# LGA775 retro OC project



## AlwaysHope (Jul 1, 2018)

Hi,
Have Asus P5Q Pro with Q9400 & 2x2GB 800MHz ram, running 1:1. Soon will have 4x2GB...
Can get 400Mhz FSB stable for p95 testing OK, but any further FSB & system refuses to boot, falls back into reset mode. 
Have FSBv @ 1.26
Vcore 1.275

Any other tips to get higher & stable FSB with this combo?

Thanks.


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## storm-chaser (Jul 1, 2018)

AlwaysHope,
Looks like you've got a cool project on your hands here. Can you post up a few CPUz screenshots of your rig? 

I'm also interested to see your temps at idle and under load. AIDA64 offers some great tools for voltage and temp monitoring. I would highly suggest you download it if you haven't already. 

Best of luck with your retro build.


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## theFOoL (Jul 1, 2018)

Hmm what's the cpu OC at? I have P5G41-M LE+Q6600  with a 500MHZ OC


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## AlwaysHope (Jul 2, 2018)

storm-chaser said:


> AlwaysHope,
> Looks like you've got a cool project on your hands here. Can you post up a few CPUz screenshots of your rig?
> 
> I'm also interested to see your temps at idle and under load. AIDA64 offers some great tools for voltage and temp monitoring. I would highly suggest you download it if you haven't already.
> ...



Here you go, but I've come to learn that latest versions of CPUID HWMonitor & CPU-Z have some issues with reporting on this decade old board design. I reverted to earlier versions of these apps & seems to work well. At least early version of CPU-Z reports info about my Corsair XMS2 2x2GB 800Mhz SPD setup. The latest version of CPU_Z reports nothing in this tab.









rk3066 said:


> Hmm what's the cpu OC at? I have P5G41-M LE+Q6600  with a 500MHZ OC
> 
> View attachment 103336


 That's a great OC on G41 chipset setup with 1st gen quad core! .... lol... I'm jealous


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## AlwaysHope (Jul 3, 2018)

Found all the answers I need, just gotta read through 245 page thread....
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums...Deluxe-discussion-quot&highlight=Asus+P5Q+Pro


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## agent_x007 (Jul 3, 2018)

Vcore 1,35V, FSB Termination to 1,3V. NB Voltage to 1,35V.
Strap/Performance Level and DRAM settings tweaks are next, if above doesn't help.
When above 450MHz FSB, GTL/PLL tweaks may be needed.


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## AlwaysHope (Jul 4, 2018)

agent_x007 said:


> Vcore 1,35V, FSB Termination to 1,3V. NB Voltage to 1,35V.
> Strap/Performance Level and DRAM settings tweaks are next, if above doesn't help.
> When above 450MHz FSB, GTL/PLL tweaks may be needed.



Thanks, got another P5Q mobo off ebay with some extras like E7600 & 2x2GB Hynix PC2-6400.
All working well after I refurbished it, this mobo has some wacky looking Heatsinks on NB, SB & just behind VRMs...





I remounted the NB HS, cleaned out the old thermal paste & replaced with 'thermal grizzly' stuff.  Getting it ready for some extra volts in sustained OC!

board came with 0703 bios but not listed on Asus support site for this mobo, anyway... not to worry, flashed to 2209, memtesting those Hynix sticks as I type this.
It's peace of mind in case my P5Q Pro dies... got too much DDR2 ram sitting around doing bugger all, will eventually put it to use in dedicated Linux box one day with this rig...


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## Good Guru (Jul 4, 2018)

I have almost the same cpu a q9450 on a asus p5e flashed to rampage formula. I've had the setup for 10 years! It won't do above 400-433 or so but it used to do 475fsb. I got 3.8 from a 2.66 cpu.  I was using high motherboard voltage at 475. Like 1.73 NB voltage. It spent most of it's life at 3.6 and 450 fsb 1.61 NB voltage.
I'm limited to 400-433 now because I overvolted like crazy my cpu and it degraded very fast@ 1.55+-1.6vcore

I kept my vtt termination volts at like .02 below vcore.

Note the NB voltages I mentioned some might. consider too high but nb and vtt volts definitely help high fsb overclock along with performance level and strap.

You mentioned thermal grizzly did you use liquid metal or normal paste? I redone my boards heatsinks also.


