1366 x58 Xeon Enthusiast overclocks club

Back on my x5670 @ 185x24. Everything seems to be solid so far, same settings as the Deluxe v2.

At first I had some issues where no matter what I set the UCLK to in bios it would force it to 20x the BCLK speed (that would be 3700mhz UCLK at 185mhz BCLK) requiring much higher VTT voltages for stability, also making temps higher. I noticed I was a version behind on the bios, and updating completely fixed the issue.
 
Got my x5660 up to 4.6Ghz and decided to make it my primary gaming machine. While the 4770k is probably faster, I enjoy benching/overclocking on the X5660, so I ended up swapping video cards and power supplies.

The Fulmo GT looks downright stupid sitting in my office, but the rig is surprisingly silent.

PS: Anybody having any issues with disabling C-State in the bios? I have disabled Speed Stepping and C-State, but the settings don't seem to stick in Windows.
 
For whatever reason, this new board is putting out better cinebench scores at the same exact settings.
Was getting no more than 1000/135 before. Turbo is on as well, so the single threaded test bumps it up to ~4.6ghz.


caltech31 said:
Got my x5660 up to 4.6Ghz and decided to make it my primary gaming machine. While the 4770k is probably faster, I enjoy benching/overclocking on the X5660, so I ended up swapping video cards and power supplies.

The Fulmo GT looks downright stupid sitting in my office, but the rig is surprisingly silent.

PS: Anybody having any issues with disabling C-State in the bios? I have disabled Speed Stepping and C-State, but the settings don't seem to stick in Windows.
Click to expand...

What kind of volts are you running for 4.6? The 4770k will certainly be faster for games unless they take full advantage of the x5660's extra cores, then the x5660 could pull ahead by quite a bit.

I have tried disabling cstates, seems to work fine for me, though I leave all that stuff on normally.
 
tbob22 said:
What kind of volts are you running for 4.6? The 4770k will certainly be faster for games unless they take full advantage of the x5660's extra cores, then the x5660 could pull ahead by quite a bit.

I have tried disabling cstates, seems to work fine for me, though I leave all that stuff on normally.
Click to expand...

1.375 vcore, 1.88PLL, 1.35 Uncore, 1.64 Memory, everything else is set on auto.

Using an older Corsair AIO unit in push pull, load temps are in high 70s - real use scenarios rarely break 55c.

One thing I noticed that helped stabilize my overclock was setting CPU Differential Amplitude to 1000mv. I couldn't tell you why this helped (although I read that it may help when BCLK is over 200mhz).

I actually think I can get more out of the chip with a better cooler and if I can figure out this C-state/speed step quirk. I noticed that it is bumping certain cores to 4.7+ ghz (despite turbo being disabled) during light loads, and I think that is too much for the CPU to handle.
 
Anyone thinking about a NVME SSD might want to take a look at this:
http://mrlithium.blogspot.com/2015/12/how-to-boot-nvme-ssd-from-legacy-bios.html

In theory instead of a USB thumb drive you could use a secondary SSD or HDD as well, assuming it doesn't have any data to start as it would need to partitioned.

caltech31 said:
1.375 vcore, 1.88PLL, 1.35 Uncore, 1.64 Memory, everything else is set on auto.

Using an older Corsair AIO unit in push pull, load temps are in high 70s - real use scenarios rarely break 55c.

One thing I noticed that helped stabilize my overclock was setting CPU Differential Amplitude to 1000mv. I couldn't tell you why this helped (although I read that it may help when BCLK is over 200mhz).

I actually think I can get more out of the chip with a better cooler and if I can figure out this C-state/speed step quirk. I noticed that it is bumping certain cores to 4.7+ ghz (despite turbo being disabled) during light loads, and I think that is too much for the CPU to handle.
Click to expand...

Not bad at all. That is strange about the turbo issue, if I just disable turbo in the bios then it stops jumping up on single threaded tasks.
 
primetime said:
oh wow....thats a very interesting article....let us know when you got it working lol...gives me a reason to put one on the shopping list anyway;)
Click to expand...

Once prices drop a bit I'll give it a go. For my workload I don't think it would be worth the price over a SATA SSD. 2000MB/s would be nice though. ;)
 
Been taking a look at 2011 prices.. 3960x's go for about $200 now, decent x79 boards go for around $200.

