Throttlestop overclocking Desktop PCs

[BouziGolouM]

About the dell 5 pins fans, there's a cheap adapter on ebay for like 3 bucks, works really well, had to use it when i switched case. Just type dell 5pin fan adapter.

 

[lexluthermiester]

About the dell 5 pins fans, there's a cheap adapter on ebay for like 3 bucks, works really well, had to use it when i switched case. Just type dell 5pin fan adapter.

Got a link or a name? Kinda interested.

 

[Arjai]

Found it.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=dell+5pin+fan+adapter.&_sacat=0

 

[Retrorockit]

I didn't answer this.

Retro, that big front fan you installed is double the stock CFM...and double the amps!

The T3500/T5500 MB has 2 -5 pin fan headers next to each other. Each one runs a .8A fan in the stock T3500 scheme. They have separate PWM controllers. One for the CPU, and one for the cage fan.
I would use the 12V. and GRD from both for the big fan. 2nd RPM wire to the cage fan. 2nd PWM wireto the new cage fan, and power the new "smaller" cage fan from the HDD fan header.
Many of the old Optiplexes, and Dimensions came with 1.6A. fans on a single header. I've used this fan before in those sytems. It moves a bunch of air at idle, and rarely speeds up very much. It was designed to replace the 120x38mm fans that were real screamers at full speed in the 2xCPU workstations. I've heard that the Delta fan rating seem high because they use peak amps, where others use continuos. Foxconn and Sunon always seem lower, Delta and MBT always seem higher for fans doing the same work. But the AFC1512DG was used to cool 2x 130-150W CPUs by itself, and since it was a workstation fan and not a server part noise was a consideration.
Another fun fan is the GFB1212VHG 120X50mm 2 motor fan. 3.4A total. 2x 1.7A motors with contra rotating blades and a bladed stator in the middle to reverse the flow. This will usually fit in the fan housing of a 120x38mm fan. I've had situations where the MB fan header load would kill an overclock. So I installed this and ran it off of a 4 pin Molex with PWM split to both motors, and RPM to just one. But the bare 150x50mm replaces the 120x38/50mm fan and housing in the Optis etc. so it's my go to fan now. The fact that it drops into the T3500 is a bonus.

 

[Susquehannock]

"Another fun fan is the GFB1212VHG 120X50mm 2 motor fan. "

Those look very interesting. Especially if the specs are correct. 17 dB at 184 cfm.

Found some at $15.68

I would definitely connect these direct to PSU harness instead of the board headers.

[edit]
ordered one of those fans to play with.

 

[Retrorockit]

184CFM sounds right but they're not particularly quiet. They are much lower pitched than single motor fans. Kind of like a pickup with offroad tires. The AFC1512DG is quieter, moves more air, and uses less current. They can be found for about the same price. I much prefer them if there's room to install one.
But that's the fan. 9 Blades in, 7 blade stator, and 5 blades out. They also come in 4 wire non PWM versions (2-12V. amd 2-GRD).
But I'll still stuff one up inside of a Dell TJ258 BTX neatpipe cooler.
https://www.amazon.com/Genuine-Dell-Heatsink-Assembly-Compatible/dp/B0071OEPOA

 

[Susquehannock]

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.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Found it.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=dell+5pin+fan+adapter.&_sacat=0

Suddenly feeling dumb. Thanks @Arjai

 

[unclewebb]

W3680 in the T5500 board is a no go

Thanks for letting us know.

During the XTU benchmark, are you sure your CPU is running at full speed? If the turbo power limits are only set to 110 Watts, I am pretty sure you will be seeing some significant throttling. The reported core frequency in the XTU graph should be a straight line. My W3680 needs a TDP setting of 180 W to maintain full speed during a TS Bench test so for XTU it probably needs at least that and maybe another 10 W or 20 W to avoid any throttling. I know Prime95 definitely needs more. TDC at 130 Amps should be adequate.

I installed Windows 10 - 1803 on my T3500 on the weekend. Very smooth install. I used the serial number from the Windows 7 Pro certificate that was stuck on the top of the case and Windows 10 Pro activated just fine. No need to hunt around for obscure drivers or anything like that. Might have to go install XTU so you have a bench number to compare to.

 

[TechyTed]

If you have a T5500 you will just have to install two X5690s and suffer with it.

Might bump it up to 48gb of RDIMMs too.

That way the slooooow CPUs won’t seem so bad.


*wink*

 

[unclewebb]

@Susquehannock - The default TDP for a W3680 is 130 Watts.

https://ark.intel.com/products/4791...12M-Cache-3_33-GHz-6_40-GTs-Intel-QPI?q=w3680

Your XTU screenshot shows Turbo Boost Current Max = 130 Amps and Turbo Boost Power = 110 Watts. Your numbers as reported by XTU seemed to be reversed. I installed XTU on my T3500 and it also seemed to be reversed. Time to do some digging.