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## agent_x007 (Jul 4, 2018)

You should have tweaked GTL settings and/or Performance Level instead, and not going brute force method with 1,7V on NB and 1,5V+ on VTT.
Just FYI : Anything over 1,45V on FSB Termination might "kill" 45nm quad core CPU (depending on rest of the settings).
I had Maximus Formula back in the day (BIOS moded to Rampage ), with Q6600 G0 CPU and I was able to do 4GHz on it (445MHz FSB).
I never had any 45nm Quad Cores on it though...


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## Good Guru (Jul 4, 2018)

Yeah I think the pl was at 13 at 475 and 8 or maybe 9 at 450 for mine. The vtt on my board would sensor readout .1 lower than set in bios, the max I set it was 1.54 which should have been 1.44, although most of the time it was at 1.36-1.38 bios setting. The cpu's gtl
s were at the most stable I could get them x65cpu x63nb.

I like how the rampage formula bios has pull-ins of the performace levels. It also had another setting at the bottom of the bios menu for cpu and nb clock scews
These sometimes adjusting them can bring stability.

Q6600 1.6ghz overclock that is amazing!


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## agent_x007 (Jul 4, 2018)

Here's Q6700 with Q6600 multiplier, at 4GHz 




Active cooling VRM (since this was only used for benchmarks).


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## AlwaysHope (Jul 5, 2018)

Good Guru said:


> I have almost the same cpu a q9450 on a asus p5e flashed to rampage formula. I've had the setup for 10 years! It won't do above 400-433 or so but it used to do 475fsb. I got 3.8 from a 2.66 cpu.  I was using high motherboard voltage at 475. Like 1.73 NB voltage. It spent most of it's life at 3.6 and 450 fsb 1.61 NB voltage.
> I'm limited to 400-433 now because I overvolted like crazy my cpu and it degraded very fast@ 1.55+-1.6vcore
> 
> I kept my vtt termination volts at like .02 below vcore.
> ...



Great tips, thanks for the help! FYI used normal paste thermal grizzly.

Q9650 or extreme editions would be ideal for performance but imo, on ebay atm, they are asking too much for 10+ yr old cpus.

In any case, I don't want to throw too much $ at this platform, just use what I have stored over the yrs already & some cheap bargains on ebay if I come across them. 
Biggest issue imo for future usage is limited instruction sets in these older cpus. Not so much their outright performance, but its ability to crunch through modern & future apps is limited. 
Still if your a tinker at heart, its all fun!

I have Xeon X3360 on its way, so will post new results soon.

Testing some Hynix HYMP125U64CP8-S6 2x2GB PC2-6400 kit on P5Q vanilla board (non pro), will pair these up with X3360 when I get it. 
This ram was snapped up for bargain price imo, Memtestx86 stable to 466Mhz (2 passes) with 1.86 vdimm. Tightened timings from stock 6-6-6-18 to 5-5-5-15.
Ran PCMark08 & p95 1hr under win 7 x64.... all's well! 
Greatest OC friendly DDR2 I ever seen.


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## AlwaysHope (Jul 7, 2018)

Corsair CM2X2048-6400C5 @ approx 1000MHz, 1.9vdimm, 2 passes Memtest86 v4.1 (old version but good enough for decade old hardware)

All I gotta say at this point, those Corsair sticks OC very well indeed, at least in pre windows environment so far.  Aiming for 1066Mhz stable.

Some pics...







Aiming to get new test setup for this & future projects, I'm very thankful that this old gear still working well!


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## Good Guru (Jul 7, 2018)

I got Gskill ddr2 500 5-5-5 in mine they won't even work at 510 but in my main pc I got Gskill ddr3 1600 9-9-9 and it overclocks to 2347 11-11-12 crazy eh? 47%


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## agent_x007 (Jul 7, 2018)

Going over 1000MHz for DDR2 can be tricky if you got 4 DIMM configuration.
@AlwaysHope  I would try 1100MHz at 2,0 or 2,1V.
@Good Guru  I got eight A-Data 2000MHz CL9 2GB DIMMs (16GB total), that do 1600MHz CL7.8.7.21 CR1T tRFC=54 at 1,62V


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## AlwaysHope (Jul 8, 2018)

Good Guru said:


> I got Gskill ddr2 500 5-5-5 in mine they won't even work at 510 but in my main pc I got Gskill ddr3 1600 9-9-9 and it overclocks to 2347 11-11-12 crazy eh? 47%



Probably depends on motherboard to a certain extent & bios versions.  Was that DDR3 OC memtest86 ok?



agent_x007 said:


> Going over 1000MHz for DDR2 can be tricky if you got 4 DIMM configuration.
> @AlwaysHope  I would try 1100MHz at 2,0 or 2,1V.



