Harpss1ngh said:

Just found this thread after I had a sudden realization that I can upgrade to a newer Gen Xeon to replace my i7-950!

I have a project in the logs (Project: TJ07 Revived, shameless plug ) and have just bought a 2nd Asus Geforce GTX 980ti Strix OC and wanted to upgrade my CPU to reduce any bottlenecking...I have a fully custom watercooling setup.

Could anyone tell me which of the Xeon's generally overclock and perform the best over a i7-950? Is it worth getting a X5670 for example over a X5650 even with the price difference?

My current spec is in my sig

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I think the general consensus is the X5650 (like I have) is good for a solid 4ghz as a baseline, maybe a bit more but I got my 5650 to 4ghz with absolute ease with my existing HSF cooler.

The 5670 etc I think can take you up to 4.5 on liquid cooling. But if you have to replace your cooler you'd have to assess if it's really worth it.

DiscoDave said:

I think the general consensus is the X5650 (like I have) is good for a solid 4ghz as a baseline, maybe a bit more but I got my 5650 to 4ghz with absolute ease with my existing HSF cooler.

The 5670 etc I think can take you up to 4.5 on liquid cooling. But if you have to replace your cooler you'd have to assess if it's really worth it.

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I managed to get a X5690

I have the EK Supremacy EVO waterblock for my i7 950 so it'll fit the Xeon as its the same socket.

My P6X58-D-E loves overclocking BCLK Beyond 200 BCLK, I had it at 220 with my i7 950, and the motherboard is also on waterblocks so hopefully the Xeon is a good overclocker so I can push it beyond.

Harpss1ngh said:

I managed to get a X5690

I have the EK Supremacy EVO waterblock for my i7 950 so it'll fit the Xeon as its the same socket.

My P6X58-D-E loves overclocking BCLK Beyond 200 BCLK, I had it at 220 with my i7 950, and the motherboard is also on waterblocks so hopefully the Xeon is a good overclocker so I can push it beyond.

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Nice. You should be able to overclock the nuts off that 5690 and get some solid gains!

Harpss1ngh said:

I managed to get a X5690

I have the EK Supremacy EVO waterblock for my i7 950 so it'll fit the Xeon as its the same socket.

My P6X58-D-E loves overclocking BCLK Beyond 200 BCLK, I had it at 220 with my i7 950, and the motherboard is also on waterblocks so hopefully the Xeon is a good overclocker so I can push it beyond.

Click to expand...

those xeons are beast! should be really fast.

I presume the Xeon's are soldered between the Die and the IHS unlike the Ivy's which have a TIM so probably not going to benefit delidding my X5690?

They are soldered, yes.

X5670 @ 4.5ghz [1.376 - 1.392v, x24 + 1] 28 - 62deg
Air - Thermaltake HR-02 w/ 2x Noctua 14's
GA-EX58-Extreme F12
12gb ram Corsair 1600 [1460]

Hey Guys, just semi-finished replacing my old 920 with a X5670…love the rebirth this chip has bestowed upon my PC [920 C0, 1.52v @ 4.1ghz which was basically a heater], and before the above results, this is what I deemed I'd be happy with; but as per usual, I kind of want to squeeze a bit more out of her […4.6 sounds nicer, ha - but I dare say at a much bigger voltage step - and probably not worth it].
Anyhow, I have been scouring the all forums for a general consensus when it comes to core voltage, but unfortunately these xeons seem to have vastly varying and divided opinions.
• Nothing above 1.35
• 1.35 - 1.4
• 1.5 max [therefore with spike etc., really 1.55]
• Or, the old classic, as much as you can if you can keep it cool
Anyhow, I was hoping to hear from those with 4.6-4.8ghz achieved to discover their voltages and how long they've been running their system to help my decision of 'to go further, or just be happy with the vast increase I have'.

Thanks in advance, Dyr
PS> Love the info/support here

Hi

The spec sheet is 1.35 with a bit of room which is where the 1.4 comments come from.

However this is a totally different game to the high end. I can understand people getting worried about frying their 350 quid x99 chips or whatever but you've likely just dropped 70 quid on a 6 core chip that close to keeps up with the latest and greatest.

I say go for it. If you bin it buy another one and go a bit easier

I am 4.5ghz at 1.376 also but seem temperature limited hitting 85c on one core during sustained prime and IBT runs. Though real world don't get near that.

