1366 x58 Xeon Enthusiast overclocks club

True, I would assume an i7-920 would fetch maybe $10 to $15. It's honestly more valuable to you as a backup. I considered trying to sell my i7-930, but there's no market for it.

Never mind, apparently i7-920s are going for $40+ on eBay. It might be worth posting it on there if you can get that much.
I got my X5650 for £60 and sold my i7-920 for £30. It sold immediately though, probably could've got £40 for it.

Probably the best bang-for-buck upgrade I've ever done. :D
 
Depending on the board it could pump up the voltage to 1.4v+ on auto when overclocking, I'm not brave enough to try it with high OC's. :)

well when i said auto i was actually meaning default voltage and it didn't occur to me that some boards would boost voltage on auto settings.....since i have always manually set vcore it never even entered my mind that was possible
 
Long time lurker, but first time poster...

I was on the brink of selling my x58/i7 920 setup to go with X99, but then I found this thread and a lot more people getting added longevity out of their x58 boards through these Xeon upgrades. Anyhow, I bought a X5670 and sold the 920 and here I am.

I have the following:

  • EVGA E758-A1 3SLI board
  • X5670
  • G.Skill 3x4GB DDR3-1600 (9-9-9-24) 1.5V DRAM
  • Megahalems Rev B Push/Pull

I have been able to reach the following overclock:

  • BCLK = 173
  • Multiplier = 24x (24x173 = 4.15GHz)
  • Uncore Multiplier = 18x (3.114GHz)
  • DRAM = 2:8 (1384MHz, 9-9-9-24)
  • PCI = 101MHz

...with these settings:
  • CPU VCORE = 1.3125V, Without VDROOP
  • CPU VTT = 1.275V
  • DIMM Voltage = 1.5V
  • QPI PLL = 1.1V
  • CPU PLL = 1.8V
  • IOH Vcore = 1.2V
  • QPI Fast Mode = Enabled
  • QPI Link Speed = Auto

I have tested the overclock using LinX 0.6.5 and things look stable. The maximum temperature reached by the hottest core is 66C as measured by RealTemp GT.

However, I seem to have hit a wall at this point... If I increase BCLK even by one tick to 174, I can ramp up the CPU Vcore to 1.35 and VTT to 1.35 as well and still fail LinX on the first pass. Core temperatures never exceed the mid-60s so I feel there is some room there, but I am not sure I want to dump in a ton more volts. I attempted an overclock with a 21x Multiplier and got to about 190-192 BCLK albeit with a lower uncore multiplier.

Any ideas/suggestions would be appreciated... I am fine leaving it where it is, but I feel there may be a bit more room since the core temps are reasonable...

Thanks!
 
Long time lurker, but first time poster...

I was on the brink of selling my x58/i7 920 setup to go with X99, but then I found this thread and a lot more people getting added longevity out of their x58 boards through these Xeon upgrades. Anyhow, I bought a X5670 and sold the 920 and here I am.

I have the following:

  • EVGA E758-A1 3SLI board
  • X5670
  • G.Skill 3x4GB DDR3-1600 (9-9-9-24) 1.5V DRAM
  • Megahalems Rev B Push/Pull

I have been able to reach the following overclock:

  • BCLK = 173
  • Multiplier = 24x (24x173 = 4.15GHz)
  • Uncore Multiplier = 18x (3.114GHz)
  • DRAM = 2:8 (1384MHz, 9-9-9-24)
  • PCI = 101MHz

...with these settings:
  • CPU VCORE = 1.3125V, Without VDROOP
  • CPU VTT = 1.275V
  • DIMM Voltage = 1.5V
  • QPI PLL = 1.1V
  • CPU PLL = 1.8V
  • IOH Vcore = 1.2V
  • QPI Fast Mode = Enabled
  • QPI Link Speed = Auto

I have tested the overclock using LinX 0.6.5 and things look stable. The maximum temperature reached by the hottest core is 66C as measured by RealTemp GT.

