W3690 Overclock

[smartbomb33]

So I managed to get my W3690 to 4.2ghz at 211 BCLK x 20 at 1.36 VCore and 1.34 QPI, with my IOH set to 1.18.
It's rock stable, runs well, I'm pretty happy with it. The temps are nice and low (mid 70s) at full load on small FFTs on Prime 95, and the voltage is acceptable.
BUT I live in a first world country, therefore I want first world speeds dammit - I want 4.4-4.5 ghz.

My last attempt 4.4ghz I had my settings at 211x21 for a frequency of 4.431ghz - Vcore at 1.41 QPI at 1.35. Boots up fine, runs Prime 95 for about 45 minutes before crashing and giving me a BSOD code of 124, which according to bro science and old forum posts means that I should raise my QPI voltage. We all know that a "safe" QPI voltage for the X58 platform is 1.35, so the question is, should I raise it? This is an old chip, and replacing it wouldn't really be a big deal, but I've never broken a CPU overclocking, and I'm not about to start now. Is there a trick to pushing past this limit on the W3690? I'm running 24GB of RAM at 1693Mhz on this thing spread over 6 sticks, and from what I've read using all 6 RAM slots makes things a little tricky. I can't confirm on whether or not that's actually true, but the fact that the BSOD I got is suggesting I raise QPI voltage even though I didn't raise the BCLK to achieve a 4.4ghz overclock might make sense - I dunno. The fact that I got it to run Prime 95 for a little while would suggest to me that achieving stability is most likely possible.

A penny for your thoughts.

 

[Mr.Scott]

BSOD code of 124 also can mean low vcore.
Better OC if you stick with the odd multipliers.
More info. What board and cooling?

What are your temps like?

 

[smartbomb33]

Mr. Scott, always helpful.
Yeah... I was starting to think that too, that 124 could still mean low vcore.
I'm currently at 4.4 right now @ 211 BCLK x 21. Vcore 1.41875, QPI at 1.34 volts. What I'm doing differently this time around is setting my uncore to 1.5x my memory speed. My RAM is clocked at 1693, so I have my uncore at 2539. I'm glad I made it to the end of writing this post because I'm running Prime 95 while I'm doing it ... it's only been about 10 minutes, but so far so good.

Board: Asus P6T7 WS Supercomputer
Temps: Currently mid 80s at 1.41875 volts, not bad.
CPU Cooler: Prolimatech Megahalems w/Scythe 120mm fan. I currently have the heatsink rotated 90 degrees, so that the fan blows up towards the exhaust fan at the top of the case. Works so much better for me than having it blow to the side of the case.

Another thing I'm trying differently I should add is that I lowered my CPU PLL voltage from 1.84 to 1.8... back to stock.

 

[Mr.Scott]

Nice. I have that board also.
Currently testing an i7 Extreme 975 in it.
This is on air with a True 120. Temps max at 80c.

 

[smartbomb33]

Oh nice. I had an i7 980 Extreme on a system I sold just recently... I found that that chip overclocked so much easier/better than my W3690 did. I assume your 975 is probably the same way.

 

[Mr.Scott]

I'm pretty much finding that all 1366's, Xeon's or not, clock about the same, except for the occasional golden chip.
Unlocked multi always makes it a little easier. The 95w chips run a little cooler than the 130w ones, but not by much.
Fun platform though. I enjoy it very much.

Here is my daily driver.

 

[smartbomb33]

You need more RAM. lol.
I used to run 6 gigs... it's definitely not enough for today's stuff.
8GB would probably be ok though. I'm surprised to see your daily driver isn't rocking more DIMMs.

 

[Mr.Scott]

I don't use what I have now.
I have 4 sets of those Dom GT's.
2 of those sets are in my SR-2 though.

 

[smartbomb33]

Surely you'd wanna daily drive that SR-2.

You seem to be quite the expert on overclocking this chip...
What are some hard rules have you found so far on overclocking X58 Xeons? I've read a lot about it now, and from what I've gathered... nobody truly understands what all the voltages actually do.
I've put the uncore frequency and my CPU PLL voltage down, and it seems to affect stability in a positive way, but I'm not sure what the consequences are to doing this.
Uncore is supposed to be double the memory speed, but some people say 1.5x the memory speed is the way to go. What do you think?

 

[Mr.Scott]

I'm no expert, just an enthusiast.

Uncore between 1.5x and 2x memory speed. I usually run to the extreme end, 2x and then a little if I can keep it stable.
CPU PLL voltage I usually run 1.8-1.9v, pending the board and chip used. Less is always better heat wise.
Biggest thing I've seen on X58 is temp control. There are all hot chips. Once you get into the 80c range everything goes out the window. Cooling method makes a big difference in your overall clockspeed...........pretty much just like every other platform.
Fast ram is better than tight ram on this platform also. Find some fast Hypers.

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Surely you'd wanna daily drive that SR-2.

LOL.
Don't have a box big enough to put it in.

 

[smartbomb33]

Good to know. My RAM isn't anything special... just 6 sticks of Patriot branded memory. At 211 BCLK, the next memory multiplier brings me somewhere around 2100mhz, so I'm not really hopeful about overclocking my memory.
Funny thing about CPU PLL... is that on my i7 980 Extreme, raising the CPU PLL brought temps DOWN. Very odd. That same effect doesn't seem to happen with my W3690.

 

[freeagent]

Good to know you have more dividers available. I was looking at W3680s for 65 to replace my x5690e.s. Its the only thing that I never liked about that cpu is that I cannot run mems over 1000mhz, limited by bclk and dividers..

