1366 X58 Xeon 5650

SupernovaUK · 6 Sep 2014 at 19:00

Tom B said:
SupernovaUK, what did you do to get your RAM running at 1600mhz? I know you were struggling with that earlier in the thread and I have the exact same ram as you

I'm still new to overclocking but it seems for my setup taking the CPU multiplier off Auto in the bios was the key to getting things sorted. Once I did that I was able to get my RAM running full speed. I have not needed to manually configure any other settings (e.g. DRAM Volts, QPI Volts or DRAM Bus volts) to get a full 24Gb of RAM running at 1600Mhz.

I had been trying those things without touching the CPU multiplier and was having the same trouble as you.

Which Xeon you using the X5650?

Gazb · 6 Sep 2014 at 19:06

So after many hours of fighting I managed to get my motherboards bios updated to the required version. (Memory issues, non working keyboard etc etc)

Anyhow rubbish bios flashing experience aside the 5650 has now taken place of my 920.
System's running stable and cooler than before. The Silverstone heatsink I got recently seems good.

So now it's time to start to start pushing up the frequency.
What's the best way to start with this chip?

Tom B · 6 Sep 2014 at 19:30

SupernovaUK said:
I'm still new to overclocking but it seems for my setup taking the CPU multiplier off Auto in the bios was the key to getting things sorted. Once I did that I was able to get my RAM running full speed. I have not needed to manually configure any other settings (e.g. DRAM Volts, QPI Volts or DRAM Bus volts) to get a full 24Gb of RAM running at 1600Mhz.

I had been trying those things without touching the CPU multiplier and was having the same trouble as you.

Which Xeon you using the X5650?

I'm using the X5670.

*facepalm* I was, apparently stupidly, thinking it would be better to get the RAM running at the right speed at stock before trying to overclock.

Setting the BLCK to 160, DRAM to 1604 and leaving everything else on auto (including multiplier) gives me 1604mhz ram and 3.5ghz with a 3.8ghz tubo. This is a much better starting point, at least I know now what the problem was and can work from here. And that's on just 1.21 volts.

edit: Temps are good too. 30 degrees idle, 70 full load.

funky_llama1 · 6 Sep 2014 at 20:09

sunn said:
For uncore speed you can use 1.5x RAM, 2x or 2x +1 was for 45nm quads it seems

My query was whether its safe to run the uncore at 3800Mhz+ for 24/7 operation. The QPI/VTT is below 1.4v so should be safe? I cant reduce it without limiting my overclock due to my uncore multiplier being stuck at 20X

Tom B · 6 Sep 2014 at 21:30

Any idea why this scales so badly temp wise? At 3.8ghz I get 30-33 idle temp and 65-70 load, at 4ghz it jumps up to 40 idle, 80 load. At stock, the idle temp is pretty much the same as 3.8.

reef · 7 Sep 2014 at 00:36

funky_llama1 said:
My query was whether its safe to run the uncore at 3800Mhz+ for 24/7 operation. The QPI/VTT is below 1.4v so should be safe? I cant reduce it without limiting my overclock due to my uncore multiplier being stuck at 20X

Its safe to run the uncore at 3800MHz, but QPI volts at 1.4v is very high. As far as I'm aware the Intel specs suggest going over 1.35v is dangerous.

triss · 7 Sep 2014 at 00:47

reef said:
Its safe to run the uncore at 3800MHz, but QPI volts at 1.4v is very high. As far as I'm aware the Intel specs suggest going over 1.35v is dangerous.

I dont know how safe it is but my qpi has been at 1.4v for about a year with my 960, was lower with 6gb but when i moved to 12gb it needed the 1.4v bump

tribz · 7 Sep 2014 at 07:39

Acme said:
So, serious question all you people who are upgrading. Would anyone be willing to stick their old i7 in a jiffy bag and post it to me so I can try and update my BIOS? Will send it back afterwards and can PayPal gift you a token amount for the postage if you like.

I would have posted you my 950 but it's on ebay at the moment so this is a bump

SupernovaUK · 7 Sep 2014 at 10:15

X5675 @ 4Ghz with 24Gb Ram @ 1600Mhz...

Ok folks I think I've achieved what I set out to do when I invested ~£130 in a X5675 for my setup.

I've used Prime95 and had it running its torture test for over 1.5 hours without any trouble. My max temps were 75C on one core and 67 - 73C on the rest with the CPU using 1.296 Volts for a speed of 4Ghz. That was with an ambient air temp in my room of ~24C. I'm not sure if that test is long enough to be considered a stable benchmark, but I think it is enough to reassure me I should be fine for gaming. Does anyone have any thoughts on that point? My idle temps are a reasonable ~38C (min is ~30C on one core) in Windows as well, which is pretty nice.

I'm really pleased with that result considering I'm using air cooling on an older Noctua NH-U12P SE2 cooler and not a D14 etc. All I have used is some MX-2 thermal paste and I upgraded the dual heatsink fans to some Noctua NF-F12 PWM 120mm Focused Flow fans.

