Xeon E5-1650 OCing questions [voltage, temps, etc]

[Helgaiden]

Hi all. Jumped into a budget x79 build to get into overclocking an E5-1650. Scored an EVGA x79 sli with bent pins (disabled use of one of the DIMMs) for $100 and had it repaired at a local jewelry repair shop successfully. That was cool.
Anyways, once i got to overclocking i thought i had a stable 4.6ghz OC. Ran prime95 blend for a while, maybe 10 mins. Firestrike ran without issue, cinebench r15 multiple times (and near identical scores to a Ryzen 5 1600x). Cool. Came back the next day, the OC isn't stable anymore (prime95 small FFT or aida64 system stress test). Played around alot with different voltages and lowered the OC down to 4.5ghz and seemingly settled out. Im using an Arctic Liquid Freezer 240 AIO (38mm rad, push-pull fan config) to cool it down. I applied the thermal paste using a slightly larger pea-size dot method.

So even though i manually set voltage in BIOS, disable cpu power saving features, and disable vdroop, BIOS reports voltage way higher than what i set it at. Currently the BIOS reports vcore voltage at about 1.382 to 1.394 (moves a little). CoreTemp reports like a 1.311 but i dont think its accurate anyways. Always have felt windows vcore reporting is low. Stress testing with prime95 blend can get it up to mid-80s C (seen as high as 86 on two cores, but all cores are in the 80s at this point) in under 15 minutes. 45 mins with prime95 blend, the temps settle out at around 81c max. Cinebench prior to this (on the higher voltage 4.6ghz OC) caused spikes in the high 80s, but now with this lower voltage 4.5ghz OC it doesn't go over mid 70s. Battlefield 1 floats around the low 70s as well.

How are these temps? Whatcha all think about this OC? Any advice? Here are pics from BIOS settings:

https://imgur.com/a/QF3Zm

Thanks in advance.

p.s Bonus video on this subject, using this same CPU in a budget HP z620 motherboard workstation/gaming setup w/benchmarks:

 

[DaveB]

From my X79 experience, I would say 4.5 GHz is about right. Any higher, you're probably going to get too hot. I had an i7-3930K about 4 years ago that I tested to 4.6 GHz but ran at 4.5 GHz for stability and heat issues. My current E5-1620 does 4.4 GHz on an HP X79 mobo with no voltage adjustments and my old i7-5820K did 4.4 GHz but I ran it at 4.3 GHz for 100% guaranteed stability. All my X79 and x99 rigs were air cooled as I haven't played with water cooling since 2009 or so.

 

[Helgaiden]

From my X79 experience, I would say 4.5 GHz is about right. Any higher, you're probably going to get too hot. I had an i7-3930K about 4 years ago that I tested to 4.6 GHz but ran at 4.5 GHz for stability and heat issues. My current E5-1620 does 4.4 GHz on an HP X79 mobo with no voltage adjustments and my old i7-5820K did 4.4 GHz but I ran it at 4.3 GHz for 100% guaranteed stability. All my X79 and x99 rigs were air cooled as I haven't played with water cooling since 2009 or so.

Ah sounds like I did alright with it then. Thanks. What is this HP motherboard you're talking about? I see it in your sig, looks like an OEM board like the z620 one i worked with in that video. overclocking with it? How?

 

[ezcharlie]

Hi guys, sorry for bumping up a really old thread but i need help in o'cing my E5-1620 V2. I saw you guys were going well over 4ghz but i can't seem to overclock mine at all. Mind if i ask what you adjusted and set?

 

[MacClipper]

iirc, E5-1620 V2 is a locked chip.

 

[DaveB]

iirc, E5-1620 V2 is a locked chip.

The E5-1620 v2 is unlocked.

Hi guys, sorry for bumping up a really old thread but i need help in o'cing my E5-1620 V2. I saw you guys were going well over 4ghz but i can't seem to overclock mine at all. Mind if i ask what you adjusted and set?

To OC my E5-1620 I upped the multiplier to 44 using Intel XTU. My HP OEM X79 motherboard has no OC settings at all in the BIOS.

 

[MacClipper]

The E5-1620 v2 is unlocked.

View attachment 210933

Look carefully again, you have been misled by the Processor Name as mis-reported by CPU-Z - see the Specification line instead and also the core/thread count too, this is actually an unlocked 6C12T E5-1660 v2 and not a 4C8T chip.

But you are correct in the 2nd instance, the E5-1620 v1 is partially unlocked to a max multiplier of 44.

 

[ezcharlie]

Look carefully again, you have been misled by the Processor Name as mis-reported by CPU-Z - see the Specification line instead and also the core/thread count too, this is actually an unlocked 6C12T E5-1660 v2 and not a 4C8T chip.

But you are correct in the 2nd instance, the E5-1620 v1 is partially unlocked to a max multiplier of 44.

Could you advise as to why my chip cannot register past x37 (mult) even when set to 40. (i can set it even higher in my bios)

 

[MacClipper]

Unlocked Xeon E5-16x0 are really dirt cheap nowadays so if you are really interested in overclocking them, maybe get unlocked models instead of trying too hard with the locked ones.