A reader (Nigel Perry) with a T7600 — a dual processor version of the Dell Precision workstations has followed the instructions on this blog and reports that other than needing 2x the parts, the instructions and discussion were spot-on.
In a comment on another post on this blog, he wrote
“The old Dell heat sinks were substantially longer, so it seems like there’s a ton more room in the case now. Also, I noticed the old [Xeon E5-] 2620s would idle around 55 degrees Celsius. These [Xeon E5-2687W] are idling in the mid-30s and I’ve only noticed them as high as mid to high 40s under load.”
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Here are some pictures from his install (below). Some things to note:
- At least one piece needed to be removed from the cover in order to clear the Noctua heatsink.
- Note that the Noctua heatsinks (silver with grey fan in the middle) are a slightly different shape from the Dell OEM (black), but the Noctua has no trouble clearing the memory (even with the memory cooling air guides installed).
- There’s an option to attach an additional fan to the Noctua heatsinks. From what I can tell from the pictures, it is unlikely to fit on the front fan, and if installed on the rear fan could yield worse cooling (the output from the front sink would go straight into the input of the additional fan on the rear sink).
If Nigel has anything to add, he should feel free to.
T3600 Fan Blog 
Thank you so much for this and the T7600 posts. I have just got myself a T7600 and a matched pair of E5-2687W CPUs that need to be installed. I was getting concerned about the stock heat sinks. You have shown me the light. Now to see if I can find the same screws in Canada. Thank you thank you
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See https://t3600fanblog.wordpress.com/2020/09/17/canada-experience/ for some thoughts about Canada.
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One thing to note, I am not sure the reason behind the design with two CPU configuration but the heat from from from CPU will inevitably be sucked in by the rear one regardless whether these are stock or Noctua heatsink. Am I missing something here?
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Nope, you’re not missing something. That’s the way Dell designed it, and as a result the rearmost CPU will probably run a bit hotter (which calls for good heatsinks :)).
I’d advise *against* the 2-fan Noctua models (like the NH-U9DX i4), and in favor of the 1-fan models (like the confusingly similarly named Noctua NH-U9DX i4 3U), so that you minimize the amount of air which is piped directly from one heatsink to the other. I have a T3600 with E5-2687W and the Noctua NH-U9DX i4 3U and I’m typically around ~50C and max ~60C under heavy load… I imagine that’s probably enough cooling for a two of them. Note that Nigel did exactly what you’re doing with the Noctua NH-U9DX i4 3U and has acceptable performance.
I would *definitely* not install the E5-2687W CPUs without an upgraded heatsink.
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Thank you for the replies. I called Fastenal today and they quoted me around 120-130 CAD dollars for 8 screws and 24 washers. That’s about the price of the 2 Noctua heatsink haha, wow! I suppose, as per your post, I won’t be able to find these in the normal stores like Homedepot / Lowes. That said, I may not have a choice if I want these CPUs installed. Here is a question, some of these T700 or T7010 come in dual E5-2687W processors configuration and STOCK heatsinks. Clearly they sell it that way. How does Dell get away with that?
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I haven’t seen anyone reporting temperatures in a stock dual E5-2687W processor Dell Precision Txxxx, but it’s definitely true that the 2687W dissipates more heat than at least the T3600 is designed for.
The picture in this ebay listing (https://www.ebay.com/itm/DELL-PRECISION-T7600-2X-Xeon-E52687W-16-Core-32GB-RAM-Q6000-6GB-256-SSD-6TB-HDD/402434868915) seems to look like the heatsinks are the same as the one I removed from my T3600.
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Interesting. I found this video (Portuguese?) where the gentleman is presenting T7600 with E5-2687W and you can clearly see it’s running stock heatsink.
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Thanks a lot for putting this information in place! I just bought a T7610 from ebay as I got my hands on some cheap xeon cpus and ECC RAM from a decomissioned batch of servers and although I really enjoy the punch from this workstation the CPU coolers are not that great at their work. I’ve been playing with the idea but finding your blog was an eye opener and a confirmation of the possibility for this mod. Thanks again!
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Hi again, can this mod be applied with any other heatsink compatible with LGA 2011? Like Be quiet! or Coolmaster? I’m guessing yes just minding the amount of washer screws to add, right?
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If you have something in mind, I’d be happy to see if I can tell. But it’s certainly got to have replaceable shoulder screws…
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