Upgrade from i7 950 to Xeon W3690?

[mfenn]

This what I purchased:
Intel Xeon W3690 3.46GHz Hex Core for Gigabyte G1.GUERRILLA
http://www.ebay.com/itm/381123540183?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT
Badly written headline for people like me who are not totally confident about computers. Probably "board the CPU had been used in previously".

Yeah, the listing is pretty thin and doesn't offer an explanation about why that motherboard is specifically called out. My best guess is that is indeed the board that the CPU was pulled from.

 

[Burpo]

No. That's Digitalmind just posting random X58 boards that the cpu can be used in. It came from a Dell T3500 workstation. That's where I buy T3500 barebones machines to resell. He keeps CPU's, RAM, video & hard drives & sells them separately.
Good guy to deal with.. No funny business..

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

I ordered mine from there. Not the same listing. Just opened it up today, there was thermal grease all over the chip

 

[E. C. Yian]

I ordered mine from there. Not the same listing. Just opened it up today, there was thermal grease all over the chip

This not what I wanted to see! I understand that they check all the processors before shipping. I suspect though that if it came from a working machine it is ok to sell. This guy has a very high rating so if not good he will resolve any issue equitably. What is your take?

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

This not what I wanted to see! I understand that they check all the processors before shipping. I suspect though that if it came from a working machine it is ok to sell. This guy has a very high rating so if not good he will resolve any issue equitably. What is your take?

Just kinda miffed that the chip wasn't clean. NOT a big deal at all but certainly a character marker. Maybe he has such high volume that not cleaning it saves time. A chip with thermal grease on it from a previous installation will certainly not effect the performance of the chip in any way.

I'm just too busy building a custom water loop to even check it out. Parts come in tomorrow or Tuesday so my time frame will be by the end of the week before I get it up and running. How about you?

 

[E. C. Yian]

Just kinda miffed that the chip wasn't clean. NOT a big deal at all but certainly a character marker. Maybe he has such high volume that not cleaning it saves time. A chip with thermal grease on it from a previous installation will certainly not effect the performance of the chip in any way.

I'm just too busy building a custom water loop to even check it out. Parts come in tomorrow or Tuesday so my time frame will be by the end of the week before I get it up and running. How about you?

Very busy also but looking forward to getting it done and preparing my machine for Windows 10. I will wait for you to get done.

I will shortly update the BIOS with an exe I download.

I will definitely need help with OC and the BIOS settings.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Very busy also but looking forward to getting it done and preparing my machine for Windows 10. I will wait for you to get done.

I will shortly update the BIOS with an exe I download.

I will definitely need help with OC and the BIOS settings.

Just remember my bios settings will not be the same as yours. I know how my voltages read. Does your motherboard have voltage terminals where you can stick probes onto and read the results through a multi meter?

 

[E. C. Yian]

Just remember my bios settings will not be the same as yours. I know how my voltages read. Does your motherboard have voltage terminals where you can stick probes onto and read the results through a multi meter?

I do not know if “motherboard have voltage terminals”
Mobo GA-X58A-UD3R (rev. 2.0 )
http://www.gigabyte.us/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3449#ov
Can you tell from this?

In the BIOS I do not use IDE mode but use AHCI. Is this the way to go?

I have some thermal grease left over. One is Techie Toyz Arctic Silver, Zalman Thermal Grease and Scythe High Thermal Conductivity Compound. Will they be ok to use? The arctic syringe may be empty.

 

[E. C. Yian]

Just got an email and delivery likely to be this Friday 7-24-15.
So this weekend may do the processor exchange.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

I do not know if “motherboard have voltage terminals”
Mobo GA-X58A-UD3R (rev. 2.0 )
http://www.gigabyte.us/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3449#ov
Can you tell from this?

In the BIOS I do not use IDE mode but use AHCI. Is this the way to go?

I have some thermal grease left over. One is Techie Toyz Arctic Silver, Zalman Thermal Grease and Scythe High Thermal Conductivity Compound. Will they be ok to use? The arctic syringe may be empty.