Quite considering selling this P6T6 and x5670 while it's worth something. Would almost be a free upgrade, would just need another 8gb stick. :confused:
 
tbob22 said:
Been taking a look at 2011 prices.. 3960x's go for about $200 now, decent x79 boards go for around $200.

Quite considering selling this P6T6 and x5670 while it's worth something. Would almost be a free upgrade, would just need another 8gb stick. :confused:
Click to expand...

I certainly understand where your coming from. I'm looking at the Sandy Bridge e5 Cpus and 39XXK processors on ebay, and I could put together a killer workstation for sub $600.

Check out icomputer_parts_international on eBay for some great priced Xeons.

12 Core Haswell based Xeon for $389? Yes please.

The only reason I'm not jumping on the deal is that I live in Canada and shipping+duties is an extra $100
 
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caltech31 said:
I certainly understand where your coming from. I'm looking at the Sandy Bridge e5 Cpus and 39XXK processors on ebay, and I could put together a killer workstation for sub $600.

Check out icomputer_parts_international on eBay for some great priced Xeons.

12 Core Haswell based Xeon for $389? Yes please.

The only reason I'm not jumping on the deal is that I live in Canada and shipping+duties is an extra $100
Click to expand...

Yep, that looks good. My primary machine is kind more multi use so I'd want overclocking for sure, which is why I'd probably get one of the i7's or 1650's.

Now that I'm looking a bit more, I'm seeing 1650's go for ~$120. Following a few searches now :D. I wonder how quickly these were snatched up. :)
 
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I wonder how the performance would balance out with your current rig vs the E5-1650 v3 Haswell-EP 3.5GHz you speak of.....Can the xeon haswell be overclocked as well? or would it be 3.5 vs 4.4? It a shame know one has invented a software way to overclock ANY cpu these days.
 
primetime said:
I wonder how the performance would balance out with your current rig vs the E5-1650 v3 Haswell-EP 3.5GHz you speak of.....Can the xeon haswell be overclocked as well? or would it be 3.5 vs 4.4? It a shame know one has invented a software way to overclock ANY cpu these days.
Click to expand...

From what I understand, any E5-1650 can overclock. There may be a few cases where it cannot, I think it may be limited by the board. Info is still a little hazy, but there is a good chance that it will overclock.

How good it will overclock is another question, although even at stock speeds it would about equal my x5670 at 4.4ghz.

Although I'd probably avoid the Haswell as that would mean I'd need DDR4, of course at $70 I'd take it. :)
 
tbob22 said:
Yep, that looks good. My primary machine is kind more multi use so I'd want overclocking for sure, which is why I'd probably get one of the i7's or 1650's.

Now that I'm looking a bit more, I'm seeing 1650's go for ~$120. Following a few searches now :D. I wonder how quickly these were snatched up. :)
Click to expand...

Great price.
 
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Hey guys, I am having some trouble with overclocking my x5670. I think it is my ram, when I try to set x.m.p I get oc fail on startup. The system has been running fine with default settings.

Corsaire Vengeance 8gb 2x4
Asus P6T Deluxe v2
x5670
 
gatorkea said:
Hey guys, I am having some trouble with overclocking my x5670. I think it is my ram, when I try to set x.m.p I get oc fail on startup. The system has been running fine with default settings.

Corsaire Vengeance 8gb 2x4
Asus P6T Deluxe v2
x5670
Click to expand...
what speed are you trying to run the memory at? Sounds to me like you need to select the next slower speed in the divider....list you blck and ram speed. if you select 191blck in bios ram speed wont be a problem at pretty close to ddr1600 speed....actually it be slightly under clocked and easy to achieve unless your using slower ram?
 
  • Density: 8GB (2x4GB)
  • Speed: 1600MHz
  • Tested Latency: 9-9-9-24
  • Voltage: 1.5V
I don't have extensive knowledge of overclocking and advanced settings btw. The x.m.p settings auto's to 1600, by default it is set to like 1333 or something. I havent really messed with the settings manually. So are you saying I should be able to just set the blck to 191 and it will work?
 
