CPU died! X99 Intel 6850K CPU Strap/Bus Speed questions

[Rothschild]

Hi all.
Sorry if this is too long but I just wanted to give as much info as possible regarding my issue.

I have an ASUS X99 Deluxe II motherboard with an Intel 6850K. I bought it brand new in 2017. I have never overclocked manually, I've only enabled the XMP profile to get my 2666 RAM speed when I first put my PC together in 2017 & all has been well. My first RAM set was Corsair Vengeance 2666 (O.C) 4x8GB for 32GB total. My CPU Strap/Bus Speed has always been 100MHz with this RAM.
My girlfriend also has an IDENTICAL PC to mine including BIOS version etc except she has the 6800 & I have the 6850 as I needed the extra PCIe lanes.
Cutting a long story shortish one of her RAM sticks died so I replaced all her RAM with all my identical RAM & I bought myself Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB 3000 (O.C) 4x16GB for 64GB total. Got hers up & running fine.

When I installed my Corsair 3000 RAM, I enabled the XMP profile. I noticed the CPU Strap was 125MHz but I was positive it was 100MHz with my 2666 RAM & confirmed this. So my CPU was set at 100MHz x 38 with my 2666 RAM & with my new 3000 RAM the CPU is now set to 125MHz x 32. Before rebooting the PC after enabling the XMP 3000 profile, I changed the Bus Speed back to 100MHz.
When i rebooted I noticed 1 of my RAM sticks wasn't getting detected at all & my XMP profile shows as enabled but the RAM speeds were not running on XMP speeds but on normal 2400 (or it could of been 2133 can't remember exactly, one or the other definitely though). I then re-enabled my XMP 3000 profile & this time left the BUS Speed at 125MHz & everything worked fine, temperatures were good. After reading something along the lines of when using RAM speeds higher than 2666 that it's normal for the XMP profile to change the CPU BUS Speed to 125MHz x 32 for my 4GHz, so I left it at 125MHz & everything was happy chappy. This was 3 weeks ago.

Today my CPU died, like dead...completely, RIP old friend. Everything is still getting power, fans spinning etc like normal. The ugly red LED on my motherboard which indicates there's a CPU problem status was on & the much dreaded Q-Code of "00" shows. Tried everything, re-installing CPU, all RAM out except 1 stick, cleared CMOS, re-inserted the motherboard battery, tried a different PSU etc etc no difference, my CPU confirmed 90% dead. I say 90% because there is a slight chance it could be the motherboard that's stuffed but I have yet to confirm, I just have to test my girlfriend's 6800 in my motherboard & ofcourse if it works then I can say with confidence that my CPU is 100% dead & not my motherboard at fault. By the way I'm pretty good at maintaining my PC like deep cleaning it once or twice a year, reapplying thermal paste etc so don't picture my PC as a box that hasn't been open since 2017

Ok so boo hoo it's dead & I'm about to buy another 6850K. But now I'm a little worried. Is this just coincidence that I had my CPU BUS speed set to 125MHz instead of the 100MHz & now my CPU's dead after 3 weeks??

When I read about this whole X99 systems & 100MHz vs 125MHz BUS Speeds topic I seem to be reading conflicting sides & not sure what to make of it. There's people that say 100MHz should be fine for running 3000MHz RAM & that it's better to just disable the XMP profile itself & manually enter the RAM XMP settings while keeping the 100MHz BUS Speed. Then there's the people who say for X99 systems 125MHz BUS speed is more stable for any RAM speeds higher than 2666.

Also after much reading it's pretty scary how many people refer to the ASUS X99 motherboards as potential CPU killers lol! as there's a lot of ugly stories about dead CPU's on this motherboard.

Can some people please shed some light on this whole 100MHz vs 125MHz CPU BUS Speeds??
When I buy another 6850K should I just do what I originally did & enable the XMP 3000 profile & leave it on 125MHz BUS Speed & treat my CPU dying as just coincidence?
Or do I leave XMP disabled & manually set my XMP RAM timings while leaving the BUS Speed at 100MHz?

Appreciate your help, thanks.

