Xeon Overclocking

[DarkFireGuy]

So I saw this post on a forum. No one replied to him and I was interested. Any of you got any answers?

 

Quote

Hi Folks,

I picking up a few 1156 Xeons to have some fun OC'ing, though I must admit I bought a "cheapo" mobo on the H55 chipset, a P7H55-M.

I have a few questions for those who have experience OC'ing them:

1. Is there any difference from X3440 to X3470 when they are overclocked? I know the base clock is different, but I believe it's the same chip, so they should both overclock the same and bring same results at the same clock. Is that correct or any of those have more OC potential or differences I have missed?
2. What is normally the clock these can reach up to without adding any voltage?
3. What is normally a stable and safe OC to reach with those CPUs (adding voltage as well)?
4. What is a good cost x benefit motherboard to properly OC them? I know P55 chipset would be best, maybe i'll give it a shot if I find cheap mobos.

I'm also reading a little on the archictecture of Lynnfield and QPI and some of it is unclear. Regarding the QPI implementation, is the FSB completely eliminated in this generation? It seems the implementation was upgraded on Sandy Bridge, but I can't really understand what is the difference. I do know that Lynnfield CPUs have the PCIe direct link on the CPU and no longer use DMI for that, but much of the architecture is still unclear. Basically trying to find out what other factors than manufacturing process have upgraded IPCs so drastically amongst these gens.

I would appreciate if someone can answer me those questions, I've been doing so searching but still have doubts and most material I found still left me with questions regarding this architecture.

I will be pushing benchmarks on the chip when I receive it, paired it with a GTX 1070, want to see how capable it is and compare to other CPUs I have around here, it should be quite interesting. I plan doing both synthetics and gaming, more interested in the gaming department though. I have here for comparison a Xeon E3 1230 (2nd gen), an i5 3470, i5 4460 (those 3 paired with DDR3 1600mhz) and then newer gen G4560 and 6600K which I will be using to simulate 6400, 7400, 6600k stock and 7600k stock (@ 3.8GHz).

Wonder how well this chip has aged, considering most people won't even both benching the 1156 socket. Think it's a bit of a shame, unlocked processors all around were golden. The K chips and specific chipsets for OC'ing have added so much more cost in the game OC game.

 

[GrockleTD]

2 hours ago, DarkFireGuy said:

So I saw this post on a forum. No one replied to him and I was interested. Any of you got any answers?

 

 

im pretty sure xeon processors aren't unlocked, so no overclocking

[Swealteek]

1 minute ago, Grockle88 said:

im pretty sure xeon processors aren't unlocked, so no overclocking

true for some. Some xeons are onluck do. older gen stuf like X58 can be OC by upping the front side bus

[Jurrunio]

1. I'm not sure how high the BCLK limits of the H55 chipset is. If there is (just like Socket 775), then the X3470's higher multiplier will allow it to overclock further. That said, if the BCLK limit is high enough for both CPUs to reach their voltage/cooling limits first, then it doesnt matter. What I do know is that the best chipset for overclocking, which is P55, has around 250-255 MHz.

 

2. Depends on how much volts the motherboard sends by default and whether the motherboard's VRMs will cook themselves before the CPU reaches the limit. Let's say the mobo gives 1.2V full load and VRMs dont overheat, then expect 3-3.4GHz

 

3. the CPU itself is good for over 4GHz. It depends on silicon lottery and a good motherboard (yes I'm stressing that).

 

4. P55 chipset, with more chokes/inductors like the Gigabyte P55-UD4 at least.

 

FSB isnt locked heavily on Intel CPUs before Sandy Bridge and after Broadwell. It's still limited by the chipset and specific motherboard, but much less restricted than the more locked down ones.

 

Socket 1156 is used so little because they didnt really surpass Core 2 Quads that much. Besides, Sandy Bridge didnt take that long to arrive and proved to be far superior. Finally, AMD's Phenom II x6 really bite hard.

 

13 minutes ago, Grockle88 said:

im pretty sure xeon processors aren't unlocked, so no overclocking

Back when Intel's less of an ass, FSB overclocking (similar thing to BCLK as we call today) on an Intel CPU is very common.

 

10 minutes ago, Swealteek said:

true for some. Some xeons are onluck do. older gen stuf like X58 can be OC by upping the front side bus

Even non-X platform can OC freely, just to different degrees. Not to mention you dont really need unlocked multipliers back then because just tuning FSB alone is enough to clock CPUs past their voltage limit.

[DarkFireGuy]

On 5/8/2018 at 9:25 AM, Jurrunio said:

1. I'm not sure how high the BCLK limits of the H55 chipset is. If there is (just like Socket 775), then the X3470's higher multiplier will allow it to overclock further. That said, if the BCLK limit is high enough for both CPUs to reach their voltage/cooling limits first, then it doesnt matter. What I do know is that the best chipset for overclocking, which is P55, has around 250-255 MHz.

 

2. Depends on how much volts the motherboard sends by default and whether the motherboard's VRMs will cook themselves before the CPU reaches the limit. Let's say the mobo gives 1.2V full load and VRMs dont overheat, then expect 3-3.4GHz

 

3. the CPU itself is good for over 4GHz. It depends on silicon lottery and a good motherboard (yes I'm stressing that).

 

4. P55 chipset, with more chokes/inductors like the Gigabyte P55-UD4 at least.

 

FSB isnt locked heavily on Intel CPUs before Sandy Bridge and after Broadwell. It's still limited by the chipset and specific motherboard, but much less restricted than the more locked down ones.

 

Socket 1156 is used so little because they didnt really surpass Core 2 Quads that much. Besides, Sandy Bridge didnt take that long to arrive and proved to be far superior. Finally, AMD's Phenom II x6 really bite hard.

 

Back when Intel's less of an ass, FSB overclocking (similar thing to BCLK as we call today) on an Intel CPU is very common.

 

Even non-X platform can OC freely, just to different degrees. Not to mention you dont really need unlocked multipliers back then because just tuning FSB alone is enough to clock CPUs past their voltage limit.

What mobo would you suggest that can oc X3470 or x5675 up to 3.8-4.0 or 4.5, respectively