Dell Workstation Owners Club

[ateeb__]

hello everyone,

I just bought a T3500 with INTEL Xeon W3680. The problem i am facing right now is whenever i run Prime95 or any other stress testing programs like IntelBurnTest or AIDA64 along with SpeedFan and CoreTemp to monitor temps and fan RPM , it crashes instantly with error reported by Prime95 as ILLEGAL SUMMOUT.

On the other hand if i run Prime95 or any other stress testing program alone, it will run successfully which indicates stable system.

Any one here have any idea what might be the issue here, i think its related to drivers?
Thanks.

Posting this here well as the TS thread since some may not be watching both.

Been playing around with this W3680 at 4.0ghz in my Dell T3500. Looks good. System gets buggy at 4.2ghz and will fail during IETU more often than not. Pretty sure it would be stable with more voltage.

Very happy with the temps so far. Max of 60c at full load with 25c room temp. Grizzly Kryonaut is expensive but seems to do the trick. Stock cooler with 80mm fan in pull config, both case fans set to 100% with SpeedFan.

Now the bad news ..... W3680 in the T5500 board is a no go. Get the same 'pb7' BIOS non-execution error with both UDIMM and RDIMM modules. Being thie W3680 is single QPI link, it would seem the BIOS requires a dual QPI chip regardless if we run only one CPU.

So unless someone knows of an unlocked dual QPI Xeon we are out of luck overclocking the T5500.

Hi,

Is speedFan causing any issues in your T3500, while stress testing with Prime95 or could you plz try to run Prime95 along with Speedfan?
Which version of Windows are you running rn?
I am using Prime95, SPeedFan 4.52 and windows 10 1803, and Prime95 will crash instantly if i run it with SpeedFan 4.52 or i end up with an BSOD.

Any help is much appreciated !
Thanks.

 

[Susquehannock]

I don't think Dell ever offered the W series Xeons in the T5500, so the BIOS probably doesnt recognize them.

The X55xx and X56xx series seems to work fine in my T5500. Latest BIOS update is needed for the X56xx CPUs.

I do not think it is a W series thing since W5580 and W5590 work in the T5500. They are both dual QPI link chips, and only ones I can think of. No other W series on the Intel 5520 based board comparability list.

 

[TechyTed]

I do not think it is a W series thing since W5580 and W5590 work in the T5500. They are both dual QPI link chips, and only ones I can think of. No other W series on the Intel 5520 based board comparability list.

Ah , I spoke too broadly then. Should have done more research.

The dual QPI link is likely the factor...makes sense!

 

[Retrorockit]

Is speedFan causing any issues in your T3500, while stress testing with Prime95 or could you plz try to run Prime95 along with Speedfan?
Which version of Windows are you running rn?
I am using Prime95, SPeedFan 4.52 and windows 10 1803, and Prime95 will crash instantly if i run it with SpeedFan 4.52 or i end up with an BSOD.

Some people here are happy with Speedfan, but it can have issues with Dells. In the overclocking thread many users just add a 2nd 80/90mm fan to the CPU heatpipe cooler. I assume you have the heatpipe cooler with the W3680. The aluminum finsink won't be sufficient for that CPU. if you have the memory duct and HDD tray in place you shouldn't have any cooling issues.

"Ah , I spoke too broadly then. Should have done more research."
In the area of Dells research only gets you so far. There are a lot of things that work that Dell doesn't mention. A lot of people selling parts the won't work. Rumours, opinions, guesses.
Often the only way to find out is to try something yourself. Even a failure produces infromation that's useful to others. Unfortunately very few people publish the bad results leaving others to repeat the errors over and over.

 

[darkwingduck13]

Well, I finally got in some new thermal paste, replaced the processors, and got the T7400 up and running. Seems good so far. One 240GB SSD for the OS, 3 x 250GB SSDs in Raid 0 for my Steam and GOG libraries, a 1TB SSD for all my emulation stuff, an EVGA GTX 1060, and an LG BluRay drive for ripping...still haven't played a ton of stuff on it yet, but I have let it burn in for 72 hours with no issues so far.

