for a technician like me. I managed to solder it the wrong way round. Luckily, no damage was done so I removed it and put it back the correct way round. I then booted with the original CPU and was relieved to see everything still worked. It meant I could at the very least use the computer as it was should the mod not work. Most Intel Xeon CPUs don't have graphics built in. This one was no exception so I needed a GPU for testing. Only one problem: I didn't have one spare. That meant an agonising 2 day wait before I was back at the non-profit where we have them in abundance. In the meantime I installed the new CPU, upgraded the RAM and 3D printed the SSD caddy mentioned earlier. It is available here:
https://www.printables.com/model/1711885-25-hdd-ssd-to-35-hdd-bay-adapter
A new week rolled around so I carried the PC to work and set about installing a puny GT 710 GPU - it may even have been a GT 610. I plugged in VGA, a keyboard and the power cable. Knowing it would turn on automatically, I held my breath and flicked the switch. The computer came straight to life and showed the Lenovo logo! In effect, I'd just upgraded to an i7 CPU for £7 vs £35. A tidy saving if I do say so myself. I was excited it worked but it was a bit anti-climactic in all honesty. I was expecting the fan to run at max speed or for the sound not to work, half the RAM not to be recognised or some other issue. In the last 2 weeks, we haven't found anything wrong. The CPU has an 80W TDP which is higher than the original i5s was but it runs fine. The cooler is standard and can always be upgraded with something from another e-waste PC ;)
I had fun putting the pieces together and modifying the BIOS to allow this CPU to work. In all honesty, besides soldering the BIOS chip on backwards, it wasn't even hard. It's something most people who are semi-technically literate could do with a cheap CH-341 programmer and some spare time. What annoys me however is the fact that I even had to make a video or write up this post. You should be able to do the upgrade without hacking your BIOS and voiding your warranty. These aren't covered by warranty any more but that's beside the point. If so few people will even bother upgrading the CPU in their generic office PC, why lock it down in the first place? It reminds me of the Wi-Fi card whitelists Dell, HP and Lenovo used to have in their laptops but that's a story for another day...
Thank you for reading. As usual, the accompanying YouTube video is linked here:
(Repair Wins Blog - Post #1)
(May 10th 2026)
