TPU's Nostalgic Hardware Club

[Ruru]

Does X5690 OC better than X5675? It has a higher multiplier of course, but is it binned for higher clocks?

 

[MaxiPro800]

Almost a perfect 939 rig. I'd just get a 4400+, 4800+ or FX-60; a CPU with 2x 1MB L2 and a 8800 GT or a HD 3870. But looks great already!

edit: though I'd swap that PSU ASAP. LC-crap is... crap.

That's about the only x2 chip I could find locally, and I wish I would have been kidding. 64 FX are unobtanium here, and the only chips I've ever gotten for 939 were the bog standard 3000, 3200 and 3500+ chips. Not sure but I might have had a 3700 at one point.

The PSU is of enough power to run the x2, though no 8800GT/GTX until I can get either an nJoy (nearly similar to some KRPW/Andyson units if not even the same platform) or something that runs 2x 6pin PCI-E. I only have two Spire Jewel 420W units that, while pretty sturdy, only run one PCI-E plug.

It isn't the classic LC-BxxxATX or such fare though - looks like a Huntkey OEM'd unit. Not too bad and the internals definitely feel much cleaner than the usual LC-BxxxATX stuff.

 

[Ruru]

That's about the only x2 chip I could find locally, and I wish I would have been kidding. 64 FX are unobtanium here, and the only chips I've ever gotten for 939 were the bog standard 3000, 3200 and 3500+ chips. Not sure but I might have had a 3700 at one point.

The PSU is of enough power to run the x2, though no 8800GT/GTX until I can get either an nJoy (nearly similar to some KRPW/Andyson units if not even the same platform) or something that runs 2x 6pin PCI-E. I only have two Spire Jewel 420W units that, while pretty sturdy, only run one PCI-E plug.

It isn't the classic LC-BxxxATX or such fare though - looks like a Huntkey OEM'd unit. Not too bad and the internals definitely feel much cleaner than the usual LC-BxxxATX stuff.

You have a sweet 939 setup; I wouldn't personally risk it with a low quality unit, I'd spend 50EUR/USD/GBP for a cheap high quality PSU. But yeah, sometimes the better parts are out of stock. Have you checked ebay?

 

[droid-I]

edit: though I'd swap that PSU ASAP. LC-crap is... crap.

yes, LC-power does not have a good reputation, one PSU crapped out on one of my s939 builds, but it was not a big loss. It worked the time for its value.
Think it ran some F@H 24/7 @ 100%, also, that might have had some effect. It had a 140mm fan though.
But I did not bother to pop the hood, to the recycling the PSU went.

Likely some cap gave up, but these are retro builds so one might think how much to invest.

Just had a brief look, mine was a 550W LC6550G. v.2.0. Now see there are upto v2.3

 

[MaxiPro800]

Unfortunately, eBay is out of my reach as well for the time being. I'm only able to find most parts through classifieds - the only option besides the 4600+ was a 3800+ which the seller wasn't even fully sure if it was a 939 or a AM2 chip.

If anything, I might have a PSU I'm willing to use for the tine being to power the 8800GTX - it's a pretty solid built (IMO, if needed, I can up some photos of it) Raidmax RX-700AC unit - that one managed to power a R9 280x (which is rated to at least 100-150W more than the 8800GTX's TDP) with no issues, so I guess it won't have much trouble with a 8800GTX. Contrary to popular belief, the 8800GTX doesn't seem so much of a power sucker, compared to a R9 280 or even 280x for example.

@droid-I - the one I have was serviced by me and pulled from a C2D E4600 unit - apart from the main power sillicon it doesn't seem to be that gutless. I recently got an "Alpha" (or whatever sign they tried to draw there, that resembles "AO") LC-8500BTX unit that was criminally gutless, yet had the audacity to feature (albeit a single one at that) a 8 pin PCI-E connector. LC-Power and L&C are two different companies and it's rather easy to tell - the former does make somewhat safe units (IIRC Huntkey was also used in some Dell PSUs AFAIK) while the latter is downright trash can material.

