General Intel HEDT Xeon/i7 Discussion

[Ground]

I‘ve tested ~30 45nm chips (i7 920s, Xeon W3520s only so far) and only found a single one that wouldn‘t do at least a validation at 200 BCLK (that particular chip maxed at 160 actually, really weird). On 32nm the worst I‘ve seen was an x5650 that failed 215. Average appears to be around 240-250.

[Slayer3032]

6 hours ago, Sealance said:

Just cranking up the multiplier and vcore. I watched that guide but he doesn't do the w-series which has unlocked multiplier

I'm on version 0803

Do I need to touch ram settings or can i just crank up the multiplier and vcore?

 

Some motherboards are really awful with auto settings, I always set the memory to any multiplier below 1600mhz at 9-9-9-24 and the uncore down to like 10-12x while dialing in my overclock. I also have to set nearly every voltage manually or it will just invisibly change things in the background.

 

My board really hates this Micron Mac Pro 1866mhz ECC DDR3, it refuses to post unless I swap in a stick of something else. I've also never been able to manually set any of my tertiary timings since they're all entirely wrong as displayed in bios. Those I'm forced to leave on auto or it will never post. I can't even post this thing with a lower base clock either, it's really hilarious since my base clock wall is only at like 209mhz too. Somehow, it's just perfectly content where it is now.

 

You're gonna just have to mess around with it, I've seen i7 980x's which do 4.6-4.8ghz via multiplier only and people seem happy with that while other people struggle using multiplier only. Base clock works great with the locked xeons, it would function exactly the same with an unlocked cpu. The upside of an unlocked cpu is that you simply have the option to overclock in other ways. You're gonna want your uncore at 3000mhz+, you should end up limited in the end by the max QPI/VTT voltage of 1.35v and it's instability .

 

My 930 did 4ghz when it was brand new for about a month, quickly degraded and became unstable then all of a sudden all of the voltage in the world wouldn't get me 4ghz. It managed 3.8ghz and eventually 3.75 for about 7 years before I found out about these after this 1 weird tip and $25 spent outside a local convenience store I literally doubled my Cinebench overnight!

[Ground]

4.8 at safe daily voltages is insanely rare if it exists at all. 4.6, maybe 4.7 at 1.4V are the best I‘ve seen. Uncore good CPUs manage 4.0-4.3 at 1.35V, though the latter is about as rare as 4.7 at 1.4V. 

For benching 5.1-5.2 is the max I‘ve seen work for single threaded stuff at ambient. Validation should be doable for 5.5ish on really nice CPUs. Multicore stuff depends on how good your cooling is, but I suspect the limit will be around 5.0 on custom water with ~1.52V. 

 

[Ground]

I‘ve ran a couple of xeons on dice (E5649, E5606 and E5640) and given a good bin they clock really nicely, though I was mostly after max bclk. Highest I got was 287 on an x58a-oc, but for the next session I have a handful of boards to test so something should come out of it I hope. 

[r2724r16]

Hey X58 people! Looking to build myself a general purpose X58 rig soon and I'm here for some advice. So I've got myself a NZXT Havik 140 (similar to a NH-D14 in terms of performance), a HX850i, and a GTX 970. I've got storage, and case is no big issue as I'll pick up whatever good case is on sale.

 

But I'm here for advice regarding the CPU, motherboard, and RAM. My budget for all three of those things is C$400 (this is flexible), and I'm not sure what to get.

 

Here are some parts I can get (and their prices):

- i7 920: C$25

- i7 950: C$40

- i7 960: C$60

- X58 Sabertooth: C$240

- Asus P6T: C$200

- Rampage II Gene: C$225

 

And if none of the components above aren't great, that's okay. I'm looking to buy the motherboard, RAM, and CPU (if needed) from ebay.ca. And yes, I'm looking to overclock the h*ck out of the CPU I get. Also, my CPU cooler is hella big so it might cover RAM slots and potentially the top PCIe slot.