Also, I had just tried a small oc by just changing the blck to 150. And got a blue screen right after windows loaded, it was memory related I think.
 
gatorkea said:
  • Density: 8GB (2x4GB)
  • Speed: 1600MHz
  • Tested Latency: 9-9-9-24
  • Voltage: 1.5V
I don't have extensive knowledge of overclocking and advanced settings btw. The x.m.p settings auto's to 1600, by default it is set to like 1333 or something. I havent really messed with the settings manually. So are you saying I should be able to just set the blck to 191 and it will work?
Click to expand...
yes..thats exactly what im saying as long as you set all the important ones to correct voltages.

try these values for starters

vCore: 1.35v
CPU PLL: 1.8v or 1.9 max
QPI 1.35v
vDDR: 1.65v meant 1.5 for yours lol
IOH/ICH: 1.25v
PCI-E: 1.51v

ram speed 1530mhz or so
blck 191
multi 22 edit
turbo off
speedstep off
spread spectrum off
cstates defaults on
ram to xmp setting
ram timings default

this will give you a safe 4200mhz...let me know how it does....keep an eye on temps in case your cooler sucks
 
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Thanks for the info, I just tried those settings. Couldn't find the turbo option.... but also it wouldnt let me choose 23 multiplier , when I typed in 23, it just defaulted to 24. The ICH did the same thing , I typed in 1.25 and it defaulted to 1.3. I still tried running it with those settings and got overclock failed on post.
 
well remember your math to high and it will fail. shit i should have said 22 multi..with 191 blck...for 4200mhz...sorry i gave that number incorrect. also iirc turbo is auto disabled when mutli is manually selected at 22..so thats no big deal. there is a few other settings i can grab for yea..but i have to wait till i can get in my bios...its been a LONG time since....so im sure i forgot one or 2......you should be pretty ok dropping the multi to 22......let me know how that goes
 
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whew it worked.... however when I ran prime 95 the temps immediately jumped to 95 degrees... I am using a Cooler Master hyper 212 heat sink, but I am going to blame my thermal pasting job on the high temps
 
also you can try a lower Vcore as well...give 1.3 a try...95c is SUPER high....like its may be a very bad cooler install....check the past and make sure its on flat and snug as well....make sure fans on a good speed also. IF need be drop the blck down to 181 for speed of 4ghz....got to get those temps down:)
 
First I'd set everything manually. XMP settings always boosts everything way too high. which will cause really high temps. Follow primetime's guide for max voltages, and set everything else to Standard volts as shown on the side when you're on that setting.

You can probably start at 1.25v for the core and see if it's stable, if not then work your way up until it stops crashing or failing prime. I have a second drive with windows on it just for overclocking so I don't have to worry about corrupting my main install (it's happened before).
You should really only need to adjust core and QPI/DRAM voltages, I've never had any reason to adjust any other voltage settings on my x58 builds.

Keep temps under 80c at load, the Hyper 212+ should handle about [email protected], maybe a bit more if you have a really good chip. I was having trouble even keeping 4ghz temps under control with that cooler on a P6T, but eventually dialed it in (max temps were around 73c).

You may want to look into crossflashing so you can use the 24x multi full time, this will lower your temps a bit as you'll be able to run lower QPI/DRAM core voltage.
 
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I just tried rethermal pasting, temps are still out of control. I did notice when setting the DRAM voltage at 1.65 it shows in red and get a warning. I know the ram is rated 1.5, is that causing me temperature problems?
 
gatorkea said:
I just tried rethermal pasting, temps are still out of control. I did notice when setting the DRAM voltage at 1.65 it shows in red and get a warning. I know the ram is rated 1.5, is that causing me temperature problems?
Click to expand...
What are you using to check temps? When I used HWMonitor it also reported super high temps even with my Phanteks TC-P14 due to improper TCaseMax value in config file. Basically the temperature is reported by negative delta away from TCaseMax. If chip has TCaseMax of 85C, and it's reporting back it's -20C away from it, you should get a 65C temperature reading. However, if TCaseMax is set to 100C, the same -20C would result in a 80C reading even though it's really at 65C
 
gatorkea said:
I just tried rethermal pasting, temps are still out of control. I did notice when setting the DRAM voltage at 1.65 it shows in red and get a warning. I know the ram is rated 1.5, is that causing me temperature problems?
Click to expand...