Though - for the actual configuration (8600GT, x2 4600+, 1 HDD) I don't think I'm even saturating the maximum power - at best I'd guesstimate at around 150W max load - 110W which is the x2's TDP, around 10W for the HDD (maybe? idk.) ~30 or 40W would be the 8600GT.

 

[Ruru]

yes, LC does not have a good reputation, one PSU crapped out on one of my builds, but it was not a big loss. Likely some cap gave up,
but these are retro builds so one might think how much to invest.

Stuff like @MaxiPro800 has has value, more than today's low-end stuff I'd say. I have few old AGP cards which are valuable even as they're old, well, they're AGP cards.

That's why I recommend not using a low-quality PSU even when retroing.

Unfortunately, eBay is out of my reach as well for the time being. I'm only able to find most parts through classifieds - the only option besides the 4600+ was a 3800+ which the seller wasn't even fully sure if it was a 939 or a AM2 chip.

If anything, I might have a PSU I'm willing to use for the tine being to power the 8800GTX - it's a pretty solid built (IMO, if needed, I can up some photos of it) Raidmax RX-700AC unit - that one managed to power a R9 280x (which is rated to at least 100-150W more than the 8800GTX's TDP) with no issues, so I guess it won't have much trouble with a 8800GTX. Contrary to popular belief, the 8800GTX doesn't seem so much of a power sucker, compared to a R9 280 or even 280x for example.

Let's hope that a 2x1MB CPU shows up for you locally then

 

[MaxiPro800]

The one and only 64 FX chip I know of that was still available is now in the hands of another forum's user that me and @Robert B frequent. I know this as the mainboard he managed to install it into came from me - it's a nForce 3 250 based Gigabyte GA-K8NSC-939. I had two of them and sent them both to him, mostly because I'm not very invested in AGP stuff as he is - I can easily say this as AGP cards are a whole 'nother level of can of worms to open. He is also the one who helped me find the x2 4600+ I'm currently running by the way, although the 939 x2 3800+ was a suggestion on the classified site he found the 4600 on. Didn't buy the 3800+ as the seller had a "minimum price to ship" policy and I wasn't going to get a 4th AM2 chip just for that. (and he wasn't sure if he still had the 939 chip either)

As for 64 x2 chips - the only ones that are widely available here are Brisbanes for the most part, though I'm not fully certain if I do have a Windsor - I have a 3800+, a 4200+ and a 5200+ for AM2 - I can surely tell the 5200 is a Brisbane. The ones I'm not fully certain of are the 3800+ and 4200+.

939 dual cores are short of extinct unless you have as close relations with people around flea markets and recycling centers as @Robert B has, here in Romania. AM2s are slowly going the same way too - the most AMD dual cores I'm seeing nowadays are AM3 stuff at best - Athlon IIs, Phenom IIs, you name it.

Oh, and FX (Bulldozer/Piledriver) chips - the only ones that don't really seem to be selling that well are the Zambezi chips - no wonder, the 4100 I have was so bad that even a i3 540 stomped it. Yes, even a i3 540 managed to outperform that 4100. It killed itself for whatever reason when I tried to run it on a ASRock mainboard that originally had a 8300 - the mobo still works, it still accepts other FX chips - it's just the 4100 that quietly died - not that I'm sorry for that chip's death - I have a 4300 and a 8300 that better than it (at least the 4300 does - no idea why the 8300 has so bad performance in as little as NFS Hot Pursuit 2010.)

As for the PSU - I'm already on the hunt for a 3rd unit that would sport 2x 6+2 PCI-E cables - I figured I should do this as the 8800GTX might be my only choice if I can't get sound working by any means through the 8600GT. For the time being though, I'll be running the chip on one of the Spire Jewel SP-ATX-420WTN-PFC units I have. The newer one I have (~2010 datecode) was properly serivced by me (someone tried to replace the secondary caps but gave up, and the fan was seized on top of that) and I can trust it to power as much as a Quadro FX3700 at best - it powered a HD4850 + Q6600 without much hassle and was barely warm during the whole time it was on.