 

All advise is appreciated. Thanks!

[Slayer3032]

Motherboards are generally pretty expensive on ebay, even more so when bought from Canada. You're looking at like $250 for decent board alone, there's a DX58SO that's actually a decent deal but I'm not sure I'd recommend the early boards, even more so when they don't have 6 slots for decent triple channel.

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Asus-P6T-LGA1366-i7-Xeon-X58-1366-ATX-Motherboard-With-CPU/192836563803

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Asus-P6X58D-E-LGA1366-i7-Xeon-X58-1366-ATX-Motherboard-With-CPU/192834743170

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Asus-P6T6-WS-Revolution-LGA-1366-w-i7-930-2-80-GHz/223240889621

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Intel-DX58SO-with-i7-970-X58-Chipset-LGA-1366-ATX-Selling-as-is/132960509949

 

There's a few from china that seem okay, you'll probably get wrecked on customs fees though.

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/ASUS-P6X58D-E-REV-1-01G-LGA1366-Intel-X58-DDR3-SATA-6Gb-s-Motherboard/173744693054

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/ASUS-P6T-WS-PRO-Chipset-Intel-X58-LGA1366-DDR3-Motherboard-With-I-O-Shield/312341320691

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/MSI-X58-Pro-Motherboard-LGA1366-Intel-X58-DDR3-With-I-O-Shield/302768891618

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/For-Asus-Rampage-II-Extreme-REV-2-01G-desktop-motherboard-Intel-X58-LGA1366/172861061260

 

As far as ram, expect to remove the heatsinks off of anything you get. Since DDR4 is so cheap now however, unless you're buying lower end ECC memory and overclocking it, you're paying about as much for DDR3 as DDR4 would be to begin with. Ordering the last 6 of these from half way across the world seems to be the only way to get more than 4gb of ram for $100 or so.

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/2GB-1x2GB-DDR3-PC3-10600U-1333MHz-NON-ECC-Memory-DIMM-RAM-For-Desktop-Samsung/113656075884

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/SAMSUNG-4GB-2x2GB-1Rx8-PC3-10600U-DDR3-1333-240-PIN-Desktop-Memory-NON-ECC-RAM/352223931175

 

I also found these which you could get 3 of, I would try to specify Samsung memory since my pc3-14900e Micron Mac Pro memory does not post on my motherboard and I have to mix in a stick then set it to 9-9-9-24-1T@1600mhz.

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/4GB-PC3-14900E-ECC-Unbuffered-1866MHz-DDR3-DIMM-Micron-Samsung-Dell-HP-Lenovo/202595745166

 

Skip all of the 45nm cpus, they're only worth it for a bios update to get a westmere. As long as your motherboard supports D0 stepping cpus like the i7 930 and isn't an extremely early motherboard from 2008/early 2009 and hasn't seen a bios update. If you pick a motherboard which doesn't come with a cpu already, just grab a D0 stepping Xeon for like $5. Then go straight for a westmere. Aliexpress seems to have the best Canadian pricing for X5675's, try to grab the $4 new user coupon at the same time.

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/New-Intel-XEON-E5520-2-26GHz-CPU-Processor-4-Core/182883428133

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/For-lntel-X5675-CPU-Processor-Six-Core-3-06Ghz-L3-12M-95W-Socket-LGA-1366-Desktop/32696344917.html

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Intel-Xeon-X5675-Hex-6-Core-CPU-Processor-3-06GHz-12MB-95W-SLBYL-Socket-LGA1366/292979805841

 

Honestly, I have no idea how your customs fees work and all the Canadians I ask don't understand how they work. Ebay seems to include the fees on some listings and doesn't on others. Maybe when the customs fees are listed you won't have to pay them later, idk.

[r2724r16]

13 hours ago, Slayer3032 said:

Motherboards are generally pretty expensive on ebay, even more so when bought from Canada. You're looking at like $250 for decent board alone, there's a DX58SO that's actually a decent deal but I'm not sure I'd recommend the early boards, even more so when they don't have 6 slots for decent triple channel.

