Bios Mods -The Best BIOS Update and Modification Source

To get correct microcode for it set BIOS resetting BIOS Defaults Via the Reset Defaults Option:
Restart the system. Click on Start, Turn off Computer and Restart.

At the Dell loading screen Tap F2 to enter the BIOS. "Entering Setup" will appear when the command has been recognised. Certain models may use a different key. The key will be displayed during the boot process. For most Dell laptops and desktops, the key is F2.

Once loaded, depending on BIOS age and type, you can reset the defaults by either using F9 key to Load Defaults (Shown as an option at the bottom of the screen), the Alt + F key combination, or the Load Defaults button shown on the screen, to load the factory defaults.

Press Esc on your keyboard and select Save and exit, or click the Exit button, again depending on the version you have.

Choose the Enter key to save all changes and exit the BIOS screen. Allow your system to restart for the BIOS settings to reset.
For more information refer to Dell Precision 690 Manual-  (censored)/product-name-precision-690-manual&po=151813&lang=English

A small anecdote:

I found this thread because I wanted to essentially run VMware ESX 6.5 on my Dell 690, but the CPU isn't supported. An E5400 CPU would have worked, but I think the answer here is fairly conclusive, sadly.

I then decided to cowboy-it and I installed my OS on another machine, then moved the OS drive to my 690. As far as I can see, it works completely fine. I expect there's some feature that'll fail hard, but as I only need ESX for its free license, I'm thinking maybe the broken feature will be something I can't even use (like Live Migration). So far I've run the server for an hour and setup a test VM, no issues at all.

This doesn't exactly help most folks here, but someone else with my exact situation could find my sketchy work-around very helpful. Obviously, don't depend on this. (I blogged about it here)

Please tell sSpec of your current CPU.

(08-09-2017, 05:20 AM)DeathBringer Wrote: [ -> ]Please tell sSpec of your current CPU.

It's a little more effort than I'm prepared to do right now. But mine has dual Xeon 5150's. I bought it from a recycler for $11. It has 10GB of RAM. I'm thinking of taking it to 64GB as that sounds cheap. I'd like to upgrade CPUs too, but I want to also keep it lowish power, like the 5150's are. I've had some VMs running on it non-stop since I posted above, so far, everything looks completely fine.

OK, this is not necessary now.

I saw a thread that suggested replacing the motherboard with one from a Precision T7400. I just bought one from Newegg Market for $35 free shipping.
https://pcpartpicker.com/forums/topic/77...for-gaming
It supports X54xx CPUs and 400FSB Xeons also.

here's an interesting suggestion for the 690. Cost $35 from newegg market.
https://pcpartpicker.com/forums/topic/77...for-gaming