SS4200-E Hardware

I have two Intel SS4200E servers.  I found a good description of the hardware in this presentation from Intel.

• IA-Based Low End Storage Appliance
• Four SATA ports (3.0Gbps)
• Four Drive Bays
• Conroe–L processor [Celeron 420] 1.6 GHz
• Chipset: 945GZ with ICH7-R
• 512 MB DDR2 SDRAM
• Four USB 2.0 Ports
• 2 x E-SATA Port
• 1 x Gb Ethernet [Intel 82573V]

I'm interested in the chipset, because I want to upgrade to a dual-core cpu to run Nas4Free.  I also will upgrade the ram from 512MB to 2GB.  The chipset supports 4GB in two banks, but there is only one slot for ram on the motherboard.

The 945GZ chipset supports:

• Memory Types DDR2-400 / DDR2-533
• Celeron 420 (1.6GHz), 430 (1.8GHz), 440 (2.0GHz)
• Core 2 Duo E4400 (2.0GHz), E4500 (2.2GHz), E4600 (2.4GHz), E4700 (2.6GHz)
• Pentium E2200 (2.2GHz), E2220 (2.4GHz),

Interestingly, the higher numbers came out first and have more cache.  A good comparison is here.
The E4600 is a Core 2 Duo with 1Mb cache, 800MHz FSB, and came out in Q4 of 2007.  The E2200 is a Pentium with 1M caches, 800MHz FSB, and came out Q1 2008.  The E1600 is a Celeron with 512K cache, 800MHz FSB, and came out Q2 209.  They are all 2.4GHz CPUs, and all should be compatible with the 945GZ chipset.

On this comparison, the E2200 is 96% of the E4600, and the E1600 is 88% of the E4600.  They are all 65W processors vs. the 35W Celeron 420 that it comes with.  Many people have upgraded to E2200 and have had the same CPU temps.

DDR2-400 is PC 3200, and DDR2-533 is PC4200.  Higher speeds should work fine as well.

Off to craigslist and ebay to search for parts!