Worth upgrading my i7 930 to an X5680?

[Vario]

KitGuru tested some similar Samsung Green DDR3 8GB 1600 MHz 30nm memory. The 2x4GB modules they tested might be very similar to your 3x4GB modules. Have a look for K4B2G08460 on the individual chips.

https://www.kitguru.net/components/...-green-ddr3-8gb-1600mhz-30nm-memory-review/4/

These seemed to be extremely flexible depending on how much voltage they fed them. With the unlocked CPU multiplier, adjustable BCLK and adjustable CPU and memory voltage; you should be able to run these modules at any reasonable speed. You can spend days / weeks doing some bench testing.


Personally, I would be aiming for a BCLK closer to 200 MHz.

Looking forward to your results.

Yes these are the same type of ram, at one point I had about 6 kits of this stuff. This is what is left. I tried running 24GB a couple years back but it would not detect over 20 GB. I have just been running 3 DIMMS instead for the last couple years on this machine as the ram quantity requirement is not very high.

200 Mhz base clock gives me some bizarre very high memory settings. I am not kidding on this. Unusably high frequency settings. 100 Mhz gives me 1600 as the lowest IIRC. I will likely run 100 Mhz base clock and go for 45x CPU multi for 4.5 GHz, if all goes well. I pulled the CMOS battery before I inserted the CPU so might be I will need to dig deeper into memory options, I overclocked this machine before for 3.7 GHz and 1.2V and 1700 CL11 1.35V ram which ran very stable cool and quiet for the past couple years. I didn't dig too far this time around just wanted to make sure it would post and then make sure it would boot to windows.

 

[steen]

I rescued some HP Z400 X58 workstations a few years back with W3670/W3680 cpus. Both W3680 continue to run fine @ 43x/42x/41x/40x stock everything including stock AIO cooling.

 

[hat]

You know, all you x58 people really make me regret a decision I made years ago. I had a really nice board, Rampage 3 Extreme, 6GB ram and of course the classic i7-920. I sold it and downgraded to a q6600 system. I'm sure it probably performed better than my locked down SB system I have now...

Why in the world I ever did that I'll never know. It's not like I even needed the money, and computers/gaming is pretty much all I do with my free time. I could have followed it up with stabbing myself in the leg with a kitchen knife for fun, would have made about as much sense.

 

[Deleted member 178884]

"For those denying that xeons aren't for gaming, my x5650 clocked at 4.4ghz get's around 130cb single thread - in cpu z it outperforms the ryzen 5 1600's single thread score too and is 200ish points off in multi thread - this is perfectly fine for gaming unless your a 144hz addict."

Yes these are the same type of ram, at one point I had about 6 kits of this stuff. This is what is left. I tried running 24GB a couple years back but it would not detect over 20 GB. I have just been running 3 DIMMS instead for the last couple years on this machine as the ram quantity requirement is not very high.

200 Mhz base clock gives me some bizarre very high memory settings. I am not kidding on this. Unusably high frequency settings. 100 Mhz gives me 1600 as the lowest IIRC. I will likely run 100 Mhz base clock and go for 45x CPU multi for 4.5 GHz, if all goes well. I pulled the CMOS battery before I inserted the CPU so might be I will need to dig deeper into memory options, I overclocked this machine before for 3.7 GHz and 1.2V and 1700 CL11 1.35V ram which ran very stable cool and quiet for the past couple years. I didn't dig too far this time around just wanted to make sure it would post and then make sure it would boot to windows.

Does your board have a memory multiplier? Mine does I'm on the ex58 ud3r rev 1.6

 

[KLMR]

I dont know what motherboard you have , but there are ways to get USB 3.0. Either you find a Second gen X58 motherboard like the asus p6x58d premium i have. These motherboards has onboard sata 3 all throw sata 3 on X58 is crap caused by the crappy marvell controller and 2 USB 3.0 on them or you can try find this PCIe adaptor from asus called Asus U3S6. I used one of these before i got a second gen X58 motherboard: https://www.amazon.com/Asus-U3S6-True-Support-Motherboard/dp/B002VVQ58M

About m.2 NVMe. There are was to get NVMe SSD to work on X58 like this: https://audiocricket.com/2016/12/31/booting-samsung-sm961-on-asus-p6t-se-mainboard/

I bought a brand new Asus Rampage II Extreme. That was... I can't remember 2009 or 2010?
It has lots of experiments like the PCIE hard drive or the 24GB (8x3 from a 32GB kit).
For gaming I can go up to 192 on bus, or 25 multiplier. But I do lots of FE and Its not stable for +10h at 100%.

