3500+ Venice: E3 vs. E4.

[Ryan Norton]

Hi everyone,

I've been running a Venice 3500+ E3 stepping since July, but in the past month there's been this flurry of EOLs, new steppings, etc. appearing. Lots of rumours about E4 being a failed dual core CPU or a dual core CPU with one core disabled.

Anyway, I'm building a new PC for my parents, and since there was only a $1 difference between E3 and E4 3500+'s, I got the E4. I'm figuring I should try to compare the two CPUs. I think I've read somewhere that people weren't happy with the overclocks they got on their new E4 Venices.

What should I try? Just drop the CPU in and see if it handles my 325HTTx8=2600MHz overclock? Start it at stock and ramp up slowly?

 

[VooDooAddict]

Definetly ramp it up slowly.

 

[Avalon]

Overclock it by increments. Booting it at 2600mhz off the bat is dangerous.

 

[Wentelteefje]

Wooow, you want to return BOTH your CPU and mobo...? Ramp it up nice and slowly like any other CPU overclock...

 

[Ryan Norton]

Haha, no, I certainly do not. I've just never swapped one near-identical CPU for another.

 

[Leper Messiah]

well, if you want to see if the E4s are failed dualies, all you have to do is pop off the IHS. dual cores should be quite a bit bigger on the die than single cores.

 

[Wentelteefje]

Haha, no, I certainly do not. I've just never swapped one near-identical CPU for another

It should be the same as swapping identical CPU's... Do make sure your mobo's BIOS is updated so it will correctly identify it...

Popping of the heat spreader can be quite dangerous for the CPU if you've never done it before... Although it would be thé way to be sure...

 

[Mogadon]

The have same CG stepping as san diego cores, so another theory is that they're SD chips that were speed binned.

 

[Ryan Norton]

Well. having just put everything back together again (with TCCD RAM now), I can tell you one thing: CPU-Z does not recognize what revision this is!

What?

 

[imported_g33k]

nm

 

[Mogadon]

Originally posted by: Ryan Norton
Well. having just put everything back together again (with TCCD RAM now), I can tell you one thing: CPU-Z does not recognize what revision this is!

What?

Yeh, a guy on another forum had an E4 3200+ and cpu-z didn't recognise it. He got his running at 2.7GHz on 1.45V .. which is pretty good, Here's the thread.

Overclock that baby and show us what you get.

 

[Ryan Norton]

Well, working on it. Bumped HTT to 250 to start, keeping the multiplier low...

Anyway, one definite downside to the E4 chips is that this mobo's BIOS for some reason removes 1.45v Vcore and limits you to 1.4v + 5-10%, it seems, of over voltage. So I can't give this CPU as much power, but maybe it doesn't need it...

Also noticed that neither Memory nor SPD tabs are populating in CPU-Z now. Weird.

If anyone's interested, my CPU says CDBHE 0543TPMW

 

[Mogadon]

That sucks if you need the voltage. I imagine you're using the latest BIOS, if you need more voltage you may want to see if there are any third party BIOS's around.

 

[Ryan Norton]

I think the voltage is going to be necessary, this mobo won't give more than 1.47v to the CPU... the E4 3500+ crapped out at 2750MHz, 250HTTx11. I had been bumping the HTT up slowly with the stock multi and RAM at 1:2 to take it out of the equation... per a massive OC guide at the DFI boards, I was using the 32M digits SuperPi as a quick check for stability. Took about 2 minutes for 2750MHz to blow up. Trying 2695MHz=245HTTx11 now. Initial impressions are, the E3 is going back in this weekend