Overclocking X3210 what's safe core temps?

[Lowfategg]

Hi all!

Just got my new computer and I have started overclocking it. Just have a few question since I cant seem to find any good info online.

My computer has the following:

Intel Xeon X3210 (G0 stepping)
MSI P6N Platinum 650i SLI Motherboard
Transcend Axe Ram 1066 DDR2 (2 GB)

I read around and it seems that I should be able to pull of at lest 3.0 GHz O/C. It does overclock nicely to that speed but when I run prime95 after around 2 hours my temps start rising and I stopped it becuse I dont really feel like frying my CPU.

Anyway heres what I am Getting from coretemp

Ide: around 40-45C
Load: 58-61C
Load after 2 hours: 62-66C rising

It seems that I have read that the core temp should stay under 73C but then I read that the Tcase or something is that number. I guess I am just confused anyway any buddy got any ideas?

Oh also heres the setting I setup on the board just in case I made an oops their.

FSB = 1500 MHz
Ratio = 8
CPU volt = 0.1000v (that's plus 1.2800v so around 1.3800v)
Memory volt = auto
NB volt = 1.45v
SB volt = 1.50v
FSB VTT volt = 12%

 

[graysky]

Intel Processor Finder says 85 °C which I assume to be core temp. Your vcore is on the high side... have you tried minimizing it? If not have a look at my C2D/C2Q Overclocking Guide if you haven't already.

 

[myocardia]

Welcome to anandtech. A G0 stepping shouldn't have any problem doing 3.0 Ghz on stock voltage, or at least no higher than 1.30v. You're gonna want to get yourself a real heatsink for those kind of speeds, though. The stock heatsink is barely enough at stock speeds, for the quads.

 

[ArchAngel777]

Originally posted by: graysky
Intel Processor Finder says 85 °C which I assume to be core temp. Your vcore is on the high side... have you tried minimizing it? If not have a look at my C2D/C2Q Overclocking Guide if you haven't already.

85c is Tcase temperature.

 

[Lowfategg]

I was wondering about vcore did seem a little high that should bring my temps down as well. I guessing running around 1.28v (board auto volt) would be fine or is 1.3v more like it?

85c sounds a little high from what I have read. As for heat sink I am running an Cool master Hyper TX2 but wondering if I have it seated right since my first two cores have a different of around 4-6c sometimes from cores 3 and 4 or is that normal?

 

[graysky]

Originally posted by: ArchAngel777

Originally posted by: graysky
Intel Processor Finder says 85 °C which I assume to be core temp. Your vcore is on the high side... have you tried minimizing it? If not have a look at my C2D/C2Q Overclocking Guide if you haven't already.

85c is Tcase temperature.

As I understand it, tcase doesn't exist. In other words, there is no physical temperature probe on the geometric mean of the die. There are only thermal sensors under each core for C2D/C2Q's. Please correct me if I'm wrong about this.

 

[graysky]

Originally posted by: Lowfategg
I was wondering about vcore did seem a little high that should bring my temps down as well. I guessing running around 1.28v (board auto volt) would be fine or is 1.3v more like it?

85c sounds a little high from what I have read. As for heat sink I am running an Cool master Hyper TX2 but wondering if I have it seated right since my first two cores have a different of around 4-6c sometimes from cores 3 and 4 or is that normal?

Firstly, please locate the section in this post about minimizing vcore. The stock vcore on my q6600 is 1.2875 V but I can run 100 % stable @ 1.1000 V! The heat increase with the square of the voltage so a little goes a long way; you'll probably drop your load temps by a pretty significant amount by running at a lower voltage if you can and still remain stable.

Secondly, I dunno about that HS at all, but I'd recommend that you upgrade to something like the Ultra-120 Extreme or TT -- particularly when cooling an overclocked quad.

Finally, the temp differences between cores is actually normal. The IHS on your chip is very likely concave like a salad bowl -- all C2Q's come like this. You may consider lapping it and the base of your heatsink to dramatically improve thermal transfer between the surfaces. Again, read that link and see the two threads within that describe lapping your heatsink and IHS... it's actually pretty darn easy. I knocked 7-10 °C (12 - 15 %) off my load temps. Also, the 5-6 °C differences between cores 0+1 and cores 2+3 dropped to a 1 °C difference. Again, see the threads in that link for screenshots, pictures of how to lap, before, during, after, etc.

 

[Lowfategg]

Ok sounds good I give that try at that. Thank you for help I see if any of this helps. As for heat sink I am planning to upgrade down the road but hopefully its good enough for now.

 

[graysky]

Let us know after you minimize the vcore which could be a major decrease. Lapping is something else that will bring a major decrease.

 

[ArchAngel777]

Originally posted by: graysky

Originally posted by: ArchAngel777

Originally posted by: graysky
Intel Processor Finder says 85 °C which I assume to be core temp. Your vcore is on the high side... have you tried minimizing it? If not have a look at my C2D/C2Q Overclocking Guide if you haven't already.

85c is Tcase temperature.

As I understand it, tcase doesn't exist. In other words, there is no physical temperature probe on the geometric mean of the die. There are only thermal sensors under each core for C2D/C2Q's. Please correct me if I'm wrong about this.

When Intel refers to thermal specification, it defines it this way

Thermal Specification: The thermal specification shown is the maximum case temperature at the maximum Thermal Design Power (TDP) value for that processor. It is measured at the geometric center on the topside of the processor integrated heat spreader. For processors without integrated heat spreaders such as mobile processors, the thermal specification is referred to as the junction temperature (Tj). The maximum junction temperature is defined by an activation of the processor Intel® Thermal Monitor. The Intel Thermal Monitor?s automatic mode is used to indicate that the maximum TJ has been reached.

XEON chips have IHS, therefore their thermal specification is Tcase. Whether or not there is a sensor there is irrelevent. There actually is a diode underneath the topside of the IHS that BIOS can measure CPU temperature which would be similar to Tcase, but not quite. Tcase itself has to be measured by machining a small slit into the IHS, then placing a probe in there. You can Inte's guide somewhere on the net where it goes into great detail. I took my time to read through it and study it as I was very interested in the misinformation regarding their specifications out there.

Even without a Tcase diode, you can still easily guestmate what Tcase is going to be. Just subtract 10c from Tjunction at the hottest core for a C2Q and 15c for a C2D.

 

[Lowfategg]

Ok seems it did help a lot. But for some odd resign I don't think I can get my motherboard to go lower then 1.280v since when I reach +0.000 it goes to the biggest valve it can add. Anyway I ran prime95 for about 5 hours today no errors at 1.280v and then I thought that my NB volts might be to high so I brought then up little by little and now 1.3v seems stable, still running prime95.

Also in the O/C guide it says to enable round off checking that means there should be a check mark by it in adv menu?

Anyway temps now sit around:

54c-58 load (prime95 with higher KB values)
60-63 load (prime95 with smaller KB values)

As for lapping not as of yet. But these are safe temps from what I have read even though they are a bit high.

What you guys think?

Also how does the FSB VTT volt look is 12% seem to high?