How can I overclock Xeon W3530 in Dell T3500 ?

[Mohamed-Shams]

I have a Dell T3500 workstation with Xeon W3530 @ 2.8 Turbo 3.06 but this is not enough for games like GTA V and you know that there is no overclocking options in the bios .. So What can I do ? Any chances with unlocked versions of bios for overclocking purposes or something like that ?

 

[COLGeek]

You can't OC those Xeons. Especially in a Dell. Sorry.

 

[Mohamed-Shams]

Thank you for your fast reply .. the frequency is not that bad specially in turbo mode .. I always watching cpu usage and other useful information with msi afterburner during gaming and I didn't see my cpu bottleneck my system in any game except GTA V .. the cpu usage dramatically increased to like 90% and even 100% in some places in Los Santos specially in areas with a lot of cars makes the game stutter a bit .. I run it at Very High every thing except grass quality set to high and no MSAA and it run perfectly @ 40 + fps .. other games never exceed 80% of cpu usage like Battlefield 4 .. I play at 1440 x 900 resolution .. so I'm happy with that performance until a major upgrade or even a new build .. I currently use an AMD Firepro V8800 GPU .. I know it is a workstation class gpu but perform very well with games .

 

[schmuckley]

setfsb if you can find the right pll
The chip is usually net to an oblong silver diode.Get a magnifying glass and read the number off of it.

 

[Mohamed-Shams]

setfsb if you can find the right pll
The chip is usually net to an oblong silver diode.Get a magnifying glass and read the number off of it.

And after getting this number what will I do with it ? The bios already has no such option for cpu overclocking .. So .. What's the point !

 

[Mohamed-Shams]

You can't OC those Xeons. Especially in a Dell. Sorry.

It can be overclocked easily on any consumer X58 board except things like Dell , HP , Lenovo .. etc .. so the chip itself is overclockable but not with a Dell board .

 

[COLGeek]

The OEMs lock those settings in their BIOSes for just these reasons. OCing a Xeon, in general, is very limited anyway.

Remember, OEMs (especially in a workstation class system) are about reliability and stability, not about gaming performance.

 

[Mohamed-Shams]

So .. Will this cpu @ 2.8 , 3.06 Turbo bottleneck GTX 680 or 960 ?

 

[COLGeek]

So .. Will this cpu @ 2.8 , 3.06 Turbo bottleneck GTX 680 or 960 ?

No, you should be fine. No worries.

 

[Mohamed-Shams]

Thank you .. I'll receive my GALAXY GTX 680 SOC 2GB tomorrow or after . I'll give it a try then I'll report with my results

 

[COLGeek]

Your CPU and GPU should be fine together. Your only issue may be your PSU (power supply). What is your PSU rated for (watts)?

 

[Mohamed-Shams]

My rig is a Dell T3500 with a Dell 525 Watt PSU .. Is it okay ?
Remember .. I used to run a Firepro V8800 video card which consume a bloody 225 Watt in load .. And the 680 consume only 195 Watt .. But it is a Super Overclocked version ( GALAXY GTX 680 SOC ) .. So what do you think my friend ?

 

[COLGeek]

You should be okay. Just making sure. Good luck!

 

[Mohamed-Shams]

Thank you

 

[COLGeek]

You are most welcome.

 

[Mohamed-Shams]

My PSU is a Dell 525 Watt in a Dell Workstation T3500 .. I installed a GALAXY GTX 680 SOC 2GB and the all I had was a blank screen and gpu fans very loud .. This PSU only has one 6-pin power connector and the gpu has two 8-pin power connectors .. So we connected the gpu with one 8-pin which came with it and the 6-pin connector which the psu has and the pc didn't post .. So we opened the PSU and took a two ground wires from the black ground wire so we could have the missing 2 ground wires to turn our 6-pin connectors to a 8-pin one .. So now we have now 2 x 8-pin power connectors then we turned on pc and we have the same result .. spinning gpu fas with a blank screen .. we unplugged the two 8-pin connectors to hear a beeb sound but we didn't !! The pc is running well with a two other cards one of them is a GTX 960 without any problem .. Any help ?

 

[COLGeek]

Are you sure the 680 works? If so, I suspect your PSU is the issue.

Since you opened/modified the PSU, I would recommend NOT using it at all. Time for a new one. You can use standard ATX PSUs in Dells. You may have a small gap in the case opening, but that does not present any sort of issue.

 

[matt4x4]

The OEMs lock those settings in their BIOSes for just these reasons. OCing a Xeon, in general, is very limited anyway.

Remember, OEMs (especially in a workstation class system) are about reliability and stability, not about gaming performance.

So .. Will this cpu @ 2.8 , 3.06 Turbo bottleneck GTX 680 or 960 ?

No, you should be fine. No worries.

Ihave been looking at these T3500 systems for the last few days.
The X56xx chips and W36xx chips are monsters of a cpu to overclock. Just need a X58 mobo though, and they are expensive. I could have had a system for $250cdn today, but it was sold, had some wimpy cpu in it like a w35xx which are just wimps. But I am going on what one person said in another forum about those monster CPU's. But on a dell, no way to o/c it.

 

[tingRe]

Since the Dell T3500's BIOS does not allow overclocking, try replacing the chip.

A X5672 (quad core 3.2-3.6 GHz) is $35 on eBay.

A X5687 (quad core 3.6-3.8 GHz) is $80 in eBay.

A X5680 (hex core 3.33-3.6GHz) is $115 on eBay.

(Now, it's time for someone who has never installed a Xeon processor to claim any used processor is doomed. Xeons are different. They are used by server techs, and have a lot more self-checking built in. You can kill a Xeon, but it will tell you it's dead instead of slowly going flaky.)