 

[GotNoRice]

I have had a X99/5820k system since 2015. It's my backup system now but I still use it at least once per week. It's had the same 3000Mhz Corsair RAM since 2015 (4x4GB). Just as with your system, enabling XMP resulted in 125Mhz. I run the CPU overclocked, with a multiplier of 36 for 4.5Ghz. It's run like that for over 6 years now and has not caused any problems. Motherboard is an EVGA X99 FTW.





If you don't overclock, then there are a lot of Xeons out there that should also be compatible with your board. Really the only downside to the Xeons is that most of them don't allow overclocking. Some pretty high core-counts are available, but above 8-10 cores or so you tend to see reduced core speeds to stay within a reasonable TDP.

Haswell-E Xeons: https://ark.intel.com/content/www/u.../78583/intel-xeon-processor-e5-v3-family.html
Broadwell-E Xeons: https://ark.intel.com/content/www/u.../91287/intel-xeon-processor-e5-v4-family.html

 

[WhitehawkEQ]

I have 3 Gigabyte Designare EX X99 Systems with i7 6800K CPU's, CPU's OCed to 4GHZ, ram is at 3.2GHZ (3200MHZ) and no issues with stability on the ram, bus speed at 100MHZ.
I did kill a set of ram by overclocking the ram with out having a fan that came with the ram blowing on them to cool them

p.s. I use Corsair as well.

 

[caddi daddi]

my 6800K rig has run A few years on the 125 strap, no issues.
if they ever fix the site, (white stripe on the bottom of every window prevents me from clicking done so I can't up load the screenshot) I'll attach A screen shot.
it's uploaded if Earth Dog will add it to this post.




ps, it took the click on done even though it was covered by the stripe, what's up with that?

 

[Nebulous]

Yo C_D! That 6800K still rockin'!

 

[caddi daddi]

It's still rockin 24/7, now that I have moved to the islands it's my remote machine, it's more reliable than my interwebs service, electricity, water, you know, just about anything you can name.

 

[WhitehawkEQ]

I wonder if the vcore is too high, what is the vcore at? for my X99 systems, the vcore is 1.2V.

 

[Rothschild]

Hi all.

People thanks so much for taking the time to reply with screenshots too much appreciated really!

If you don't overclock, then there are a lot of Xeons out there that should also be compatible with your board. Really the only downside to the Xeons is that most of them don't allow overclocking. Some pretty high core-counts are available, but above 8-10 cores or so you tend to see reduced core speeds to stay within a reasonable TDP.

GotNoRice cheerz for your reply & screenshots. Thanks for the XEON suggestion but maybe I'll soon like to O.C so I don't want to lock myself. Again thanks for taking the time to post screenshots & info! Well that makes me feel better that you've been running @ 125MHz Bus Speed for years without problems. I got as far as 3 weeks lol but again could ofcourse be coincidence that mine died.

I have 3 Gigabyte Designare EX X99 Systems with i7 6800K CPU's, CPU's OCed to 4GHZ, ram is at 3.2GHZ (3200MHZ) and no issues with stability on the ram, bus speed at 100MHZ.
I did kill a set of ram by overclocking the ram with out having a fan that came with the ram blowing on them to cool them

p.s. I use Corsair as well.

Thanks WhitehawkEQ!

Woah 3 x99 systems O.C'd to 4GHz. So I'm assuming you O.C'd your RAM manually & didn't use XMP to retain the 100MHz CPU bus speed??

I wonder if the vcore is too high, what is the vcore at? for my X99 systems, the vcore is 1.2V.

I'm not sure couldn't tell you what my vcore was set to. All I done was enable the XMP profile & left it at 125MHz bus speed after the problems I mentioned in my post regarding enabling XMP & changing the bus speed manually to 100MHz.


Hey caddi daddi.

Cheerz for the screenshots & info.

my 6800K rig has run A few years on the 125 strap, no issues.

For your 3GHz RAM did you just enable XMP profile & just leave the bus speed at 125MHz?

Well this is kind of what I'm talking about with people on both sides of 100MHz & 125MHz bus speeds is that there's many people on both sides with no problems such as some of you here so just not sure which bus speed I should settle for.

