Xeon Owners Club

[8BitZ80]

If there's solder on the chip, and you put HS compound on top, you'll get terrible temperatures.

The indium solder is so jagged on a microscopic scale, that it doesn't make good contact.

Scraping it off with a razor blade until you get to the die, and then lapping it with 1000 or 2000 grit wet-or-dry emery cloth will make a nice difference.

I didn't realize there was a Xeon version of the Pentium D chips.

That's definitely the proper way of doing it, but for a CPU performing this poorly even the most amazing thermal compound isn't going to reduce the temperatures much. I'd be interested to see temperatures with direct mounting on the exposed die although I don't have the ability to mount a cooler like that.

I actually got a refund on the dud chip because the seller had sent the wrong stepping to begin with. That's probably not the true cause of the high temps, but it means I can order a new L5420 SLBBR from a different seller and see what the new one is like.

 

[8BitZ80]

Sometimes it's mind-boggling what other people throw away. I picked up this 32" 1080p Samsung TV from the side of the road and it works perfectly fine, not even any dead pixels. Doesn't have a remote, but that's no biggie. Perfect screen for the Xeon machines with all the auxiliary inputs.

 

[biffzinker]

Looks like it wasn't soldered, so I've learned something new today. It came apart pretty easy. The TIM looks shiny and it's super tacky, not sure what it is though.
For giggles I cleaned up all the parts with a razor blade and put it together with some cheap GD900 (not a great internal thermal paste, but anyway).
Hardly made a difference though, the new thermals are pretty much the same.

EDIT: Picture...

Spoiler: Delidded Xeon

View attachment 135204

That yellow color on the under side of the heat spreader is gold plating.

The iodium solder doesn't adhered to the nickel plated copper without the gold plating.

 

[8BitZ80]

The new L5420 SLBBR arrived (from a different supplier) and the thermal performance is identical. Idle is in the low 60C range.
Seems like these chips are a bust so I'll revert back to an E5450 or X3363, they seem to perform much better in every respect.

 

[phill]

The new L5420 SLBBR arrived (from a different supplier) and the thermal performance is identical. Idle is in the low 60C range.
Seems like these chips are a bust so I'll revert back to an E5450 or X3363, they seem to perform much better in every respect.

Have you the choice of a change of motherboard at all??

 

[Capitan Harlock]

I got on Ebay a Xeon X5650 for a super low price . Gonna be my second Xeon . I wonder how much i can push it with my Archon cooler .

 

[lexluthermiester]

I got on Ebay a Xeon X5650 for a super low price . Gonna be my second Xeon . I wonder how much i can push it with my Archon cooler .

A bit of advice, they tend to like their BCLK at 201mhz or 202mhz instead of an even 200. The system multipliers are easy to manage in this range though. On the unlikely chance that the CPU can't do that BCLK, the 167mhz or 168mhz range will also keep the system multi's easy.

 

[Zyll Goliat]

I got on Ebay a Xeon X5650 for a super low price . Gonna be my second Xeon . I wonder how much i can push it with my Archon cooler .

Depend how good is your Mobo + if you win CPU lottery with that X5650,most of them can easily hit 4Ghz and some can go all the way up to 4,5Gz and even beyond that with liquid cooling....tho' not sure how good is your cooler but I am sure you will reach 3.8Ghz-4Ghz without problems.....GL

 

[Edwired]

Sometimes it's mind-boggling what other people throw away. I picked up this 32" 1080p Samsung TV from the side of the road and it works perfectly fine, not even any dead pixels. Doesn't have a remote, but that's no biggie. Perfect screen for the Xeon machines with all the auxiliary inputs.

View attachment 136839

Had the similar tv before great sound out of that.
Must be the motherboard giving out temp reading had the same problem on a foxconn board where the temp offset is way off.
My e5450 on 3.74ghz at 1.176v max temps never reached 40c on full load since the weather here in ireland is real cold like below 5c. The core 1/2 went to 8c where core 0 stuck on 23c and core 4 18c all this on the lowest core temp reading

 

[8BitZ80]

Have you the choice of a change of motherboard at all??

