Xeon L5639 Overclocking on X58

[Blue_Max]

I probably need better compound and a better coating of it. 180 causes the occasional BSOD but 175 is 100% stable.

It's not being cooled properly and I know it. Heck, even if I don't have a "golden chip" that hits 200+, it's still crazy fast.

 

[Burpo]

It takes juice to run 180+.. You may have to bump it up some. Was it worth your investment tho?

 

[ClockHound]

1 yr of dust removed & new thermal compound applied. 217 was no problem

Great to see the old girl has still got the juice! 'Course gets some help from her sabertoothed super hero.

Can she run anything other than BSODs at 5Ghz tho? If so, that's pretty low voltage for a turbo 5650 at 5 - nice cleaning job, Burpo! You make house calls? :sneaky:

 

[Trinamo]

Burpo, what does your voltage peak at when at 217? And judging by your temps, my watercooler must suck.

 

[Burpo]

No BSODs, peaks @ 1.60V under load .. Temps shown are right after boot up (no load) and it's chilly here today too..

212 everything enabled is a bit more realistic..

 

[GOLI@TH]

Just finished building my new old X5650 system, with any peripherals that available at nearby classifieds.
My options & budget are extremely limited so whatever parts that looked good i took it, fortunately it quite paid off.

X5650 @4.1Ghz 1.3v (OCCT Linpack 1h AUTO - passed)
Thermolab Trinity w/ stock fan
Desktopboard DX58OG
VGEN PC12800 3x 4GB @1600+ CL9 1T (hynix FFR)
Sapphire 7950 Dual-X
SSD370 128GB
2 TB HDD
FSP KingCraft 1000W (old 'n freakin' loud)

Just one question, is it totally safe to exceed 1.35v for vcore ?

I have plans to push more Mhz by activating Turbo and grab a decent watercooling but i do not want to do something stupid that could degrade the cpu.

 

[MongGrel]

I exceed 1.35 everyday, better if ya don't have too.

I doubt 1.35 gonna make it breathe too hard if you have decent cooling on there though, I've had the X5680 up to 1.6 just playing around, but I do not leave it there.

You're not likely to break anything as long as your temps look OK short term at any rate.

Not sure wth a Thermolab Trinity is to be honest myself if that is the cooler.

 

[GOLI@TH]

I exceed 1.35 everyday, better if ya don't have too.

I doubt 1.35 gonna make it breathe too hard if you have decent cooling on there though, I've had the X5680 up to 1.6 just playing around, but I do not leave it there.

You're not likely to break anything as long as your temps look OK short term at any rate.

Not sure wth a Thermolab Trinity is to be honest myself if that is the cooler.

Yeah, Thermolab Trinity maxed out at 4.1Ghz with +/- 70 centigrade (HT enabled) OCCT Linpack test; fairly good for daily use.
But more than 4.2GHz and the temperature looked unsafe, that's why i'm planning to grab a watercooling solution.

Hey, but this old system still a HUGE leap for me (from X3 720BE). :thumbsup:
Presumably X5650 could match a 980X clockspeed or higher, thus it is in the same league with other new high-end cpus that costs a fortune for me.

 

[Burpo]

I just cleaned my HSF & applied some Arctic Silver Ceramique 2, and dropped my temps an honest 6c.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835100017

Chip doesn't throttle @ 210 bclk any more, like it used to..
You can get water cooling if you want, but I've found air cooling will handle a LOT of power.

 

[DrDoug]

I just cleaned my HSF & applied some Arctic Silver Ceramique 2, and dropped my temps an honest 6c.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835100017

Chip doesn't throttle @ 210 bclk any more, like it used to..
You can get water cooling if you want, but I've found air cooling will handle a LOT of power.

I used to use the original Ceramique and moved to the Ceramique 2 when it came out. I like to heat the syringe up before using it, same with the heatsink. Good stuff on both GPUs and CPUs. It helps to keep my X5650 cool at 4.25 GHz. I recently replaced the stock TIM on our son's 7850 MYST (which was basically powder) and it dropped the idle temps by 10 deg. C.

