Throttlestop overclocking Desktop PCs

[Retrorockit]

Here's the page with the BIOS mention.
https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/xeons-with-an-open-multiplier.15983/page-3
Those guys are all about the newer unlocked Xeons. Give them a try and then maybe TS will work for you.

Mentions of TS overclocking are few and far between. Unclewebb has probably seen most of what there is. He tracks TS mentions pretty closely in several large forums.
A lot of what we're doing here either hasn't been done before. Like Dell workstaion overclocking, or if it's been done/tried it wasn't documented and valuable information was lost.
The CPU you're using was "partially" unlocked, and possibly re-locked by Intel. I think the E5-1650 is more fully unlocked and maybe v1, and v2 share a socket?
Unfortunately we're finding lots of CPUZ validations with raised multipliers on known locked CPUs. So be very careful of relying on that source.
I would do a little more research with the conventional overclockers on that platform. You might find an explanation for the issue there.

On a completely different note. While studying the manual of the MSI aftermarket version of the x58 Alienware MB I acquired. I found it had overclocking dipswitches.( If you have to ask you're too young to be told about them). A 3 pole switch with setting for 133,166, and 200 BCLK. The switch is missing on the AW but the pads are still there. I wonder if this is the key to an X58 BCLK pinmod?
I'm drooling thinking about how easy the LGA775 266-333fsb tapemod was!
Page 34 of the pdf. here.
file:///C:/Users/BTXFAC~1/AppData/Local/Temp/Rar$DIa8900.20098/7593v1.0(G52-75931X2)(X58M)EURO.pdf

While I'm at it (I've been into the Aeropress coffee this morning) I was looking through my Dell CPU cooler coolection and found an LGA1366 heatpipe cooler with fan. It fits in the same cooling zone as the T3500/5500 coolers, and has the Dell LGA1366 stud above the MB mounting bolts. It's from an XPS 435MT. #0P041K. It doesn't have the 5 pin fan connector, and the fan blows into the cooler. But it looks like it would work for the 2nd CPU on a T500/7500. 6 coooling tubes vs. 4 is the advantage. Or upgrade for an overclocked T3500.
The listings for this are very confusing because it gets listed all over the place for the Optiplex 960 which is an LGA775 BTX and I know it won't fit that. The correct fitment is the LGA1366 XPS435MT.
If you search Optiplex 960 heatsink this won't come up. But if you search this part# Opti 960 is just about all you'll get.

 

[TripleSiiix]

I want to say thank you to everybody who decided to take the time to put all of this information together. Retrorockit for starting this thread up, giving me the incentive to look further into overclocking.
I created an account just to post in this thread, to try to give what little input I could towards the cause. I've had the same computer for.. longer than I care to remember, and I ended up being gifted and older computer, newer than mine though. A dell, xps 410. After stripping all of my other towers, I got the thing to work. Relearned a lot about OS installation, and just, building a computer again.
I started to get the itch. And looked into what I could do to power it up a little further. Somehow I stumbled upon overclocking. Massive info dump later, I came to realize that more or less, this set up was locked thanks to intel/dell. No options in the BIOS to change. By some chance of luck, I found throttlestop. Little bread crumbs here and there led me to this thread, where I've found out that Throttlestop can possibly help me out.
I'd like to become further aquainted with this forum, and all of it's valuable information. Especially you guys, and your pioneering.
I've found out that it's not impossible to overclock one of these, Dell's xps 410, but those examples are few and far between, coming from people years ahead of me in experience.
I'd like to document my research along with yours, in hopes something good will come out of it all.
Now, I've installed Throttlestop, and opened it up a few times, always intimidated. I see that it would let me change the multiplier, and possibly the voltage as well.
I've read so many articles, and reports, my head's swimming in data.

 

[Retrorockit]

Come to POPPA! You're in luck. The XPS 410 aka Dimension 9200 is the same as the Dimension E520 in my sig. except it's a mid tower and has room for a full sized GPU, and already has a PCIe 6 pin cable. The 4 phase MB is a beast. i was in 2nd place for a couple years at CPUZ with a QX6800 SLACP on that. The link is in my sig. Check the MB for swollen or discolored capacitor end caps. That's usually the end for them.
Here's where I dumped all my BTX overclocking info.
http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-2897377/overclocking-dell-btx-computers.html
Here's an E520 running 3.7GHz. I know the guy from Tomshardware.
https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/4588263
Realistically that's the same CPU score as my Optiplex 380/Xeon X5470 3.33GHz. That's still kicking it pretty good considering they came with Pentium4 CPUs. That thing will be 14 years old in December.