Had the similar tv before great sound out of that.
Must be the motherboard giving out temp reading had the same problem on a foxconn board where the temp offset is way off.
My e5450 on 3.74ghz at 1.176v max temps never reached 40c on full load since the weather here in ireland is real cold like below 5c. The core 1/2 went to 8c where core 0 stuck on 23c and core 4 18c all this on the lowest core temp reading

Yeah I initially thought that it might be a motherboard power delivery issue or something, it's a cheapie Gigabyte G31M-ES2L. But I swapped it into my P35-DS3P system (currently running E5450 and tower cooler) and got similar thermal results.

I had a dig online and other users report similar temperatures. There's an Intel datasheet for this Xeon series of chips. Section 6 has tables of allowable Tcase thermals in relation to CPU power draw and it does show allowable temps significantly higher for the L54XX chips:

https://www.intel.com/assets/PDF/datasheet/318589.pdf

It seems like higher temps are actually normal for these "low power" Xeons.

 

[Edwired]

It maybe the tjmax value is isnt sitting correctly on Gigabyte G31M-ES2L as it just the way it reporting. I always thought the lower powered xeon have lower temps than e5450 series

As listed here you have to set the tjmax value

45nm Xeon Quad-Core CPUs Model Tj Max (Stepping unspecified)
E7440, E7430, E7420 90°C
L7445 80°C
X54xx series 85°C
E54xx series 85°C
L5408 95°C
L5430, L5420, L5410 70°C
X33xx 95°C
L3360 90°C
X33xx series 95°C
L3360 90°C.

Mind me asking what hardware monitoring software you using?

 

[Grog6]

That yellow color on the under side of the heat spreader is gold plating.

The iodium solder doesn't adhered to the nickel plated copper without the gold plating.

Hey, FYI NOTHING sticks to a nickel surface without some serious flux; it's like trying to solder to stainless. Stainless is mostly nickel, so...

If it's plating, I'd lap it off where you want to make thermal contact, Nickel is a pitiful heat conductor.

I lapped my thermalright 120 TRUE black nickel plated tower cooler; It gave me almost 2 degrees. (I only lapped the contact patch, lol)

The flux I use for soldering to nickel will probably eat a hole in a die. It says clearly "Not for electronics... "

 

[lexluthermiester]

The flux I use for soldering to nickel will probably eat a hole in a die. It says clearly "Not for electronics... "

That just means it's a strong flux which can corrode certain electronic parts. A through cleaning with IPA will negate this problem. The key is to not leave any of that flux on the soldered electronic part.

 

[phill]

Yeah I initially thought that it might be a motherboard power delivery issue or something, it's a cheapie Gigabyte G31M-ES2L. But I swapped it into my P35-DS3P system (currently running E5450 and tower cooler) and got similar thermal results.

I had a dig online and other users report similar temperatures. There's an Intel datasheet for this Xeon series of chips. Section 6 has tables of allowable Tcase thermals in relation to CPU power draw and it does show allowable temps significantly higher for the L54XX chips:

https://www.intel.com/assets/PDF/datasheet/318589.pdf

It seems like higher temps are actually normal for these "low power" Xeons.

I was just wondering if it was the sensor possibly that might have been causing issues if it was motherboard based, otherwise.. It's a shame they are so hot or appear that way, all of the Xeon's I've used seem to have very low temps.. I thought that was one of the things for having a Xeon was the low temps?? lol Oh well

 

[Edwired]

I reckon some boards have botched temp offset. I had Asus p5q pro, deluxe, and premium show exact low temp on the e5450 it been touch wood since. But had to retire the pro was not up to the task for overclocking and same for premium it suffered broken pins in the 775 socket. As using Asus p5q deluxe it been solid but with minor hiccip with Ethernet cutting out once in while

 

[8BitZ80]

I was just wondering if it was the sensor possibly that might have been causing issues if it was motherboard based, otherwise.. It's a shame they are so hot or appear that way, all of the Xeon's I've used seem to have very low temps.. I thought that was one of the things for having a Xeon was the low temps?? lol Oh well

Well, for comparison I swapped in my spare E5450 today and it runs great. Idle on all cores is at 40C and they increase to the high 60's during a Cinebench run. So the E5450 temperature under a full rendering load is not much higher than the L5420 at idle, plus you're also getting 20% better performance with the increased clock speed. Bizarre.

