LGA775 retro OC project

[hat]

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.

 

[agent_x007]

@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.

 

[lexluthermiester]

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

Have you done comparison benchmarks?

 

[storm-chaser]

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.

 

[AlwaysHope]

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?

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.

 

[phanbuey]

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

 

[AlwaysHope]

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.

 

[storm-chaser]

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/

 

[agent_x007]

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).

 

[Komshija]

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.

 

[AlwaysHope]

Xeon X3360.... arrives!

Ready for new home!

All set to go!

Boot up to desktop successful!

Default benchmarks incoming very soon....

 

[AlwaysHope]

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.

 

[lexluthermiester]

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..

 

[AlwaysHope]

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.

 

[lexluthermiester]

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

It is true and yes it very likely will.

 

[agent_x007]

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

 

[Fouquin]

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.

@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?

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).

 

[agent_x007]

@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

 

[Fouquin]

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.

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.

 

[AlwaysHope]

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.

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.

 

[AlwaysHope]

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.

 

[AlwaysHope]

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!

 

[hat]

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.

 

[agent_x007]

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

 

[lexluthermiester]

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.