 

[droid-I]

Contrary to popular belief, the 8800GTX doesn't seem so much of a power sucker, compared to a R9 280 or even 280x for example.

I can believe, but was it not so the GTX8800 require its own external power feed. A "killawatt" meter is your wallet's friend
Got one killawatt running here and there depending on what stuff is plugged, gives a good view what pulls.
Recall my 8600GTS power suck was somewhat horrendous when under load.
My old shelf parked XFX HD4770 claims power draw rated at 80 W maximum, ah well, when all added together it felt a bit more power hungry.

 

[MaxiPro800]

That Raidmax came well after the 8800's release (I think at least 2012 or 13 is printed on its QC sticker I think) - I can only guess that back when the 8800GTX came out, PSU's weren't as neatly designed and thought as well as they eventually became over the years. I remember having a CWT-based Thermaltake TR2-420PP unit - that thing was awfully heavy yet it pretty clearly didn't really love powering a Q6600 + 7900GS on a P5K-V (flashed to standard P5K.) - I could tell it wasn't very well thought - it indeed did its rated power, but not at temperatures that I would feel comfortable with, at least in the summer.

Then there's the PC Power and Cooling PSUs - not only these are more rare than hens' teeth, but they're obscenely overpowered - the only unit I ever worked on was a Silencer 1050. That thing almost tripped the repair shop's breakers on power on and had enough cabling to do a 4-way SLi 8800GTX bonanza. Ironically it wasn't the PSU at fault in that case - the mainboard had bad caps unfortunately (don't exactly remember but I think it was one of those hot running nForce based XFX mainboards, as they were about the only to use Samxon caps) and the owner wanted a upgrade as well.

Anyways, I figure that for the build I have, a nJoy Wooden 750 or a Gigabyte P650B should suffice.

There are a few brand units but either they're missing the cables (in my case, Enermax Revobron 500) or are of what I consider not enough wattage (Corsair VX450W - I feel this one is close to the limit) so the nJoy would be my best bet. I know the nJoy units should be good as I've owned one and it was fairly packed full of components. The OEM is SAMA from what I know, and their units seem to be designed pretty well, on par with Corsair's VX series.

 

[droid-I]

^Woden , never heard of that brand. It has not been on the market over here. Overall, Enermax Maxpro II has good price/performance ratio. Think that was our latest PSU buy last year, when the 10 yr old Chieftec made service, then it threw in the towel. And, if you want to go with a bit of budget line, Modecom. Have a couple of them smaller PSUs ones as spares "given" to me.

 

[MaxiPro800]

The Wooden 750 unit looks like this.

I figure this should be robust enough to power the 8800. I know for a fact nJoy units are usually packed with components - I've owned one (albeit recased as the original black casing was a bit rusty) and it managed to power a Xeon X5450 with a gargantuan cooler rather well. Sold it a few years after and slowly upgraded to 1155, up to the i5-3470 I'm running today.

 

[P4-630]

The Wooden 750 unit looks like this.
View attachment 288277
View attachment 288278
View attachment 288276

I figure this should be robust enough to power the 8800. I know for a fact nJoy units are usually packed with components - I've owned one (albeit recased as the original black casing was a bit rusty) and it managed to power a Xeon X5450 with a gargantuan cooler rather well. Sold it a few years after and slowly upgraded to 1155, up to the i5-3470 I'm running today.

The wooden just without wood...

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

Does X5690 OC better than X5675? It has a higher multiplier of course, but is it binned for higher clocks?

Probably, but I really don’t know since it’s a workstation and can’t OC. There are actually even faster Westmeres out there. The 5690 is just the top of the line for the Mac.

edit: the x5690 was the fastest 6C/12T. There was the X5687 that boosted even higher, but it was only 4C/8T.

 

[droid-I]

I figure this should be robust enough to power the 8800

yes, if the price is right, just go with it. Standard cabling seems, so it might match a few builds. By the label seem to provide sufficient power.
From my "back in the day" builds the shortest lived PSU was like two months(branded it was), then went to a bit cheaper ones as had too many PCs to keep track on,
but they all PSUs lasted 5-10 years. Should actually make a list of all different I've used(and using), but...

