overclocking my Xeon w3680 cpu with intel extreme tuning utility

[Tech Tweaker]

Definetely, the W3680 it's a completely unlocked micro.
I just make two quick tests at 133MHz BCLK and x32 multiplier, and 100MHz BCLK and x43 multiplier.
This is the prove:

Maybe when you test this micros the motherboard didn't support it, or the BIOS version...

Well, I'm kind of confused and annoyed by this because none of my LGA1366 chips (including my Xeon W3530, Xeon E5520, Xeon E5640, my Core i7 920 and 930, and the Xeon L5630 I'm testing right now) allowed me to boost the multiplier above the turbo boost multiplier.

 

[Helgaiden]

What i find odd now is that after a little research, ive heard of people posting about using XTU to change at least SOME settings on their 1366 cpu. I will be able to play with that hopefully today. Im sort of interested in finding a way to make an upcoming x5687 xeon on an hp z400 motherboard work at its max turbo frequency for all cores. I wonder if even an older version or something of XTU can help. Otherwise i still gotta find time with that machine to find the PLL to test the ClockGen tool with it. Oh well. I find everything else happening in here interesting.

 

[illusion119]

I just bought this micro because I read in ark.intel that its multiplier is unlocked, and read in another forum that some guys reach crazy speeds with this chip using liquid nitrogen ... So I decided to buy a used one, and try it.
Perhaps only the W36XX series micros have unlocked multipliers. My old 950 has locked too.
Finally, the fact that the BCLK ca be pushed up near 200 MHz in most cases, is not a problem for blocked ... pity that HP server motherboard not allow play with BCLK.

 

[wellen1981]

Again, it will not work on your platform.

And your Xeon isn't unlocked, it has a locked multiplier.

Just posting to clarify for all here and future peeps who land here from google...

Xeon W3680 and W3690 are actually unlocked multiplier.
Using Intel XTU software, it is possible to increase multi past turbo multi for any and all cores.
Intel XTU can be used to do this even on workstations such as HP Z400.
These are known facts.

I have a HP Z400, running W3680, using Intel XTU,
6 cores loaded @ 4.0GHz,
4 cores loaded @ 4.1GHz,
2 cores loaded @ 4.2GHz,
1 core loaded @ 4.3GHz.

Most people who go X58 Xeon buy the top X5xxx chips which can do dual CPU builds.
The problem is the X5xxx have locked multipliers.

If you want highest speeds X58 using only multi, you HAVE to buy W3680 or W3690.
Hope this clears up any confusion.


HP Z400 6 DIMM, Xeon W3680 @ 4.0GHz, 16GB HyperX Beast DDR3 @ 1333MHz, 750 Ti 4GB.

 

[Helgaiden]

Just posting to clarify for all here and future peeps who land here from google...

Xeon W3680 and W3690 are actually unlocked multiplier.
Using Intel XTU software, it is actually possible to increase multi past turbo multi for any and all cores.
Intel XTU can be used to do this even on workstations such as HP Z400.
These are known facts.

I have a HP Z400, running W3680, using Intel XTU, 6 cores loaded @ 4.0GHz, 2 cores loaded @ 4.1GHz, 1 core loaded @4.2GHz. Fact.

Most people who go X58 Xeon buy the top X5xxx chips which can do dual cpu builds. The problem is the X5xxx have locked multipliers.
If you want highest speeds X58 using only multi, you HAVE to buy W3680 or W3690.

Hope this clears up any confusion.


HP Z400, Xeon W3680 @ 4.0GHz, 16GB HyperX Beast DDR3 @ 1333MHz, 750 Ti 4GB.

The edited version of this post makes you sound like much less of a ****/know-it-all/elitist. Good edit. Good to hear the w3680 and w3690 are OC-able via XTU on Z400 systems. May have to advise a friend who bought an adapted z400 system off of me to get one of those CPUs as he currently uses a w3670 which isn't multi-unlocked.

 

[wellen1981]

I know! Sorry, lack of sleep and was trying to convey certainty due to how much inaccuracy there was about this subject - no tone online, even I read it back and thought 'that reads really bad' was not my intent to be a 'bottom headgarment', honest.

Also, yeah originally I nearly made the mistake of getting a W3670 hoping to get 4GHz. Luckily I realised in time.

Forgot to say, the Z400 comes in 2 versions with differing boot block dates.
The first version has 4 DIMM slots.
The second version has 6 DIMM slots.