 

[jihe]

Just finished building my new old X5650 system, with any peripherals that available at nearby classifieds.
My options & budget are extremely limited so whatever parts that looked good i took it, fortunately it quite paid off.

X5650 @4.1Ghz 1.3v (OCCT Linpack 1h AUTO - passed)
Thermolab Trinity w/ stock fan
Desktopboard DX58OG
VGEN PC12800 3x 4GB @1600+ CL9 1T (hynix FFR)
Sapphire 7950 Dual-X
SSD370 128GB
2 TB HDD
FSP KingCraft 1000W (old 'n freakin' loud)

Just one question, is it totally safe to exceed 1.35v for vcore ?

I have plans to push more Mhz by activating Turbo and grab a decent watercooling but i do not want to do something stupid that could degrade the cpu.

For day to day use I keep mine at 4.15G, +0.1v offset voltage. Turns out to be 1.3v at max load, and all cpu power saving features are turned on. 1.4v is not really that dangerous it's just that the heat and power consumption goes up real fast after 1.3v, and I like to keep my computer quiet so fans are all on minimum. With the x5650 so cheap these days who cares if you degrade one anyway?

 

[Burpo]

Over a yr. of hard use, high volts & temps here. I don't see any degradation at all. Clocks the same, actually better since cleaning & applying Ceramique 2. The Westmere Xeons have a lot of life left. Crank em up, control the heat..

 

[Blue_Max]

Bleh... mine's become unstable. Maybe I need better thermal paste... *sigh*

Dialed it back to 21x 145

Oh hell, it's not even running smooth at stock anymore. Something's wrong here... I need a more detailed utility than CPU-z to monitor temps or something... it worked great for the last couple weeks and all day today, then this...

CoreTemp pegs each core at under 30 Celcius! Jeez... so it's not's overheating... wonder why this thing is so dang slow now?

Damn, damn, damn... why would it just stop working like this???? My games now run crazy slow and my WEI scores all went UP to 7.9 .... even my hard drive score went up from 5.9 (standard for mechanical drives) to 6.3 -- just weird as hell!!

Update: I gave up and went back to my old 920 and it's working smooth as glass again. What a freakin' waste.

 

[hasu]

Bleh... mine's become unstable. Maybe I need better thermal paste... *sigh*

Dialed it back to 21x 145

Update: I gave up and went back to my old 920 and it's working smooth as glass again. What a freakin' waste.

Did you try to completely reset the bios? My Gene III had some issues detecting all memory slots, resetting bios helped a lot. I think these high performance motherboards are finicky with their XMS memory!

 

[Burpo]

^^^^ Always reset bios and start fresh.. If QPI mode was on slow, that was your problem. These chips r not a waste..lol

Heck, even if I don't have a "golden chip" that hits 200+, it's still crazy fast.

 

[GOLI@TH]

Bleh... mine's become unstable. Maybe I need better thermal paste... *sigh*

Dialed it back to 21x 145

Oh hell, it's not even running smooth at stock anymore. Something's wrong here... I need a more detailed utility than CPU-z to monitor temps or something... it worked great for the last couple weeks and all day today, then this...

CoreTemp pegs each core at under 30 Celcius! Jeez... so it's not's overheating... wonder why this thing is so dang slow now?

Damn, damn, damn... why would it just stop working like this???? My games now run crazy slow and my WEI scores all went UP to 7.9 .... even my hard drive score went up from 5.9 (standard for mechanical drives) to 6.3 -- just weird as hell!!

Update: I gave up and went back to my old 920 and it's working smooth as glass again. What a freakin' waste.

Whoa.. what happened?
Maybe, like other said, you have bios-related issues or just remounted your chip.

