Xeon L5639 Overclocking on X58

[Burpo]

There is nothing wrong with that Intel HS & Fan.. I just ordered one ($18 delivered) & they work well with 2 speeds you can set, perfect for the closet.. lol

 

[SunnyD]

There is nothing wrong with that Intel HS & Fan.. I just ordered one ($18 delivered) & they work well with 2 speeds you can set, perfect for the closet.. lol

They're a bit on the loud side being 92mm, plus as I said I had to mod the mount a bit (involved a dremel) in order to get around some of the components on my board.

 

[PG]

I think I found the problem with triple channel memory not working. When looking down on the ram slots I can see that one contact in the last slot is bent. It is out of line with the rest of the contacts and is away from being able to touch the ram. This is one of the slots that must be filled first before you can add ram to the other set of 3 slots so it's pretty critical. I got an RMA number and it will be going back with a picture to explain things to them.
As a sanity check I stuck the ram and i7 920 into an evga x58 and the ram worked in triple channel right away first try. Too bad it's an old rev board and can't take the L5639.

 

[rage19420]

Holy crapola, I cant wait to do this on my rig. Breathe new life into my old school i7 920 X58 setup!

 

[SunnyD]

Holy crapola, I cant wait to do this on my rig. Breathe new life into my old school i7 920 X58 setup!

Holy crapola! Nice identical crossposting on multiple forums!

 

[rage19420]

Oops Busted! Sorry OCD got the best of me.

 

[SunnyD]

Oops Busted! Sorry OCD got the best of me.

It's okay. We get that you're excited. Welcome to the party.

 

[rage19420]

It's okay. We get that you're excited. Welcome to the party.

Thanks man. Spent up all night seeing if I could squeeze an SR2 into my existing case. Not a chance, so will pop a L5639 into my x58 board and give it a go. Should get at the first of the month. Feeling pretty excited about it.

 

[ehume]

Thanks man. Spent up all night seeing if I could squeeze an SR2 into my existing case. Not a chance, so will pop a L5639 into my x58 board and give it a go. Should get at the first of the month. Feeling pretty excited about it.

You don't need a case to run a system.

 

[TerryMathews]

You don't need a case to run a system.

As big as the SR2 is I would be concerned about warping if it wasn't attached to something...

 

[Gillbot]

As big as the SR2 is I would be concerned about warping if it wasn't attached to something...

Cardboard boxes are fine.


If there is concern that the board will warp, lay it flat.

 

[eoniverse]

Cardboard boxes are fine.


If there is concern that the board will warp, lay it flat.

Wow. No ventilation issues. Cool. How's the dust situation?

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

What kind of temps are you guys getting at idle & at what clock speeds?

 

[Agenesis]

What kind of temps are you guys getting at idle & at what clock speeds?

Not much temperature difference between 2.1ghz to 3.9ghz at idle. 2 to 3c at most.

Saw one of the cores was 16c the other day on a cold boot. Anything under 40c at idle is good and normal in my book.

I also lapped mine and that reduced the core temperature variations at load by a few degrees. Before lapping I saw a difference as great as 10c.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Not much temperature difference between 2.1ghz to 3.9ghz at idle. 2 to 3c at most.

Saw one of the cores was 16c the other day on a cold boot. Anything under 40c at idle is good and normal in my book.

I also lapped mine and that reduced the core temperature variations at load by a few degrees. Before lapping I saw a difference as great as 10c.

At what vcore?

I lapped my TRUE Black heatsink and seen a 8* drop on the hottest core, but I'm on an i7 970.. essentially the same thing. My Vcore is 1.117

Before Lapping 45*
After Lapping 37*

 

[Gillbot]

Wow. No ventilation issues. Cool. How's the dust situation?

Every now and then I take it down and dust it off, but really there isn't much issue with dust as long as you keep the air moving.

 

[SunnyD]

What kind of temps are you guys getting at idle & at what clock speeds?

My temps are shown in the thread a couple times. They're a bit higher than most other folks my guess since my server is in a closet.

 

[K_Maru]

Hello guys. I'm new here and this is my first post. Wanted to post this before I went to sleep. I was searching some information on the Xeon L5639. The chip caught my eye and while searching, this topic helped me make the purchase. You guys asked the correct questions and gave the correct answers. Made my decision a lot easier so THANKS. My old CPU wasn't completely behind. My Quad i7-960 was still going strong. I had my i7-960 OC'd @ 4.1Ghz. I usually only ran it @ 3.9Ghz for lower temps and Vcore. Once you hit 4Ghz+ on Bloomfields the Vcore gets a bit crazy so I ran slightly below 4Ghz.