 

[HSADJADI]

Someone else started a project like that on page 20 but we haven't heard from him since. He does list some unlocked CPUs which Throttlestop needs to overclock. Some people have success and keep it to themselves. Some just give up. We were discussing something else and may be he thought we were ignoring him. None of us here have first hand experience overclocking that specific system. But we'll be glad to help and would welcome any report of progress, or problems so others can benefit.

I tweaked the Optimax 380 with SetFSB and Afterburner and got a 50% gaming score. They haven't published that run yet. Might not be enough improvement over the previous 48% score.

Unfortunately no luck. I'm willing to do anything yall suggest tho.

 

[SoNic67]

@Retrorockit do you know what's the clock generator chip on a Dell T5500 motherboard model 0D883F ? Of where I need to look for it on the board itself?

 

[Retrorockit]

Unfortunately no luck. I'm willing to do anything yall suggest tho.

The XPS 410 overclocks best with a QX6800 SLACP. The QX6800 SL9UM, and QX6700, and X6800 2 core are B3 stepping and run hotter and won't go as fast but do work OK other than that.
There's nothing wrong with using one of those to learn your way around TS overclocking. Everything you learn will apply to the SLACP later.
Cooling the 12 VRM MOSFETs gains about .050V. Since they're mounted vertically a little creativity is required. But gluing some thick metal foil flags on has been reported to work.
Cooling in the Mid Towers needs cooler T9303 aka XP850. That should get you to 3.45GHz. with a SLACP ( That's the average overclock on this chip at CPUZ BTW ). Set a High Performance user profile in Control Panel, and turn Windows Security to Low .
Avast Antivirus, Malwarebytes, and MBAR (Malware Bytes Anti Rootkit) porvides a free security suite. Use Throttlestop 6.00 to avoid all the confusing setting of later versions. Go back and read the first few pages of this thread for a few tips on TS. When you get that far come back and we'll talk about 3.73GHz and beyond. That's when we get out the saws and soldering irons.

@Retrorockit do you know what's the clock generator chip on a Dell T5500 motherboard model 0D883F ? Of where I need to look for it on the board itself?

Locate the Crystal. It's in a small metal oval can with 14.xxx stamped onit. It's between the first PCIe slot, and last RAM slot. The rectangular chip next to it is the PLL. ICS932S421BGLF
A T7500 overclocker with the same PLL reports that SATA crashes with increased fsb. A bootable PCIe RAID/SATA card sidesteps the issue and allows actual overclocking to occur.

 

[SoNic67]

I found it, thanks!
My RAID card supportes booting, but wants ti initialize the drive. No way!
I also have a PCIe SATA card. I'll try that, but it means that I'll loose the USB3.0 that uses that slot now. Maybe I'll try to buy a combo card...

 

[Retrorockit]

Is your RAID card in the 64 bit PCI slot?

 

[SoNic67]

No, my RAID is in the PCIe. And the other SATA one is in PCIe too. Will that be OK? I assume that the PCI bus will get OC too? I have a sound card there.

 

[Retrorockit]

I haven't heard of PCI issues with Setfsb. My DDR increases with Setfsb but PCI stays at 33.3mhz. I just tried it. My PCI network card in my opti 380 works with etFSB overclock.
I came across this liitle dude.
https://www.startech.com/support/PCIX1PEX4
So It looks like PCI-X 2.0 can handle PCIe 4x workloads.

 

[SoNic67]

I came across this liitle dude.
https://www.startech.com/support/PCIX1PEX4
So It looks like PCI-X 2.0 can handle PCIe 4x workloads.

That's cool! I'll keep in mind.
For now I have ordered this:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Syba-USB-3...-Profile-Bra/262335239089?hash=item3d146613b1

 

[Retrorockit]

That's very nice. I hope you get a good SetFSB OC going.
Are you 2 CPU yet? Or trying it out on a single setup first.

 

[SoNic67]

Baby steps
I still don't know how much memory can go on the CPU riser.

 

[Retrorockit]

The way those are setup is 6 slots on the MB and 3 slots on the riser. The plan is for 3 matching modules on each to start, and then an upgrade would move the 3 on the riser to the MB, and add 3 larger modules on the riser to doubl.e capacity. At least that's what I see being done. Dell says 8GB modules, and I see the manual lists of 9x8GB for 72 GB.
Server World sells a Dell 20D6F 16GB module and lists it for the T5500. So maybe 144GB? I think 3x8, then 6x8, and then add 3x16 should work well.