I know, can see that wall coming up, testing atm with 4x2GB Corsair XMS2 800Mhz sticks, so far memest86 1 pass @ 450Mhz, This is on the P5Q vanilla board. Not going to chuck them into the P5Q Pro untill my Xeon arrives. 
Already inside "yellow" zone of NB volts bios setting.. lucky I got cool ambients in testing room though..


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## AlwaysHope (Jul 9, 2018)

Ok this is it so it seems without system having to go through the old "cold boot" sequence everytime it needs to restart. IIRC, in the old threads with Asus P5Q boards, other users also had this issue with decent OC's on this type of architecture, at least with Asus boards. 

I tend to think some of the obscure bios settings for Overclocking are marketing stuff, cause experimenting with some of them does nothing.

Using vanilla P5Q board purely for NB & ram testing purposes, the bioses for this & Pro version are 99% identical. P5Q vanilla only has one PCIe x16 slot. Not going to fiddle with the Pro version board until my Xeon arrives. Better to test OC with full 12Mb cache cpu then.

In windows, did 3 hrs p95 blend test, no errors on 8GB (4x2GB) Corsair CM2X2048-6400C5 sticks, only issue is 1 set - v4.3, the other v5.2. So not exactly identical sticks, but basically you could say yes.


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## agent_x007 (Jul 10, 2018)

Disable Mem. OC Charger, DRAM Training options along with Express Gate stuff (if you have them on "Auto").
If you didn't increased NB Voltage, I highly recommend you do that as well.


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## AlwaysHope (Jul 12, 2018)

agent_x007 said:


> Disable Mem. OC Charger, DRAM Training options along with Express Gate stuff (if you have them on "Auto").
> If you didn't increased NB Voltage, I highly recommend you do that as well.



Got all that express gate rubbish disabled anyway on all OC ventures with this rig. Don't have active cooling on NB but cool ambients atm help a lot. Pushed NBv to end of "yellow zone" don't really want to go into "pink" zone...lol... but yeah will try with Mem OC charger disabled. 

Cheers, man thanks.


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## lexluthermiester (Jul 12, 2018)

agent_x007 said:


> Here's Q6700 with Q6600 multiplier, at 4GHz
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Holy crap that's a lot of voltage! Do you run that 24/7?


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## agent_x007 (Jul 12, 2018)

@lexluthermiester Are you crazy ?!
On that MB ?!
This was only for benching.


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## lexluthermiester (Jul 14, 2018)

agent_x007 said:


> @lexluthermiester Are you crazy ?!
> On that MB ?!
> This was only for benching.


Of course. 1.592 volts on a Kentsfield? Yeah, that's high voltage, even on 65nm!


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## MIRTAZAPINE (Jul 14, 2018)

Gonna watch this thread now. Makes me wanna dig out my lga775 P5BE-PLUS motherboard again. How cheap are lga775 quads? Would love to build back LGA 775 for retro builds.  Now where should I start

If my memory serve me right I think I got 450FSB on my P5BE-PLUS with my core duo E6320 could not go much higher without crashing. The northbridge heatsink is boiling hot to touch already.


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## AlwaysHope (Jul 14, 2018)

MIRTAZAPINE said:


> Gonna watch this thread now. Makes me wanna dig out my lga775 P5BE-PLUS motherboard again. How cheap are lga775 quads? Would love to build back LGA 775 for retro builds.  Now where should I start
> 
> If my memory serve me right I think I got 450FSB on my P5BE-PLUS with my core duo E6320 could not go much higher without crashing. The northbridge heatsink is boiling hot to touch already.




Thanks, ebay is probably your best bet with retro stuff. I wont be updating this thread until my Xeon arrives... still waiting.