Here are my setups:

24/7 stable setup
L5639 @ 3.974Ghz [or 4Ghz] w/HT
Vcore = 1.31v
Bus = 221x18
Average Idle Temp = 34c-36c
100% Load = 61c-64c [Intel Burn-in Test\Prime 95 etc]
-note my Thermal Paste needs to complete the cure time.
-Passed several Burn test all day. No shutdowns.
-----

Highest stable overclock:
L5639 @ 4.4Ghz w/HT
Vcore = 1.4v
Average Idle Temp = 37c-40c
100% Load = 66c-71c [Intel Burn-in Test\Prime 95 etc]
-note my Thermal Paste needs to complete the cure time.
-Passed several Burn test all day. No shutdowns.

MB: Asus Sabertooth X58
GPU: GTX 670 2-way SLI
RAM: 12GB Triple Channel

I might have to re-apply my TIM if I don't get better temps after a few days. I hate how I can't lock in that [x20] multiplier. I hope we find away how, but I'm not sure if it's for all of the cores or only two of them. Anyways that's ass backwards to run 4.4Ghz then downclock to x18. I might be able to run 4Ghz under 1.31Vcore, but 1.31Vcore isn't so bad and I'll let it be.

I was surprised to find that I might get even more life out of my X58 chipset. I was contemplating upgrading to a X79 eventually or the next high-end chipset from Intel [Haswell-E if it was good]. I wasn't in a rush to upgrade though. I guess it's just all being a enthusiast.....the constant upgrade itch!!! I've compared my i7-960 @ 4.1Ghz and 3.9Ghz [both with HT enabled] vs. my new Xeon chip w/HT.

I've dropped my Vcore to a stable 1.31vcore.

Cinebench 11.5
i7-960 @ 4.1Ghz = 7.03
i7-960 @ 3.87Ghz = 6.64

Xeon L5639 @ 3.971Ghz [4Ghz] = 9.94

Performance Test 7.0 [I know 8.0 is out. This will do for now ]
i7-960 @ 4Ghz = CPU Mark - 8237.4

Xeon L5639 @ 4Ghz = CPU Mark - 11810.7

VERY nice results. As you can see above I was constantly benching and finding my sweet spot while overclocking. While getting better and better results obviously. I get better scores in other programs like 3Dmark as well. My L5639 reads 3.54Ghz, but I have the turbo locked with the x18 [221] which is 3.974Ghz to 4.0Ghz. I might try to take the overclock higher. Hopefully the results above will help some upgrade the CPU and get more life out of the X58 chipset . Right around it's 5th year on the market the 1st generation is still alive and kicking.

I will update once I do more testing and more overclocking. I'm in the process of overclocking my GPU's as well. So hopefully I'll be able to post a few graphic benchmarks. I have yet to play any games with the new CPU.

 

[Agenesis]

At what vcore?

I lapped my TRUE Black heatsink and seen a 8* drop on the hottest core, but I'm on an i7 970.. essentially the same thing. My Vcore is 1.117

Before Lapping 45*
After Lapping 37*

1.1v and 1.38v.

Some lapping pictures:

600 grit will remove all the nickel within 30 minutes to an hour. A few minutes with 1000, 1500, 2000, and 2500 gave it a mirror finish. I also took some of the magical scratchX as a finishing touch. Could have probably reduced the time spent if I had some lower grit such as 200 or 400, but I was too lazy to drive out of the hardware store just to get that.

 

[Makaveli]

None of the temps people are posting mean anything if you don't include your ambient room temps.

A guy in canada in Oct is not gonna be seeing the same temps as a guy in southern florida!!

 

[gbeirn]

1.1v and 1.38v.

Some lapping pictures:

600 grit will remove all the nickel within 30 minutes to an hour. A few minutes with 1000, 1500, 2000, and 2500 gave it a mirror finish. I also took some of the magical scratchX as a finishing touch. Could have probably reduced the time spent if I had some lower grit such as 200 or 400, but I was too lazy to drive out of the hardware store just to get that.

Would you mind posting how you did this? Did you do it on a piece of glass for a flat surface? Wet or dry? How do you keep the metal dust from getting everywhere? Any worries about static discharge? Thanks!

 

[Agenesis]

Would you mind posting how you did this? Did you do it on a piece of glass for a flat surface? Wet or dry? How do you keep the metal dust from getting everywhere? Any worries about static discharge? Thanks!