 

[Ruru]

Probably, but I really don’t know since it’s a workstation and can’t OC. There are actually even faster Westmeres out there. The 5690 is just the top of the line for the Mac.

edit: the x5690 was the fastest 6C/12T. There was the X5687 that boosted even higher, but it was only 4C/8T.

They're practically the same CPU. I had a X5650 first but @MachineLearning was nice and donated a X5675 to me

 

[freeagent]

Does X5690 OC better than X5675? It has a higher multiplier of course, but is it binned for higher clocks?

I would say it depends.. from what what I have seen x5675 does high clocks with lower voltage. I got 4800 out of my x5690 ES but it took 1.6v.. but it scaled linearly up until I couldn't cool it anymore. I would imagine the arch tops out in roughly the same place.

 

[Ruru]

I would say it depends.. from what what I have seen x5675 does high clocks with lower voltage. I got 4800 out of my x5690 ES but it took 1.6v.. but it scaled linearly up until I couldn't cool it anymore. I would imagine the arch tops out in roughly the same place.

I just mean that is the better CPU binned better; U probably know what I mean.

 

[freeagent]

I just mean that is the better CPU binned better; U probably know what I mean.

I do now

I always wanted to try one. But at the time they were expensive. Wish I still had my board

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

X5690s are cheap as dirt now. I’ve picked up 2 for about $65 total. Some of the Ivy Bridge EP stuff is even cheaper. You can snag 10 core CPUs for like $10. I thought about getting a base Trash Can Mac Pro, as they are getting pretty cheap now. It’s a more involved procedure, but the 12C/24T Ivy EP is also really cheap and is drop in compatible. My main gripes are the limited storage room and the old proprietary Tahiti Radeons. Still, I might one day just to have owned one.

 

[freeagent]

X5690s are cheap as dirt now. I’ve picked up 2 for about $65 total.

That's a pretty good deal..

I traded an i7 970 and 500usd for my x5690 ES

But that was before you could buy one I think..

My 970 didn't clock nearly as high, but was the better CPU imo, just because you had useable memory dividers.

 

[MaxiPro800]

yes, if the price is right, just go with it. Standard cabling seems, so it might match a few builds. By the label seem to provide sufficient power.
From my "back in the day" builds the shortest lived PSU was like two months(branded it was), then went to a bit cheaper ones as had too many PCs to keep track on,
but they all PSUs lasted 5-10 years. Should actually make a list of all different I've used(and using), but...

Around $32, or 150RON in my country's currency. Indeed, cabling looks standard enough - 2x 6+2 detachable PCI-E which is a plus, and the 8pin EPS12v. I know nJoy units were pretty good quality wise - aside from the capacitor choice, but that's something even the brand units (e.g FSP Bluestorm II 500 in my PC) had troubles with.

 

[Greenslade]

Noisy Heatsink Fans
Earlier this year I built my first PC and noticed that the Heatsink Fan was noisy, I thought it must be clogged up with dust, But when I went to clean it there was none in there. Do stock Intel fans get noisier with age? I have never had any problems with OEM PCs, of course, they all have screwed heatsink fans, and you could hardly hear them. I take it is because the Intel stock fans are push pins rather than my preferred choice of screwed ones. I have gotten used to removing the push-pin ones now without breaking the plastic bit that clips in the board.

 

[Mr.Scott]

Does X5690 OC better than X5675? It has a higher multiplier of course, but is it binned for higher clocks?

They all OC about the same pending your cooling solution.

 

[ExcuseMeWtf]

And sample selection/history of usage.

 

[Fouquin]

Does X5690 OC better than X5675? It has a higher multiplier of course, but is it binned for higher clocks?

Within variance. I've had better luck with exceeding 5GHz on X5690s, but that's a small sample size and I've had similar luck on X5680s as well.

They all OC about the same pending your cooling solution.

This. Cooling and motherboard are your biggest limits. If your board has nasty vDroop or your cooler isn't up to the task you will hit the same wall regardless of which of the top three Westmere 6C options you pick.