Maybe you missed my ninja edit "vDDR: 1.65v meant 1.5 for yours lol" so yea drop it to 1.5 since your ram is 1.5 volt...a lot of our older ram needed 1.65 but i dont think its having any effect on cpu temps.
According to tbob22 your cooler is only capable of (4ghz vcore 1.3volt max) above 1.3 is for high end air only..and i take his word for it as he has used that cooler
Next try using HWINFO64 to check temps since i know it works good. HWiNFO, HWiNFO32/64 - Download
If you happen to re-do thermal past take some pictures of the past, so people can check your method.
post a screen shot of your temps since ChineseStunna mentioned maybe your reading it wrong..its possible i guess.
Also since we droping your clock to 4gz..try lowering the QPI/DRAM voltages to what tbob22 suggested as i believe he is correct about it lowering your cpu temps..my initial voltage suggestion was for 4.2 but since your temps are to high, you need to just settle for 4ghz...drop the qpi to 1.3 and see how much it helps with temps
 
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primetime said:
Maybe you missed my ninja edit "vDDR: 1.65v meant 1.5 for yours lol" so yea drop it to 1.5 since your ram is 1.5 volt...a lot of our older ram needed 1.65 but i dont think its having any effect on cpu temps.
According to tbob22 your cooler is only capable of (4ghz vcore 1.3volt max) above 1.3 is for high end air only..and i take his word for it as he has used that cooler
Next try using HWINFO64 to check temps since i know it works good. HWiNFO, HWiNFO32/64 - Download
If you happen to re-do thermal past take some pictures of the past, so people can check your method.
post a screen shot of your temps since ChineseStunna mentioned maybe your reading it wrong..its possible i guess.
Click to expand...
Awesome thanks.
 
gatorkea said:
I just tried rethermal pasting, temps are still out of control. I did notice when setting the DRAM voltage at 1.65 it shows in red and get a warning. I know the ram is rated 1.5, is that causing me temperature problems?
Click to expand...

How about the rest of the voltages and settings? List them out and I'll try to help.
It's also possible that the CPU has an uneven IHS probably due to getting too hot for too long in a server, I had one x5670 that would hit 70c at stock because of something like that.

Here's a good write up for HDT coolers, I've had good luck with that method but it requires a bit more paste and you have to be careful not to overdo it.
 
Got HWinfo, what a nifty app. Here is what I am currently running, and getting over 90 on temps.

vCore: 1.25v
CPU PLL: 1.8v
QPI 1.35v
vDDR: 1.5
IOH/ICH: 1.25v ,1.20(ICH)
PCI-E: 1.51v

ram speed 1433mhz 'ish
blck 181
multi 22
turbo off
speedstep off
spread spectrum off
cstates defaults on
ram to xmp setting
ram timings default
 
gatorkea said:
Got HWinfo, what a nifty app. Here is what I am currently running, and getting over 90 on temps.

vCore: 1.25v
CPU PLL: 1.8v
QPI 1.35v
vDDR: 1.5
IOH/ICH: 1.25v ,1.20(ICH)
PCI-E: 1.51v

ram speed 1433mhz 'ish
blck 181
multi 22
turbo off
speedstep off
spread spectrum off
cstates defaults on
ram to xmp setting
ram timings default
Click to expand...

Try this:
BCLK: 181mhz
DRAM: No higher than your rated frequency
UCLK: As low as possible for now, once everything is stable you can bump it up a bit for more speed, but keep it under 3000mhz or you'll need more QPI voltage also creating more heat
QPI Link: As low as possible
CPU Voltage: 1.25v
PLL: 1.8v
QPI: 1.2v
IOH: 1.10v
IOH PCIE: 1.50v
ICH: 1.10v
ICH PCIE: 1.50v
DRAM Voltage: 1.50v
CPU Spread Spectrum: Disabled

Set your timings to your ram specs.

If you get a lot of crashes, you can boost the QPI 1.25v, but there should be no reason to go higher, I could run [email protected] and UCLK@3152mhz on my P6T Deluxe v2 with no problem.