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## GorbazTheDragon (Jul 14, 2018)

I've decided to start buying up lots of 775 chips to play around with in my Maximus II Formula.

I will need to find some good memory kits though, ATM the fastest I have is a single 2GB 800 stick.

Last I got was https://valid.x86.fr/dz1jm1 474 FSB for 4.5 GHz@1.6v or so with the measly 9.5 multiplier on my E7200... I think I will stick mostly to the P4s and save the NB from obscene clocks and voltages for now. I would really like to put it under LN2 but at the same time I really don't want to break the board putting 200A into some 5 quid chip...

A lot of the C2s make good practice objects for delids btw


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## hat (Jul 15, 2018)

One of the Pentium D Extreme chips with hyperthreading would be a fun thing to tinker with... see what kind of difference HT makes on a chip like that in today's games that support it.


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## agent_x007 (Jul 15, 2018)

@hat I tested my Pentium XE 965 (OC'ed) in Division, Witcher 3, BF1, and few other games.
It makes framerate less stuttery vs. Dual thread CPUs.
It is still slow (locking framerate on Conroe based dual cores, helps with stutter problem).
Nothing can save FX-62 and other Athlon64 x2s though.


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## lexluthermiester (Jul 16, 2018)

agent_x007 said:


> Nothing can save FX-62 and other Athlon64 x2s though.


Have you done comparison benchmarks?


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## storm-chaser (Jul 16, 2018)

MIRTAZAPINE said:


> Gonna watch this thread now. Makes me wanna dig out my lga775 P5BE-PLUS motherboard again. How cheap are lga775 quads? Would love to build back LGA 775 for retro builds.  Now where should I start
> 
> If my memory serve me right I think I got 450FSB on my P5BE-PLUS with my core duo E6320 could not go much higher without crashing. The northbridge heatsink is boiling hot to touch already.


Just throwing this out there If you are looking for something fun and a little different you could always go for an LGA 771 to 775 conversion. I used a Xeon X5470 with the 10x multiplier for 4.0Ghz right out of the gate. I terms of pricing I think I paid $25 for the X5470 and $40 for the QX6850. Like Alwayshope said your best bet is ebay for these types of builds.


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## AlwaysHope (Jul 16, 2018)

storm-chaser said:


> Just throwing this out there If you are looking for something fun and a little different you could always go for an LGA 771 to 775 conversion. I used a Xeon X5470 with the 10x multiplier for 4.0Ghz right out of the gate. I terms of pricing I think I paid $25 for the X5470 and $40 for the QX6850. Like Alwayshope said your best bet is ebay for these types of builds.


Curious about those 771 >775 builds, Do regular 775 board detect these altered chips?



lexluthermiester said:


> Have you done comparison benchmarks?



If one could run them, what OS? Older chips ( as in s939 cpu) have issues with modern OS like win10 from what I've heard.


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## phanbuey (Jul 16, 2018)

i remember when this was still the new hawtness.  cant wait to see this build


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## AlwaysHope (Jul 16, 2018)

phanbuey said:


> i remember when this was still the new hawtness.  cant wait to see this build



LGA775 especially with C2D stuff were the best days of OC imo. 50 - 100% OC were not uncommon with the right gear.


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## storm-chaser (Jul 16, 2018)

AlwaysHope said:


> Curious about those 771 >775 builds, Do regular 775 board detect these altered chips?
> If one could run them, what OS? Older chips ( as in s939 cpu) have issues with modern OS like win10 from what I've heard.


I've included this link to help you sort through some of the details. It's pretty straightforward and most p43 and p45 boards will support the conversion, although some boards will require a microcode update to run some Xeon chips. I used an MSI p43 C51 board because it offers some overclockability (yet keeps it simple and straightforward) AND runs xeon chips with the stock BIOS. The other thing you have to do is modify the LGA socket and remove the two notches (since the xeon chips are actually rotated 90* from standard LGA 775 processors). You can find the actual adapters for the swap on ebay for a couple bucks. It's a pretty fun type swap and I really enjoyed it from a builders' perspective. In terms of choosing an OS you should be able to run Windows 10 no problem with most of the Xeon chips. 

https://www.delidded.com/lga-771-to-775-adapter/2/


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## agent_x007 (Jul 16, 2018)

lexluthermiester said:


> Have you done comparison benchmarks?