However, I seem to have hit a wall at this point... If I increase BCLK even by one tick to 174, I can ramp up the CPU Vcore to 1.35 and VTT to 1.35 as well and still fail LinX on the first pass. Core temperatures never exceed the mid-60s so I feel there is some room there, but I am not sure I want to dump in a ton more volts. I attempted an overclock with a 21x Multiplier and got to about 190-192 BCLK albeit with a lower uncore multiplier.

Any ideas/suggestions would be appreciated... I am fine leaving it where it is, but I feel there may be a bit more room since the core temps are reasonable...

Thanks!
Have you tried a lower multiplier? I've heard some chips don't like even and others not liking odd numbers.
Weird, I had that same board and chip and mine would do 21x200 on both the old 950 and the X5670 I have. Core voltage was set to 1.28 to get 1.24 under load and 1.30vtt which was 1.35 per eleet tool. The board seems to over shoot on VTT so be careful how high you set it in BIOS.
 
I've tried the x21 multiplier... Maybe I should go that route and see what I can tweak to get it up closer to 200 BCLK... The VTT was referenced to 1.1V, but the later versions of the bios reference it to 1.2v, so it's consistently .1V higher than you'd think from what I recall... It's been years since I've messed with this as my old 920 was solid at 4GHz albeit at higher temps...

Thanks... Maybe I'll try an odd multiplier to see if that goes further.
 
Long time lurker, but first time poster...

I was on the brink of selling my x58/i7 920 setup to go with X99, but then I found this thread and a lot more people getting added longevity out of their x58 boards through these Xeon upgrades. Anyhow, I bought a X5670 and sold the 920 and here I am.

I have the following:

  • EVGA E758-A1 3SLI board
  • X5670
  • G.Skill 3x4GB DDR3-1600 (9-9-9-24) 1.5V DRAM
  • Megahalems Rev B Push/Pull

I have been able to reach the following overclock:

  • BCLK = 173
  • Multiplier = 24x (24x173 = 4.15GHz)
  • Uncore Multiplier = 18x (3.114GHz)
  • DRAM = 2:8 (1384MHz, 9-9-9-24)
  • PCI = 101MHz

...with these settings:
  • CPU VCORE = 1.3125V, Without VDROOP
  • CPU VTT = 1.275V
  • DIMM Voltage = 1.5V
  • QPI PLL = 1.1V
  • CPU PLL = 1.8V
  • IOH Vcore = 1.2V
  • QPI Fast Mode = Enabled
  • QPI Link Speed = Auto

I have tested the overclock using LinX 0.6.5 and things look stable. The maximum temperature reached by the hottest core is 66C as measured by RealTemp GT.

However, I seem to have hit a wall at this point... If I increase BCLK even by one tick to 174, I can ramp up the CPU Vcore to 1.35 and VTT to 1.35 as well and still fail LinX on the first pass. Core temperatures never exceed the mid-60s so I feel there is some room there, but I am not sure I want to dump in a ton more volts. I attempted an overclock with a 21x Multiplier and got to about 190-192 BCLK albeit with a lower uncore multiplier.

Any ideas/suggestions would be appreciated... I am fine leaving it where it is, but I feel there may be a bit more room since the core temps are reasonable...

Thanks!

raising qpi voltage seems to help on asus boards reach higher blck....can go up to 1.35volts without damage....i still believe using max muli is a given on any system....22x191blck works pretty good on mine but if your able to use 24multi all the time then you wont need much higher blck to reach my speed or higher/

turbo is useless for any kind of encoding and once dx12 game finally kick it in it will be more than useless but for older games it does work well if you happen to use it
 
I haven't had the time to mess with it, but I am wondering if my uncore multiplier is holding things back... Out of curiousity, what do people usually set the uncore multiplier to? I have it at 18x, but I can certainly try lower...
 
I haven't had the time to mess with it, but I am wondering if my uncore multiplier is holding things back... Out of curiousity, what do people usually set the uncore multiplier to? I have it at 18x, but I can certainly try lower...