I won't go for a "new" mobo, I want to go for a new platform anytime soon: Its about time don't you think?
The OP of course can go for a Rampage III or similar asus P6whatever or the EVGA counterparts.

Its good to know that 1080ti runs fine on PCIE2.0 16x!

What I did when new SSD by PCIe arrived was to get a kingston predator (2016) 480GB, I can boot from there. That was before nvme was so spread.
I run pcie at 16, 8, 8 cause I have a 980ti and a Xonar Essence STX.

Edit:
About CB these are some test I did some time ago:

I'm also fanse of those dirty X3400 xeons, good old OC....

 

[Deleted member 178884]

I wish I had a x5690 - I could only afford the x5650 as it all went on the main rig and still gotta get x299 mb, that x58 motherboard is the best OC heaven for you haha

You know, all you x58 people really make me regret a decision I made years ago. I had a really nice board, Rampage 3 Extreme, 6GB ram and of course the classic i7-920. I sold it and downgraded to a q6600 system. I'm sure it probably performed better than my locked down SB system I have now...

Why in the world I ever did that I'll never know. It's not like I even needed the money, and computers/gaming is pretty much all I do with my free time. I could have followed it up with stabbing myself in the leg with a kitchen knife for fun, would have made about as much sense.

Crying for you - that SUCKS, very hard too because the x5650 is OP 6c12t and that motherboard is a beast overclocker you'd have 4.6ghz easily.

 

[lexluthermiester]

I noticed the memory dividers are pretty awkward unless I run a base clock closer to 100 MHz, will probably run that 100 and use the CPU multiplier to overclock.

This can be fixed easily when you set the base clock to 200ish mhz and then adjust the memory multiplier and QPI back to where they should be. This allows the OC of the CPU without an OC on the memory and QPI, which can negatively affect the OC stablity of the CPU. In my experience, 201mhz is a sweet-spot for 1366 CPU's if you fine-tune the voltages. In most cases, a minimal amount of voltage is required to get things stable.

 

[Deleted member 178884]

This can be fixed easily when you set the base clock to 200ish mhz and then adjust the memory multiplier and QPI back to where they should be. This allows the OC of the CPU without an OC on the memory and QPI, which can negatively affect the OC stablity of the CPU. In my experience, 201mhz is a sweet-spot for 1366 CPU's if you fine-tune the voltages. In most cases, a minimal amount of voltage is required to get things stable.

What would you recommend for locked multiplier cpus? They seem to be hard to overclock - I'm at x20 and 220bclk at the moment - I'll have to grab a unlocked xeon at some point

 

[lexluthermiester]

I'm at x20 and 220bclk at the moment

Is it stable? Never had much luck getting beyond 210mhz stable. With multiplier locked CPU's the only limitation is the maximum. With the X5650, IIRC, the maximum turbo multi is 23, so setting the bclk to 220 x 23 will give a 5ghz OC. I've never seen a 1366 CPU get to that speed without LN2. I'm a bit on the conservative side of things so I'd be keeping the voltages as low as possible while getting the best reasonable 24/7 OC boost.

For example I'd be aiming at 3.8 to 4ghz with that chip for a 24/7 OC as it's well known these CPU's are very reliable at those speeds as long as the voltage is kept away from extremes.

 

[Vario]

Tried a few settings this gives a good result and stays cool and stable.



Might be able to do some more voltage reduction, reducing the offset and running Prime 95 SmallFFT a little bit at a time.

 

[Deleted member 178884]

Is it stable? Never had much luck getting beyond 210mhz stable. With multiplier locked CPU's the only limitation is the maximum. With the X5650, IIRC, the maximum turbo multi is 23, so setting the bclk to 220 x 23 will give a 5ghz OC. I've never seen a 1366 CPU get to that speed without LN2. I'm a bit on the conservative side of things so I'd be keeping the voltages as low as possible while getting the best reasonable 24/7 OC boost.

For example I'd be aiming at 3.8 to 4ghz with that chip for a 24/7 OC as it's well known these CPU's are very reliable at those speeds as long as the voltage is kept away from extremes.

Fully stable - only temp issues - especially now i switched from a nh-d14 to a dark rock 3 it's hitting 100c lol.

 

[Tomgang]

I bought a brand new Asus Rampage II Extreme. That was... I can't remember 2009 or 2010?
It has lots of experiments like the PCIE hard drive or the 24GB (8x3 from a 32GB kit).
For gaming I can go up to 192 on bus, or 25 multiplier. But I do lots of FE and Its not stable for +10h at 100%.