Only the 6 DIMM version of Z400 can use the W3680 and W3690 due to the 4 DIMM early boot block motherboard lacking the required architecture.

 

[Helgaiden]

I know! Sorry, lack of sleep and was trying to convey certainty due to how much inaccuracy there was about this subject - no tone online, even I read it back and thought 'that reads really bad' was not my intent to be a 'bottom headgarment', honest.

Also, yeah originally I nearly made the mistake of getting a W3670 hoping to get 4GHz. Luckily I realised in time.

Forgot to say, the Z400 comes in 2 versions with differing boot block dates.
The first version has 4 DIMM slots.
The second version has 6 DIMM slots.

Only the 6 DIMM version of Z400 can use the W3680 and W3690 due to the 4 DIMM early boot block motherboard lacking the required architecture.

Btw which version of XTU did you do this with? I've read reports of people using XTU for this on other systems and it working on one out, then everything gets greyed out on a subsequent boot.

 

[wellen1981]

Btw which version of XTU did you do this with? I've read reports of people using XTU for this on other systems and it working on one out, then everything gets greyed out on a subsequent boot.

I used latest version of XTU but every version I have tried allows for overclocking by unlocked multi to set the turbo multi.

The greyed out areas are relating to the limitations as per mobo/bios eg XTU has the normal multis greyed out and volts etc as the HP Z400 workstation mobo is limited by the restrictive bios.

Having said all this, you can still increase the multi for the turbos which is how it is possible on these workstations.

hth and sorry for delay, only just saw the email notification.

Edit: Regarding what you said about 'greyed out after boot', you have me wondering now...

Maybe that user had a version of XTU that mistakenly didnt grey out the mobo restricted page in XTU.

For clarity, I altered the turbo multis and then saved it as a 4ghz profile in xtu. I have to load the profile on boot/reboot - a small price to pay for the overclock.

Also to be pedantic, some might say altering multi isnt actually 'overclocking' so maybe online elsewhere there is a bit of that stance when people say you can't. (Just to add to peoples confusion).

 

[DrWizard]

HP Z600 with X5650's

Greetings everyone from a newbie!
I just received in trade an HP Z600 workstation with dual Xeon X5650's (6 cores, 2.66GHz, LGA1366) and 24GB of ECC RAM. I haven't set it up yet for lack of time, it has no drives or video card in it at the moment.
My current machine has a Gigabyte motherboard with the X58 chipset, and a Xeon X5670 (6 cores, 2.93GHz) which I have running at a very stable 3.8GHz using only air cooling and overclocked using Gigabyte's Smart6 utility.
So even though I've doubled my core count with the new machine, the base clock is slower and I'm concerned that my single threaded performance will drop about 20-30% and of course, most software nowadays is still single threaded.
I've been doing my homework, lots of googling and reading, and I've read about alternate BIOSs and the XTU program, but I've been unable to locate an alternate BIOS for this machine, and from threads on this forum and others, it would seem that XTU doesn't work on this board. (Haven't tried it yet, cuz machine is still bare-bonez) The Z600 as I understand it has the Intel 5550 chipset on the motherboard.

Any tips or suggestions on how I might boost my single thread performance on this thing? (short of buying faster processors)

Thanks in advance!

 

[wellen1981]

Greetings everyone from a newbie!
I just received in trade an HP Z600 workstation with dual Xeon X5650's (6 cores, 2.66GHz, LGA1366) and 24GB of ECC RAM. I haven't set it up yet for lack of time, it has no drives or video card in it at the moment.
My current machine has a Gigabyte motherboard with the X58 chipset, and a Xeon X5670 (6 cores, 2.93GHz) which I have running at a very stable 3.8GHz using only air cooling and overclocked using Gigabyte's Smart6 utility.
So even though I've doubled my core count with the new machine, the base clock is slower and I'm concerned that my single threaded performance will drop about 20-30% and of course, most software nowadays is still single threaded.
I've been doing my homework, lots of googling and reading, and I've read about alternate BIOSs and the XTU program, but I've been unable to locate an alternate BIOS for this machine, and from threads on this forum and others, it would seem that XTU doesn't work on this board. (Haven't tried it yet, cuz machine is still bare-bonez) The Z600 as I understand it has the Intel 5550 chipset on the motherboard.

Any tips or suggestions on how I might boost my single thread performance on this thing? (short of buying faster processors)

Thanks in advance!

I don't have experience with the HP Z600 but in the past I did research overclock options for the HP Z600 and HP Z800 and there aren't really any.