Here are some links regarding CPU's dying with X99 motherboards IF you're interested/cusious & seems to be ASUS X99's with the most problems posted but then again it could just be that ASUS was probably the more popular option hence why I'm seeing ASUS X99's as the most problematic when it comes to CPU's mysteriously dying.

https://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php/782413-ASUS-X99-Deluxe-II-Eating-CPUs
https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/x99-motherboards-risk-of-killing-cpus.23081/

& this is the Google results when typing "asus x99 deluxe II cpu died".
https://www.google.com/search?q=asu...9i57j0i333.17998j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

The posts I'm seeing with CPU dying problems isn't strictly my ASUS X99 Deluxe II but also a few other ASUS X99 motherboards also. Whole things got me really curious still want to read a bit more.

Anyway I literally cannot find ANY 6850K CPUs here in Australia, only on ebay 2nd hand. I can find a few in the U.S but the price gets higher due to import tax & shipping. On top of this I'm not guaranteed manufacturer's warranty when buying from private sellers on ebay in the U.S or even some "stores" & there's a few ugly stories of people not being able to claim warranty when buying from auction sites. In fact many listings clearly state in big bald red text that they do not come with manufacturer's warranty even though they're brand new.

Also the price ends up at about $600 & something AUS dollars which just isn't worth it considering I can buy an 11th gen Intel Core i9 11900K 8-Core for around the $720 AUS mark. Granted that would mean a new motherboard but altogether the Intel Core i9 11900K 8-Core with an ASUS ROG Strix Z590-A for example would be about $1K AUS. So to just top off the $600 & something 6850K price by $400 AUS for practically a brand new 11th gen PC is a small price to pay. Everything else in my PC is compatible with the newer 11th gen motherboards such as RAM, my PSU, my CPU Heatsink, M.2 drives, video card etc are all compatible. I don't even have to enable XMP profiles on the newer boards as 3000MHz is natively supported.
I think I'm pretty much going to head that way. I wasn't originally expecting the rest of my PC parts to be fully compatible with the newer motherboards. The only thing I have found so far is that I won't be able to run my RAM in Quad Channel on the newer motherboards as I think only the Intel Xtreme CPU supports Quad Channel setup. Not sure if that hinders me too much, I do gaming & Blender 3-D rendering as my main useage. So looks like I'll have to just accept Dual Channel setup. I mean I can't really complain about getting an 11th gen CPU & motherboard but maybe the girlfriend will complain a bit Might just buy it then tell her lol like ooops my finger slipped on the Add To Cart button.

Going to catch up with her in a few days & will put her 6800K CPU into my PC just to triple confirm it indeed is the CPU dead & not my motherboard itself, I'm 90% sure it's my CPU that's dead though. Also this will give me a chance to backup some C: drive files before saying goodbye to my X99 Deluxe II.

Hey thanks heaps for replying with your setup info & experience people.
Cheerz!

 

[EarthDog]

FTR, you can google any motherboard with CPU died and get hits. You're on an old platform and I don't see a power supply model listed (if it's junk that could expedite the process).

It's time to get off that old platform since buying into it costs almost as much as upgrading to something MUCH faster.

 

[Rothschild]

Hey EarthDog.

Yea I agree mostly but as you can see there are people still running this old platform still with no dramas.

Also I know what you're saying about I can google any motherboard with CPU died & get hits but honestly there's definitely A LOT of X99's with CPU's mysteriously dying posts, many even just weeks apart as I've listed.

Anyways you're right the price doesn't justify sticking to this PC, I guess it's a blessing in disguise.
Oh & forgot sorry my PSU is a Thermaltake ToughPower series 850W.

Thanks for your input!

 

[EarthDog]

Yea I agree mostly but as you can see there are people still running this old platform still with no dramas.

...surely true, but not the point.

Anyways you're right the price doesn't justify sticking to this PC, I guess it's a blessing in disguise.

Ya hate to see it... but, yeah, I think it is.

 

[Rothschild]

Just to let you know in case you missed my edited post, my PSU is a Thermaltake ToughPower Series 850W.

I guess it's not the point, true.

 

[EarthDog]

The TP series was solid back in the day... how old is the PSU? If you're pushing several (like as old as the platform) you may want to consider a new one.

