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RN516 CPU upgrade

tijgert
Guide

RN516 CPU upgrade

Ever looking to improve on performance I'm looking for a way to upgrade the CPU on my RN516.
The CPU obviously must support ECC memory and have a (FC)LGA1155 socket with a max TDP of 55W.
LGA1155 will work just the same, I read in several places.

The question now is, to anyone that knows or can find out, is there any bios support for other CPU's?
Message 1 of 26
mdgm-ntgr
NETGEAR Employee Retired

Re: RN516 CPU upgrade

The 716 uses the Intel Xeon Ivy Bridge E3-1265L v2 Quad Core processor.

CPU upgrades void the warranty, but if you want to do one you could consider the one we use in the 716.
Message 2 of 26
tijgert
Guide

Re: RN516 CPU upgrade

I was looking at that.. but the Xeon Ivy Bridge E3-1225v2 is a 77W TDP part while the 516 is a 55W TDP part.
I don't know if the cooler of the 516 would be efficient enough or if they both use the same model cooler.
I did read here of the i3 running hot already at high loads.

Question remains; what CPU's will the bios recognize?

Added to that: is it safe to assume that the 716's CPU would be recognized correctly by the bios? As in the 516 and 716 have the same bios?
Message 3 of 26
mdgm-ntgr
NETGEAR Employee Retired

Re: RN516 CPU upgrade

Whoops. The CPU in the 716 is actually the E3-1265L v2.

Both units share the same BIOS, but we hard code support for the hardware we ship in the firmware.

The max TDP is 65W.

Again we don't support CPU upgrades. They void the warranty.
Message 4 of 26
tijgert
Guide

Re: RN516 CPU upgrade

I bought my 516 second hand so I have zero warranty anyway.

but we hard code support for the hardware we ship in the firmware


Does this mean that only a single CPU is supported by bios on both the 516 and 716?
Message 5 of 26
mdgm-ntgr
NETGEAR Employee Retired

Re: RN516 CPU upgrade

No, but if you use a CPU we didn't ship it with it's possible some things might not work correctly.

If you run into issues you could try to switch back.
Message 6 of 26
xeltros
Apprentice

Re: RN516 CPU upgrade

a 516 second hand ? that's strange, that's a very powerful and recent model. I don't know why someone would sell it, at least they could have used it as backup. The only problem I see with a 516 is that it doesn't have 10Ge network.
I hope you had a good price because giving away the warranty (I think they come with 5years (not sure), so you had at least 3 years left) is not worth a 100$ discount IMO.
Message 7 of 26
tijgert
Guide

Re: RN516 CPU upgrade

Strange? Not really. Several are offered over here. This guy claimed to have had enough of Netgear, but I don't know why.
He runs his own IT company and gave me an invoice with it as well (so not stolen if anyone wonders) and through him I could claim warranty if I need to.
The warranty not being transferable was a bit of a surprise (and in violation of Dutch law, but that's another matter) but the price was pretty good, 550 euro's.
Having said that, it was in piss poor condition as in totally mucked up with nicotine filled brown sticky dust.
I had to strip it to the last screw and clean it intensively and rebuild again. Fun job.
Message 8 of 26
xeltros
Apprentice

Re: RN516 CPU upgrade

I know those are desktop models, but brown dust makes me think coffee spill, and nicotine, this was totally avoidable.
IF you can claim the warranty through him then you are good indeed. I'm not sure Netgear will actually check if this is a second hand device while opening a case, and even if they do, it could have been offered to you or bought by someone else for an enterprise, not sure how they could check that. So if you have the original purchase proof I think you are good to go anyway and I wouldn't upgrade the hardware in any way unless you feel that you are limited (which I doubt you'll be by CPU or RAM).
Message 9 of 26
StephenB
Guru

Re: RN516 CPU upgrade

xeltros wrote:
IF you can claim the warranty through him then you are good indeed. I'm not sure Netgear will actually check if this is a second hand device while opening a case, and even if they do, it could have been offered to you or bought by someone else for an enterprise, not sure how they could check that. So if you have the original purchase proof
Netgear warranties are not transferable. If the original owner registered the product, then tijgert will not be able to re-register.