Sure, did few games on it 
I recorded for viewers to judge (no "nice charts" to see) 
Playlist for FX-62 : LINK,
Playlist for Pentium XE 965 : LINK.

For board with socket 939 to support Win 10, you simply need to put a AM2 CPU in it 





@AlwaysHope You need to update BIOS (to have ucodes needed for Xeon 771 CPUs, site with those is here : LINK).
X33x0 series doesn't need that (since those Xeon chips are LGA 775).
X54x0 and E54xx all has to be cut to fit LGA 775 (you either buy a cut CPU, or you modify your MB) and an adapter needs to be attached (it usually is already though, if you buy cut CPU).


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## Komshija (Jul 16, 2018)

I remember that my dad had exactly the same motherboard but with Xeon X5460 which he bought from someone for bargain. I think that this CPU was on 3,8 GHz, meaning that FSB was set to 400 and I think that voltage was 1,31 V; but don't hold my word on that voltage.  It worked well, but I don't remember which settings he was using for the RAM except that there were two Kingston HyperX (2x2 GB) DDR2 1066 sticks. This PC was sold some 4 or so years ago, so it's hard to remember details, especially since it wasn't my machine...  

I would try to increase the voltage to 1,30 V and set FSB to 415. Just don't push it too much. A 3,2 GHz (FSB 400) is a nice OC.


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## AlwaysHope (Jul 18, 2018)

Xeon X3360.... arrives!





Ready for new home!







All set to go!





Boot up to desktop successful! 





Default benchmarks incoming very soon....


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## AlwaysHope (Jul 21, 2018)

Have set of baseline benchmarks @ default settings for win7 x64, but will post those when I get them for win10 x64 togeather side by side for comparison reasons. 
Be interesting to see how older hardware circa 2007 albeit with 2012 vga & 2017 SSD (for OS) compare with the more modern counterparts. I'll be running the OS SSD plugged straight into the ICH10R sata ports which will limit the speed to SataII spec.
Then the OC fun will begin!

Updates to this rig: 
Have settled on 8GB DDR2 @ 800MHz (Corsair XMS2) , with default timings because this is what was typical for DDR2 systems from this era. Higher end 1066MHz was available of course but with caveat of higher vdimm.
Also have upgraded vga from OEM Dell HD7470 to Sapphire HD7870 GHz edition dual X (factory OC).

Honestly, its relieving to see this old system in a modern PC case as well, that is with bottom mounted PSU & lots of passive &/or active ventilation options. The Corsair AX760 provides superior quality power supply which will guarantee sustained OC performance. 

I'm pretty sure this Asus P5Q series of boards were the first to have solid caps & 8+2 power phase supply. Of course this is the norm these days with gaming & high end boards as default.


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## lexluthermiester (Jul 21, 2018)

AlwaysHope said:


> I'm pretty sure this Asus P5Q series of boards were the first to have solid caps


You'd be surprised. That trend actually started back in the Pentium 2 days, and I believe it was Abit that did it first, though the model number eludes me..


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## AlwaysHope (Jul 21, 2018)

Asus brag about this on their site for this board

"100% High-quality Japan-made Conductive Polymer Capacitors!
*VRM 5000hrs lifespan @105°C, 500,000hrs @65°C* "

Link

IF this is true, this board will last a LONG time.


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## lexluthermiester (Jul 21, 2018)

AlwaysHope said:


> IF this is true, this board will last a LONG time.


It is true and yes it very likely will.


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## agent_x007 (Jul 21, 2018)

ASUS Striker Extreme (first ROG board for Intel), has 8 phases and all Solid caps 
That's according to marketing materials : LINK


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## Fouquin (Jul 21, 2018)

AlwaysHope said:


> Have set of baseline benchmarks @ default settings for win7 x64, but will post those when I get them for win10 x64 togeather side by side for comparison reasons.



I've noticed a trend of ever so slightly better performance on Win10 with Core 2 and K8/K10 parts. It seems to handle the weaker cores more efficiently.




agent_x007 said:


> @hat I tested my Pentium XE 965 (OC'ed) in Division, Witcher 3, BF1, and few other games.
> It makes framerate less stuttery vs. Dual thread CPUs.
> It is still slow (locking framerate on Conroe based dual cores, helps with stutter problem).
> Nothing can save FX-62 and other Athlon64 x2s though.