1) Does the description say it has terminals? I think the advertisement for mine did. If not there are some people who know were to stick the probes on a Gigabyte board. Check out this thread, ask in there. I think 'gofaststripes' might know. [Official] - X58 Xeon Club

2) AHCI is the way to go. It's best to have this enabled when first installing the OS

3) There are different levels of performance with Thermal grease. I never researched them extensively. I use Arctic Silver 5, which reminds me I need to stock up.

Parts will probably be here this Wed.

Keep us up to date

Thanks

 

[E. C. Yian]

1) Does the description say it has terminals? I think the advertisement for mine did. If not there are some people who know were to stick the probes on a Gigabyte board. Check out this thread, ask in there. I think 'gofaststripes' might know. [Official] - X58 Xeon Club

2) AHCI is the way to go. It's best to have this enabled when first installing the OS

3) There are different levels of performance with Thermal grease. I never researched them extensively. I use Arctic Silver 5, which reminds me I need to stock up.

Parts will probably be here this Wed.

Keep us up to date

Thanks

1) I prefer the one step OC. Or was the one step a gimmick to get me started? It takes me a while but I do catch on! Skip the voltage step?

2) Start with AHCI on the drives and stay with it. This way I get scsi drives?

3) Good I am ok on the thermal grease.

4) The BIOS update failed. In a previous computer it took five minutes and in this one I spent over one hour and still have the original FF version. I do not see anything that I really need so I will stay with FF.

 

[E. C. Yian]

does this help any
Hardware OverVoltage Control IC - Enabling Extreme Overclocking

GIGABYTE Hardware Overvoltage Control ICs featuring more voltage control options than before for the CPU North Bridge and memory. The overvoltage controllers also provide hardware linear real-time voltage control, which means there is no delay compared to the GPIO controller in past implementations. In addition, GIGABYTE's Hardware Overvoltage Controller ICs also allow for much finer voltage control, allowing power users to adjust voltage in as little increments as 20mV for better overclocking performance.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

No. It literally can be one step. Change the multiplier, hit F10, Save, reboot. Changing the multiplier will be super easy.

If you have voltage terminals it will help you determine what the real reading of your voltages are. Pretty much most of mine are the same as what HWmonitor ( HWmonitor pg - use the 64bit zip file, don't do the install) reads except for CPU VTT voltage. The software reads almost 100mV more than what the terminal reports. The vDIMM always reads .30v more than was is set in the bios.

You should get familiar with navigating around in your voltage settings page, in the bios.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

does this help any
Hardware OverVoltage Control IC - Enabling Extreme Overclocking

GIGABYTE Hardware Overvoltage Control ICs featuring more voltage control options than before for the CPU North Bridge and memory. The overvoltage controllers also provide hardware linear real-time voltage control, which means there is no delay compared to the GPIO controller in past implementations. In addition, GIGABYTE's Hardware Overvoltage Controller ICs also allow for much finer voltage control, allowing power users to adjust voltage in as little increments as 20mV for better overclocking performance.

You are going to want to do simple overclocking. Just the multiplier change, and maybe more vcore, and vtt voltage. The higher you overclock the more vcore and vtt you'll need. You can easily run you system at 4GHz with little voltage changes. Some voltage changes but very little.

 

[E. C. Yian]

You are going to want to do simple overclocking. Just the multiplier change, and maybe more vcore, and vtt voltage. The higher you overclock the more vcore and vtt you'll need. You can easily run you system at 4GHz with little voltage changes. Some voltage changes but very little.

1. So with a few easy step I can get up to 4GHz? From 3.46 to 4.00 is nice bonus. Wow! But for anything more I will need to check the real voltage and the tweaking gets a bit more complicated. Let's do you one step tango or the two step rock and roll if I first learn to tango. Did I get all this ass backwards?

2. BTW how fast can the W3690 go?

3. This BIOS allows to save several settings. I assume that the BIOS from my current machine will not be deleted when the W3690 is installed?