Here's why:
To use Intel XTU to overclock on HP Zxxx workstations you need to use CPU with unlocked multi. The only Xeons that are LGA1366 with unlocked multi are the W3680 and W3690.

You can use 1 of the W3680/90 in a HP Z600 or in a HP Z800 but you can't use 2 of those chips as the W3680 and W3690 don't have 2x QPI links.
2x QPI links are needed for both CPUs to communicate and utilise all system ram between each other - this is why the HP Z600 and HP Z800 only tend to have X5xxx CPUs in them as the Xeon X CPU series have 2x QPI links in each CPUs.

I did read talk of possibly using SetFSB software once you have identified the PLU on the motherboard and this if possible would allow overclocking but to be honest I didn't find any conclusive success by people online.

My takeaway from my research was that the only way to get higher single clock on HP Z600 or HP Z800 was to literally buy the fastest Xeon X5xxx CPUs for the HP Z600 or HP Z800 LGA1366 sockets.

There are no alternate BIOS for HP Z400 Z600 or Z800 workstations but you can pay a guy on a BIOS mod forum who will actually mod your BIOS for a reasonable fee.

Regarding your point about things still being single threaded it really depends on what your usage case is as these days everything is shifting towards multithreading and has been for the last 4-7 years - even game engines utilise better these days.

I myself was looking into HP Z600 or HP Z800 workstations as an upgrade from a HP Z400 with a W3550, I ended up just upgrading the CPU to a W3680 and overclocking it due to the exact problems you are mentioning regarding HP Z600.

Hope this helps.

 

[DrWizard]

Here's why:
To use Intel XTU to overclock on HP Zxxx workstations you need to use CPU with unlocked multi. The only Xeons that are LGA1366 with unlocked multi are the W3680 and W3690....

Excellent explanation and information, thank you!
I'm also wrestling with an SSD performance issue. The mobo only includes SATA II 3Gbps, so installed a card for SATA III 6Gbps. The controller uses the Asmedia chipset, and is supposed to support PCIe2 and use 2 lanes. But instead it is operating in PCIe Gen 1 mode, and my SSD throughput is even worse than SATA II. My research so far seems to indicate this is actually a BIOS issue, that the BIOS does not properly recognize anything other than a graphics cards as Gen 2. By any chance, have you any suggested fix for that? I have the latest BIOS for my mobo (3.60) and the latest firmware and drivers for the controller card. Asmedia is considered a cheap and crappy controller chip, so I have ordered one that uses the Marvell chip. If the explanation about the BIOS is correct, then it's not gonna work either, but it wasn't very expensive and I can use it in another machine if it doesn't help.
*IF* I can resolve my SSD performance problem, then I think I may indeed buy a faster pair of Xeons for my Z600. A pair of used X5680's (3.33GHz) will run me $136. If not, I am still pondering what to use the machine for. But I got it in trade for some labor, so at least I'm not out any cash.

Regarding your point about things still being single threaded it really depends on what your usage case is as these days everything is shifting towards multithreading and has been for the last 4-7 years.

I have gotten noticeable speed improvements in my more processor intensive applications including Visual Studio, AutoCAD, Handbrake, and LightRoom. And a big performance increase in one my own applications that does a lot of fuzzy-finds in strings (I wrote it to be highly threaded). But I only use them occasionally, and I have definitely noticed a speed decrease on my typical day-to-day stuff. No doubt the SSD issue carries much of the blame. I stand by my statement that most [typical] software still tends to be (sigh ) single-threaded.

 

[wellen1981]

Excellent explanation and information, thank you!
I'm also wrestling with an SSD performance issue. The mobo only includes SATA II 3Gbps, so installed a card for SATA III 6Gbps. The controller uses the Asmedia chipset, and is supposed to support PCIe2 and use 2 lanes. But instead it is operating in PCIe Gen 1 mode, and my SSD throughput is even worse than SATA II. My research so far seems to indicate this is actually a BIOS issue, that the BIOS does not properly recognize anything other than a graphics cards as Gen 2. By any chance, have you any suggested fix for that? I have the latest BIOS for my mobo (3.60) and the latest firmware and drivers for the controller card. Asmedia is considered a cheap and crappy controller chip, so I have ordered one that uses the Marvell chip. If the explanation about the BIOS is correct, then it's not gonna work either, but it wasn't very expensive and I can use it in another machine if it doesn't help.
*IF* I can resolve my SSD performance problem, then I think I may indeed buy a faster pair of Xeons for my Z600. A pair of used X5680's (3.33GHz) will run me $136. If not, I am still pondering what to use the machine for. But I got it in trade for some labor, so at least I'm not out any cash.
I have gotten noticeable speed improvements in my more processor intensive applications including Visual Studio, AutoCAD, Handbrake, and LightRoom. And a big performance increase in one my own applications that does a lot of fuzzy-finds in strings (I wrote it to be highly threaded). But I only use them occasionally, and I have definitely noticed a speed decrease on my typical day-to-day stuff. No doubt the SSD issue carries much of the blame. I stand by my statement that most [typical] software still tends to be (sigh ) single-threaded.