How about a pair of FX-70s? 



agent_x007 said:


> For board with socket 939 to support Win 10, you simply need to put a AM2 CPU in it



Win10 works on my ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 with the Athlon 64 X2 4400+ (Toledo).


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## agent_x007 (Jul 21, 2018)

@Fouquin Sadly I don't have Skulltrail, or Quad FX 
Win 10 32-bit can even be run on Prescott (if it has XD-bit enabled) 
I was talking about x64


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## Fouquin (Jul 21, 2018)

agent_x007 said:


> Sadly I don't have Skulltrail, or Quad FX



Ah, too bad. Well I've never done game tests but in synthetic benchmarks a pair of FX-70s isn't too far off from a Phenom X4 9750 or a stock Q6600 in Win10.



agent_x007 said:


> I was talking about x64



Fair shake, though I can't remember when I installed Win10 32-bit to test my 4400+. It's the only time I would have ever done it.


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## AlwaysHope (Jul 22, 2018)

agent_x007 said:


> ASUS Striker Extreme (first ROG board for Intel), has 8 phases and all Solid caps
> That's according to marketing materials : LINK



Nice looking board for its time but uses Nvidia chipsets. Intel would be sturdier for OC.



Fouquin said:


> I've noticed a trend of ever so slightly better performance on Win10 with Core 2 and K8/K10 parts. It seems to handle the weaker cores more efficiently.



I haven't completely finished benchmarks yet with default settings but so far, with PCMark 8 &10, Win7 x64 is in front.... will post up screenshots or links for side by side comparison with only diff being the OS.


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## AlwaysHope (Jul 23, 2018)

Ok, gotta bunch of screenshots here with everything running at stock & verifiable results on 3DMark.com

1st up, PCMark08 on Win7 x64 Home edition. I'd run them with Pro version but don't have.





Win10 x64 Pro





PCMark10:











Next post, 3DMark series. I'd do them all in one post but system having trouble uploading mega screenshots from my part of the world...lol.

3DMark11, know it's not trendy atm but nevertheless DX11 games still popular imo.










Gunna have to do next lot in separate posts as net having issues with uploading..

Fire Strike: Don't know what the issue is with "system info" package, its already up to date but on some runs regardless of OS or benchmark it reports it's out of date...

Again, Win7 x64 Home premium up 1st





Win10 x64 Pro













It's clear to see from the above results that at least with 3DMark & PCMark series of benchmarks, Win 7 x64 has most favorable results.... but for how long? keeping in mind MS only support this old OS until early 2020. Still imo interesting to see however the question remains, does win7 perform better on older hardware such as is the case with this retro rig? or is it win10 is just overrated bloatware? because I have done no OS tweaking whatsoever with either of these OS. They were all installed 'out of the box' & completely patched up to today's date.

Next series of posts will be p95 FSB OC results & 3DMark + PCMark runs with OC cpu.


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## AlwaysHope (Jul 24, 2018)

Focused purely on FSB speed, dropped multi down to 6.  2hrs p95 blend @ 445MHz:





Easy FSB OC with this cpu & mobo combo. Couldn't believe had to just leave "auto" in bios for NBv & FSBv to get this level of stability!


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## hat (Jul 24, 2018)

Multipliers are weird. If my experience is worth anything, your 445FSB might be stable at 6x, but not at 7x or higher, regardless of what the CPU core itself can do.


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## agent_x007 (Jul 24, 2018)

Check memory read/write/latency in AIDA64 for example.


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## lexluthermiester (Jul 24, 2018)

agent_x007 said:


> Check memory read/write/latency in AIDA64 for example.


Given the ram timings displayed, that isn't likely to be much of a problem if at all. In fact, those are very good timings for a DDR2 based system, so any such number will very likely be good.


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## agent_x007 (Jul 24, 2018)

lexluthermiester said:


> Given the ram timings displayed, that isn't likely to be much of a problem if at all. In fact, those are very good timings for a DDR2 based system, so any such number will very likely be good.