If all else fails, go back to stock speed (133mhz x 22) and see how your temps are. If it is higher than 65c then you may have some other problem and probably won't be able to overclock much until you get it sorted.
 
drop the QPI voltage to 1.3 or lower and see if temps drop....and post a screenshot of your temps or get to work redoing the thermal paste......90c is way to high....that cooler should be able to hold it under 80
 
So I took the day off from work and decided to do what any normal person would do in their spare time, benchmark their computer! (I also have the flu, which disqualifies most normal activities)

I have been wanting to upgrade the workstation in my sig to one of the newer v3 xeons, or alternatively, a 5820k. Before taking the jump, I wanted to see how the x5660 (clocked at 4.6Ghz) stacks up:

I had to use largely synthetic benchmarks, as it allowed for the easiest "apples to apples" comparison:

Cinebench 15 Multi Thread score: 1037
Cinebench 15 Single Thread score: 138
PC Mark 8v2 Work Open CL: 5321
Firestrike (1080p) Physics Score: 15234
Dolphin Emulation Benchmark (lower is better): 9.01

So how does this compare to a stock 5820k? (Using Anandtech, HardOCP and others as reference)

Cinebench 15 Multi Thread score: 1025
Cinebench 15 Single Thread score: 140
PC Mark 8v2 Work Open CL: 5248
Firestrike (1080p) Physics Score: 15100
Dolphin Emulation Benchmark (lower is better): 9.58


So there you have it ladies and gentleman, a 6 year old CPU/platform can stil cut with the latest CPUs (when overclocked). Now yes, you can also overclock the 5820k, but considering a transition to the x99 platform is at least $600, a $100 Xeon doesn't look like such a bad option.

This has given me a little more breathing room to see what Broadwell Xeon brings to the table (and how much that pushes down prices of other chips).


Edit: Given that the x58 platform is really dated, I decided to "refresh" it by buying a bluetooth usb adapter ($10), a PCI-E 4 Port USB 3.0 card ($15) and a PCI-E 2 Sata 6.0 card ($15). For a minimal investment, it has really breathed new life into the platform.
 
Ok temps on the left are with the settings posted below, temps on the right are temps at factory settings. Also I should have mentioned earlier, I've had this setup for nearly a year and initially I set the blck to like 181 and changed nothing else. I ran it like that for probably a month or so until I got overclock fail with no idea why, so I set everything default . Fast foward several months later trying to overclock it again. I noticed the stock fan for the hyper 212 was not spinning. I guess thats why I had oc fail long ago. But I now have a noctua fan on it, and it seems to be running properly.


vCore: 1.25v
CPU PLL: 1.8v
QPI 1.25v
vDDR: 1.5
IOH/ICH: 1.25v ,1.20(ICH)
PCI-E: 1.51v

ram speed 1433mhz 'ish
blck 181
multi 22
turbo off
speedstep off
spread spectrum off
cstates defaults on
ram to xmp setting
ram timings default

Temps with prime 95 only ran for about a minute
temps_zpsgxpvf477.png
temp2_zpsidd4idyv.png
 
gatorkea said:
Ok temps on the left are with the settings posted below, temps on the right are temps at factory settings. Also I should have mentioned earlier, I've had this setup for nearly a year and initially I set the blck to like 181 and changed nothing else. I ran it like that for probably a month or so until I got overclock fail with no idea why, so I set everything default . Fast foward several months later trying to overclock it again. I noticed the stock fan for the hyper 212 was not spinning. I guess thats why I had oc fail long ago. But I now have a noctua fan on it, and it seems to be running properly.


vCore: 1.25v
CPU PLL: 1.8v
QPI 1.25v
vDDR: 1.5
IOH/ICH: 1.25v ,1.20(ICH)
PCI-E: 1.51v

ram speed 1433mhz 'ish
blck 181
multi 22
turbo off
speedstep off
spread spectrum off
cstates defaults on
ram to xmp setting
ram timings default

Temps with prime 95 only ran for about a minute
temps_zpsgxpvf477.png
temp2_zpsidd4idyv.png
Click to expand...

Stock temps don't seem too terrible. Did you ever check your temps before? If the chip gets super hot for an extended period of time then it can create cracks in the solder between the IHS and core. This will cause it to run much hotter than it should.
 
tbob22 said:
Stock temps don't seem too terrible. Did you ever check your temps before? If the chip gets super hot for an extended period of time then it can create cracks in the solder between the IHS and core. This will cause it to run much hotter than it should.
Click to expand...
Ya but, I don't remember what the temps were like that long ago. Also, just tried these settings and the system crashed on windows startup. Black screen and it restarted itself.

vCore: AUTO
CPU PLL: AUTO
QPI : AUTO
vDDR: 1.5
IOH/ICH: AUTO
PCI-E: AUTO

ram speed 1503mhz
blck 150
multi 22
turbo off
speedstep off
spread spectrum off
cstates defaults AUTO
 
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