Here is what the Intel docs show.

MSR 0x1AC contains both of the power limits. According to Intel, the lower bits contain TDP and the upper bits in that register contain TDC. I installed RWEverything so I could have a look.

The lower bits in my example contains 0x5F0 which equals 1520. Divide 1520 by 8 and you get 190.
The higher bits contains 0x370 which equals 880. Divide 880 by 8 and you get 110.

In other words, my CPU is set to 190 Watts and 110 Amps. It is nice that the latest version of XTU supports these old X58 CPUs but it would be even nicer if the programmers read their own documentation.

Anyway, if you look at my screenshot, by disabling all of the C States, I was able to lock my CPU at a steady 4.00 GHz at idle or full XTU Bench load. I thought for sure I was going to kick some butt but the numbers do not lie.

I am down 20 points compared to your score. Windows 10 does not seem overly bloated. Maybe it was sending a few GB of data up to the Microsoft cloud while I was busy benching. Now I have to go install my old Windows 7 drive to try and find where the lost performance has gone. Cinebench score is also down 30+ points since "upgrading" to Windows 10. Kind of like bolting on some performance parts to your car and you end up going slower.

 

[Retrorockit]

I saw someone selling T5500 with W3680 CPUs, I thought that confirmed them with UDIMMs. A pair of X5687 would be the fastest CPUs then.
I could understand Dell only listing the 2 CPU Xeons to avoid headaches when customers decide to add another CPU. The X58 T3500 can run just about anything.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Preci...cessor-upgrade-/323412553348?oid=323317633986
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Preci...m=323412553717&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851
I wonder if this seller can confirm these working?

 

[Caring1]

As far as I know they should work, but I can't confirm that now, I only know (from memory) they are selective which socket they are placed in when running one CPU.

 

[kzmn]

Unfortunately, XTU and Throttlestop failed to make my i7 0000 Coffee Lake work past 3100MHz when all 6 cores are loaded.
BIOS change to 6 cores 36 multiplier and increasing turbo limit did not help. XTU shows multipliers all set to 36 and locked but still CPU goes
no higher than 3100. Set multiplier does not work in Throttlestop. And when I first started TS, it had 63 in Set multiplier cell.
So Intel engineer samples are quite different from the final product, despite stepping is the samein this case.

 

[unclewebb]

Set multiplier does not work in Throttlestop.

When Speed Shift is enabled (SST), the Set Multiplier feature no longer works.

And when I first started TS, it had 63 in Set multiplier cell.

That is normal. When the Set Multiplier register is not being used, the bios will often times set this register to 63.

Can you post a screenshot of the FIVR window? Does it show that Overclocking is available?

When idle, are the C states being used? The locked processors require either core C3 or core C6 to be enabled so they can reach the highest single core multiplier. Post a picture of ThrottleStop while running a single thread of the built in TS Bench test.

 

[kzmn]

C3 used when idle.


Set multiplier=8. Overclocking is not available.


Multiplier set to 36 (max) on 6 core load (as wel as in bios). I hoped I would be able to use 6 cores@3600.

 

[Retrorockit]

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.

Regarding the T5500 W3680 situation. I know you've been doing this a while so maybe you already tried this, but you didn't mention it. Did you reset the BIOS to default? This could allow it to unlearn some RAM, and CPU settings it might otherwise be expecting. I looked into the PB7 error and it seems to mean the BIOS is unhappy, but it's very non specific about why. People seem to get it with one dual QPI CPU, dual CPUs when either works alone, and other CPU related issues. Obviously I'm hoping it's an isolated occurence. But I haven't found any actual eveidence that it is.
Maybe a BIOS mod to set QPI value from 2 to1?

 

[unclewebb]

@kzmn - When ThrottleStop reports,

Turbo Overclocking +0

that means your ES CPU is fully locked. The 36 multiplier might be available when a single core is active but it definitely will not be available when all 6 cores are active. Most people used to think that ES automatically meant unlocked multiplier but that is rarely true. This is only true if it is an ES K series CPU but your CPU is no K series. (+0)

Set multiplier=8. Overclocking is not available.

I already said that when Speed Shift is enabled, (SST) in green, the Set Multiplier feature will not do anything. Open up the TPL window and see what the Speed Shift Max value is set to. It should be set to at least 36.

Your default turbo multipliers are probably,

1 Core Active - 36
2 Cores Active - 35
3 Cores Active - 34
4 Cores Active - 33
5 Cores Active - 32
6 Cores Active - 31

With a locked CPU, there is no way to go beyond those preset limits.

