Pro 6 Memory and CPU

[sleepy06405]

I'll get around to running the tests eventually but so far so good using some random 2gb PC2-6400 CL6 dimms I bought on ebay awhile back for less than $50. Its fairly common memory you don't need to spend a lot of money on it.

I purchased RNDP6000-200NAS which yielded me a diskless with a E5300 2.6 cpu. Some digging around seems to indicate I could replace it with a E5800 3.2.. Has anyone upgraded their cpu yet and wants to share?

[PapaBear]

Unless you are running some extensive add-ons, it would be a waste of money. For the purpose of simple server functions, such a file storage, the Pro 6 is more than capable of saturating a gigabit ethernet network. In fact, so are the Ultras. Only when running an application on the NAS itself could the additional memory and CPU speed provide some benefit.

In addition, you would void the warranty.

As to the upgraded memory, be sure to run the memory test several time through as even though the machine runs, it could impart errors into the files and that would be a disaster.

[sleepy06405]

I'm not a normal user, I'm an enthusiast. I delight in pushing devices beyond their standard documented specifications. I don't fear data loss, I welcome it.

Memory tests passed, 9 runs, 11 hours using generic PC2-6400 CL6 dimms I had lying around in the area of my basement which is reserved for violating warranties on products I've owned for less than 24 hours.

That being said.. Does anyone have information on upgrading the CPU? If not, I'll just try it and post my results. The limitation is going to be what the BIOS supports. It'll probably take an e5800 but it might also take a real core2duo chip too. Someone at netgear knows and can save me trial and error...

[readysecure1985]

Any CPU and Memory upgrade information available is from intrepid engineers like yourself. All official responses will be along the lines of don't do it, or BEWARE the loss of warranty support from swapping out the internal hardware.

[sleepy06405]

Ok ok, I'm voiding the warranty and WILL be denied support, repair and a good nights sleep for disregarding all this good advice. I'm shortening the life of the capacitors with the additional heat and may need to replace them in the future. Heres my disclaimer, if you can't solder, please don't read this thread or try this, its not for you.

Heres what I've got to share so far..

RNDP6000-200NAS contains:

2 memory slots which will accept standard PC2-6400 CL6 DIMMS, I used 2x2GB, someone on this forum claims 2x4GB will work but I can't confirm that myself. They're tight slots, avoid ram with big unnecessary fancy heatsinks or it might not fit.

An E5300 2.6 CPU (seems like a pentium D, not a core2duo like some sites selling the pro 6 claim)

Intel makes an E5800 3.2 cpu which supports virtualization and has the same tdp (65) and draw (98.89). Just a higher multiplier and clock rate. So it should work if its in the bios table. They're $50 on ebay. Seems like a safe bet.

Elsewhere I've read of success (and failure?) with an E6700 chip, but those are closer to $125 and a less secure bet. I'll be back.............

[AMRivlin]

Personally i wouldn't change the CPU, but the ram was an easy upgrade to 8GB. In fact I wonder why Netgear doesn't offer "Upgrade kits" at a small premium for VMWare and enthusiast users.

[sleepy06405]

I'm actually just using this for Plex to feed my roku boxes, raid 0, no redundancy, separate volumes for os and data. Everything is backed up old school with offline usb drives, because honestly, if your readynas board dies, even if you have support, you're out of luck for at least a day. Originally I was using an old dell box with a quad extreme (qx6700) cpu to do this job, not supposed to work in there, not documented, blah blah, works fine. Then I decided to buy an ultra2+ with the depressingly slow atom cpu, that went right back to the store and I bought the pro 6. Its close, but I still miss how quick movies started playing on that qx6700.

Don't get me wrong, these products are great in their stock form and the support is probably great for the people that need it but for me, 50% of the fun is taking things apart and improving them.

I found some E6700s for $65, that almost makes it a bet worth trying. Thats a real core2duo vs the pentD that netgear provides. Decisions, decisions..

[fbmachines]

I'm interested in your findings. Keep us posted if you find a faster compatible CPU.

It seems like Plex when transcoding certain (not most) 1080p files still buffers at times. I'd be interested to see if a slightly faster CPU would make a difference.

[sleepy06405]

fbmachines, same here, I've got a few files that constantly buffer on the pro6 but were fine on the big dell quad box.

Crossing my fingers, I've ordered an "Intel Core 2 Duo 2.66 GHz SL9ZF E6700". It has 4mb of cache vs 2mb and 1066mhz bus vs 800mhz on the stock chip. It actually runs cooler than the stock chip according to the specs. Its readily available on ebay for $50-70.

Here's my thought process:

lspci sees "00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Q963/Q965 Memory Controller Hub (rev 02)"

So hopefully its a Q965 chipset. Intel tells me the Q965 will support the chip. In addition, someone else on these forums claims success with the same chip. Another person claims failure with the 3.2 and 3.33ghz version of the chip, which makes sense because the 965 doesn't list those as supported.

I'll post my results when I get the chip.

[mdgm]

You may wish to hook up a VGA header cable to the VGA header. By connecting the NAS to a monitor you can monitor the early parts of the boot process when swapping in the replacement CPU.

NetGear does do some testing of CPU models other than the stock one but this is would be for reasons such as if the CPU they use becomes no longer available before NetGear plans to discontinue a product they can ship it with a faster CPU that's compatible. Would possibly be useful for repairing systems with faulty CPUs (probably not many of those) too, I guess.

Swapping the CPU does void the warranty as has already been mentioned. There was a long running thread on replacing the CPU with the first gen Pro.

[sleepy06405]

mdgm, Do you know if I'll require a screen for this? For example, will the bios behave like a standard pc and expect me to press something like f1 to acknowledge a hardware change? I read about the vga header and plugging a keyboard into the usb port, that was my next fun project to try after the cpu. It seems like theres serial port connectors in there too. I'm wondering if I could use one of those with a serial terminal to get a console instead of vga, simply because I have plenty of rs232/eia232 stuff here but no vga header connectors.

[mdgm]

Don't think having VGA is necessary but it's nice to have.

Attempting to use the serial console is not supported and you'll get no help with that here.

[sleepy06405]

Well that was boring, it works. No broken screws in the chassis or anything exciting. Not much of a speed difference with this chip. Temp no higher than stock. I'll research what else it'll take and report back if I find anything useful. Not that I recommend this but if you're like me and you can't help it, get a SL9ZF E6700 on ebay, it'll work. The SL9ZF is the specific model of the 6700 that worked for me. But again, don't do this, especially if you've never replaced a cpu before.

Code: Select all

processor   : 0
vendor_id   : GenuineIntel
cpu family   : 6
model      : 15
model name   : Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU          6700  @ 2.66GHz
stepping   : 6
cpu MHz      : 2659.502
cache size   : 4096 KB


VS

Code: Select all

processor   : 0
vendor_id   : GenuineIntel
cpu family   : 6
model      : 23
model name   : Pentium(R) Dual-Core  CPU      E5300  @ 2.60GHz
stepping   : 10
cpu MHz      : 2593.494
cache size   : 2048 KB


[dsm1212]

Nice that it just works, but I'd be more interested if the chip was more powerful. As you said, this isn't much of an "upgrade". Here's a comparison link for anyone that is interested: http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/385/In ... E5300.html. Some sites were listing the pro 6 with a 2.8Ghz processor for a while so I suspect there might be a 2.8Ghz chip that works somewhere.

steve

[sleepy06405]

Some people here refer to what I'm using as the old Pro. I wish I'd lucked out and gotten a newer version, oh well. It is more powerful and was worth $60 to me to do.

Actually, how do I know if I have a newer pro?