I won't go for a "new" mobo, I want to go for a new platform anytime soon: Its about time don't you think?
The OP of course can go for a Rampage III or similar asus P6whatever or the EVGA counterparts.

Its good to know that 1080ti runs fine on PCIE2.0 16x!

View attachment 103361

What I did when new SSD by PCIe arrived was to get a kingston predator (2016) 480GB, I can boot from there. That was before nvme was so spread.
I run pcie at 16, 8, 8 cause I have a 980ti and a Xonar Essence STX.

View attachment 103359

Edit:
About CB these are some test I did some time ago:
View attachment 103362

I'm also fanse of those dirty X3400 xeons, good old OC....

I had a Asus rampage 2 extreme together with a I7 920, before the setup i have now. Asus rampage 2 extreme where indeed a nice board, but i replaced it because the lag of sata 3 and USB 3.0. Asus rampage 2 extreme is a first gen X58 motherboard.

X58 has been such a joy from start to now and in a near future. Time or not to upgrade depends on your needs. Does it still do what you need then keep it, if not upgrade. I am not gonna upgrade in a year or two more unless CPU/motherboard crap it pants and go to hardware heaven. Then i have to deside what to do next. Asus rampage 2 extreme and I7 920 is great but the current setup i have is just even better. Higher OC, more threads, sata 3, USB 3.0, M.2 SSD and a powerful GPU. The X58 setup i have now really runs great and is well tuned.

Just take a look at the latest benchmark run i have competed in. The scores i get is nothing to be a shame of for how old X58 is becomming. I still give newer systems a run for there money in the vulkan test.

https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/post-your-basemark-gpu-scores.245354/

Here is a little comparison to my old setup and my current.

I7 920 @ 4.3 GHz and Asus rampage 2 extreme + GTX 970 in SLI vs. my current system. They where in the test oc to the max oc on CPU and GPU that cut run throw the test.

Cinebench R15. I7 920 at 4.3 GHz vs. I7 980X at stock, 4.42 GHz (the oc i run the system for at every day use) and at 4.75 GHz (that is of cause benchmark only). The I7 920 i had where a little devil (se score in CB).

I7 980X stock

4.42 GHz

4.75 Ghz

You know, all you x58 people really make me regret a decision I made years ago. I had a really nice board, Rampage 3 Extreme, 6GB ram and of course the classic i7-920. I sold it and downgraded to a q6600 system. I'm sure it probably performed better than my locked down SB system I have now...

Why in the world I ever did that I'll never know. It's not like I even needed the money, and computers/gaming is pretty much all I do with my free time. I could have followed it up with stabbing myself in the leg with a kitchen knife for fun, would have made about as much sense.

I feel your pain. Goin from a I7 920 and down to a Q6600. I would have beaten my self up if i ever dit that back then or now.

Tried a few settings this gives a good result and stays cool and stable.
View attachment 103403
View attachment 103406

Might be able to do some more voltage reduction, reducing the offset and running Prime 95 SmallFFT a little bit at a time.

Get your Uncore up to around 3600-3700 MHz. That will give a higher score in CB R15 and make your system more responsive in every day use and shut help FPS in games al well. Look at my scores just above. Note se NB Frequence in my scores to a comparison. Be aware of that it might need more voltage to be stable and cause ot that run cpu hotter.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Fully stable - only temp issues - especially now i switched from a nh-d14 to a dark rock 3 it's hitting 100c lol.

Ouch, yeah those temps are harsh. Back that puppy down until you can get better cooling.

 

[krull]

hi all, xeons x56xx is NOT a worth update from 920 or 930. Qpi bus at 6.4 Mt runs faster equal to most common i7 curernt generation. motherboard its question to have seriously in mind, cause of pci-e lanes distribution in x58 chipsets. in other hand if u have acces to twin cpu motherboard with intel 5520 chipset (Asus have great models) and using a single cpu build u can notice the inaviability of useable busses. or have a x8 lanes limitation in x58 standart motherboard... . i'm using a x5675 on a z600 from hp in single cpu config and still runs xtremely faster. enought cpu for all nowdays games. and faster encoding video features. in stock cooling it reaches 3.2 ghz at 6 cores. and comented a 3.6 with turbobost on feature with tunned cooper coler and forced air. really great cpu's. i personally prefer x5675 cause lowet wattage use in cpu. have a lot playing marging builds and are economically reacheable components. the mater of using a workstation chipsets instead of x58 is the memmory type in use and his higher price. a basic linux compilation with ligh graphical interface and nice codecs intalled runs xtremely fast, but if u uses win 10 pro with 140 process at start can notice little pauses whith minus than 12 gb of ram meanwile a core linux build not need 3gb to encode. make a balanced build and play a lot with it. great cpu's really

s4lu2 Krull

 

[hat]

How is it these chips keep up with Ryzen? Ryzen is supposed to have IPC on par with Broadwell, which is... supposedly around 40% faster than Bloomfield, clock for clock?