As I am happy with SATA II speeds for my OS SSD I didn't get a SATA III card but I did research it a bit.
You are correct in that only some controller chips are happy to do SATA III on these workstations and if I remember correctly, it is LSI which do SATA III happily on HP Zxxx workstations.
There is a great long thread (on the HP Support websites forums) by a Z400 user who had the exact same trouble you have and they advised him to get LSI.


"5. Consider an SATAIII 6GB/s RAID controller, for example LSI 9240."
https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Busin...-W3690-Fastest-Processors/td-p/5683601/page/3

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Busin...stems/bd-p/Business-PC-Workstation-POS/page/3

Message #27
https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Busin...0-W3690-Fastest-Processors/m-p/6585200#M20669

Specifically:
"For the RAID controller to add SATAIII speeds- and have full advantage of an SSD, have a look at: LSI 9240-8i SAS /SATA , $35-60."

FINAL EDIT: Just found this other thread with more info...
https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Busin.../Sata-3-pci-card-for-SSD-on-z600/td-p/6556589
It specifies non raid lsi and also talks about Marvell and LSI but preference LSI

Regarding single thread, yeah although some modern software these days can take advantage of all these cores, most typical user software is single thread - the great thing is though that most people grab these workstations to do some pretty heavy lifting taskwise and when it comes to content creation, development, modelling etc most of these types of software really use all those cores/threads efficiently.
The workstations may be nearly 10 years old but they still are serious contenders for productivity systems.

If I didn't have the Z400 and I had the Z600 like you, I would max out with 2 of the fastest Xeon X5xxx CPUs and then if I could be bothered I would get SATA III ability done. However, I would be happy to just max out the ram and set up a ramdisk - much faster than all SSDs.

If I was looking at these workstation and didn't have any, I would do the above but would grab the Z800 - I think it can take 192GB of ram... would make a decent large ramdisk.

Hope this helps and the LSI is needed to get SATA III even if you don't intend to set up RAID.

 

[DrWizard]

After spending much of the day yesterday playing musical drives & controllers, with 4 different SSD brands, 3 different controller brands, and 3 different computers, I have come to the realization that it really makes very little difference in 'real world' performance. With the best drive, best controller, and a machine that supports them, I can get 540Gbps on a sequential read, whereas with the Asmedia controller in the Z600 I can only get about 190. That's a HUGE difference! But the sequential read test is best-case scenario. On the 4K IOPS benchmark, which is the one that most closely mimics typical real-world usage, I got scores around 12300 +- 100 no matter which SSD was connected to which controller in which machine.
For old-skool hard disks, I only had one brand to tinker with, a pair of WD Caviar Black 1TBs, and I consistantly got a score of about 360-390 IOPS no matter what they were plugged into. (Just goes to show the huge difference between a SSD and a HDD!)
Getting back to the sequential read test tho, the Asmedia 1062 ctlr and the Marvell 9128 ctlr in the Z600 both run at PCIe Gen 1, but the Marvell gives exactly twice the sequential speed of the Asmedia. 380Mbps vs 190Mbps.
So now that I'm past that, I think I may order a pair of X5680's. They are only a little slower than the 90's and half the price.

 

[Retrorockit]

There is another method to OC Unlocked Xeons. Throttlestop software.
https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/throttlestop-overclocking-desktop-pcs.235975/
The unlocked LGA1366 Xeons are the 32nm 6 core W3680,W3690, and the dirt cheap 45nm 4 core W3570,W3580. The 4 cores are good for testing, and running a MB that need a BIOS update for the 6 core CPUs. They're all single CPU only so they don't support RDIMMs that some of you may have. Other than that it should be OK. This is not limited to Turbo speeds.
Here's a userbenchmark score for a Dell T3500 W3680 @ 4.266Ghz.
http://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/7540614
84% overall CPU score, and 95% ranking for that CPU.