-Acquire a piece of glass. It can be your glass desk, a mirror, whatever. If you have confidence that it's flat, use it.
-Put some scotch tape on the back of the processor to prevent stuff from sticking onto it.
-We want to lap it dry because the IHS isn't fully sealed on x58 processors.
-The dust will stick on the sandpaper. We're sanding barely a 1/4 of a mm so dust really isn't an issue.
-Never had problems with static discharge. If you're cautious then I would do it near a kitchen where it'll probably be humid.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Hello guys. I'm new here and this is my first post. Wanted to post this before I went to sleep. I was searching some information on the Xeon L5639. The chip caught my eye and while searching, this topic helped me make the purchase. You guys asked the correct questions and gave the correct answers. Made my decision a lot easier so THANKS. My old CPU wasn't completely behind. My Quad i7-960 was still going strong. I had my i7-960 OC'd @ 4.1Ghz. I usually only ran it @ 3.9Ghz for lower temps and Vcore. Once you hit 4Ghz+ on Bloomfields the Vcore gets a bit crazy so I ran slightly below 4Ghz.

Here are my setups:

24/7 stable setup
L5639 @ 3.974Ghz [or 4Ghz] w/HT
Vcore = 1.31v
Bus = 221x18
Average Idle Temp = 34c-36c
100% Load = 61c-64c [Intel Burn-in Test\Prime 95 etc]
-note my Thermal Paste needs to complete the cure time.
-Passed several Burn test all day. No shutdowns.
-----

Highest stable overclock:
L5639 @ 4.4Ghz w/HT
Vcore = 1.4v
Average Idle Temp = 37c-40c
100% Load = 66c-71c [Intel Burn-in Test\Prime 95 etc]
-note my Thermal Paste needs to complete the cure time.
-Passed several Burn test all day. No shutdowns.

MB: Asus Sabertooth X58
GPU: GTX 670 2-way SLI
RAM: 12GB Triple Channel

I might have to re-apply my TIM if I don't get better temps after a few days. I hate how I can't lock in that [x20] multiplier. I hope we find away how, but I'm not sure if it's for all of the cores or only two of them. Anyways that's ass backwards to run 4.4Ghz then downclock to x18. I might be able to run 4Ghz under 1.31Vcore, but 1.31Vcore isn't so bad and I'll let it be.

I was surprised to find that I might get even more life out of my X58 chipset. I was contemplating upgrading to a X79 eventually or the next high-end chipset from Intel [Haswell-E if it was good]. I wasn't in a rush to upgrade though. I guess it's just all being a enthusiast.....the constant upgrade itch!!! I've compared my i7-960 @ 4.1Ghz and 3.9Ghz [both with HT enabled] vs. my new Xeon chip w/HT.

I've dropped my Vcore to a stable 1.31vcore.

Cinebench 11.5
i7-960 @ 4.1Ghz = 7.03
i7-960 @ 3.87Ghz = 6.64

Xeon L5639 @ 3.971Ghz [4Ghz] = 9.94

Performance Test 7.0 [I know 8.0 is out. This will do for now ]
i7-960 @ 4Ghz = CPU Mark - 8237.4

Xeon L5639 @ 4Ghz = CPU Mark - 11810.7

VERY nice results. As you can see above I was constantly benching and finding my sweet spot while overclocking. While getting better and better results obviously. I get better scores in other programs like 3Dmark as well. My L5639 reads 3.54Ghz, but I have the turbo locked with the x18 [221] which is 3.974Ghz to 4.0Ghz. I might try to take the overclock higher. Hopefully the results above will help some upgrade the CPU and get more life out of the X58 chipset . Right around it's 5th year on the market the 1st generation is still alive and kicking.

I will update once I do more testing and more overclocking. I'm in the process of overclocking my GPU's as well. So hopefully I'll be able to post a few graphic benchmarks. I have yet to play any games with the new CPU.

Awesome feed-back! And congrats on a nice system, and welcome to the forums

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

None of the temps people are posting mean anything if you don't include your ambient room temps.

A guy in canada in Oct is not gonna be seeing the same temps as a guy in southern florida!!

What kind of idle temps do you get and at what Vcore, and what ambients?

I lapped my TRUE heatsink and the first time my temps were better, the second time they increased. It might be the TIM.. not sure

Ambient temps were ~ 77*f

My temps vary immensely from 1.03v - 1.117v - on average 7*f

I use both HWmonitor, and RealtempGT. HWmonitor reports lower temps than Realtemp...

 

[Makaveli]

What kind of idle temps do you get and at what Vcore, and what ambients?

I lapped my TRUE heatsink and the first time my temps were better, the second time they increased. It might be the TIM.. not sure

Ambient temps were ~ 77*f

My temps vary immensely from 1.03v - 1.117v - on average 7*f

I use both HWmonitor, and RealtempGT. HWmonitor reports lower temps than Realtemp...

I will glady post my info just wanted to drop that out there as a general information.

You and I both have the same HSF and processor so the ambients temps and vcore should tell the story

Give me abit to grab the info and I will post it.

also i'm in canada and we use c not f so will convert also