Days before mini-PC become a thing, there was no NUC, MinisForum or Beelink. It was the time of thin client and SFF (small-form-factor), manufacturers such as Shuttle, Dell and Lenovo were made a lot of these.
Back then, the performance of SoC was too weak so that even laptops wouldn’t use them. But my first dedicated home lab machine was an Atom D525, which was called embedded industrial computer. It served as a router rather than server due to its performance and heat. That was also the time when I got into the world of m0n0wall derivatives (pfSense/FreeNAS).
Our main story today is ThinkCentre M58p, an SFF made in 2008 with a relatively decent CPU (Core2 Duo E8400) during its time. Originally, I picked up this machine at Goodwill many years ago for $15. It was used as a pfSense box and then IP cam recorder for a few years.
It was quite reliable and low maintenance but the only drawback was power consumption. So, after I moved to somewhere I need to pay for the electricity, it was been replaced by something more efficient.
For today’s application, it is not powerful enough for even the most basic internet surfing, especially for a dual monitor multi-tasking setup. So I need to upgrade it for the job.
For storage, it only has SATA2 ports which means bottleneck for 550/520 Mbps SSDs (3Gb/s instead of 6Gb/s). I used my SATA3 drive anyway because I don’t have other spares.
Interestingly, it is technically a desktop but receives laptop RAM sticks (SO-DIMM). Because I have many spare ones for it, it was easily beefed up to 8GB of RAM.
Next is connectivity. Wireless driver is always a pain in the ass for Linux environment, thanks for this list which tells every USB WiFi adapters that would work out-of-box. So I ordered a dirt cheap MT7601 for this upgrade.
The last and the most complex step is the CPU. As people discussed in the TP forum, the higher end consumer grade CPUs are always overpriced even in the used market after a decade! And those are not good for SFF configuration due to their TDP (requires more cooling and power). So, doing a Xeon Mod is almost the go-to for a cost-effective upgrade, and this is my second time doing the 771 to 775 route.
Speaking of cost-effective, spending more money than its selling price on an outdated but not vintage computer isn’t something recommended. But it’s not cool to generate e-waste in my book, so let’s get start.
Download bios file and flash tool then extract both.
Run WinPhlash on a Windows environment, browse to $image5C.usf, uncheck both Flash only if xxx options in Advanced Settings, then Flash BIOS.
Follow this instruction to apply the sticker and cut off the CPU guides. A precision cutter or simply utility knife would do it, then clean up the residues with tweezers and soft brush. Then, install the “new” x3363 and put enough amount of thermal paste.
It’s time to power it up. The old 90W PSU (19V 4.74A) is still adequate for its duty and there is no extra settings needed in the BIOS nor Linux. This Xeon x3363 runs so cool and quite, 55C at idle and 89C under full load. But its performance is very satisfying, that everything (Firefox multiple tabs, FreeTube playing 720P and instant messenger simultaneously) just runs as fast as a modern desktop should be.
For now, it has returned into a decent internet surfing machine once again. But there are empty slots such as a PCI and two SATA ready for specialized tasks. Perhaps, this would not the last time I’m writing about this machine…