Of course if the original owner chose not to register it, then tijgert would be able to do so, esp. if he has the original sale information.
Message 10 of 26
xeltros
Apprentice

Re: RN516 CPU upgrade

You mean that if I buy the NAS for an enterprise where I am the admin, I register it with a netgear account, then I go to another company the first enterprise loses the warranty ?
Message 11 of 26
mdgm-ntgr
NETGEAR Employee Retired

Re: RN516 CPU upgrade

The original owner registered the product.

For a business purchase the company would retain the warranty it they can prove they were the original purchaser.

You should use a separate account for business and personal purchases.
Message 12 of 26
StephenB
Guru

Re: RN516 CPU upgrade

xeltros wrote:
You mean that if I buy the NAS for an enterprise where I am the admin, I register it with a netgear account, then I go to another company the first enterprise loses the warranty ?
No, since the business is the original purchaser, and the admin registered it for the business. If the admin incorrectly told Netgear he personally was the owner it might be require some effort to fix. I'm not sure what the process is for that, but it is quite different from tijgert's case.
Message 13 of 26
xeltros
Apprentice

Re: RN516 CPU upgrade

He runs his own IT company and gave me an invoice with it as well (so not stolen if anyone wonders) and through him I could claim warranty if I need to.

It seems he has the warranty via the original owner if needed so this is no problem for him I guess. That said I was under the impression that the EU law was not allowing that for base warranties, never seen anything for extensions in law. I guess Netgear folks did their checking but I took for granted that for EU the warranties were transferable, at least I've never been asked if I was the original buyer while sending a product to warranty, they asked the serial number and that was it.
That said the law is often vague for warranties... So it is not impossible that this is not covered in it.
Message 14 of 26
StephenB
Guru

Re: RN516 CPU upgrade

I live in the US, and certainly am not an expert on warranty law. But it is my understanding that EU law requires transferable warranties from the retailer, but not the manufacturer. Netgear sells globally, and I'm sure they are knowledgeable and careful on warranties and terms of sale everywhere they do business.

Using the original owner as a proxy requires that owner's cooperation, and in many cases the original owner is not willing to do that (even if they promise it verbally at time of sale).
Message 15 of 26
xeltros
Apprentice

Re: RN516 CPU upgrade

There is no law but there is a court order that considered that warranty was transferable. The transmission has to be made with the thing and all its accessories, warranty being considered as one. So the original seller has the legal obligation to ensure the repairs if needed unless he can prove that a contract was signed between the two owners (the new contract overruling the previous one).

see in french : http://www.argusdelassurance.com/jurisp ... cule.63345

The article mentioned both manufacturers and sellers, but emphasised greatly on sellers :
la Cour de cassation a souhaité élargir le cercle des personnes admises à bénéficier de la responsabilité contractuelle du fabricant ou des vendeurs intermédiaires.

translated : The court wished to enlarge the circle of the people able to benefit from the contractual obligation of the manufacturer or the intermediate sellers.

then later :
Qu’elle soit d’origine légale ou conventionnelle, la garantie est transmise automatiquement avec la chose. Le sous-acquéreur bénéficie ainsi d’une action directe contre le vendeur originaire du bien qui repose sur la théorie de l’accessoire : le transfert de propriété de la chose s’accompagne de tous les accessoires afférents à ce bien, dont les garanties

be it legal or contractual, the warranty is transmitted automatically with the thing. The second hand purchaser benefits from a direct action against the original seller of the thing. This relies on the accessory theory. The change of ownership is accompanied by all its accessories, including warranty.