Four days ago i had problem with 3rd memory slot. It gave me a huge headache, i tought that 3rd slot was dead.
So every i put a ddr3 stick there and all of sudden my system refused to boot. It gave "Ib" or "16" code on debug LED, with annoying beeps.
Few days later i found a discussion about similar issue, and they pointed broken / dented cpu contact pin(s).

I remembered that before encountered mem slot problem i was installing rear casing fan and accidently hit my Trinity HSF. Presumably the cpu got a micro dislocation due to unbalanced pressure.
Reluctantly i uninstalled the Trinity and checked LGA pins thoroughly, but everything looks right without anything odd.

After carefully reseated the x5650 and also the Trinity.... After a few bios loop..
Voilaaa... its triple channel now works flawlessly.

My first lesson: Extra careful with LGA 1366, their pins are really sensitive.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Whoa.. what happened?
Maybe, like other said, you have bios-related issues or just remounted your chip.

Four days ago i had problem with 3rd memory slot. It gave me a huge headache, i tought that 3rd slot was dead.
So every i put a ddr3 stick there and all of sudden my system refused to boot. It gave "Ib" or "16" code on debug LED, with annoying beeps.
Few days later i found a discussion about similar issue, and they pointed broken / dented cpu contact pin(s).

I remembered that before encountered mem slot problem i was installing rear casing fan and accidently hit my Trinity HSF. Presumably the cpu got a micro dislocation due to unbalanced pressure.
Reluctantly i uninstalled the Trinity and checked LGA pins thoroughly, but everything looks right without anything odd.

After carefully reseated the x5650 and also the Trinity.... After a few bios loop..
Voilaaa... its triple channel now works flawlessly.

My first lesson: Extra careful with LGA 1366, their pins are really sensitive.

Very interesting, thanks for the info.

 

[Blue_Max]

I think a full-blown BIOS reset may be in order... the older 920 CPU is working as it should at stock but WEI scores are still way too high for the hard drive and that has me concerned.

Think a mere press of the Clear CMOS button is enough or should I do a full-blown BIOS download/reinstall? (I've already got the last version made for my Gigabyte board.)

 

[Burpo]

Just a reset.. Low WEI hard drive scores are indicative of a failing drive. Too high or too low?

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

I think a full-blown BIOS reset may be in order... the older 920 CPU is working as it should at stock but WEI scores are still way too high for the hard drive and that has me concerned.

Think a mere press of the Clear CMOS button is enough or should I do a full-blown BIOS download/reinstall? (I've already got the last version made for my Gigabyte board.)

I'm not sure if what I heard applies to your board or not but I recall each different method doing a different thing. First there is the reset through the bios. Then there is the hard reset via some on-board button. Then there is the battery pull.. I would do everything even re-install the bios after each of those methods are done.

 

[Blue_Max]

Just a reset.. Low WEI hard drive scores are indicative of a failing drive. Too high or too low?

As I said - way too high! It's bizarre... 5.9 is what it should be but it keeps going up each time I test - it's up to 6.5 now.

At least after another full day of gaming with the kids the 920 is running perfectly. Maybe I'll do another switch-out and see if the problem is gone for good. I'd better find an overclocking-for-the-inexperienced guide to help me iron out these bugs.

 

[Burpo]

Pretty simple..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZadS1WdsMYE

I would also enable C-states for the extra multi in turbo..

 

[Blue_Max]

Another idea seems to be to leave it at x20 multiplier, right?

 

[Burpo]

My Asus allows me to lock x22 (with C States enabled)..

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Repopulate ram slots with lower volt dimms?

Currently have 3 Muskin 1333 kit that will default and run at 667 but when I lower the divider they won't even reach 600, and they are at 1.62v. Thinking of some low volt chips. Either a 2x8GB 1.35v kit 1600 CL8, or a 3x4GB 1.25v 1600 CL9 kit

1 stick of the 2x8 kit would be more than either of my x58 rigs. Would this help my overclocking?