I wouldn't think its your uncore speed. Its not high at all.

But as for uncore, it has to be at least 1.5x the ram speed. Any lower and you will have major issues. Just whatever ram multiplier you use, keep the uncore at least 1.5x higher.

But, 3100mhz uncore isn't high at all.

I think your case is very strange and it wouldn't hurt to try some random stuff. It might be the case where you hit a blck hole. Some chips have a range they just can't run in but are fine above it and below it. Its usually a 5-10 MHz hole. Some isn't like 172mhz-180mhz just won't work but 181mhz it picks up again.

I never had a chip like that but I have heard if it. I am not sure that is your issue at all though. I would try playing with some of your less common surf. Like CPU PLL, IOH, etc.

Try your CPU PLL at 1.9v and see if that helps any. If not, try some other things out. Its really about trial and error now, as your case is really unique. I have seen some people end up with some really odd voltage settings, stuff that a lot of us don't mess with.

To give you an idea, there are several 990x/980x reviews and overclock information if you google. These chips were a lot more popular than the Xeons and the information on them is very relevant. Gulftown is a very very close sibling.

If you want to see some of these random things people have done to achieve great results, google "gulftown" reviews and forum post. Most reviews go in detail on their overclock settings back in those days. Just as well you might try naming 990x, 980x specifically instead of gulftown. There is a lot of info out there on these chips

There is a ton of info out there an
 
Can you guys tell me what my system might sell for please ?

Case: Coolermaster HAF 922
Motherboard: Gigabyte X58-UD3R rev 1
CPU: Intel Xeon x5650
Thermalright CPU cooler with push-pull fans
Power Supply: Corsair 850w 80+
Memory: 12GB (3x4) Triple Channel G.Skill Ripjaw 1600mhz
Video Cards: 2 x MSI R9 280x in crossfire
SSD: 250gb Crucial BX200
HDD: 1TB WD
300GB WD Raptor 10,000rpm
Windows 8.1 Pro
3 x Corsair SP120
1 x Corsair AF120 (blowing on video cards)
+ the 2 stock 200mm fans
No offense intended but they forbid price checks in all but the subscribed "General Mayhem" forum. I don't think the mods view this thread that often but its been going on to long to risk getting it locked. You would have to pm your question under the table so to speak or just subscribe to that forum. Have a nice day;)
 
The max stable-ish results are in for my new chips at 1.325v, some tweaking could be done. All of these chips failed at 4.4ghz 1.325v and the ES chips failed at 4.2ghz 1.325v:

3951A711 - 195x21 4.09ghz - 80-75-76-70-79-80 (ES)
3951A711 - 195x21 4.09ghz - 77-75-70-71-79-78 (ES)
3039A186 - 200x21 4.20ghz - 69-70-65-65-74-73

Prime95 running for 15min
Ambient temp is 22c
This is using cheap white thermal paste, so temps are a bit higher than normal.

As a comparison here is the chip in my sig at 1.325v with NT-H1 thermal paste:
3124B618 - 200x22 4.4ghz - 66-65-55-58-65-62

This is using my P6T Deluxe V2. Next up is trying out the new Asrock with the 3039A186.
 
Last edited:
I don't know if I'd call fifteen minutes of Prime95 stable-ish, let alone stable. I can have unstable settings and make it through two or three runs of IBT before things go haywire.
 
I don't know if I'd call fifteen minutes of Prime95 stable-ish, let alone stable. I can have unstable settings and make it through two or three runs of IBT before things go haywire.

It just gives me a baseline of what the chip can do. 15 minutes of prime95 is usually within .01-.02v of being stable.

I'd never call something stable unless it can pass 12h of p95, 10-15 passes of IBT, 3+ passes of memtest86 (~12h depending on ram speed/amount), and a month or so of regular use.
 
There probably is in this thread somewhere, and I tried Google, but is there a master, part-by-part list of X58 boards that support xeons?

