Xeon L5639 Overclocking on X58

[ragnarok77]

Still waiting on my chip. My Bloodrage was stable at 223 (920 at 19x). I could push it to 225 stable on high voltages and it would boot and load windows at 227 (but not much else). It will be interesting to see what it does with the L5639. I'll report back.

Nice looking board BTW.

I am sorry to report that Bloodrage doesn't have good support for this CPU. I have the latest P11 BIOS and there is no problem booting into Windows. However any FBS over 150Mhz will cause black screen and the machine will not post. I had to pull the battery out and reset BIOS every time that happens. And I got a bluescreen last night when the processor was not OCed. Guess I will have to return it.

 

[aigomorla]

will the msi not last? the gigabyte is too much for me at this time.

The MSI with military class is a VERY GOOD BOARD.
And as i said at 108 its one hell of a price bargin.

the board should last... the MSI rep told me they made the board to outlast the cpu.

very tempted to get one of these also, still haven't found much for bench's on these cpus though. maybe finally retire the 920

i should tell u guys tho..

these cpu's have a low ceiling cap, so if ur thinking of getting this cpu to replace a 920 @ 4ghz... NO.
You'll run into worse bottlenecks then cpu threads on the PCI-E lane with GPU's like 580/680/780/titan HD5870 6870 so on... as these gpu's SCALE with i7's even over 4ghz.
~ 4.2ghz is where the "sweet" spot was i heard in 95% cases....

This cpu would be a excellent replacement for a desktop machine where u dont have the highest end GPU power housing it.
Or for rendering / folding / farming / VM ... im fairly sure the 3.2ghz gulftown would slaughter a 4.2ghz 920 i7 in these cases.

If your replacing your chip for gaming reasons, and its a great clocker... (4ghz and up) you'd probably see the better gain on the 4ghz side as it would net u more FPS then having the extra cores.

 

[dragantoe]

The MSI with military class is a VERY GOOD BOARD.
And as i said at 108 its one hell of a price bargin.

the board should last... the MSI rep told me they made the board to outlast the cpu.

alright, how about temps? i have a water 2.0 pro, how hot will the cpu be at 3.8ghz?

 

[Marang]

Should be compatible with any X58. Keep in mind the need for a high BCLK.

Terry, are you sure about this? I did a bit of research around compatibility regarding 1366 socket Xeons today and it seems some think the motherboard has to have specific support for Xeons.

I understand that oftentimes even if something isn't officially supported, it may still work but in this case, does the motherboard BIOS need some sort of code written for Xeons in order for the chips to be recognized and run properly?

 

[TerryMathews]

Terry, are you sure about this? I did a bit of research around compatibility regarding 1366 socket Xeons today and it seems some think the motherboard has to have specific support for Xeons.

I understand that oftentimes even if something isn't officially supported, it may still work but in this case, does the motherboard BIOS need some sort of code written for Xeons in order for the chips to be recognized and run properly?

I guess anythings possible, but I couldn't find any specific instances of official Xeons not working on any X58 board.

Now ES chips, there were a number of reports of them not working. But ES compatability is much lower than retail.

 

[Makaveli]

Not really, but that doesn't mean it isn't great little chip for someone in need of multithreaded performance that happens to have an X58 board.

3930K default clocks on the Handbrake bench 325fps.

If you can get the clocks up higher on the 1366 vs stock SB-E you can equal the score.

I get equal scores in cinebench at 4Ghz to 3.2 ghz SB-E stock.

Where is the 3930k doing 325fps at stock in handbrake I don't see one in the charts

Of course if you overclock SB-E the gap is back in its favor.

Interesting thread and great price.

I want to see how high you guys can overclock these chips.

 

[YBS1]

It's not on the chart, it's mine at default clocks. I ran it just for a basis of comparison.

 

[TerryMathews]

Mines running stable at 215 BCLK only tweaking the cpu voltage. YMMV.

I don't know about the Foxconn, never used one.

Going back to this, I tweaked everything I could according to the X58 overclocking guide with no impact. I think my board is BCLK limited.

Good news is, I'm still stable at +0.2V. I'm going to try stock volts next.

Edit: scratch that. Don't know what made me think of it, but I started running Intel Burn Test in 2 thread mode, to test the max turbo. It's dying.

 

[YBS1]

Going back to this, I tweaked everything I could according to the X58 overclocking guide with no impact. I think my board is BCLK limited.

Good news is, I'm still stable at +0.2V. I'm going to try stock volts next.

Nothing to feel bad about, that's well above average according to most reports. I know there are some outliers that can pull off ~220-230, but I think that's rare, and probably just can't happen with this chip due to the speeds it would require of the uncore, etc. You could try increasing vvt and setting pcie frequency to 103, both are said to help stabilize high bclks.

