Overclocking a dual Xeon server?

[suchamoneypit]

Im building a server with two e5-2670s, and using this motherboard.

 

Now, my main question is can I overclock without damaging the motherboard or CPUs (its not a standard motherboard). What would limit this? Can I monitor temps on the motherboard to make sure I don't overheat anything (with a laser, not through OS) and I'll be fine? On another note, are there components are the motherboard I could stick heatsinks on to have better thermal performance?

 

I don't care if it doesn't overclock well, just that if overclocking will damage it. I can't have a dual CPU system and not overclock if its safe.

[SLAYR]

6 minutes ago, suchamoneypit said:

Im building a server with two e5-2670s, and using this motherboard.

 

Now, my main question is can I overclock without damaging the motherboard or CPUs (its not a standard motherboard). What would limit this? Can I monitor temps on the motherboard to make sure I don't overheat anything (with a laser, not through OS) and I'll be fine? On another note, are there components are the motherboard I could stick heatsinks on to have better thermal performance?

 

I don't care if it doesn't overclock well, just that if overclocking will damage it. I can't have a dual CPU system and not overclock if its safe.

Cpus are locked, bclk maybe but don't expext much.

[suchamoneypit]

5 minutes ago, SLAYR said:

Cpus are locked, bclk maybe but don't expext much.

yeah i know they will be locked, would be doing it from a BCLK.

 

Im not really expected anything. few % maybe.

[VinsinityKT]

3 minutes ago, suchamoneypit said:

yeah i know they will be locked, would be doing it from a BCLK.

 

Im not really expected anything. few % maybe.

Linus have done it with the 7 gamers 2 cpu. It was a tiny overclock though.

[suchamoneypit]

1 minute ago, VinsinityKT said:

Linus have done it with the 7 gamers 2 cpu. It was a tiny overclock though.

yeah I think he said he got 3% if i remember correctly.

 

Even if i do OC it will be for benchmarks and that only. Its a server for stability is #1.

 

Gonna throw my 390X in it while my motherboard is out for RMA.

[SLAYR]

6 minutes ago, suchamoneypit said:

yeah I think he said he got 3% if i remember correctly.

 

Even if i do OC it will be for benchmarks and that only. Its a server for stability is #1.

 

Gonna throw my 390X in it while my motherboard is out for RMA.

I think someone on the forums got 9%, but usually around 4-6% is where the max limit will be, but that is with one cpu.

[suchamoneypit]

1 minute ago, SLAYR said:

I think someone on the forums got 9%, but usually around 4-6% is where the max limit will be, but that is with one cpu.

oh I just noticed you are running a 2670. What are your cinebench scores like? You using it for a cheap gaming PC like Linus did a video on?

[SLAYR]

2 hours ago, suchamoneypit said:

oh I just noticed you are running a 2670. What are your cinebench scores like? You using it for a cheap gaming PC like Linus did a video on?

I usually get about 1030-1060 on cinebench, and while I do game it I did get it for some other things besides gaming, and I think Linus did a video on the old dual 771 xeons, but I don't know if he has done a video on the e5 2670.

[v-raze]

11 hours ago, suchamoneypit said:

-snip-

Surprised no one mentioned this yet, but Tech YES City did a whole video about this. He was able to get a mild overclock on his system and a pretty good RAM overclock as well if I remember right. His videos about it:  1 (build) 2 (bench & overview) 3 (OC'ing/tuning)

 

You'd mainly want to look at that third video where he shows all his BIOS settings. He was on an Asrock motherboard, so your specifics might be different.

 

As far as protecting your system, most server boards used with dual Xeon setups don't have any cooling on the VRMs by the CPUs. You could go a long way towards protecting your system by installing some. Something like these would be fine. You don't actually need that much, even just a tiny heatsink will vastly improve performance and longevity over bare MOSFETs. You could also make sure you have good airflow in that area. If you're using tower style coolers that don't blow any air down at the board, add a fan or two on the top or side of the case to give the VRMs & chipset some good cooling.

 

EDIT: Looking at your motherboard, it appears that the VRMs by one CPU have a heatsink whereas those by the second do not. I'd recommend adding heatsinks to the ones without- there is a row of them alongside a row of rectangular boxy coils on the right side of the board as viewed from above.

[suchamoneypit]

38 minutes ago, v-raze said:

. His videos about it:  1 (build) 2 (bench & overview) 3 (OC'ing/tuning)

 

As far as protecting your system, most server boards used with dual Xeon setups don't have any cooling on the VRMs by the CPUs. You could go a long way towards protecting your system by installing some. Something like these would be fine.  If you're using tower style coolers that don't blow any air down at the board, add a fan or two on the top or side of the case to give the VRMs & chipset some good cooling.

 

 

oh awesome, surprised I didn't come across that video when I looked for overclocking a dual CPU server motherboard.

 

As for cooling, I'll definitely put some heat-sinks on anything I feel needs cooling. Each CPU will have a 212X dual fan cooling it, with a 120mm fan on the back, 240mm on the top, 240mm on the side panel, and 240mm in the front of the case.

[harrynowl]

You can run them at 30X and do about 105-107 BLCK on most.

[v-raze]

13 minutes ago, suchamoneypit said:

oh awesome, surprised I didn't come across that video when I looked for overclocking a dual CPU server motherboard.

 

As for cooling, I'll definitely put some heat-sinks on anything I feel needs cooling. Each CPU will have a 212X dual fan cooling it, with a 120mm fan on the back, 240mm on the top, 240mm on the side panel, and 240mm in the front of the case.