I always wanted a DFI x58, but from googling it looks like they dont support xeons (or maybe 32nm chips period)
 
just from reading other peoples posts, nearly all boards with latest bios will work aside from some oem boards obviously and certain EVGA early board revisions but those can be modded to work. Aside form that i have heard some gigabyte boards do support them but i have heard a few times users having a lot trouble overclocking them. I have heard little to know issue with Asus, MSI, correct or modded EVGA revisions...i know someone is about to test asrock so we should know soon on those.

im sure some will come behind me an list a few i forgot, and a lot of people don't list there board in there sig so its though to know all of them, as you have already figured out.:)
 
The Asrock X58 Extreme seems to working well. I don't have the strange BCLK/Ram issue I have on my Asus board, at 133mhz BCLK the ram happily runs at 1866mhz. :D

I will be testing how far I can go with the ram first and let memtest run overnight.
As soon as I get a decent heatsink to test with I will see how far I can get the CPU on this board, the Xigmatek I'm testing with right now is only enough for a mild overclock.

Edit: Or not. Even though it was set to 2000mhz in the bios (at 150bclk), once I booted to windows it was at 1500mhz. Guess I'll have to stick with 200mhz/2000mhz like on my Asus.
 
Last edited:
I was quite disappointed when I was unable to POST with the 12:2 memory ratio. I never really had need for that or higher ratios, but it would have been nice knowing it was at least an option.

I don't know if there's a master list of compatible boards. It appears Asus boards have been the most hassle free with EVGA boards providing the biggest headache. I read somewhere that DFI boards do work with the latest BIOS, but it was still somewhat of a headache getting everything in working order. I don't really recommend snagging an X58 board just to run one of these Xeons. I feel like grabbing newer hardware would be the more intelligent choice, unless you get a really good deal in an X58 board.
 
I was quite disappointed when I was unable to POST with the 12:2 memory ratio. I never really had need for that or higher ratios, but it would have been nice knowing it was at least an option.

I don't know if there's a master list of compatible boards. It appears Asus boards have been the most hassle free with EVGA boards providing the biggest headache. I read somewhere that DFI boards do work with the latest BIOS, but it was still somewhat of a headache getting everything in working order. I don't really recommend snagging an X58 board just to run one of these Xeons. I feel like grabbing newer hardware would be the more intelligent choice, unless you get a really good deal in an X58 board.

Yeah, it's not worth it to pay $200+ for a 5 year old used board.

But if you are able to get a decent board for around $100 the performance per dollar can't be beat, especially if you are planning on using it for content creation (Photoshop, Vegas, etc).
 
I decided I wanted to test the limits of my RAM, so I removed one kit to remove a lot of the strain on the IMC. Before, I couldn't get 12GB to work at 2000MHz with any timings. Well ...

2OGdwFn.png


As long as I can live with 6GB instead of 12GB, I can live with these settings.
 
I decided I wanted to test the limits of my RAM, so I removed one kit to remove a lot of the strain on the IMC. Before, I couldn't get 12GB to work at 2000MHz with any timings. Well ...

2OGdwFn.png


As long as I can live with 6GB instead of 12GB, I can live with these settings.

That looks great, nice timings. :cool:
 
Thanks. I was running 1800MHz with 7-8-7-20 1T before doing this.

cRv7TE9.png


As long as I don't run out of memory, I can live with this.
 
Makes me almost want to purchase 3 8gig sticks.....be kinda nice to run my ram that high:)
 
Is your i7-920 overclocked? You say it's stock then want us to compare how one of these Xeons might overclock in comparison. If you have overclocked your i7-920, then I would anticipate a Xeon overclocking slightly better. I was running an i7-930 overclocked from 2.8GHz to 3.8GHz for a 35.7% overclock; my X5670 is overclocked from 2.93GHz to 4.32GHz for a 47.6% overclock. Keep in mind that every processor and every motherboard is different. What other people might be able to achieve with the same motherboard and processor is not necessarily what you'll be able to achieve.