I'm still stunned at just how soundly yours at 3.8ghz thrashed my w3520@4.458.

 

[rolodomo]

I am sorry to report that Bloodrage doesn't have good support for this CPU. I have the latest P11 BIOS and there is no problem booting into Windows. However any FBS over 150Mhz will cause black screen and the machine will not post. I had to pull the battery out and reset BIOS every time that happens. And I got a bluescreen last night when the processor was not OCed. Guess I will have to return it.

Thanks for passing this along. I just got the chip and put it in. I turned off all the CPU features like speedstep that might cause a problem if there's a microcode incompatibility. I can boot into FSB 180 manually adjusting the voltage up just +50 mV. I'm actually experiencing a different problem right now however, I'm not seeing one of my memory channels, which is what I need to troubleshoot right now before I experiment further with OC. I'll report back.

 

[ragnarok77]

Thanks for passing this along. I just got the chip and put it in. I turned off all the CPU features like speedstep that might cause a problem if there's a microcode incompatibility. I can boot into FSB 180 manually adjusting the voltage up just +50 mV. I'm actually experiencing a different problem right now however, I'm not seeing one of my memory channels, which is what I need to troubleshoot right now before I experiment further with OC. I'll report back.

That's good news! I am using some cheap Mushkin PC3-10666 memories. Maybe the OC was limited by that. I have some Crucial PC3-12800 chips on the way and will test that next week.

By the way, what version of BIOS are you using?

 

[aigomorla]

heres some numbers to compare against a gulftown @ 4.4
although windows keeps reporting it at 3.47 lol... Windows does that when u play with multi beyond stock.

HandBrake 0.9.9.5530 - 64bit Version
OS: Microsoft Windows NT 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU X 990 @ 3.47GHz
Ram: 12279 MB, Screen: 1920x1080

x264 [info]: using SAR=43127/43200
x264 [info]: using cpu capabilities: MMX2 SSE2Fast SSSE3 SSE4.2
x264 [info]: profile Main, level 3.0
[19:30:54] reader: done. 1 scr changes
[19:30:55] work: average encoding speed for job is 298.700592 fps

*sigh* my black hole...

 

[dragantoe]

heres some numbers to compare against a gulftown @ 4.4
although windows keeps reporting it at 3.47 lol... Windows does that when u play with multi beyond stock.






*sigh* my black hole...

what are the specs of this build? those numbers are insane. is this attainable with the xeon?

 

[rolodomo]

That's good news! I am using some cheap Mushkin PC3-10666 memories. Maybe the OC was limited by that. I have some Crucial PC3-12800 chips on the way and will test that next week.

By the way, what version of BIOS are you using?

I was using G40 beta (thought I had P11 installed, it has been a while since I've worked with this board).

Anyway, I updated to P11 and still had memory missing. I did some memory bank trouble-shooting with the DIMMs, the LS5639, and my known good 920 and it turns out the LS5639 IMC channel 0 is not working, so I'm returning it. When I get a replacement chip, I'll report back.

 

[ragnarok77]

I was using G40 beta (thought I had P11 installed, it has been a while since I've worked with this board).

Anyway, I updated to P11 and still had memory missing. I did some memory bank trouble-shooting with the DIMMs, the LS5639, and my known good 920 and it turns out the LS5639 IMC channel 0 is not working, so I'm returning it. When I get a replacement chip, I'll report back.

I finally got the overclocking working. I manually set memory to 9-9-9-24 instead of auto and I was able to overclock to 3.2Ghz by adding 50mv vcore. I didn't push harder as there is no thermal paste between CPU and heatsink.

For your memory issue, how much memory do you have on the board? If you have something like 12GB, you might need to increase the QPI/VTT voltage.

 

[rolodomo]

I finally got the overclocking working. I manually set memory to 9-9-9-24 instead of auto and I was able to overclock to 3.2Ghz by adding 50mv vcore. I didn't push harder as there is no thermal paste between CPU and heatsink.

For your memory issue, how much memory do you have on the board? If you have something like 12GB, you might need to increase the QPI/VTT voltage.

Great! I was getting good result manually setting the memory too. Also, "Load Optimized Default" (?) is also critical if you start noticing even the slightest change causes a non-boot.

I just have 6 GB, but I increased VTT anyway early on hoping it wasn't a hardware problem.

I think I isolated the problem, but if anyone here thinks otherwise, please I would like to hear your thoughts. I took a known good DIMM, put it in slot 0, and the PC would not boot. I moved the DIMM to slot 1 and the PC boots normally. I then replace the L5639 with my 920, move the DIMM back to slot 0 and the PC boots normally. It seems like this test conclusively points to a chip defect, so I'm not wasting any more time with it, but I did ask the seller for a replacement.