So clearly walking the line here. Hard to tell from this article if this is legal for the manufacturer or not as I suspect the author means both but didn't write it (the manufacturer having sold the thing to the retailer at one point...). The question is whether or not the disclaimer from Netgear is considered abusive. I think in the spirit of the law it is, but with a good lawyer this should pass anyway. But I'm not a law expert. I believe Netgear had some experts doing all the checking in Europe and that there are other laws that can be used in their favour.
Message 16 of 26
StephenB
Guru

Re: RN516 CPU upgrade

Honestly, I think a legal discussion by non-lawyers on this forum isn't really appropriate, and several past threads on this topic edged towards becoming contentious and (predictably) went nowhere.

Netgear's position is clear - the manufacturer's warranty is not transferable. tijgert could of course take them (and/or the private seller) to court if he wishes, but at this point he has suffered no loss - the unit is running fine. If he upgrades the CPU, the manufacturer warranty would be voided anyway, even if he were the original purchaser. tijgert knows all this, and can take it all into account.

So let's move on - I don't really want to lock the topic, but we need to stay focused on the original CPU upgrade discussion.
Message 17 of 26
tijgert
Guide

Re: RN516 CPU upgrade

Oh boy fellas, all I wanted was to be complete in my answer.
I don't care about the warranty that much. I got the 9 month old unit for almost half price and a 2TB WD Red with it as well (gathering dust.. who uses 2TB anymore nowadays..).
Let's focus on the actual topic: what CPU can I cram in it that will be recognized by the unit and as such use all its features (i.e. Turboboost).

So far I understand that any CPU *might* work, but no guarantee.
The 516 and 716 share a common bios with only the CPU hardcoded in it so I'd need a 716 bios if I want to be certain of proper E3-1265L v2 recognition.
All being worked on.

I'm afraid what might happen if I start asking about the 10Gb Nic 😉
Message 18 of 26
xeltros
Apprentice

Re: RN516 CPU upgrade

I agree, that's why I used "walking the line" to say it was hard to tell for sure and that I closed saying that Netgear should have found a way to get covered.

As for the CPU, my advice remains the same. As long as the warranty can be used via the first owner, I wouldn't open the NAS unless there is a clear need for more power, which given the CPU already present and the limited network capability of the device, shouldn't happen unless transcoding. I think the actual CPU can handle antivirus, encryption and file transfer at full network speed, which is the worst you can do if you do not transcode.
On the topic on the memory it was said "file Xfers, no real transcoding going on" viewtopic.php?f=65&t=70748#p432694
That doesn't justify voiding the warranty to me and even given the CPU price it's not worth it IMO. Either there is more power needed for some reason (oracle database, transcoding, photo/video editing...) in which case, this may be a good choice, or there is only the file transfer need and the difference won't be noticed at all.
If I were to upgrade something I would change the network card, that's the most likely limiting factor here but I don't think this is possible and it would require many clients to take full advantage of it (assuming that second hand purchase is for personnal use, ther probably won't be more than 10 clients). If it is just for toying around then I would spend money on a new TV, an xbox one, a camera, a professional firewall/network equipment if you want things you keep or for a trip, for a disneyland ticket if you have kids, VIP tickets for some kind of sport, a great restaurant with your wife...
If you don't have a backup system, I would buy a 316 and some disks with that money.

Just a rough price estimate here :
- CPU (xeon 1270) = 341€
- RAM = 51€ for 4Gb, you said 170 for 16Gb
- standard 10Ge card = 450€ (you need one at both end, and this supposes that the NAS uses standard PCI which I doubt)
- 10Gbit ethernet switch = 900€ (XS708E)
I spare you the cables and the UPS which should be around 150€ total.
total = 2311€ for 16Gb ram (without UPS). I may not have used the cheapest dealer around (materiel.net) to make the estimate but it is not the most expensive either and I took the cheapest things they had without thinking about compatibility so I may be under the real price.
Unless you buy all that, I don't think you'll see a real speed difference. For 900€ you could have had the same hardware in a PC with a freeNAS on top of it, not as good as readyNAS or readyDATA but good enough for most people.