 

[Susquehannock]

Regarding the T5500 W3680 situation. I know you've been doing this a while so maybe you already tried this, but you didn't mention it. Did you reset the BIOS to default? This could allow it to unlearn some RAM, and CPU settings it might otherwise be expecting. I looked into the PB7 error and it seems to mean the BIOS is unhappy, but it's very non specific about why. People seem to get it with one dual QPI CPU, dual CPUs when either works alone, and other CPU related issues. Obviously I'm hoping it's an isolated occurence. But I haven't found any actual eveidence that it is.
Maybe a BIOS mod to set QPI value from 2 to1?

Good thinking. Sure did. Made every effort to clear things. Both BIOS and CMOS.

Has anyone been able to confirm the W3680 working in these? Thinking those Ebay ads were generalized toward Tx500 systems.

Spent some time looking around. All the available processors listed with T5500 from Dell are dual QPI. Expanding further, dove into the Intel 5520 chipset compatibility list. Every CPU there is a dual QPI as well.

BIOS mod would be great but far beyond my skill level. Asking myself if it would be worth it. Lack of voltage adjustments caps us at 4.0ghz or so. Less than 300mhz above X5690 at turbo.

 

[Retrorockit]

I looked for the seller of the T5500 with unlocked Xeons and UDIMMs and they no longer sell T5500 at all. Just T3500 single CPU with UDIMMs.

There's a Voltage hardmod that GPU guys use to spoof the V.Sense pin on the VRM controller. It uses a pulldown Potentiometer to make the VRM think it needs more Volts. You have to add a digital Voltage readout because the VRM becomes clueless. It's beeen done on MB too. I think that's why there are so many overclocks at CPUZ that show stock voltage. How a CPU based northbridge responds to that IDK. It proably depends on whether it reads from the MB or does it's own measurement.

 

[totalfreq]

I had to join and thank you all for such a great discussion.

Any of you try throttlestop with the t7500??? I have a few t7500s laying around and pairs of almost every x5600 chip (other than the x5698).

Ill be trying TS immediately on these boxes to see if it works on the t7500 and if any of the chips are unlocked or will mutliply at all in single or dual cpu config.

Ill post any results. Thank you all for inspiring hope!

 

[unclewebb]

The X series Xeon CPUs have a locked multiplier so ThrottleStop will not work with them. Would be nice if it did but no dice as far as I know.

 

[totalfreq]

The X series Xeon CPUs have a locked multiplier so ThrottleStop will not work with them. Would be nice if it did but no dice as far as I know.

In reading i though someone said the got a x5670 to 4ghz (maybe a different method?). Anyway no harm in trying, ive got a bunch of x5600s and plenty of time on my hands.

But anyone try yet with t7500s...or the Nhlm E5500 series processors?

If Im stuck with the X5687 and x5690s stock it wont be a total loss. I ran a firestrike1.1 test with a pair of stock x5670s and an rx580 and my score fell with 1% of a current i7/i9 with the same gpu, so no real bottleneck there.

 

[Retrorockit]

Unfortunately we're finding that the dual CPU machines require dual CPU Xeons even when running single CPU. This kicks out all the unlocked Xeons. There are some reports of getting turbo speed on all cores with TS, or XTU. But we love 2 CPU OC attempts here. And we also value failed attempts because they still produce useful info. So please keep us posted.

On another note I've acquired a Dell/Alienware Aurora R1 MB. X58 LGA1366 supposedly unlocked to some extent. Maybe I can get a Voltage bump alongside a TS overclock. It's mATX so unexplored territory for me! Heatpipe cooling on the chipset. It also lists XMP 1600 RAM support.
MS7591 ver.1 aka Dell# 4VWF2
https://www.google.com/search?q=MS+...9YPeAhVHmK0KHRvlAWUQ_AUIDigB&biw=1600&bih=827
I found an X5670 scoring with the unlocked W3680/90s It shows 4.4GHz clock speed. So I may have struck gold here.
http://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/7088426
Her are the others.
http://www.userbenchmark.com/System/Alienware-Aurora/3079

 

[totalfreq]

Unfortunately we're finding that the dual CPU machines require dual CPU Xeons even when running single CPU. This kicks out all the unlocked Xeons. There are some reports of getting turbo speed on all cores with TS, or XTU. But we love 2 CPU OC attempts here. And we also value failed attempts because they still produce useful info. So please keep us posted.

Ill keep you posted for sure. And will be trying all my dual pairs...but here is the kicker...in reasearching the compatible CPU list on the T7500, BIOS A04 lists the W3680 as compatible... maybe just an error, but Im tempted to buy one and find out if I cannot find a suitable one in my current lot.

Dell A04 bios sheet