If you plan on upgrading your video card anyway, I would personally do that first. Unless, like me, you're waiting for AMD's next generation of video cards to release for a few more options and a better market.

I personally haven't noticed much difference performance-wise, even with more cores/threads and a higher clock speed. The only game I really play is League of Legends and I don't do anything CPU-intensive. I bought my Xeon because it was only $100 and I didn't see the point in not making the purchase at that price. Chances are you would only notice the difference in benchmarks.

Felt silly asking the question, not having tried to o/c the 920, so I went back and gave it a shot. I've gotten it up to 3.8GHz, and stable through 15 runs of IBT and a couple hours of Saints Row IV (we'll see how the next month goes stability wise...). I will be waiting on the next round of video cards, if for no other reason than to see what it does to prices. Probably start with that (and probably some more RAM), and see if the itch goes away.

Thanks chess (and everyone else) for the feedback.
 
Just picked up a Raijintek Ereboss for my second build, it is on sale at newegg for $34. Seems like an awesome cooler for that price.

It should perform on par or better than my Noctua when overclocked. :)
 
Are the X5647 or the X5570 worth trying to overclock and spend some money to get a rig together?
 
I just missed out on the EVGA B stock X58 Micro board... Thinking the market looks pretty good for a xeon build especially with DX12 coming down the pipe? Does anyone have a board they're looking to part with?
 
Are the X5647 or the X5570 worth trying to overclock and spend some money to get a rig together?

Probably not. Unless you got the chips for free (or very cheap). The main point of these x5650, x5660, x5670, etc. Xeons is that they are six cores for cheap.

The x5570 is something like a i7 940 with more cache and a few other differences.
The x5647 is similar to the 970/980/x5670 but only a quad core.
 
I just missed out on the EVGA B stock X58 Micro board... Thinking the market looks pretty good for a xeon build especially with DX12 coming down the pipe? Does anyone have a board they're looking to part with?

I think they are still worth building, especially if you are on a tight budget and are willing to take some risks and fiddle a bit, just make sure to fully test all your used stuff.. There is also the risk that anything could just die, depending how it was taken care of.

Just don't go paying $200 for a board. That would be better spent toward a 1150 or 2011 build.
 
I just missed out on the EVGA B stock X58 Micro board... Thinking the market looks pretty good for a xeon build especially with DX12 coming down the pipe? Does anyone have a board they're looking to part with?

If I'm building from scratch, I'm going Z97 or X99. I feel a lot more comfortable getting a new or used Z97 or X99 board than I do a used X58 board. These Xeons perform on par with the i7-4790K so you might as well just get one of those. The overall system cost for a Z97 rig is probably a bit more expensive, but there's literally no upgrade path for an X58 Xeon build.
 
If I'm building from scratch, I'm going Z97 or X99. I feel a lot more comfortable getting a new or used Z97 or X99 board than I do a used X58 board. These Xeons perform on par with the i7-4790K so you might as well just get one of those. The overall system cost for a Z97 rig is probably a bit more expensive, but there's literally no upgrade path for an X58 Xeon build.

I agree for someone that doesn't want to tweak with settings as much that a Z97 build makes sense, and in the long run it will probably be more reliable.
But the price difference is pretty huge, especially if you already have all the other parts.

A 4790k is $340 and a decent board is at $100-150. $440-490 total.

A x5670 is $100 and a good board runs $100-150, assuming that you spend the time to find a deal. $200-250 total.

We are talking more than twice the price for the 4790k combo for similar performance.
Overclocked to the same speed, the 4790k will be faster in (most) games, and the x5670 will be faster in content creation applications.

Of course for the extra $240 you'll get proper SATA3, UEFI, and some other goodies.

If you are building fresh x99 makes more sense than a z97 build, something like a 5820k at the least.

Edit: Of course if you are near a Micro Center, that $440 becomes ~$400.
Also, there is no guarantee that Broadwell will even work with all current Z97 boards, which wouldn't surprise me with the way Intel has been doing things lately.
 