Ya, I've noticed that and it's funny how I'm planning to use a $20 CPU with a $200 motherboard lol. The motherboard will probably be the last part I buy, as I'll try to get the lowest price possible.

13 hours ago, Slayer3032 said:

I also found these which you could get 3 of, I would try to specify Samsung memory

I'm probably not going to buy RAM off eBay. I have a local contact from which I can get it for next to nothing.

13 hours ago, Slayer3032 said:

Skip all of the 45nm cpus, they're only worth it for a bios update to get a westmere. As long as your motherboard supports D0 stepping cpus like the i7 930 and isn't an extremely early motherboard from 2008/early 2009 and hasn't seen a bios update. If you pick a motherboard which doesn't come with a cpu already, just grab a D0 stepping Xeon for like $5. Then go straight for a westmere. Aliexpress seems to have the best Canadian pricing for X5675's, try to grab the $4 new user coupon at the same time.

So to be clear, the D0 CPUs are the older ones and the Westmere ones are newer?

 

Thanks for all the help! I appreciate it!

[NoxiousOdor]

21 hours ago, Geography said:

- i7 920: C$25

- i7 950: C$40

- i7 960: C$60

 

19 hours ago, Slayer3032 said:

Aliexpress seems to have the best Canadian pricing for X5675's, try to grab the $4 new user coupon at the same time.

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/New-Intel-XEON-E5520-2-26GHz-CPU-Processor-4-Core/182883428133

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/For-lntel-X5675-CPU-Processor-Six-Core-3-06Ghz-L3-12M-95W-Socket-LGA-1366-Desktop/32696344917.html

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Intel-Xeon-X5675-Hex-6-Core-CPU-Processor-3-06GHz-12MB-95W-SLBYL-Socket-LGA1366/292979805841

 

Honestly, I have no idea how your customs fees work and all the Canadians I ask don't understand how they work. Ebay seems to include the fees on some listings and doesn't on others. Maybe when the customs fees are listed you won't have to pay them later, idk.

 

Whatever you get in terms of motherboard I would shoot towards getting a 5675 if there are any in your area. It is about as good as you are going to get. The 5690 is similar and runs at slightly higher base clock speeds but has a much higher tdp. The 5675 is the best available for x58 imo.

 

I am currently running two of the 5690 and while I am very happy with them, if I were to go back in time I would tell myself to go with the 5675 instead if for no other reason than less power draw and heat.

[r2724r16]

43 minutes ago, WhisperingKnickers said:

Whatever you get in terms of motherboard I would shoot towards getting a 5675 if there are any in your area. It is about as good as you are going to get. The 5690 is similar and runs at slightly higher base clock speeds but has a much higher tdp. The 5675 is the best available for x58 imo.

Thanks for the advice! Would a Rampage II Extreme or Gene be a good motherboard for a X5675? Because I've found a deal for the Extreme board locally.

[Zando_]

1 minute ago, Geography said:

Thanks for the advice! Would a Rampage II Extreme or Gene be a good motherboard for a X5675? Because I've found a deal for the Extreme board locally.

Should be, I know the Rampage III series is solid. I think the P6T from ASUS and a couple of Gigabyte ones are also really common, and the MSI Xpower series is good. EVGA Classified boards too if you can find them (but if you get a revision 1.0 you have to do a hardware mod to let it run Westmere-EP Xeons). 

[r2724r16]

Just now, Zando Bob said:

Should be, I know the Rampage III series is solid. I think the P6T from ASUS and a couple of Gigabyte ones are also really common, and the MSI Xpower series is good. EVGA Classified boards too if you can find them (but if you get a revision 1.0 you have to do a hardware mod to let it run Westmere-EP Xeons). 

I've found tons of deals for Rampage boards, the P6T is very common, and I've seen tons of Gigabyte boards with long model numbers. EVGA boards are just too expensive for me, and MSI boards are a bit uncommon.