 

[krull]

someone played with tec cooling plate, high cooper heatpipe disipator and force air.. sounds fun..

Krull

 

[Vario]

How is it these chips keep up with Ryzen? Ryzen is supposed to have IPC on par with Broadwell, which is... supposedly around 40% faster than Bloomfield, clock for clock?

I think 32nm Westmere EP/Gulftown at 4.5 GHz seems close to 32nm Sandybridge 3.8Ghz for single thread speed. Ryzen first gen doesn't have a very high clock and has the cache latency issues that were improved in second gen Ryzen. If you have a good Westmere/Gulftown sample, you might get 4.8GHz thereby putting it close to Ryzen. The Westmere 32nm shrink came with more L3 cache and faster QPI than the original Bloomfields.

 

[Deleted member 178884]

Ouch, yeah those temps are harsh. Back that puppy down until you can get better cooling.

I'm taking it as a bad cooler installation, the nh-d14 is supposed to cool 2-5c better than the dark rock 3 not 20c better.

 

[grammar_phreak]

Last summer I stumbled across a system on craigslist that had a Core i7-920 c0 stepping with the stock cooler, Asus P6T Deluxe v2, 6gb of OCZ DDR3-1600, Antec 1200 case, 1gb 4870, and an old Corsair HX1000. I talked the guy down to $120 but he was asking $150 for the setup. Once I got it I added an old kit of Kingston 3x2gb 1600mhz memory I had leftover from my old 1366 system, put in a GTX 660ti that was leftover from my brothers system, then I bought the x5690 from ebay for $120. Although getting either the x5680 or w3680 probably would have been a wiser move but I intended to take this thing to the cleaners and overclock it as high as possible.

Before I got the ball rolling on overclocking, I decided to give my dad this system. However, I was able to overclock the x5690 to 4.5ghz without breaking a sweat. I was using a d14 cooler and the highest the temps got were 75c while running prime95. Several years ago I had a Core i7-930 with the old Asus P6T Deluxe and it took everything I had to get it to 4.1ghz stable. For some reason it would not do 4.2ghz.

Sometimes if you're lucky and live in a big area, you can find someone selling x58 systems without a hard drive for a pretty low price. A few months ago I bought a system with an x58 EVGA FTW3, a Core i7-960, Antec 902 case, and 6gb of Dominator RAM. I revamped that one too.

The X series Xeons do not have an unlocked multiplier but I heard the W series Xeons do. These Xeon processors overclock very well and they can surpass the 8 core AMD FX processors.

 

[buffalostink]

I had a Asus rampage 2 extreme together with a I7 920, before the setup i have now. Asus rampage 2 extreme where indeed a nice board, but i replaced it because the lag of sata 3 and USB 3.0. Asus rampage 2 extreme is a first gen X58 motherboard.

X58 has been such a joy from start to now and in a near future. Time or not to upgrade depends on your needs. Does it still do what you need then keep it, if not upgrade. I am not gonna upgrade in a year or two more unless CPU/motherboard crap it pants and go to hardware heaven. Then i have to deside what to do next. Asus rampage 2 extreme and I7 920 is great but the current setup i have is just even better. Higher OC, more threads, sata 3, USB 3.0, M.2 SSD and a powerful GPU. The X58 setup i have now really runs great and is well tuned.

Just take a look at the latest benchmark run i have competed in. The scores i get is nothing to be a shame of for how old X58 is becomming. I still give newer systems a run for there money in the vulkan test.

Incredible! Been scouring the web for threads like this and others still using their x58. To the x58! May she keep processing and so on and so forth! Cheers and Huzzah! These were the fabled days when we built a PC and didn't have to replace it in 6-8 months! One of the best investments/use of money ever.

My ulterior motive is to see what other enthusiasts think of slapping a Xeon 5660 on top of my EVGA E758. (Redundant as it may be.) I came across a bunch of threads talking about soldering necessary to get the sodding thing to work with a Westmere. Luckily, my board is one of the "newer E758" - Rev 2.0 I think - so none of that wacky soldering magic is required.

