Cpu upgrade to W3670 or X5680.(i7 980x)

TOPGAMERBG · January 14, 2022

Hello

My mobo is dx58so. I wanted to ask what cpu I should buy except the i7 980x bc it is really expensive...

However I want to know if is it possible to overclock the X5680 or the W3680 with turbo boost not base clock. Is Arctic Freezer i11 enough to cool these at stock and overclock around 4 ghz - 4.2 ghz.

I have somewhere seen someone using Intel Extreme Tuning Utility on W3680 to overclock but not sure that will work on every system.

Jurrunio · January 14, 2022

assume you're just doing this for fun?

10 minutes ago, TOPGAMERBG said:

However I want to know if is it possible to overclock the X5680 or the W3680 with turbo boost not base clock.

the W3680 is unlocked just like other W36xx models. X5680 afaik isn't

freeagent · January 14, 2022

I would run the W series too just because you have access to memory dividers. X series CPUs let you run 1:1 as the fastest setting. It isn't terrible if you can run C6 or C7.. but a lot of ram cant.

Pasi123 · January 15, 2022

Intel DX58SO does seem to have overclock settings in BIOS so it doesn't matter much which one you get. If you are new to overclocking the multiplier unlocked W3680 might be a bit easier because something like 4.0-4.1GHz can be done easily just by changing the multiplier and keeping the BCLK at stock (133MHz). And it can be overclocked with Intel XTU which makes it great for OEM systems that don't have any overclocking settings in BIOS but that's not a problem on your board.

If the X5680 is noticeably cheaper then it might be a better option. Something like 4.0-4.2GHz is easy to get by using 20x or 21x multiplier, 200MHz BCLK and 1.3-1.35v. There's many good overclocking guides for Westmere Xeons on the internet or you can ask help in the Intel HEDT forum thread which I've linked below

I'm not sure if the W3670 in the title is a typo or not but that CPU has locked multiplier and has lower QPI Link speed (4.8GT/s instead of 6.4GT/s) so I wouldn't recommend that one. Only the W3680, W3690, i7-980X and i7-990X have unlocked multiplier.