Sounds good. You've probably got adequate airflow to the board with that fan setup. The locked multiplier will make it difficult to get up very high without kicking up the voltage to unsafe levels, but I'm sure you can squeeze a little extra out of it. Best of luck with the overclock!

[suchamoneypit]

24 minutes ago, harrynowl said:

You can run them at 30X and do about 105-107 BLCK on most.

30X?

[suchamoneypit]

1 hour ago, v-raze said:

installing some. Something like these would be fine. You don't actually need that much, even just a .

im looking at covering 4 main parts of the power delivery area, but to get the heatsinks I found are quite expensive

 

Im looking to cover the highlighted in red with 10x10x10mm (58 cents/p) heatsinks, and the yellow area with 6.5x12mm(68 cents/p), but to get the amount I would need to cover the area completely, im looking $25 in little heatsinks and then $10 for shipping.

[You_are_a_cunt]

AFAIK Xeons are pretty much locked and if you actually manage to OC one, it won't like it (IIRC Linus tried overclocking some beast of a Xeon and the results were underwhelming, to say the least)

[harrynowl]

1 hour ago, suchamoneypit said:

30X?

30x multiplier- sorry.

 

All cores will run at 30x but you have to set it manually or it will run on 26x, 4 will run at 31x, 2 at 32x and 3 at 33x. From top of my head.

[v-raze]

11 hours ago, suchamoneypit said:

im looking at covering 4 main parts of the power delivery area, but to get the heatsinks I found are quite expensive

[pic]

 

Im looking to cover the highlighted in red with 10x10x10mm (58 cents/p) heatsinks, and the yellow area with 6.5x12mm(68 cents/p), but to get the amount I would need to cover the area completely, im looking $25 in little heatsinks and then $10 for shipping.

Looking at the pic, why would you replace the stock VRM cooling by the first slot? Also, it looks as though there are holes for an identical heatsink to mount onto the uncovered VRMs- if you could measure them and find a heatsink with the same mount spacing, you could save a lot by buying just the one instead of a bunch of individual smaller sinks. As for cooling the coils, you can if you want to but I don't know how much good that would do for the money and effort involved. They should just be fine with a fan pointed at em.

[suchamoneypit]

2 minutes ago, v-raze said:

Looking at the pic, why would you replace the stock VRM cooling by the first slot? Also, it looks as though there are holes for an identical heatsink to mount onto the uncovered VRMs- if you could measure them and find a heatsink with the same mount spacing, you could save a lot by buying just the one instead of a bunch of individual smaller sinks. As for cooling the coils, you can if you want to but I don't know how much good that would do for the money and effort involved. They should just be fine with a fan pointed at em.

I don't have the motherboard yet and so I can't take precision measurements in order to find out what heatsink to buy.

 

I figured I would replace it so both sides look the same and dont look weird with black/silver and of different fin sizes.

[v-raze]

15 minutes ago, suchamoneypit said:

I don't have the motherboard yet and so I can't take precision measurements in order to find out what heatsink to buy.

 

I figured I would replace it so both sides look the same and dont look weird with black/silver and of different fin sizes.

Using my X79 board's LGA 2011 scoket as reference, it looks to be exactly 60mm from peg to peg. I don't know if you could find a heatsink of the exact dimensions you need though. I suppose there is an aesthetic consideration as well with different heatsinks on each VRM, if you want all the tiny details like that to match.

[z6tanker]

Yes you can achieve an overclock, it will most likely be slight but you can do it. HOWEVER I STRONGLY RECOMMEND AGAINST IT. For One reason: the idea behind Xeon's, more than just the shear performance that some of the chips offer, is reliability. Even though it is possible to achieve a stable overclock that will probably never crash, you are still taking a chance that at some point, most likely far off into the future that the chips may give in or crash (hopefully not a fatal crash), and this is not something that you can stress test with AIDA64 or whatnot. In conclusion, yes you can, you defiantly could safely, but you are making a sacrifice in the long term.

 

Also side note I don't know what case you are going with but if you do OC and the thermals go up cooling in rack cases can be pretty bad so just keep I close eye on those temps.

[v-raze]

11 hours ago, z6tanker said:

Yes you can achieve an overclock, it will most likely be slight but you can do it. HOWEVER I STRONGLY RECOMMEND AGAINST IT. For One reason: the idea behind Xeon's, more than just the shear performance that some of the chips offer, is reliability. Even though it is possible to achieve a stable overclock that will probably never crash, you are still taking a chance that at some point, most likely far off into the future that the chips may give in or crash (hopefully not a fatal crash), and this is not something that you can stress test with AIDA64 or whatnot. In conclusion, yes you can, you defiantly could safely, but you are making a sacrifice in the long term.

 

Also side note I don't know what case you are going with but if you do OC and the thermals go up cooling in rack cases can be pretty bad so just keep I close eye on those temps.

 

If you'd actually read the thread above, you'd have seen this:

On 5/16/2016 at 8:41 PM, suchamoneypit said:

Even if i do OC it will be for benchmarks and that only. Its a server for stability is #1.

 

Gonna throw my 390X in it while my motherboard is out for RMA.

 

You'd also have noticed that the OP is building a workstation in a tower case (they mentioned fan placement and the use of Hyper 212X coolers), but I'll forgive missing that one because it was never stated outright.

 

Calm down and actually read the thread before you post in it.