My only other reservation is I have a Thermaltake Frio I haven't moved from my i7-930 in ... uh ... a very long time. I'm worried there might be some kind of emergent AI living between the thermal paste in that thing. I only dare use a blower on it. It honestly doesn't belong on that MB (it doesn't fit with both fans) or that case (yes it's a 902) and yet there it is taunting me like a caged animal.

Last summer I stumbled across a system on craigslist that had a Core i7-920 c0 stepping with the stock cooler, Asus P6T Deluxe v2, 6gb of OCZ DDR3-1600, Antec 1200 case, 1gb 4870, and an old Corsair HX1000. I talked the guy down to $120 but he was asking $150 for the setup. Once I got it I added an old kit of Kingston 3x2gb 1600mhz memory I had leftover from my old 1366 system, put in a GTX 660ti that was leftover from my brothers system, then I bought the x5690 from ebay for $120. Although getting either the x5680 or w3680 probably would have been a wiser move but I intended to take this thing to the cleaners and overclock it as high as possible.

Before I got the ball rolling on overclocking, I decided to give my dad this system. However, I was able to overclock the x5690 to 4.5ghz without breaking a sweat. I was using a d14 cooler and the highest the temps got were 75c while running prime95. Several years ago I had a Core i7-930 with the old Asus P6T Deluxe and it took everything I had to get it to 4.1ghz stable. For some reason it would not do 4.2ghz.

Sometimes if you're lucky and live in a big area, you can find someone selling x58 systems without a hard drive for a pretty low price. A few months ago I bought a system with an x58 EVGA FTW3, a Core i7-960, Antec 902 case, and 6gb of Dominator RAM. I revamped that one too.

The X series Xeons do not have an unlocked multiplier but I heard the W series Xeons do. These Xeon processors overclock very well and they can surpass the 8 core AMD FX processors.

This sounds like my PC's long lost brother. I'm a little concerned about my Antec 902. She's weird and beat up; I think the audio AUX connector in the front is literally an electrical hazard. I digress. I'm confused about the unlocked multiplier thing - I keep reading people are OCing 5660s? Hypothetically - would this OC?: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA4RE7N07385&ignorebbr=1

 

[Deleted member 178884]

This sounds like my PC's long lost brother. I'm a little concerned about my Antec 902. She's weird and beat up; I think the audio AUX connector in the front is literally an electrical hazard. I digress. I'm confused about the unlocked multiplier thing - I keep reading people are OCing 5660s? Hypothetically - would this OC?: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA4RE7N07385&ignorebbr=1[/QUOTE]
Yes, That's a locked xeon which means you increase your bclk to overclock - You lightly overclock the ram in the process too, it's easier to overclocked a unlocked cpu like my 6600k for example, I don't need to adjust the bclk and slap in the 45 multiplier for 4.5ghz - The xeon will need to be put on the x20 multiplier and 220 bclk for 4.4ghz for example over the default bclk of 190ish i think. Your board needs OC support to adjust the bclk

Refixed my cooler - Working well now and not breaking a sweat at 4ghz like a beast. £20 for 900cb+ easily and 1k on greater OC's is almost unthinkable

 

[Zyll Goliat]

How is it these chips keep up with Ryzen? Ryzen is supposed to have IPC on par with Broadwell, which is... supposedly around 40% faster than Bloomfield, clock for clock?

Well they keep up good my @E5645 OC 4,1Ghz(every day use)have almost equal single core performance with stocked Ryzen 1600 on CpuZ bench....

I am really happy with this platform so far I can also push this CPU with this mobo up to 4,233Ghz to work stable but then requires a bit more V and also then heat becomes a bit of problem as I am using regular AIR cooling nothing fancy....but here some results on 4,233Ghz:

 

[Deleted member 178884]

My x5650 at 4.4 get's 390ish single core and around 2900 multi

x58 just lacks single core sadly - my 6600k at 4.5 get's 193cb single whilst my xeons around 120-30ish

 

[lexluthermiester]

I keep reading people are OCing 5660s? Hypothetically - would this OC?: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA4RE7N07385&ignorebbr=1

Yup, that's what we're talking about. Not the best price, Ebay would likely be better. Still, $50 for a solid and overclockable 6core? Yes please..

 

[Vario]

The best value out there is the X5650 probably. It is only about $20 shipped on eBay, starting clock is not very impressive but you should be able to get to 3.8 to 4.0GHz on air with it I believe.
It is 32nm, Westmere EP aka Gulftown
12M Cache, 2.66 GHz, 6.40 GT/s Intel® QPI.

A few bucks more and the X5660 is around $25 shipped on eBay. Same thing but starts at 2.8 GHz.