Depening on Strap/Performance level used, it may not be as good as you think.
Latency and bandwidth values should show how good those settings actually are.
I consider 60-70ns RAM latency on AIDA64 as good value to have on LGA 775.
Under 60ns is great (very good), and under 55ns is simply awesome .
Example of a good score on DDR2 memory :


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## AlwaysHope (Jul 25, 2018)

hat said:


> Multipliers are weird. If my experience is worth anything, your 445FSB might be stable at 6x, but not at 7x or higher, regardless of what the CPU core itself can do.



Currently testing highest stable (at least for my purposes) cpu speed with p95 small fft runs. The Vcore needed is scaling  fantastically well... will post screenshots very soon.  



agent_x007 said:


> Check memory read/write/latency in AIDA64 for example.



I'll run AIDA64 when highest stable OC with 8.5 multi is achieved with p95 runs. 

But so far, I'm very impressed with this "old school" Xeon chip, keeping in mind it has the full 12Mb cache & all this done with 8GB DDR2, compared to the issues I had OC with Q9400 @ half the cache.


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## lexluthermiester (Jul 25, 2018)

AlwaysHope said:


> But so far, I'm very impressed with this "old school" Xeon chip, keeping in mind it has the full 12Mb cache & all this done with 8GB DDR2, compared to the issues I had OC with Q9400 @ half the cache.


The Xeon series of CPU's have always fetched a premium price as they were the cream of the crop of all of Intel's lines of CPUs. They have always been the better overclockers as a result.


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## hat (Jul 25, 2018)

That's true... sadly Xeon overclocking is no longer possible since 1366...


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## agent_x007 (Jul 25, 2018)

@hat Check Xeon E5 16x0 v1/v2 series


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## hat (Jul 25, 2018)

That's Sandy Bridge? Eh, it's certainly not possible on current hardware...


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## agent_x007 (Jul 25, 2018)




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## AlwaysHope (Jul 26, 2018)

lexluthermiester said:


> The Xeon series of CPU's have always fetched a premium price as they were the cream of the crop of all of Intel's lines of CPUs. They have always been the better overclockers as a result.



That's for sure, at least back in later yrs of last decade. They dumbed down OC when Sandy bridge came out by locking down BCLK cause' that "useless", at least to performance gamers & OC enthusiasts iGPU.



agent_x007 said:


>



Revenge of the "dinosaurs"! 

Picked up some nice Kingston HyperX 1066MHz 2x2GB kit, will play with those when done with 8GB of Corsair's CM2X2048-6400C5

Edit: My safe limit for sustained p95 testing, at least for my purposes. Nearly 1GHz OC. Satisfied with thermals using  Deepcool GAMMAXX 400 + Cryorig QF120, there is provision to install pull fan on this HS but because of the case I'm using in this rig - Deepcool Tesseract, it already has 3 x 120mm fans. I'm not one to overkill with fans.


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## AlwaysHope (Jul 28, 2018)

Cinebench R15 @ 3.8GHz 1:1





Aida64 Cache & Memory (trial version) @ 8.5x447MHz 1:1, default timings on DDR2.





3DMark & PCMark Benchies @ 3.8GHz 1:1, HD7870@defaults:

PCMark08 Accelerated




PCMark10:





Time Spy *without* DX12 card:





Fire Strike:





Sky Diver:





Cloud Gate:


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## AlwaysHope (Jul 29, 2018)

I'm closing this project. The OC achieved has real world applications as demonstrated in PCMark & 3Dmark benchmarks. 
Restoring win7 x64 to system.... & on with the next challenge.


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## storm-chaser (Jul 30, 2018)

AlwaysHope said:


> Ok, gotta bunch of screenshots here with everything running at stock & verifiable results on 3DMark.com
> 
> 1st up, PCMark08 on Win7 x64 Home edition.
> 
> ...



Very good results. I should do some of the same with my QX6850 so we can draw a comparison. 
As for OS, I think there is a good bit of hardware out there that still runs Windows 7 better than Windows 10. Case in point, my Lenovo T61p has always done better video playback under Windows 7. For some reason, the hardware works best with the Windows 7 rendering. In any event, it's very possible you can find hardware that runs better on the older version. 