As long as you are conscious that you are spending good money for something that you may not need, I have no problem with the upgrade. What I'm telling you is just that 2gbit/s is 240Mbytes/s no matter if you CPU is idle or not and that 4Gb is enough unless installing heavy third party software.

I'm not competent to speak about CPU replacement for those units, for PC usually updating the motherboard is enough to get the full support for all the CPU family, so there is not physical limit here, only software one and I know Debian (which will take what you throw at it) but I don't know the readyNAS bios nor the kernel modules they chose to compile in the kernel, so I can't say for sure what would be supported.
Message 19 of 26
StephenB
Guru

Re: RN516 CPU upgrade

There are some folks who successfully upgraded the processors in their x86 legacy units, so it seems likely that it can be done on the RN516 as well. Though (like memory upgrades on those older units) there are risks.

I certainly wouldn't do it unless I had a compelling application that needed the horsepower or the memory, and I agree with you that we haven't heard one yet.
Message 20 of 26
mdgm-ntgr
NETGEAR Employee Retired

Re: RN516 CPU upgrade

tijgert wrote:

So far I understand that any CPU *might* work, but no guarantee.
The 516 and 716 share a common bios with only the CPU hardcoded in it so I'd need a 716 bios if I want to be certain of proper E3-1265L v2 recognition.

Actually support for the CPU may be hard coded into the firmware not the BIOS. So if the replacement CPU is different enough you might get errors if the NAS thinks there is a problem.
Message 21 of 26
xeltros
Apprentice

Re: RN516 CPU upgrade

I used the VM today to check some things on volume creation/deletion (by the way, it works in virtualbox, but ESX shows only one disk, even though x-raid resyncs perfectly, but it is hard to play with volumes with a single selectable disk). I didn't have any problem after updating it via GUI.
This would mean that :
- There is a mechanism to remove the CPU code (I suppose flash is reproduced somehow too)
- or the hypervisor did a good job emulating a supported CPU
- or the CPU code is in the bios
- or there is no CPU restriction
- or that VM uses specific repository
Message 22 of 26
mdgm-ntgr
NETGEAR Employee Retired

Re: RN516 CPU upgrade

Well what I should have said is the hard coding in the firmware may restrict the range of CPUs that will work well to a smaller selection than those supported by the BIOS.

There are flags so the VM knows it is not running on real hardware.
Message 23 of 26
BaJohn
Virtuoso

Re: RN516 CPU upgrade

Apologies about going back to Warranty issue.

 

Just for my clarity .....

I live in the UK, so if I die and my RN516 has outstanding warranty, the warranty dies with me!

Is that correct?

A simple Yes or No from a person whom is 100% certain about it will do.

Thanks.

Message 24 of 26
IcyK
Tutor

Re: RN516 CPU upgrade

Never ask a lawyer for a simple yes or no without providing all the details of the case 😉

 

From what I read on these forums, I am 95% sure the answer from Netgear perspective will be 'yes'.

Being a laywer in The Netherlands myself, I am 100% sure the answer from EU consumer perspective will be 'no'.

 

But from EU consumer perspective, the end-user has to deal with the retailer in warranty cases, not with the manufacturer. So your children will have to deal with the shop you bought the NAS from, and the shop will have to fix the problem (either by doing it themselves, or by requesting / ordering the manufacturer to fix it).

 

I don't know the answer in a business envoronment. I do know EU consumer law usually does not apply in dealings between professionals.

 

Also, I guess nobody will go to court over a couple of dollars / pounds / euro's, so the question is higly theoretical imho.

If you have enough money to go to court, you'll also have enough money to buy a new NAS and save yourself the troubles of a trial.

If you don't have 500 euro's for a new NAS, you probably also don't have the 5000+ euro's to go to court...

 

(This will be my only response in this matter.)

Message 25 of 26
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