 

I'll let you know what I'm getting when I buy it. Thanks!

[Zando_]

Don't forget you can always google reviews for them, most of them are still up. 

[Xa3phod]

I would definitely get an X5670/75/90 as opposed to the I7s.

[r2724r16]

3 minutes ago, Xa3phod said:

I would definitely get an X5670/75/90 as opposed to the I7s.

Is there a big overclocking difference between the i7s and the Xeons? Because the Xeons (like the X5675) cost like C$50 with taxes and stuff, while the i7s can be found for less than C$25 locally.

[Ground]

25 minutes ago, Geography said:

Is there a big overclocking difference between the i7s and the Xeons? Because the Xeons (like the X5675) cost like C$50 with taxes and stuff, while the i7s can be found for less than C$25 locally.

X5675 has 2 more cores and should on average reach 4.3 GHz. The i7s are unlikely to exceed 4.1 GHz at reasonable stability.

[TheSLSAMG]

https://browser.geekbench.com/v4/cpu/12101212

 

I really want to pick up a couple of X5687s for this system. I'd have really solid single core performance and solid multicore performance. I wish I could do some kind of overclocking with this board, but it's a nice board regardless.

 

I'd love to figure out installing macOS to it. I want a proper dedicated Hackintosh and with how similar this is to 4,1 and 5,1 Mac Pros, I feel like it should work without any major issues. Anyone have any insights as far as the install process, such as whether I should install macOS Mojave straight or go for some hypervisor like unRAID or Proxmox?

[r2724r16]

Wanted to update you guys on my X58 system.

 

I got an ASUS P6T Deluxe V2, 12GB of Corsair DDR3, i7 920 (I'll be upgrading to a Xeon soon), NZXT Havik 140, and HX850. I'll get all these parts by the end of the month. I also need a graphics card, which I haven't bought yet.

 

So to be clear, the X5675/X5680 will work with the P6T Deluxe V2 with a BIOS update, right?

 

Also, should I get a X5675 or a X5680 (they're both the same price)?

[Ground]

X5675 is newer and should be the better bin.

[r2724r16]

5 minutes ago, Ground said:

X5675 is newer and should be the better bin.

But will it work with a P6T Deluxe v2?

[Zando_]

24 minutes ago, Geography said:

But will it work with a P6T Deluxe v2?

According to this it will work with Westmere-EP CPUs: http://www.cpu-upgrade.com/mb-ASUS/P6T_Deluxe_V2.html

 

 

[r2724r16]

Thanks to y'all for the help! I'll be getting a X5675 today.

[Pasi123]

Have anyone else already tried the new Cinebench R20? Here is what my X5670 @ 4.32GHz got with some garbage running on background.

 

[Zando_]

3 minutes ago, Pasi123 said:

Have anyone else already tried the new Cinebench R20? Here is what my X5670 @ 4.32GHz got with some garbage running on background.

 

 

I think I tried it but I didn't write down the score, oof. Need to finish tweaking my CPU though, it's at 4.56Ghz rn with 1.5v no vdroop, pretty sure I can push higher with that voltage and my temps are still around the high 60s, may barely touch 70 (left the rig folding so when I get back from work I'll see how temps are). 

[Pasi123]

Seems like I can't get my X5670 stable even with my old 4.44GHz settings. And I can't add voltage because the temps are way too high. I was able to run Cinebench R20 at 4.389GHz but it got a lot worse score.

[Zando_]

4 minutes ago, Pasi123 said:

Seems like I can't get my X5670 stable even with my old 4.44GHz settings. And I can't add voltage because the temps are way too high. I was able to run Cinebench R20 at 4.389GHz but it got a lot worse score.

oof. I pumped some nasty voltages through my X5670 and thought I derped it (was trying to get to 5GHz, gave it about 1.58v+) but it's running fine now so mebbe it's a settings issue somewhere you missed. I do have the edge in temps for sure though, mine is on a 360mm slim rad custom loop.