Seems like it still has years of longevity left in it.

 

[Aaron_Henderson]

Well, I finally got in some new thermal paste, replaced the processors, and got the T7400 up and running. Seems good so far. One 240GB SSD for the OS, 3 x 250GB SSDs in Raid 0 for my Steam and GOG libraries, a 1TB SSD for all my emulation stuff, an EVGA GTX 1060, and an LG BluRay drive for ripping...still haven't played a ton of stuff on it yet, but I have let it burn in for 72 hours with no issues so far.

Seems like it still has years of longevity left in it.

I believe you can use SetFSB to overclock your system, if that's something you're interested in.

 

[darkwingduck13]

I believe you can use SetFSB to overclock your system, if that's something you're interested in.

Not sure how much thermal dissipation overhead room I really have in this thing. The case is way bigger than the T5400 I was running, so it has the 2 huge fans in front plus the big fan cooling the ram, but still just has the stock heatsinks. They're massive, but I still worry about frying my procs.

I guess in theory I have less heat generated by the 5 SSDs than I would have if there were 5 spinning HDDs in there, but I also added the dual slot 1060 card which I know is pumping out some heat.

 

[Retrorockit]

Not sure how much thermal dissipation overhead room I really have in this thing. The case is way bigger than the T5400 I was running, so it has the 2 huge fans in front plus the big fan cooling the ram, but still just has the stock heatsinks. They're massive, but I still worry about frying my procs.

The T7400 supported the 150W LGA771 CPUs which were also 400fsb. So if you can get SetFSB running it should be able to go pretty far.
FN654 was an 8 tube heatpipe cooler for those. The 6 tube is more common.
https://www.serverworlds.com/dell-fn654-precision-690-t7400-heatsink/

 

[TechyTed]

....

I guess in theory I have less heat generated by the 5 SSDs than I would have if there were 5 spinning HDDs in there, but I also added the dual slot 1060 card which I know is pumping out some heat.

Sounds like a nice little system you got there.

 

[Retrorockit]

Thje GTX 1060 is a 120W card. About the same as another CPU. I'm sure Dell offered those with at least 2x 150W cards.

 

[darkwingduck13]

So basically it sounds like I could fool around with SetFSB and as long as I don't get too ambitious, I might not have to worry too much about the heat dissipation overhead on my rig? I definitely only have the heatsinks with the 6 pipes rather than the 8.

And thanks Ted. It's not all that different from my T5400 build...same procs, same RAM, I just didn't have as many drive bays and I had a 960 instead of the 1060 in there. I considered saving up for higher end procs, but they seem to jump in price quick as you go up from the ones I have.

So far it seems stable, and surprisingly quiet even after my daughter had been playing Goat Simulator at 1080p for an hour.

I still have to try ripping BluRays with MakeMKV and see how it goes with that LG drive. Surely it'll be faster than the external USB drive I was using before.

 

[Retrorockit]

I love Goat Simulator. LMAO
There is a BSEL tapemod for 333 to 400 fsb. There are also VID pinmods but they vary from CPU to CPU depending on the original Voltage setting. The LGA775 and LGA771 BSEL and VID pinouts are the same. You just have to re-orient the diagram to match the socket notches being in a different place.
I wanted to try and make a Skulltrail clone out of a T7400 but someone bought them all up locally so I abandoned it.

I'm going to say something that's purely theoretical. I had a couple of QX9650 sitting around. I looked into what the Xeon adapter tape actually does, and found that "electrically" it should do the conversion the other way. QX9650 to LGA771. I have absolutely no idea if that will actually work, either single OR dual CPU. I had the parts , CPUs (QX9650 and X5470 pairs) plus the big heatsinks.
But failed to locate a T7400 to try it. TS overclock for the Core2extreme, and BSEL mod for the Xeons. Either way dual CPU 4GHz. But the T3500 is a much better solution.

