About Delidded

What Delidded covers

Delidded is about getting more working years out of desktop hardware that most people have already written off. The center of the site is the LGA 771 to 775 Xeon mod: fitting a server Xeon into a consumer Core 2 board with two small socket changes, an adapter sticker and the right BIOS microcode. Around it sit the topics that make a mod like that work and keep it working:

• BIOS and microcode: what microcode is, how to add a patch to an AMI, Award or Phoenix BIOS, and how to recover a board when a flash goes wrong.
• A Core 2 and Xeon spec database with clock speeds, FSB, cache, TDP, steppings and sSpec codes, laid out so you can compare chips before you buy one.
• Cooling and thermal work: paste, coolers, delidding and liquid metal.
• Upgrades for old desktops: power supplies, storage, memory and the order to do them in.
• The Modkit, four browser calculators for socket compatibility, FSB overclocks, cooler headroom and PSU wattage.
• Beginner lessons in HTML, CSS and JavaScript, starting at the CSS tutorial, with an online HTML editor to try the code in.

Why it exists

A Core 2 era tower still runs a browser, a file server or a retro gaming setup, and the parts that make it faster are often already sitting in a drawer somewhere. Say you have a G41 board with a dual-core chip. Intel's documentation lists 1333 MT/s front side bus support for that chipset, so a quad-core Xeon E5450 is on the table: FSB 333 MHz x multiplier 9 = 3.0 GHz. Whether it actually boots depends on the socket mod and on the BIOS carrying microcode for that CPUID. Explaining that chain clearly, one link at a time, is most of what we do.

Three habits run through every page:

1. Keep old hardware useful. A working board that gets a second life stays out of the e-waste pile.
2. Mod safely. Hardware and firmware work goes wrong in predictable ways, so every how-to says how before it says what.
3. Datasheets over hype. A figure belongs on the page when it comes from a document you can check yourself.

Who writes it

Five writers share the bench, each with a beat:

Each writer's profile and articles are on the modders page.

How we work

Facts come from primary documents: Intel datasheets, specification updates and processor lists, chipset datasheets, BIOS vendors' documentation, and board makers' CPU support lists and manuals. We write compatibility in terms of chipsets and documented support, because two boards with the same chipset can still behave differently on different BIOS versions.

Some things the documents never cover, such as which boards owners have run with a modded Xeon. When a point rests on community knowledge from forums like VOGONS or Win-Raid, the text says so plainly and links the discussion where it can. We do not present benchmarks, bench results or "it worked on my board" stories, and any example built around a particular setup is marked as hypothetical.

Every guide that tells you to change hardware or firmware opens with a risk note: what can break, what voids a warranty, and what to back up before you start.

When we get something wrong, we fix it. Send the page and your source to bench@delidded.com. Corrections that cite a datasheet or a support list are handled first, and the page's updated date changes when the fix goes in.

Affiliate links

Delidded is funded through affiliate links. The Parts bin and some text links go to Amazon, and others go to shops through the CJ Affiliate network. If you buy something after clicking one of those links, we may earn a commission. That does not change what we recommend or how we describe it. Picks are chosen from specifications and published reviews, not from hands-on trials of our own, and a product only appears where it fits the job a guide describes.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Contact

Questions, corrections, or a board whose support list disagrees with one of our notes: use the contact page or write to bench@delidded.com. We read every message, though we cannot diagnose a specific dead board by email.