I agree, it is a fun system to play with. I wouldn't mind getting an i7 for it again, I have been running that x5690 for at least 7 years. I miss dividers, and got excited by the W3670/80/90. Can you run 1600-2133 @ 133bclk?

 

[smartbomb33]

Can you run 1600-2133 @ 133bclk?

I haven't tried, and I don't think I want to go back to 133 BCLK. My RAM is 1600 at stock speeds, and I am tempted to try overclocking it to 2133Mhz though. The only thing that scares me about it is raising the DRAM voltage beyond 1.66, and bro science says that raising it above that eventually gives your memory a slow death. On the contrary, I did read an article somewhere of some guy that has extensive experience running PC hardware at extreme voltages, and his article suggests that PC hardware can run safely at drastically higher voltages than the popular opinion. I'm thoroughly convinced the overclocking community does everything by trial and error without knowing how any of this stuff actually works.

 

[Mr.Scott]

1.66v is nothing.
+ .3v on any ram is a pretty common tolerance.
As far as longevity goes, I've had overvolted ram running for more than a decade without any issues.

 

[freeagent]

I haven't tried, and I don't think I want to go back to 133 BCLK. My RAM is 1600 at stock speeds, and I am tempted to try overclocking it to 2133Mhz though. The only thing that scares me about it is raising the DRAM voltage beyond 1.66, and bro science says that raising it above that eventually gives your memory a slow death. On the contrary, I did read an article somewhere of some guy that has extensive experience running PC hardware at extreme voltages, and his article suggests that PC hardware can run safely at drastically higher voltages than the popular opinion. I'm thoroughly convinced the overclocking community does everything by trial and error without knowing how any of this stuff actually works.

I was just curious. At 133 my ram is at 1333, can only go down, and not up unless I raise the bclk. On my old 970 I could set to whatever I wanted. 1.65 is stock voltage.. You aren't going to kill it. Id like to see that science lol. Up until recently, I never ran anything at stock clocks or stock voltage pretty much since 2002.. Everything usually has at least a little bit of headroom in it for you to exploit. Some more than others.. hence the term lottery. Also, there are some pretty smart people out there, I'm not one of them.. but just because you don't understand how something works, doesn't mean the other guy doesn't.. A lot of people cant start a lawn mower either, but are allowed to drive a car.

 

[Mr.Scott]

I never ran anything at stock clocks or stock voltage pretty much since 2002.. Everything usually has at least a little bit of headroom in it for you to exploit. Some more than others.. hence the term lottery. Also, there are some pretty smart people out there, I'm not one of them.. but just because you don't understand how something works, doesn't mean the other guy doesn't.. A lot of people cant start a lawn mower either, but are allowed to drive a car.

Same......and you need to give yourself a little more credit.

 

[smartbomb33]

I was just curious. At 133 my ram is at 1333, can only go down, and not up unless I raise the bclk. On my old 970 I could set to whatever I wanted. 1.65 is stock voltage.. You aren't going to kill it. Id like to see that science lol. Up until recently, I never ran anything at stock clocks or stock voltage pretty much since 2002.. Everything usually has at least a little bit of headroom in it for you to exploit. Some more than others.. hence the term lottery. Also, there are some pretty smart people out there, I'm not one of them.. but just because you don't understand how something works, doesn't mean the other guy doesn't.. A lot of people cant start a lawn mower either, but are allowed to drive a car.

I'm not one of them either, and it's true.. there are some smart people out there, but I haven't seen anyone yet explain their conclusions. 99% of the forum posts you'll read is about something they "heard" from somewhere that this should be that, and you should zig when you shouldn't zag. Not to take anything away from them, I've followed some of the advice I've gotten on forums (including this one), and it's helped me achieve my overclocks.
The guy that figured out what the BSOD codes meant in relation to your voltage settings must be a genius - I'd have a drink with that guy.

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1.66v is nothing.
+ .3v on any ram is a pretty common tolerance.
As far as longevity goes, I've had overvolted ram running for more than a decade without any issues.

Come to think of it, I did too back in the DDR1 days. My rationale for being careful is that DDR3 might be more sensitive to voltage? But You're not the first person I've heard say this... so unless I start seeing lots of people talk a bout dead RAM sticks, what you said is probably a safe bet. Maybe I'll give it a try.

I've given up going for 4.4GHz though. I tried getting it stable this morning, but even at 1.42 VCore it doesn't stay stable on Prime 95 for more than 45 minutes. I can bump the VCore up more, but at that point I deem the voltages and temps are way too high for me to consider it practical, especially since 4.2Ghz isn't much of a performance decrease and I can run it at that speed with considerably lower voltages.
So I guess my final OC on my W3690 is 211 x 20 for a frequency of 4.2Ghz. I'll take it.. not bad.

 

[Mr.Scott]

That is the same I find on pretty much all 1366's cooled at ambient temps. You run out of maintainable temp room before the CPU runs out of gas.
4.2-4.3 is about the norm. Every once and a while you see one up around 4.5-4.7 on air/AIO, but not very often.
Chiller turns my 4.3 into 4.8 pretty easily.

 

[smartbomb33]

That is the same I find on pretty much all 1366's cooled at ambient temps. You run out of maintainable temp room before the CPU runs out of gas.
4.2-4.3 is about the norm. Every once and a while you see one up around 4.5-4.7 on air/AIO, but not very often.
Chiller turns my 4.3 into 4.8 pretty easily.

But at that point you're probably hitting 1.5 volts huh? I suppose that's acceptable as long as you keep the temps reasonable?

 

[Mr.Scott]

But at that point you're probably hitting 1.5 volts huh? I suppose that's acceptable as long as you keep the temps reasonable?

Give or take a little, yes.
Totally acceptable as long as you can stay under 80c.
Temp is the key for sure.