I have had the ex495 for three years now. I have upgraded the ram from two to four after reading many posts. I believe I am utilizing my machine quite well streaming to several Xbox’s, 6tb of storage (mostly pics, movies and music), a couple add-ins, and running blue iris with four cameras running. I want to upgrade my processor. It seems that the q9550s would be the ideal choice however, to much time has passed and it is not easily available or way way to costly. If you were bent on upgrading the CPU - knowing these facts what would you do?

I did a Q9400S, cheaper although hard to find and it runs quite well as a media server. I also have a EX485 running a Q8200S which performs nicely. You can't beat the quads for performance.

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HP EX470, 4 GIG, 4200+ EE SFF, WHS V1, Production
HP EX485, 4 GIG, E5800, WHS 2011, Stablebit Drive Pool, Transfer Server, Backup Server
HP EX490, 4 GIG, Q9400S, WHS 2011, Stablebit Drive Pool, Mediaserver
HP EX485, 4 GIG, Q8200S, WHS 2011, ITUNES Server

I couldn't agree more - and - look forward to an upgrade but finding these processors is tough. Perhaps I should look for the systems that the processor(s) were used in has anohter way to locate them. I called intel - they put me in touch with their two west coast distributors and they do not stock them - most of what I see on ebay is qXXX without the 's'. Feel like I found the end of the internet searching for a q9550s.

It took almost two years for me to find a q9450s on ebay.
They were there and I lost the bid several times.
Finally I used the purchase now option on one vendor.

Should you have an interest for a Q9550S, I do have one in packaging. Never overclocked. The Q94XX was always a go-to, and never had an issue with the Q9550S.

I have been running a Q9300 in my EX495 for almost a year, no problems. Little hot at first, but installed a couple of small fans in front of heatsink, and helped a ton. Temps 55-79.
Didn't make a huge difference in performance except for video streaming.

Was pretty easy to find. Think I paid around $125 off ebay for it.

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HP EX495 | Q9300| 4GB | Sans Digital TR5M-B (Now Retired) |(2) Mediasonic Probox HF2-SU2S2 eSATA/USB2.0| WHS 2011 | |Stablebit Drivepool |FlexRAID 2.0| [9x2TB]

So I ended up finding a q9400s and installed it. All four cores showed immediately. However resources only identifies the processor as a q9400 - when the processor clearly had the markings with 's'. Is this typical? I'm asking b/c I'm getting temps above 70 w/out server usage and I thinking about adjusting the fan settings.
Thanks for the imput.

How do you get in ex495 bios - can I access through remote desktop? Do I need video directly to the unit?

The only way you can get to the BIOS is to purchase and install a DEBUG Board. http://www.mediasmartserver.net/2010/05 ... available/

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Exploring the possibilities!

Migrated from WHS2011 to WS2012E: HIGHLANDER

~ Norco 4220 Enclosure
~ Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5
~ AMD Phenom II X4 995 3.2 GHz
~ 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
~ 3 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8

Thanks!!

What thermal compound did you use and how did you apply it?

Im running the Q9450 its a 95 watt chip and my normal temps are 45 deg C

I picked up some MASSCOOL G751 Shin-Etsu Thermal Interface Material
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835150080

Used it on my new system build and then used it on my MS when i updated the chip.
Those temps seem high, I would look to the compound and application first.

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HP EX 495
WD Raptor System Drive
4G Ram
Q9450 Quad Core Processor