It was always more the QPI voltage being too high that killed the Nehalem/Westmere/Gulftown CPUs. I've been running my Xeon 5650 @ 4.4GHz at 1.4v under load for almost 18 months solid now as its my encoding machine. At the end of the day if it breaks I can get a replacement for under £70 so its no big deal!

Xeon E5520 (4Cores+HT=8Threads) is around £10 & just as capable in real world useage on socket1366 I picked one up a few weeks ago for under £10 inc P&P its just as good to use as far more expensive CPU's

AWPC said:

Xeon E5520 (4Cores+HT=8Threads) is around £10 & just as capable in real world useage on socket1366 I picked one up a few weeks ago for under £10 inc P&P its just as good to use as far more expensive CPU's

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What sort of clocks have you gotten out of it?

tribz said:

What sort of clocks have you gotten out of it?

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Just the default 2.53Ghz turbo boost. Its fast enough with the 8MB L3 cache & 8 Threads. For under a tenner its a bargain!!

Ste said:

Hi

The spec sheet is 1.35 with a bit of room which is where the 1.4 comments come from.

However...

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Thanks for the repleis, guys. Yeah, think you guys are right - I'll hunt around for another back-up chip then ramp this one up a bit more...it's not a money issue I'm worried about, more a possible time-down scenario if the cpu fails - which I certainly can't afford being my work-rig.

reef said:

It was always more the QPI voltage being too high that killed the Nehalem/Westmere/Gulftown CPUs. I've been running my Xeon 5650 @ 4.4GHz at 1.4v under load for almost 18 months solid now as its my encoding machine. At the end of the day if it breaks I can get a replacement for under £70 so its no big deal!

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Hey reef, what is your QPI voltage? I only have one more jump up my sleeve before I go over 1.35.

If you have the upgrade itch this could well curb it

Its like cpu tech has been stuck in the mud for years ans years


Long Live my 5650!

Yeah! Mines at 4.5 too.

I'm going SLI 1070 soon on x58 which should be funny

Hey reef, what is your QPI voltage? I only have one more jump up my sleeve before I go over 1.35.

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Its 1.275v, which is good enough for 220MHz BClk and 3x 4GB DDR3 at 1760MHz 7-7-7-20.

You don't really need a lot of QPI volts on these unless you're using 6 DIMMs it seems.

Ste said:

Yeah! Mines at 4.5 too.

I'm going SLI 1070 soon on x58 which should be funny

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Now that will an interesting experience! Be sure to report back.

I have mine at 4.6Ghz.in a totally silent system. It scores 1059 in Cinebench R15 which is a little more than stock 5820k so for the video encoding which it primarily does it is a very cost effective system.

wam7 said:

Now that will an interesting experience! Be sure to report back.

I have mine at 4.6Ghz.in a totally silent system. It scores 1059 in Cinebench R15 which is a little more than stock 5820k so for the video encoding which it primarily does it is a very cost effective system.

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Nice! What are your voltages? Love the idea of a completely silent system, can you give us a bit of run-down?

dyrgutt said:

Nice! What are your voltages? Love the idea of a completely silent system, can you give us a bit of run-down?

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Running with 1.4vcore and 1.32v QPI, using a Swiftech H220-X 'proper' AIO cooler but because this is pretty much overkill for the 95W Xeon I can have everything turned way down to near silence using an Aquaero 5 Pro fan controller and still only get max 65c load temps. Though you could achieve close to those temps and near silence with a Noctua D14/D15. PSU is a Corsair RMx 600w. The fans in these don't even start up until you start putting it under load and because I'm using just over 300W at normal load then the fan never comes on.
GPU is a passive Nvidia GT720 so no fan and hard drive is just one 256Gb Samsung 840 SSD which once again makes no noise.

Which means although I can be right next to it I have to check the light to see if it's on.

Random FYI but I salvaged 3 x HP G7 servers each with 2 x 5650 X CPUs and they've been running at 100% utilisation 24/7 for the last 2 months without issue. After reading this thread I'd be tempted to buy an X58 mobo and build another system from the bits I've got to supplement my i5820K main system.

On hindsight I probably may not have bothered with the i7 5820k system afterall! Especially as 2 X99 mobos have died and been replaced via RMA already this year.