Xeon L5639 Overclocking on X58

[slinkyb]

Why not exchange it out while you can? No reason to keep a marginal chip, considering the supply is plentiful now.

It's now on the way back. :'(

I decided even though this chip is such a steal, for the money I'd rather go for newer gen tech since I'm basically halfway there price wise (and all other parts from my build can be reused).

 

[TerryMathews]

It's now on the way back. :'(

I decided even though this chip is such a steal, for the money I'd rather go for newer gen tech since I'm basically halfway there price wise (and all other parts from my build can be reused).

Its all about the price you got into it for. When this deal first broke and those MSI boards were available for $108 shipped, there was nothing else out there that touched this on price performance.

 

[PG]

This cpu does not work in my EVGA X58 SLI LE Rev. 1.0. I updated the bios to the latest version 83 first before trying the new cpu. The LEDs say FF. I see there are some hard mods that fix this on other EVGA boards but I'm not sure what would work on this one. The pics I found of the other boards show different components vs mine.

I have a sabertooth on the way so I just have to cross my fingers and hope it is not damaged in shipment. It should be just fine from the reports in this thread so far.

 

[Agenesis]

I think the trick to getting these clocking high is fast ram. Using anything other than x8 on the ram multiplier will make everything act wonky, so if you want to go 4ghz on all cores your ram better be able to handle 1800mhz+

And that's exactly where I'm stuck on.

Can anybody throw me a bone as to what settings I should use for my ram so I can get it to boot?

I'm not looking for anything high, just for stability at 1840mhz. And these are the Samsung magic ram so 1840mhz should be a walk in the park, but I just don't know where to start.







These also run cool as ice btw, I'm at 3.9ghz now and getting 55c max on the hottest core. You can probably overclock these chips to their limit with a $20 heatsink.

 

[Burpo]

Memory SPD Standard? No XMP settings?

 

[Agenesis]

Memory SPD Standard? No XMP settings?

Yeah, it didn't come with any XMP profile.

 

[TerryMathews]

A good deal on eBay caught my eye, want to see what you think. Rig is in my sig.

Would it be worth trading away hex cores to quad cores if I could go up from ~3ghz to 4ghz?

 

[Makaveli]

A good deal on eBay caught my eye, want to see what you think. Rig is in my sig.

Would it be worth trading away hex cores to quad cores if I could go up from ~3ghz to 4ghz?

Depends on the work load.

If you do stuff that will actually use 12 cores its better to keep it.

If your work load is fine on 8 cores then its a good option.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Well I bit the dust and bought an i7 970. But the good news is it comes with an Asus P6T mobo with 6x2Gz of 1600 cl8. So this gives me another opportunity to find a reason to buy another Xeon L5639

 

[Adamantine]

I think the trick to getting these clocking high is fast ram. Using anything other than x8 on the ram multiplier will make everything act wonky, so if you want to go 4ghz on all cores your ram better be able to handle 1800mhz+

And that's exactly where I'm stuck on.

Can anybody throw me a bone as to what settings I should use for my ram so I can get it to boot?

I'm not looking for anything high, just for stability at 1840mhz. And these are the Samsung magic ram so 1840mhz should be a walk in the park, but I just don't know where to start.



These also run cool as ice btw, I'm at 3.9ghz now and getting 55c max on the hottest core. You can probably overclock these chips to their limit with a $20 heatsink.

CPU uncore is wrong, has to be a minimum of 2x RAM speed. 16x multiplier instead of 12x. You also might be hitting the board's BCLK limit. 200 to 220 something was a common BCLK limit for x58 boards. The second generation x58 boards might not have that problem, but I remember the first gen getting stuck around 200 or a little bit past that.

If that doesn't work, you're going to have to bust out memtest and spend some time manually tweaking the mem timings. I'd start with the 10x ram multiplier instead of 8x, with all settings on auto to find your unoptimized max ram speed and then work on max CPU speed.

If that doesn't fix it, you probably need to tweak your voltages. I try to keep them them within Intel's listed max specs for longevity purposes. Your CPU PLL voltage is slightly high. Stock is 1.8v and max is 1.88v. If you keep all of the voltages within spec, you probably don't need to go much higher than default, unless you've isolated it as the one setting that won't let you boot.

 

[Makaveli]

Well I bit the dust and bought an i7 970. But the good news is it comes with an Asus P6T mobo with 6x2Gz of 1600 cl8. So this gives me another opportunity to find a reason to buy another Xeon L5639

:biggrin:

 

[Agenesis]

CPU uncore is wrong, has to be a minimum of 2x RAM speed. 16x multiplier instead of 12x. You also might be hitting the board's BCLK limit. 200 to 220 something was a common BCLK limit for x58 boards. The second generation x58 boards might not have that problem, but I remember the first gen getting stuck around 200 or a little bit past that.