 

[insane 360]

question for you guys in the workstation group. i'm downsizing a bit soon and want to settle on a main machine...

the two main contenders are dell t7500 (dual x5675's with 36gb of ram) and a dell t5810 with a quad core haswell based xeon (can't remember the model) and it has 32gb of ram. both will run a quadro k2200 once i settle on it that is...

so i know the t7500 is a beast, its my main rig currently and i have high hopes on running some hyper-v stuff/docker on it eventually...if i keep it i need to buy a usb3 card to get fast access to my ext drives. plus for it is i can put in several hard drives and start running storage spaces on it as well...

t5810 is nice because its so much newer and runs much quieter (shared office with my wife and her sewing) and once prices drop for those xeon's i can get an 8/10 core cpu and have better single threaded performance...i think

what are you thoughts either way i'm going to be fine, i do have a sweet spot for the t7500 but i also like the thought of better/lower power usage and quieter as well...

(what the purpose of my main rig, serve up a little steam, run makemkv for plex library, basic web browsing...future plans is for it to be a play ground for when i get back into doing my certs for IT)

any other questions?

 

[jeanpat]

I discovered some days ago that xeon E5520 on T5500 doesn't have AVX instruction set (I guess neither T7500), may be a problem for some app? (Next time may be a T5600)

 

[TechyTed]

I haven't even begun to tap the power of this single CPU T5500.

 

[sepheronx]

I now can join this club you other kids have!

I am now a proud owner of a Dell T3500!

I purchased this beast of a machine for $150 CAD ($116.12 USD or 89.12 British Pounds). Guy wanted to get $200 for it but I offered $140, and we both agreed to $150.

I was surprised to see that this had 2 hard drives in it, when guy who sold it to me said it only had a 160gb HDD in it. Checked it out and it has a 1TB hard drive as well (Dell Brand, dunno manufacture yet, didn't check).

To my surprise was this:

A USB 3.0 card was installed in this. I was gonna go and purchase one myself but I guess I do not need to now since someone has already done it for me.

GPU installed is a Quadro FX 1800. Will sell this for $30 CAD as I will be putting in a GTX 970 4gb in this thing.

Plan for this system:

My daughter is coming back from India tomorrow. I want to have a machine for her so her and I can work on it. I will get an SSD drive (presumably a 250gb or maybe 500gb depending on how much I have left) And a W3680 Xeon so I can use throttlestop to overclock the monster to 4.0 - 4.1 or higher. As said, a GTX 970 4gb will be going into this machine or I may keep my GTX 1070 for it and I will sell the GTX 970 4gb as I have a RX VEGA 64 heading my way from my friend.

I also plan to modify the case. Maybe I may, maybe I wont. Paint it at least. As the case is not in the best shape.

This is what I am looking at for the W3680:
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Intel-Xeon-...913379&hash=item3fabb362fb:g:mNUAAOSwvuhbnU2A

 

[king of swag187]

I now can join this club you other kids have!

I am now a proud owner of a Dell T3500!

I purchased this beast of a machine for $150 CAD ($116.12 USD or 89.12 British Pounds). Guy wanted to get $200 for it but I offered $140, and we both agreed to $150.

I was surprised to see that this had 2 hard drives in it, when guy who sold it to me said it only had a 160gb HDD in it. Checked it out and it has a 1TB hard drive as well (Dell Brand, dunno manufacture yet, didn't check).

To my surprise was this:

A USB 3.0 card was installed in this. I was gonna go and purchase one myself but I guess I do not need to now since someone has already done it for me.

GPU installed is a Quadro FX 1800. Will sell this for $30 CAD as I will be putting in a GTX 970 4gb in this thing.