Last edited:
I agree for someone that doesn't want to tweak with settings as much that a Z97 build makes sense, and in the long run it will probably be more reliable.
But the price difference is pretty huge, especially if you already have all the other parts.

A 4790k is $340 and a decent board is at $100-150. $440-490 total.

A x5670 is $100 and a good board runs $100-150, assuming that you spend the time to find a deal. $200-250 total.

We are talking more than twice the price for the 4790k combo for similar performance.
Overclocked to the same speed, the 4790k will be faster in (most) games, and the x5670 will be faster in content creation applications.

Of course for the extra $240 you'll get proper SATA3, UEFI, and some other goodies.

If you are building fresh x99 makes more sense than a z97 build, something like a 5820k at the least.

Edit: Of course if you are near a Micro Center, that $440 becomes ~$400.
Also, there is no guarantee that Broadwell will even work with all current Z97 boards, which wouldn't surprise me with the way Intel has been doing things lately.

Part of the "savings" with an X58 build would go into RAM. I only recommend someone grab one of these Xeons if they already have their hands on an X58 motherboard. I wouldn't suggest going out of your way to find a deal on a used motherboard. In the same vein, you can save money on a used or open box Z97 motherboard and probably even an i7-4790K.
 
Part of the "savings" with an X58 build would go into RAM. I only recommend someone grab one of these Xeons if they already have their hands on an X58 motherboard. I wouldn't suggest going out of your way to find a deal on a used motherboard. In the same vein, you can save money on a used or open box Z97 motherboard and probably even an i7-4790K.

Maybe, but even with the most extreme savings you'll still be paying at least $250 for the 4790k and about $90 for a decent board.

X58 runs fine in dual channel mode, worst case you might lose 2-3% in real world applications when compared to triple channel. Anyway, assuming you already have two sticks of say 8gb, a third stick is only going to cost $50. That still leaves a $90 gap between the two assuming you get a very good deal on the 4790k combo.

The difference in Photoshop at the same clock speed between the x5670 and 4790k is nearly 10%. I'd say that is enough of a reason to look for a board if you regularly use those kind of applications.

Again.. If you have the extra money, don't feel like fiddling around with settings, and mostly game, the 4790k is the better option.
 
I guess part of it is nostalgia. I remember fondly the days where I had a VapoChill phase change cooler and a dream. A dream to overclock with the only limitation being the FSB and Multiplier. No paying for the ability to overclock, except for the refrigeration unit attached to the case - free as a bird!
 
I've only had two motherboards so I guess I can't really relate to the nostalgia thing. There was no looking back for me when I finally decided to swap out my X48 board for X58. In a couple years, I'll probably build another enthusiast system based on used X99 parts. No telling what the future holds.

I just wouldn't want to go through the effort of building an X58 Xeon system if I didn't already have at least a motherboard. I was looking at switching to Z97 when I learned I can snag a cheap Xeon on eBay at which point going Z97 didn't make financial sense. If I was switching from X48, I would have gone Z97.
 
I agree with you. z97 is the logical upgrade. I already have a 4670k mATX setup. I'm just thinking these hexacores may perform well with DX12.
 
I agree with you. z97 is the logical upgrade. I already have a 4670k mATX setup. I'm just thinking these hexacores may perform well with DX12.

It's hard to say, it really depends on how well the game takes advantage of multi-threading.. But in general it looks like DX12 will take advantage of more threads compared to DX11.

Again, for the price the x56xx will not be beat if you don't pay a ton for a board, a FX-8350 needs 5ghz+ to match a x56xx at 4ghz.

A x5650 goes for the same price as a g3258.
 
I agree these Xeons are one hell of a bargain, Just took a look at eBay and I wouldn't buy any of the X58 motherboards available for under $160 on there. I'm not sure I want to drop that kind of money on an older motherboard. I don't really like the idea of spending more on a board than the processor. Maybe that's a me problem.
 
Back
Top