If that doesn't work, you're going to have to bust out memtest and spend some time manually tweaking the mem timings. I'd start with the 10x ram multiplier instead of 8x, with all settings on auto to find your unoptimized max ram speed and then work on max CPU speed.

If that doesn't fix it, you probably need to tweak your voltages. I try to keep them them within Intel's listed max specs for longevity purposes. Your CPU PLL voltage is slightly high. Stock is 1.8v and max is 1.88v. If you keep all of the voltages within spec, you probably don't need to go much higher than default, unless you've isolated it as the one setting that won't let you boot.

This is Gulftown and not Bloomfield, so the uncore is correct. As for the board limitation, I've tested it and it's well capable of 230 bclk.

At this point I've given up and chalking it as a IMC limitation. Maybe if I see someone going beyond 1800s with this chip I'll go back and rework some things. But I'm happy that I got a rock solid 3.99ghz hex core for $70.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

What is the MAX CPU VTT setting?

 

[SunnyD]

So my current final spec:

Tyan S7012
2x Intel L5639
48GB (12x4GB) Registered ECC DDR3
128GB Crucial M4 SSD (Boot)
2TB Samsung HD204UI (Bulk Storage)
Fractal Define XL R2
Corsair CX430
ESXi 5.5 Hypervisor

Not a bad little machine for a home server. Definitely an upgrade from an i3-2100 with 8gb ram.

 

[Makaveli]

So my current final spec:

Tyan S7012

Very nice how much was the board?

 

[SunnyD]

Very nice how much was the board?

You really don't want to know. It would make you cry. (Hint: I'm laughing at how much people are paying for those crappy SR-2's, granted the different "feature set")

 

[Burpo]

1 left for $159 + $15 ship on ebay.. It is a nice board.. been thinking about it real hard.. Curious to know what Passmark benchmark is with 2 processors at stock settings..

 

[SunnyD]

1 left for $159 + $15 ship on ebay.. It is a nice board.. been thinking about it real hard.. Curious to know what Passmark benchmark is with 2 processors at stock settings..

Only difference is the version I have has the LSI SAS controller on it.

I was tempted to run a few benchmarks and such, but unfortunately it's already in service running my home network and VOIP server.

 

[Makaveli]

You really don't want to know. It would make you cry. (Hint: I'm laughing at how much people are paying for those crappy SR-2's, granted the different "feature set")

ya kinda apple to oranges the board you have is an actual server board.

SR-2's are prosumer

if I was going to go dual sockets with these xeon's I would look for a similar board and not the SR-2s.

what I am curious to know also is how much power does this system pull from the wall?

 

[SunnyD]

1 left for $159 + $15 ship on ebay.. It is a nice board.. been thinking about it real hard.. Curious to know what Passmark benchmark is with 2 processors at stock settings..

I know on good authority that that vendor will almost definitely accept an offer of $125. (Mine did not come from that vendor)

ya kinda apple to oranges the board you have is an actual server board.

SR-2's are prosumer

if I was going to go dual sockets with these xeon's I would look for a similar board and not the SR-2s.

what I am curious to know also is how much power does this system pull from the wall?

Agreed. I had no intentions of overclocking, and was looking for a server class feature set anyway. The 4 GigE ports along with the 18 DIMM sockets basically had me at hello. The onboard SAS controller was an added bonus with my board.

Unfortunately I don't have a meter to test power draw from the wall. I really should get one.

 

[mithmorgul]

Got the chip in today. Works quite well on a Rampage II Gene Mobo. Easily set it up to 200.00 BCLK x18. Not really seeing any major improvements on my benchmarks in gaming vs my old Dell 920 setup though. Doesn't get hotter than 45 celcius with a H100 cooler and idles/surfs web at around 28-30 according to CoreTemp.

 

[Engineer]

So my current final spec:

Tyan S7012
2x Intel L5639
48GB (12x4GB) Registered ECC DDR3
128GB Crucial M4 SSD (Boot)
2TB Samsung HD204UI (Bulk Storage)
Fractal Define XL R2
Corsair CX430
ESXi 5.5 Hypervisor

Not a bad little machine for a home server. Definitely an upgrade from an i3-2100 with 8gb ram.

Not sure why I get a little excited when I see that list....I'm so ashamed! :$:$

 

[SunnyD]

Not sure why I get a little excited when I see that list....I'm so ashamed! :$:$

Only thing to be ashamed of is the fact that y'all missed the one I sold a couple weeks ago. :biggrin:

Someone got a hell of a deal!

Okay, all bragging aside - no real reason to be ashamed. I've been wanting a setup like this for a long, LONG time. I've endured a good deal of wife-induced pain once my server closet makeover was discovered.

I'll try to take some server-porn shots for you guys later.

 

[Burpo]

YES! SERVER PORN! :biggrin:

 

[TerryMathews]

YES! SERVER PORN! :biggrin:

Or porn server? :awe: