After researching the chipset in these systems and learning the chipset at least supported the newer CPUs, I ordered an AMD Opteron 2419 hex-core CPU to test ($29 on ebay). First I tried swapping in the CPU with the existing firmware version which on boot led to a successful POST, listing 6 cores, and then an error from the BIOS saying CPU checksum was wrong. Then I upgraded the system firmware, stepping through each version (in order to avoid the bricking problem, ~15+ reboots). Once on the latest system/BMC BIOSes the system would POST and list 6 cores, but when the newer CPU was detected the system determined that this must be a dl165g6 system and flashed the BMC firmware to a different version. Then it rebooted, listed the latest firmware version of the dl165g6, and complained about 3 fans being missing (since the dl165g6 is 1U and has more smaller fans). Just for fun I took the cover off and plugged additional fans into the headers. This got it past the fan error, but then the system powers off.
The 2419 CPU uses far less power than the other CPUs supported by this board, so I don't think it's a matter of not being able to power things or hitting power/thermal limits. I suspect the problem is only in firmware and that it could be made to work with firmware fixes. But given the age of this product I know HP won't ever fix that (and have a financial disincentive to do so) and the closed-source nature of the BIOS is such that no one else could fix it short of some serious hacking.
In working on this and also due to the one bricked-by-firmware-upgrade system I have I realized something. Since these are HP's entry level systems and mostly outsourced design, they use pretty standard ATX components. So my next experiment is going to be swapping the mainboard for a much newer 3rd party board, but keeping the PSU (minus the management cable), using a newer pci-e HBA and connecting it to the existing backplane with a SFF-8087 to SFF-8484 cable, keeping the existing fans. I think the front panel connect should be the only tricky part.
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Re: dl185g5 cpu upgrade
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