Plan for this system:

My daughter is coming back from India tomorrow. I want to have a machine for her so her and I can work on it. I will get an SSD drive (presumably a 250gb or maybe 500gb depending on how much I have left) And a W3680 Xeon so I can use throttlestop to overclock the monster to 4.0 - 4.1 or higher. As said, a GTX 970 4gb will be going into this machine or I may keep my GTX 1070 for it and I will sell the GTX 970 4gb as I have a RX VEGA 64 heading my way from my friend.

I also plan to modify the case. Maybe I may, maybe I wont. Paint it at least. As the case is not in the best shape.

This is what I am looking at for the W3680:
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Intel-Xeon-...913379&hash=item3fabb362fb:g:mNUAAOSwvuhbnU2A

Dells support XDMA crossfire so y'know.....

 

[sepheronx]

well, my friend is getting the second Vega RX 64 as we both got them for about $270CAD each. But that will be going into my main rig (4770, 16gb ram, etc).

So in need of advice.

So besides a W3680 and using throttle stop to overclock, and adding in a GTX 970 (possibly 1070 instead as I got one as well now).

I will have to remove the second hard drive slot to add the GPU. So should I get a 5.25 enclosure for the placement of the regular hard drive and place the SSD to the current mount slot?

Also, what about expansion cards? I have an HTC Omega Striker sound card PCI interface sitting idle. Should I add that? Plus thinking of replacing the USB 3 card with another one that has an internal connector cause I saw an HDD Bay for 5.25 that also has built on USB 3 slots.

What else should I add or do?

 

[Retrorockit]

There's actually room to stick the SSDs under the FDD bay. The T3400 had 2 FDD bays and 1/2 of the 2nd one is still there on the T3500. The 5.25" drive with USB3.0 will still need a card to run it because the MB is too old to have native support for that. But you can use the 5.25 if you want to. If that 3.5" card reader has screw holes in the bottom like an FDD/HDD then maybe a 3.5"/ 2.5" drive adaptor can be hung underneath it. In some photos on page 9 of the OC thread you can see the space for the 2nd FDD bay.
https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/throttlestop-overclocking-desktop-pcs.235975/page-9
The mayhem started on page 8 though.

 

[Susquehannock]

I now can join this club you other kids have!

I am now a proud owner of a Dell T3500!

What else should I add or do?

Welcome to the club! I have had the pleasure of having several of these T3500 to tinker with. They are getting a bit old now, but can still be quite relevant.

Definitely go for the 1070. Similar performance as 970 with less power & heat.

My questions would be. Did your system come with a working CPU? Do you have a working operating system? If so I would highly recommend you install the latest BIOS ('A17') and Intel chipset driver ('A23'). Older BIOS were not Westmere compatible. Which means the system may not boot at all with the W3680 until updated. Dell makes it simple. Download, run the applications, and it will reboot and install automatically. >> Dell download page

Second thing I would do is affix a fan direct to the CPU cooler as I show in post #30. Runs much cooler. And eliminates the need to have the HDD panel to help direct air flow.

Which leads me to the next thing. You may consider installing your drives up top in the optical bay and removing the swing out panel all together. Mine are all up there using black 7 inch Dell SATA data cables (part # 05n8n2) I found on Ebay at $5 for set of nine. Really cleans things up. Especially if you go the extra mile and remove the motherboard so you can remove those long SATA cables and move the SATA power all up top.

=================================================

Regarding SSD in these SATA2 systems.

Got my 1tb Samsung 860 EVO SSD installed last week. Makes the system snappy. Programs and games open much faster now. No surprise there.

Did some benchmarks during the process. First two images are the 1tb WD spinner vs 1tb EVO directly before and after Win10 migration. Unsurprisingly, SDD kick butt where random read/write speeds are concerned. Third image is typical score of same SSD in a SATA3 system. Much faster than transfer speeds I get in this T3500. In all reality. The difference would be near imperceptible in day to day use.