 

[Edwired]

As hwinfo64 set the correct tjmax im idling 23 10 10 18 on my e5450 since core 1 and 4 have stuck temp sensor but when it get busy the temp goes up from there i played dirt rally 2 max temps i got for an hour us 31 24 28 32

 

[8BitZ80]

As hwinfo64 set the correct tjmax im idling 23 10 10 18 on my e5450 since core 1 and 4 have stuck temp sensor but when it get busy the temp goes up from there i played dirt rally 2 max temps i got for an hour us 31 24 28 32

It's odd you say that, because my E5450 (possibly even both of them....can't remember) has a similar issue. There's always one core that reads about 5 degrees higher than the rest.

 

[phill]

Well, for comparison I swapped in my spare E5450 today and it runs great. Idle on all cores is at 40C and they increase to the high 60's during a Cinebench run. So the E5450 temperature under a full rendering load is not much higher than the L5420 at idle, plus you're also getting 20% better performance with the increased clock speed. Bizarre.

Ironic as well considering that the L range of Xeon's I believe are the low power models, so they should run cooler and use less power at the same time I'd really like to get some time with my X5675's and see how well they do

 

[Capitan Harlock]

Today the Xeon x5650 arrived . I installed it and did some stability tests at it goes right away very well at 4.2Ghz but i had to put the Vcore to 1.281 .
I tried 4.4Ghz but is not stable if i don't push more voltage . I don't wanna dare to go into 1.3 with the V core .
But i think 4.2Ghz is good enough for being under Air .
I will do some Cpuz screens and some other tests .

 

[lexluthermiester]

Today the Xeon x5650 arrived . I installed it and did some stability tests at it goes right away very well at 4.2Ghz but i had to put the Vcore to 1.281 .

Very cool!

I don't wanna dare to go into 1.3 with the V core .

Very wise. However it should be noted that that Intel's VID spec states a max of 1.35 safe voltage.

Intel® Xeon® Processor X5650 (12M Cache, 2.66 GHz, 6.40 GT/s Intel® QPI) Product Specifications

Intel® Xeon® Processor X5650 (12M Cache, 2.66 GHz, 6.40 GT/s Intel® QPI) quick reference guide including specifications, features, pricing, compatibility, design documentation, ordering codes, spec codes and more.

ark.intel.com

So you can likely push to 1.3125 or even 1.3275 without danger but you should consider that your ceiling.

But i think 4.2Ghz is good enough for being under Air .

True, 4.2 is a solid OC.

I will do some Cpuz screens and some other tests .

Show us screen shots..

 

[Capitan Harlock]

This is CPUZ and Cinebench R20 .

I don't know but seems very low as a score or is CinebenchR20 being too heavy compared to R15.
Edit : Seems that on R15 is even lower

 

[lexluthermiester]

or is CinebenchR20 being too heavy compared to R15.

It is a more beefy benchmark. However, you should be getting a bit better score.. Try 4.4@1.3125v

 

[phill]

It is a more beefy benchmark. However, you should be getting a bit better score.. Try 4.4@1.3125v

This is CPUZ and Cinebench R20 .
View attachment 137138
I don't know but seems very low as a score or is CinebenchR20 being too heavy compared to R15.
Edit : Seems that on R15 is even lower
View attachment 137139

If you could show the ram timings, that might help a little more There's something else I can't remember what it is at the moment, but I believe it's on the same tab.. Cache speed?? Something like that

 

[Capitan Harlock]

It is a more beefy benchmark. However, you should be getting a bit better score.. Try 4.4@1.3125v

I will try tomorrow .
Still seems strange that the scores are so low .
I hope it does better at 4.4 .

If you could show the ram timings, that might help a little more There's something else I can't remember what it is at the moment, but I believe it's on the same tab.. Cache speed?? Something like that

I put the timing to be 9-9-9 24 and is running at 1535 mhz