 

[SoNic67]

I didn't buy the 16GB modules because... it was too much. I still have 6x4GB avail (3 single and 3 dual rank) so I was thinking to use those.

I have tried to OC via TS, but all I can see for multiplier is max 24T. In CPU-Z I see 12-26, so IDK.
I have also tries with SetFSB, and using the correct ICS, I can change the FSB and that affects also the DDR speed. No changes in the PCIe/PCI speeds. However, even minute changes, locks the computer up so again... IDK.

 

[Retrorockit]

The guy at OCN who used Setfsb to OC his dual CPU T7500 rig said it locks up the SATA ports. Do you have the HDD/SSD on PCIe yet? That's supposed to be the trick.
https://www.overclock.net/forum/5-i...rclocking-dual-xeon-dell-precision-t7500.html
TS only works on unlocked CPUs, and those only work on the X58 T3500 workstations. The unlocked LGA1366 are all 1QPI, and the T5500 only supports 2QPI CPUs.
My Opti 380 Xeon swap does the same thing. But it only has 32 bit PCI slots for a controller card. But it has to share the PCI bus with a network card because my onboard NIC was dead.

 

[SoNic67]

So... if I deactivate the onboard SATA driver, then it doesn't lock up? That's weird, I'll try when I get the second card.

 

[totalfreq]

The way those are setup is 6 slots on the MB and 3 slots on the riser. The plan is for 3 matching modules on each to start, and then an upgrade would move the 3 on the riser to the MB, and add 3 larger modules on the riser to doubl.e capacity. At least that's what I see being done. Dell says 8GB modules, and I see the manual lists of 9x8GB for 72 GB.
Server World sells a Dell 20D6F 16GB module and lists it for the T5500. So maybe 144GB? I think 3x8, then 6x8, and then add 3x16 should work well.

I can confirm 72gb on the T5500 is a valid config.

 

[SoNic67]

I can confirm 72gb on the T5500 is a valid config.

What motherboard do you have? CPUZ knows.

 

[totalfreq]

What motherboard do you have? CPUZ knows.

I no longer have the T5500 I had it running in (I built a gaming system for my friends kid). It was a very early model though - if you look back in this thread I have pictures where I had to modify the HDD0 to connect the power for a fullsize GTX 1060, because unlike the newer T5500's the HDD0 bay wasnt removeable - so it was likely an early board. Also I was either on Bios 16 or 17 at the time. I used Dell branded (hynix) 8gb registered sticks. I had 12 of them (96gb) in a T610, that I moved (all 96gb) to a T7500, and then wanted to see if the T5500 would support 9 of them (72gb) which it did. The ram is now back in my T7500 at work.

I can try and contact my friend and see if I can walk him through CPUz, but I imagine if an early board like mine could do it using a modern BIOS - they all should support at least 72gb.

 

[Susquehannock]

Using either TS or IETU, it seems my W3680/T3500 caps at 4.0ghz no matter what. No complaints. Overclocking potential is never guaranteed. System as configured in signature runs very well. And nice and cool now the CPU and heat sink are lapped.

Interesting watching the "buy it now" prices on Ebay. The W3680 keep ticking upward. No doubt due to their unlocked status. At same time all other 1366 xeon are falling.

I can try and contact my friend and see if I can walk him through CPUz, but I imagine if an early board like mine could do it using a modern BIOS - they all should support at least 72gb.

Or your friend could observe sticker on the board itself. Should be next to CMOS battery. 72gb makes sense since the T5500 manual dated September 2009 (definitely old board) does list 8x9=72gb as a good configuration.

 

[Aaron_Henderson]

My Z400 build just randomly dropped 3 of the RAM slots...after reseating the RAM a seemingly endless amount of times, got it all working again...wonder why that happened...nothing has been touched on the PC since I built it...

 

[Retrorockit]

Overtightening of the CPU cooler has caused that for some people at OCN. IDK about Z400 though.

 

[SamirD]

I just found this thread after being pointed to it by a friend. I have a lot of stock Dell systems that I never though would have a shot at overclocking. Looks like that has just changed.

 

[Retrorockit]

If you could list what you have I can give you some idea which ones have potential.