I'm not able to get Intel Burn Test running currently cause I've got some issue with installing .NET 3.5 on Windows 8.1 64bit for some reason. I'll work on that later and see if I can get it working. Don't know if anyone else has had trouble with the download of .NET 3.5 components onto Windows 8.1?

I am starting to wonder if I could manually lower the CPU Volts a little bit as it is set on Auto in the bios currently. I'm also considering upping the QPI link speed, which is 2880 Mhz currently but not sure if it is worth fiddling with either of those to be honest.

tribz · 7 Sep 2014 at 10:24

4GHz on those volts and that temperature air cooled is brilliant

reef · 7 Sep 2014 at 12:21

I usually use Prime95 for about an hour to test for initial stability and then run some encoding. Usually if its unstable handbrake will find it in my experience, I've had CPUs that would run Prime95 until the cows come home but then crash within minutes encoding a film if the VCore was a tad too low.

I'm sure you can run a lower vcore on that X5670. The P6X58D-E should also be good for 200MHz BClk / 3200MHz QPI, mine will do that at default QPI volts (1.2v) on my X5650. You might require a bit more volts than that though as you're running 6 DIMMs. Its a great board for overclocking Xeons, mine will hit 220MHz BClk without too much effort on the X5650.

If you're happy with 4GHz, try 200MHz x 20 with 3200MHz QPI and 1600MHz DRAM. It'll keep everything nicely in spec. If you ask me though you've definitely got some headroom there with that voltage and those CPU temps.

easyrider · 7 Sep 2014 at 12:28

Acme said:
So, serious question all you people who are upgrading. Would anyone be willing to stick their old i7 in a jiffy bag and post it to me so I can try and update my BIOS? Will send it back afterwards and can PayPal gift you a token amount for the postage if you like.

Dude just sold mine or I would have

ATIorNvidia · 7 Sep 2014 at 12:53

How much do used X58 boards go for nowadays? Thinking of getting one of these X5650's as I could use the extra cores.

Zico · 7 Sep 2014 at 13:12

Just got round to plugging in my x5650 and loading bios defaults.

In Windows now but even changing to XMP profile for the ram and I get Overclocking failure and have to pull the power cord to boot back to bios.

Using Sabertooth X58 and Corsair Vengeance ram (CMZ12GX3M3A1600C9)

CPUz is currently only putting 0.960v through the CPU at the moment.

easyrider · 7 Sep 2014 at 13:21

Zico said:
Just got round to plugging in my x5650 and loading bios defaults.

In Windows now but even changing to XMP profile for the ram and I get Overclocking failure and have to pull the power cord to boot back to bios.

Using Sabertooth X58 and Corsair Vengeance ram (CMZ12GX3M3A1600C9)

CPUz is currently only putting 0.960v through the CPU at the moment.

Put the vcore to 1.275 in the bios

Zico · 7 Sep 2014 at 14:03

Perhaps it's not best that I try working on bios settings while watching F1

Right, turned off the Asus AI.

Set CPU volt to 1.275, 166blk and booted into windows ok. Went back into bios and upped the DDR to 1600 (as it was set at 999) and booted ok again.

Started to up the blk and have it set at 200blk but didn't change the cpu voltage so got BSOD.

Currently at 1.295 cpu volt and 200blk with ddr set to 1600. Haven't tried an IntelBurn run yet.

Combat Fighter · 7 Sep 2014 at 14:03

easyrider said:
Dude just sold mine or I would have

How much did you get for it mate?

Zico · 7 Sep 2014 at 18:42

Well after a little testing, I am set at 4Ghz using 200blk and 1.3cpu volt (and slowly decreasing after IntelBurn test).

My BSOD were from having the Turbo on and the boost up to 4.4Ghz wasn't stable even with 1.36cpu volt (not wanting to try higher as would prefer stable 4Ghz without boost).

**Edit**
I did read earlier posts and if I am correct, people have got 4Ghz with low cpu volts. Would I be better off on a lower cpu volt and work up rather than work down?

:(Rhodri:) · 8 Sep 2014 at 09:50

I installed my x5660 with no problems, it's happily running 4.2 at 1.3v and I've not really had any time to tweak it so far. Temps are about 10 degrees lower than the 950 at 4.0 so very happy!

CptDave · 8 Sep 2014 at 18:00

Hey Guys,
Like someone else who posted earlier I lurk a lot on the forum, but don't usually feel the need to post, but I wanted to say thanks to the OP (Flashheart) for bringing these lovely little xeons to our attention

I bought a 5675 for £110 ish, and its saved me from spending out nearly a grand on a Haswell - E. Its brought my X58 motherboard another year of life at least.

I've got a P6X58D-E MB and i've just set the multiplyer to 21 and the BLCK to 200 for a nice overclock of 4.2. Thats on 1.32 ish volts (can't remember exactly), all at lower tempreatures that my 950 used to do 4ghz.

The second core always seems to be 8 or 9 degrees hotter than the rest (I've tried different coolers and re-applying theremal compound), but it never goes over 68 degrees...so I guess I can live with it

Thanks
Dave