4. I know I will need some help with the other BIOS settings. I have my notes somewhere for my correct BIOS set-up. I will find them.

 

[E. C. Yian]

BTRY B 529th FA BN,

Will you also be installing Windows 10?

 

[E. C. Yian]

Are you saying that the X5660 is compatible with
Mobo GA-X58A-UD3R (rev. 2.0 )
http://www.gigabyte.us/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3449#ov
And the X5660
http://ark.intel.com/products/47921/Intel-Xeon-Processor-X5660-12M-Cache-2_80-GHz-6_40-GTs-Intel-QPI
is a faster processor than the W3690?
http://ark.intel.com/products/52586/Intel-Xeon-Processor-W3690-12M-Cache-3_46-GHz-6_40-GTs-Intel-QPI?q=W3690

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

1. So with a few easy step I can get up to 4GHz? From 3.46 to 4.00 is nice bonus. Wow! But for anything more I will need to check the real voltage and the tweaking gets a bit more complicated. Let's do you one step tango or the two step rock and roll if I first learn to tango. Did I get all this ass backwards?

2. BTW how fast can the W3690 go?

3. This BIOS allows to save several settings. I assume that the BIOS from my current machine will not be deleted when the W3690 is installed?

4. I know I will need some help with the other BIOS settings. I have my notes somewhere for my correct BIOS set-up. I will find them.

1) Yes, 4GHz is easily obtainable.

2) All 32nm 1366 chips are capable of 4.2 GHz to 4.8GHz 4.6GHz will be hard to reach with the Intel Max stated Vcore allowance of 1.375v When you get beyond 4.4GHz you will need better cooling parts. That's why I am building a custom water loop to cool my chip. My i7 970 seems to be capable of operating daily at 4.6GHz @ 1.371v but when stress testing for stability it gets hotter than allowed operating temperatures.

3) You really should make sure the bios is updated to the latest.


I will eventually instal Windows 10 in my gaming machine first. Probably not right away, but eventually. I am curious how DX12 will help games. I've read reviews...

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Are you saying that the X5660 is compatible with
Mobo GA-X58A-UD3R (rev. 2.0 )
http://www.gigabyte.us/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3449#ov
And the X5660
http://ark.intel.com/products/47921/Intel-Xeon-Processor-X5660-12M-Cache-2_80-GHz-6_40-GTs-Intel-QPI
is a faster processor than the W3690?
http://ark.intel.com/products/52586/Intel-Xeon-Processor-W3690-12M-Cache-3_46-GHz-6_40-GTs-Intel-QPI?q=W3690

I'm sorry, but who are you talking to?

 

[E. C. Yian]

I'm sorry, but who are you talking to?

You tokin to me!?

Sorry, dang I replied to an old post.
Very embarrassing!
How in the heck did I do that?

 

[E. C. Yian]

After 3 more hours and trying two of the three methods to flash the BIOS I was unsuccessful. This is becoming a nightmare. :twisted: Very disappointed as I have other better things to do. If things worked like they are suppose to I would have been done in 5-10 minutes.

 

[E. C. Yian]

After 3 more hours and trying two of the three methods to flash the BIOS I was unsuccessful. This is becoming a nightmare. :twisted: Very disappointed as I have other better things to do. If things worked like they are suppose to I would have been done in 5-10 minutes.

If I seemed upset I was. I went to so many sites and forums I lost count in search of a way to flash the BIOS. It was either had the wrong OS or the BIOS file was too big and variations of that. Oh well such is life.

 

[E. C. Yian]

My W3690 just arrived!
And
It had thermal grease on it!

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

My W3690 just arrived!
And
It had thermal grease on it!

lol


I'm indecisive on how I want my loop routed. Good Luck with yours.

Are you able to host pics for shots of your bios if you have any questions?

 

[Burpo]

I'm familiar with Gigabyte bios and have screen shots of an overclocked X5550. Thing about Gigabyte is you have to watch the voltage. It tends to over volt badly on auto. Temps get high very quickly if you don't set limits..