Overclocking Escapades: socket LGA1366 Intel Xeon W3530

[Tech Tweaker]

Well, it's been quite a while since I started one of these threads. Mainly since I didn't have much hardware left to test, covered nearly everything I had in S939, AM2/AM2+, AM3, LGA775, LGA1366, and LGA1155.

Then both of my LGA1366 boards stopped working, so that left me without a board while still having at least two LGA1366 chips that I hadn't tested or overclocked yet.

Still working my way forwards with this one, trying to get 4GHz stable at the moment. Not quite sure if it will be possible since I'm hitting 78°C on the hottest core.

Intel Xeon W3530 overclock settings
VID: 1.25v
2.8GHz (133MHzx21): 1.104v (1.1v)* (idle: 36-32-36-32) (load: 58-55-56-53)
3.2GHz (146x22): 1.104v (1.1v)* (idle: 37-34-37-33) (load: 60-58-58-56)
3.4GHz (155x22): 1.104v (1.1v)* (idle: 36-32-36-32) (load: 61-58-59-56)
3.5GHz (160x22): 1.104v (1.1v) (idle: 35-31-36-31) (load: 61-58-59-56)
3.6GHz (164x22): 1.152v (1.15v) (idle: 38-33-37-33) (load: 66-62-63-60)
3.7GHz (170x22): 1.152-1.16v (1.15v) (idle: 38-34-38-34) (load: 66-63-63-61)
3.8GHz (173x22): 1.192-1.2v (1.1875v) (idle: 39-35-38-34) (load: 70-68-68-65)
3.9GHz (177x22): 1.232-1.24v (1.23125v) (idle: 39-35-39-35) (load: 75-73-71-69)

 

[Johan45]

It's so close though, go for it TT

 

[OptyTrooper]

Can you go cold?

 

[Tech Tweaker]

Can you go cold?

No, not possible.

I think I've hit the thermal wall as far as what this chip can do with air cooling, with a big Noctua NH-D14. Adding voltage to the QPI/DRAM/VTT and the IOH helped with stability a bit, but even with the vCore at 1.4v it crashes within a few minutes of starting up Prime95 Blend (or any other test).

May need to mount an AIO, or possibly water cooling for any further gains.