As for OS tweaks, I would highly recommend classic shell if you are running Windows 10, in order to restore the start menu and search functionality. This is a very small but powerful freeware that allows you to maximize the OS potential and if you really hate the metro look, as I do, it's a mandatory upgrade. In addition, I like to restore the quick launch folder and run a style similar to what you might find on Windows Vista or Windows 7. Is Windows 10 better? Absolutely it is, and for most rigs it's the best you can get. Plus, with a little tweaking you can make it run light, lean and mean.


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## agent_x007 (Jul 30, 2018)

With overclocked QX6850 you will burn your "P4" 4-pin connector.
Better be carefull.

@AlwaysHope Pretty good for a wimp like Q8400 
https://www.3dmark.com/pcm8hm3/390851
https://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/12865262


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## AlwaysHope (Jul 31, 2018)

storm-chaser said:


> Very good results. I should do some of the same with my QX6850 so we can draw a comparison.
> As for OS, I think there is a good bit of hardware out there that still runs Windows 7 better than Windows 10. Case in point, my Lenovo T61p has always done better video playback under Windows 7. For some reason, the hardware works best with the Windows 7 rendering. In any event, it's very possible you can find hardware that runs better on the older version.
> 
> As for OS tweaks, I would highly recommend classic shell if you are running Windows 10, in order to restore the start menu and search functionality. This is a very small but powerful freeware that allows you to maximize the OS potential and if you really hate the metro look, as I do, it's a mandatory upgrade. In addition, I like to restore the quick launch folder and run a style similar to what you might find on Windows Vista or Windows 7. Is Windows 10 better? Absolutely it is, and for most rigs it's the best you can get. Plus, with a little tweaking you can make it run light, lean and mean.



Thanks, yeah I know what you mean about OS optimizations.
Did a lot of that back in the days of XP, Vista & Win7... but I'm over that kind of tweaking, I just use off the shelf stuff & suck it up... lol... default everything except maybe some privacy settings but that's about it.
I think that way it's more relatable to the average windows PC user today when shown OC results.  



agent_x007 said:


> With overclocked QX6850 you will burn your "P4" 4-pin connector.
> Better be carefull.
> 
> @AlwaysHope Pretty good for a wimp like Q8400
> ...



Lol. DDR3, GTX 1080i & M.2 drive.... off course mega points in productivity suite like PCMark08! 
But yeah, its interesting to see cache crippled Q8400 in comparison. Our scores are practically identical. What's with the casual gaming scores? how come 2012 HD7870 GHz OC edition beats the mighty GTX 1080i???? me thinks software mucking up here...

Had trouble opening 2nd link, kept defaulting to your PCMark08


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## agent_x007 (Jul 31, 2018)

Because wimp is wimping hard in minimum framerates.
Link fixed.
Time Spy : https://www.3dmark.com/spy/4146041
Fire Strike : https://www.3dmark.com/fs/16032081
Sky Diver : https://www.3dmark.com/sd/5183143
Cloud Gate : https://www.3dmark.com/cg/4327445

PS. All GCN class cards, are DirectX 12 capable.


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## AlwaysHope (Aug 1, 2018)

agent_x007 said:


> Because wimp is wimping hard in minimum framerates.
> Link fixed.
> Time Spy : https://www.3dmark.com/spy/4146041
> Fire Strike : https://www.3dmark.com/fs/16032081
> ...



Cheers, but you sure about DX12 on HD 7800 series? 
AMD don't agree > https://www.amd.com/en-us/products/graphics/desktop/7000/7800#


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## agent_x007 (Aug 1, 2018)

I am pretty sure about that DirectX 12 : LINK
Basicly : Everything, above HD 7730 (including it), has DitectX 12 support.


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## AlwaysHope (Aug 4, 2018)

agent_x007 said:


> I am pretty sure about that DirectX 12 : LINK
> Basicly : Everything, above HD 7730 (including it), has DitectX 12 support.



I see that but it's contradictory to the link I supplied. Who's the confused one here? AMD! because DX 11.2 is NOT DX 12.


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## agent_x007 (Aug 4, 2018)

Since Time Spy works on your card... I think my link is correct


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## Caring1 (Aug 4, 2018)

agent_x007 said:


> Since Time Spy works on your card... I think my link is correct


Time Spy was meant to work with Windows 10 only, the 7 series cards came out when W7 was prevalent.
Edit, after a quick read up on Time Spy it is a Dx 12 test, my bad.


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