 

[king of swag187]

Welcome to the club! I have had the pleasure of having several of these T3500 to tinker with. They are getting a bit old now, but can still be quite relevant.

Definitely go for the 1070. Similar performance as 970 with less power & heat.

My questions would be. Did your system come with a working CPU? Do you have a working operating system? If so I would highly recommend you install the latest BIOS ('A17') and Intel chipset driver ('A23'). Older BIOS were not Westmere compatible. Which means the system may not boot at all with the W3680 until updated. Dell makes it simple. Download, run the applications, and it will reboot and install automatically. >> Dell download page

Second thing I would do is affix a fan direct to the CPU cooler as I show in post #30. Runs much cooler. And eliminates the need to have the HDD panel to help direct air flow.

Which leads me to the next thing. You may consider installing your drives up top in the optical bay and removing the swing out panel all together. Mine are all up there using black 7 inch Dell SATA data cables (part # 05n8n2) I found on Ebay at $5 for set of nine. Really cleans things up. Especially if you go the extra mile and remove the motherboard so you can remove those long SATA cables and move the SATA power all up top.

=================================================

Regarding SSD in these SATA2 systems.

Got my 1tb Samsung 860 EVO SSD installed last week. Makes the system snappy. Programs and games open much faster now. No surprise there.

Did some benchmarks during the process. First two images are the 1tb WD spinner vs 1tb EVO directly before and after Win10 migration. Unsurprisingly, SDD kick butt where random read/write speeds are concerned. Third image is typical score of same SSD in a SATA3 system. Much faster than transfer speeds I get in this T3500. In all reality. The difference would be near imperceptible in day to day use.

View attachment 108361View attachment 108362

970 is worse than a 1060 3GB lulz, SSD in any system is night and day

 

[lexluthermiester]

I now can join this club you other kids have!

Welcome to the club!

As said, a GTX 970 4gb will be going into this machine or I may keep my GTX 1070 for it and I will sell the GTX 970 4gb as I have a RX VEGA 64 heading my way from my friend.

I would recommend the 1070 for that system. Much better card than the 970's which have had issues and can be problematic for reasons I'll not go into here. But if you've got a Vega 64 coming? Good card. You'll have fun with it. Also keep in mind that with either card, you'll need a PCIe power "Y" splitter cable to connect power to the card. I ended up buying an 1100w PSU with a matching wire harness for my system. Additionally, I bought two 80mm fans to mount in the back of the system to help with airflow. Nothing fancy or high speed needed, a pair of Logisys LT400RD fan's did the trick for me.

And a W3680 Xeon so I can use throttlestop to overclock the monster to 4.0 - 4.1 or higher.

What CPU does it have now?

 

[Susquehannock]

Many 1070 require a single 8-pin. In which case a 6-pin to 8-pin adapter is all that is required. The 18-amp rail powering the PCIe connector is more than capable. If I can power a hungry RX 480, the 1070 should be no problem.
The Vega 64 is another matter. I don't think you will be able to adequately power it with the Dell PSU. Changing to an aftermarket unit better equipped for modern GPU is certainly doable.

 

[lexluthermiester]

The Vega 64 is another matter. I don't think you will be able to adequately power it with the Dell PSU. Changing to an aftermarket unit better equipped for modern GPU is certainly doable.

It should be ok, but only just. The standard PSU for the T3500 was a 550w. However, I think he was saying he was going to use the Vega for his personal system.

 

[Susquehannock]

Just throwing it around for the sake of conversation I guess. The 525w may be up to the task - barely. Far as I can tell Vega 64 draw around 270 watts full load. Subtract 75 watts from the PCI slot we get 195 watts. 16.25 amps at 12 volts from the PCIe plug.

Vega 64 require two 8-pin connectors. Are there 6-pin to dual 8-pin adapters? Even so I am not a fan of demanding three 12 volt wires doing the job normally allotted to six unless we step up a few wire gauge sizes.