 

[Emulex]

Dude is accepting $70 on ebay now w00t w00t.

I'll try for $60 @ 20 now..

What should I do? The $25 HP motherboard (dual socket, single bus hpc style [x16,x8,x8,x4] , 12 rdimm slots)

or

overclock with what cheap motherboard? I could drop down to single socket but need to get solid o/c and under $100.

Is it possible to just disable cores in bios and have turbo run all the time??

Any pinmod for these?

 

[TerryMathews]

Which seller is accepting $70?

 

[TerryMathews]

I was using G40 beta (thought I had P11 installed, it has been a while since I've worked with this board).

Anyway, I updated to P11 and still had memory missing. I did some memory bank trouble-shooting with the DIMMs, the LS5639, and my known good 920 and it turns out the LS5639 IMC channel 0 is not working, so I'm returning it. When I get a replacement chip, I'll report back.

I verified my chip sees all three channels.

 

[aigomorla]

what are the specs of this build? those numbers are insane. is this attainable with the xeon?

its a gulftown @ 4.4

my current 990X to be exact.

im just showing u guys where u guys would be at compared to an unlocked one.

Also showing u guys how small the difference between a gulftown which is 2 yrs old is, and a SB-E. :\


And sad to say... u guys wont be able to get here... but u'll get close..
i believe the op hit 264 fps... which is like less then 40 away from mine at a whole + 1ghz.


(missing memory issue)
this was a common problem on gulftown.
Seems like if ur vtt didnt have enough voltage, you would miss memory.
Also if ur cpu was not seated properly.. again... missing memory.

id also like to know where ur seeing these chips at 70.
i have a gainestown system id like to replace if these chips are only at 70.
Lately ive been doing a lot of VM applications on hyper-x, with vlan and other sorts.
(GAH i hate windows server 2012... but i wont get into that... freaken dashboard... metrosexual microsoft with metro dashboard on server)

These little chips are probably the BEST VALUE FOR PERFORMANCE at 100 for such applications.
Ud need to be some massive nerd to need more power then a 12core 24/thread system unless it was for the office.

 

[YBS1]

Not really, but that doesn't mean it isn't great little chip for someone in need of multithreaded performance that happens to have an X58 board.

3930K default clocks on the Handbrake bench 325fps.

Sorry for the mental faux pas, but I seem to have made an error in this information which I noticed after updating my BIOS today and wondering why my clocks weren't boosting as high under load. I had previously saved one of my bios setting profiles using the label "Default Clocks" using of course, default clocks with optimized settings. What I had failed to take in consideration was I had the "per core" overclocking setting enabled, thus instead of only boosting to 3.8 under light loads and lowering the turbo multiplier as more cores are needed it was boosting to 3.8 on all cores. Will try and run that again to give you a better picture of just where the OC'ed L5639 stand against a default clocked 3930K.

 

[YBS1]

Not really sure what to think about this, apparently if I change virtually anything at all in my BIOS relating to clock speeds it just goes ahead and runs all cores at 3.8 under load. I mean even manually setting just the ram to run at it's rated speed or timings causes it, using XMP does as well. So I guess at least that means it wasn't really my fault anyway...I discovered the only way to get the chip to behave as intended was to "load setup defaults" and not touch a thing. On the plus side, while finding all this out I discovered this bios version seems to be a few frames faster.

[22:01:10] work: average encoding speed for job is 301.581604 fps

 

[gbeirn]

Since these are Xeon CPUs, any chance that I could put in a Registered ECC DDR3 RAM and have it work. I would think yes since the memory controller is on the CPU but I am not sure if the motherboard needs anything special.

Edit: Well I bought a 2GB Reg/ECC stick to try. I'll post back if it works.

 

[jason166]

I offered $90 to one of the eBay sellers, who countered at 100 (for qty = 1) I'm curious what others have been able to swing....

I have a ASUS P6T like OP, and have had my 920 running at 210 block before, so I'm hoping I can run this at ~3.8Ghz on all 6 cores.

The main 3D game I play is BF3 (And will play BF4), which is optimized for 6 cores, so I'm hoping I can get equivalent or better performance to my 920 @ 4Ghz, with the bonus of better rendering and other multithreaded workloads.

I'm also looking forward to having the AES instructions.

I figure this prolongs the upgrade urge even longer and at 100 bucks, is a hell of a deal :biggrin:.

Will post an update once I get mine up and running.

 

[gbeirn]

I got mine for $110. My co-worker offered and got one for $75 with free shipping.