 

[Rothschild]

EarthDog.

The TP series was solid back in the day... how old is the PSU? If you're pushing several (like as old as the platform) you may want to consider a new one.

Yea it's pretty solid but I did buy it with my whole PC back in 2017. So roughly 4 years old. I'll consider a new one, my PC is not on 24/7 so it does get it's rest like 8-10 hours a day otherwise it might of been a different story if it was on 24/7.

Thanks for your time.

 

[EarthDog]

4 years old isn't platform old (2014). I'd ride that out.

While having it on 24/7 is likely more stressful, my advice wouldn't have changed had it been a 2014 PSU.

Glad to help. Keep us posted on what you're doing!

 

[Rothschild]

geeeze really? X99 Deluxe II was out in 2014?! I thought like 2016 or so, man I feel older now thanks

Ok I'll ride it out with this PSU as you suggest. But IF I do decide to go with a new PSU would you recommend Thermaltake still? Or is there a PSU brand you're a fan of ?

No worries I'll update but I can pretty safely say I'll be going the new CPU & motherboard route.
Oh sorry did you mean platform as in my PSU? I just assumed you meant motherboard.

Cheerz.

 

[EarthDog]

Seasonic make great PSUs almost across the board. EVGA G6/P6 series are also solid.

Platform = the chipset (X99).. which was released in 2014 along with most X99-based mobos.

 

[Rothschild]

Ahh Ok wow yea honestly I thought the X99 was around the 2016 mark.

Hey just reading through the "Should I R0 my SSD?" in your signature as I was actually curious about SSD RAID-0 setups & the performance gains if any. Nice read & info.

By the time I'm finished reading your signature links it'll be Christmas

Might have a read of the Power Supply Guide too while I'm here, it's a bit old but probably still relevant & worth the read. Thanks again EarthDog.

 

[magellan]

Hi all.

Also the price ends up at about $600 & something AUS dollars which just isn't worth it considering I can buy an 11th gen Intel Core i9 11900K 8-Core for around the $720 AUS mark. Granted that would mean a new motherboard but altogether the Intel Core i9 11900K 8-Core with an ASUS ROG Strix Z590-A for example would be about $1K AUS. So to just top off the $600 & something 6850K price by $400 AUS for practically a brand new 11th gen PC is a small price to pay. Everything else in my PC is compatible with the newer 11th gen motherboards such as RAM, my PSU, my CPU Heatsink, M.2 drives, video card etc are all compatible. I don't even have to enable XMP profiles on the newer boards as 3000MHz is natively supported.
I think I'm pretty much going to head that way. I wasn't originally expecting the rest of my PC parts to be fully compatible with the newer motherboards. The only thing I have found so far is that I won't be able to run my RAM in Quad Channel on the newer motherboards as I think only the Intel Xtreme CPU supports Quad Channel setup. Not sure if that hinders me too much, I do gaming & Blender 3-D rendering as my main useage. So looks like I'll have to just accept Dual Channel setup. I mean I can't really complain about getting an 11th gen CPU & motherboard but maybe the girlfriend will complain a bit Might just buy it then tell her lol like ooops my finger slipped on the Add To Cart button.

Going to catch up with her in a few days & will put her 6800K CPU into my PC just to triple confirm it indeed is the CPU dead & not my motherboard itself, I'm 90% sure it's my CPU that's dead though. Also this will give me a chance to backup some C: drive files before saying goodbye to my X99 Deluxe II.

Hey thanks heaps for replying with your setup info & experience people.
Cheerz!

I was actually in your boat two or three years ago. My overclocked 5820k (or the motherboard, I never ascertained which) died. I ended up going with z390 and a 9700k and the quad channel RAM from my x99 build worked great in the new build, even overclocked further. If you have single rank DRAM, I've read having 4 sticks is better than 2 -- even on dual channel. The differences in gaming perf of my z390 rig over my x99 were negligible though even with my overclocked RAM and 9700k.

 

[caddi daddi]

all of my machines are set to XMP, my 6800K, 8086K, 9600K, 9900K, we're all ok.
I have seen no to very little performance gains from memory speeds so I shop price and bling, bling and set to xmp.