So, after six years with wimpy dual core chips, I decided to finally upgrade this system a bit. Scoured eBay for a week or so hoping to catch a deal on a Q6600, or Q9650, something like that. Unfortunately, these chips are going for about double ($100-$150) what I was willing to pay for a six year old processor. Decided to check for LGA 775 Xeons and ran into a guy selling the X3210 G0 stepping for $65. Took me about five seconds to decide to buy it.
So, the chip arrived and I swapped it in for my trusty E6700 (65nm), which itself was a gift that I'd used to replace my E6600 not two months ago. I'm big on overclocking, and had heard these chips are overclocking champs, so I was eager to see what this thing can do.
Unfortunately, I did not apply quite enough thermal compound, and one of the cores is getting too hot. Normally I'd just pull off the fan, reapply the paste and continue, but removing and replacing my fan takes around an hour (Tuniq Tower 120). So, right now I'm just chugging along with a heat issue.
In my limited testing, I was able to get the system to boot at 3.8 GHz from a stock of 2.16, though about five minutes of Prime95 was enough to crash the system. I'm hoping once I reapply paste this weekend I can get it stable up there, but for now I've had to reduce the clock to 3.2 GHz.
So, my questions are as follows.
1. Anybody else out there have an X3210 they're overclocking? What kind of speeds are you getting, and what voltage did you need to get there? Currently I'm all the way up to 1.45v for my 3.2 GHz OC. That same voltage buys me 3.8 GHz, but like I mentioned, was not stable. I'm really not comfortable with my voltage that high, this system runs 24/7 (media server).
2. Can anyone recommend a good LGA 775 cooler at around $25? Even if it's not quite as good as the Tuniq, I'd pay the $25 to never have to reattach that damn thing. The thumbscrews to attach it to the backplate are impossible for me to reach without removing the motherboard from the case (no motherboard tray).
3. What kind of temps can I expect from this chip at a very high overclock? 3.2 GHz is currently getting me to ~50C under full load with my CPU fan on maximum. I really don't want to run my fan on max all the time, but I also don't like my temps this high. I'm hoping a proper thermal paste application will get these temps back down into the 40s where I like them.
4. I'm shooting for 4 GHz, and I'm willing to build a water cooling loop (~$300 budget) to do it. Is this reasonable? It's a 65nm chip, and I know it takes something special to get them to 4 GHz, especially quads. No interest in water cooling my GPU, it's a 6950 overclocked to hell and back (965 core clock), but already running at a chilly 70C under full load with the fans at 50%.
So, the chip arrived and I swapped it in for my trusty E6700 (65nm), which itself was a gift that I'd used to replace my E6600 not two months ago. I'm big on overclocking, and had heard these chips are overclocking champs, so I was eager to see what this thing can do.
Unfortunately, I did not apply quite enough thermal compound, and one of the cores is getting too hot. Normally I'd just pull off the fan, reapply the paste and continue, but removing and replacing my fan takes around an hour (Tuniq Tower 120). So, right now I'm just chugging along with a heat issue.
In my limited testing, I was able to get the system to boot at 3.8 GHz from a stock of 2.16, though about five minutes of Prime95 was enough to crash the system. I'm hoping once I reapply paste this weekend I can get it stable up there, but for now I've had to reduce the clock to 3.2 GHz.
So, my questions are as follows.
1. Anybody else out there have an X3210 they're overclocking? What kind of speeds are you getting, and what voltage did you need to get there? Currently I'm all the way up to 1.45v for my 3.2 GHz OC. That same voltage buys me 3.8 GHz, but like I mentioned, was not stable. I'm really not comfortable with my voltage that high, this system runs 24/7 (media server).
2. Can anyone recommend a good LGA 775 cooler at around $25? Even if it's not quite as good as the Tuniq, I'd pay the $25 to never have to reattach that damn thing. The thumbscrews to attach it to the backplate are impossible for me to reach without removing the motherboard from the case (no motherboard tray).
3. What kind of temps can I expect from this chip at a very high overclock? 3.2 GHz is currently getting me to ~50C under full load with my CPU fan on maximum. I really don't want to run my fan on max all the time, but I also don't like my temps this high. I'm hoping a proper thermal paste application will get these temps back down into the 40s where I like them.
4. I'm shooting for 4 GHz, and I'm willing to build a water cooling loop (~$300 budget) to do it. Is this reasonable? It's a 65nm chip, and I know it takes something special to get them to 4 GHz, especially quads. No interest in water cooling my GPU, it's a 6950 overclocked to hell and back (965 core clock), but already running at a chilly 70C under full load with the fans at 50%.
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