I not new to computer builds  ..but I AM new to overclocking and it seems like a bit of a minefield of information to take in.
 
If anyne out there has roughly the same setup as me (SR-2, x5680, corsair GT ram) could you share with me your e-leet or Bios settings for a good stable overclock?   ...screengrabs if possible     ...maybe even an explanation of each tweak, so that i have more of an understanding of what does what!
 
Intended use is for DCC, 3D modelling, rendering, SFX etc.  It will be permanently on, sometimes rendering for weeks on end at 90-100% CPU load.  Current CPU temps are 19 degC idle, 29 degC at 100% load.
 
Thanks in advance
 
(current setup below)
Motherboard: SR-2
CPU: 2 x intel x5680 (watercooled)
Ram: 6 x 2GB corsiar dominator GT
Graphics card: 1 x quadro FX5800
PSU: Corsiar HX1000
HDD: WD 500GB caviar black
fans (via fan controller): 3 x 120mm on radiator, 2 x 140 case fans, 2 x twin-fan ram coolers
pump: 1 x EK

Oh and thanks Falcon for the advice.  Definately sounds like a good starting point for OC noobies.

A beginners question: Can I overclock with 2 xeon 5680 cooled by Megahalems with one fan each? Do I need two fans each in push-pull?
Second beginner's question: I ordered Kingston 24 GB 1600MHZ DDR3 NON-ECC CL9 DIMM XM for my new SR2. Have I overlooked something? There is somethiong called "single, dual and triple channel"; I discovered that afterwards.  I hope I did not make a bad choice. Will they come bundled with passive snap-on coolers? Or do I need tp purchase additional cooling, for normal conditions and/or for overclocking? 
Ingvar
 

monkeemanboy

push pull fans apparantly don't push the air through any quicker since they are both spinning at the same speed but they do lighten the load needed by one fan and eliminate some of the air that would normally dissipated sideways.  It is however importnat that they are exactly the same make and model of fan otherwise you will be actually hinderring cooling if not matched.  They say it makes the difference of about 2 degrees.

SR-2 is capable of dual and tripple channel ram configurations, hence the 6 slots per CPU.  For this motherboard they recommend tripple channel since it is better than dual channel but all that means is that you can have 3 or 6 ram slots filled per CPU, instead of 2 or 4 per as per dual channel mode.  Although they may sell ram labelled as tripple channel it will be exactly the same ram sticks as the dual channel version, they're just bundling it for sale as a 3, 6, or 12-pack

while this is true but ... you will have higher static pressure so id say 2 fans push pull 

citizenX

hi,
for stabel oc isn´t it neccessery to disable cpu throttling?
but it seems there is no possibility to do it efectively (neither bios nore win). any suggestion?

greets

yes it is because having the cpu throttle makes ANY overclock unstable ..... hope this helps ! 
 
 
-Kris 

farthestkris

citizenX

hi,
for stabel oc isn´t it neccessery to disable cpu throttling?
but it seems there is no possibility to do it efectively (neither bios nore win). any suggestion?

greets

yes it is because having the cpu throttle makes ANY overclock unstable ..... hope this helps ! 


-Kris 

thanks for your reply
if i understand you right we have to wait for a bios update to deactivate throttling.
 
greets

I have my BCLK set to 150MHz which results in a CPU clock of 3.75GHz. I have my Vcore at 1.18V and VTT at 1.275V. I'm using air cooling and while running folding@home the core temps on CPU0 range from 62C for Core3 to 76C for Core6. CPU1's temps range from 55C on Core3 to 66C on Core1. Are these variations in temperatures per CPU and per core normal?

I had a 10-20c temp difference between CPU 0 and CPU1. Swapping the CPUs over helped 10c with the hotter running cpu going to the cooler socket. Also I found that my megashadows on CPU 1 were getting their air from the GPU area. Reversing the fans/ Air flow helped. Also, even though bios setting for both vcores was the same, actual voltage was 3 notches different. Lowering voltage on one CPU fixed that. Now temps are pretty even.
 
Can anyone share with me good 4.3-4.5ghz overclock settings for x5680 on air?
I have been trying to Fold/Render at 4.3ghz and my temps are too hot [80 -90c]

monkeemanboy
... but temps at 100% load on all 24 threads ranges between 49-62 degC, which doesn't seem that bad...

That's bad.
I have same CPU and a corsair H50 watercooler and idle is 8 degrees Celsius ( yes, you read that right) and prime95 max heat torture test on all cores and threads at 100% will raise CPU temp to 32 degrees Celsius

 Jeff242 & f.sardis This is a 7 Year Old Thread and monkeemanboy has not logged on since Friday, February 11, 2011 9:23 AM
Also this CPU is way passed its date and is at End of Life.

Jeff242
Yes it could be wrong, I didn't even think of that. I just finished installing the CPU and liquid CPU cooler 2 days ago. Although, I do keep my house pretty cool at 18c and also at first after I installed it and saw the 8-10c idle temp, I felt that the metal of the radiator was cold to the touch when I pressed my hand to it, so I just kind of assumed that the water cooler was able to cool it a few degrees lower than the ambient temperature by radiating away the heat using the fan blowing through the radiator in much the same way that evaporation cool things below ambient temperature. This is my first liquid cooled CPU.
But you're right, Westmere Xeon's were never meant to be installed on my motherboard and I even had to send the motherboard in to EVGA to have them modify it to except my Xeon X5680 CPU.
If I am getting a false reading, how can I get a correct reading?

At best your CPU will be at the same as ambient. The radiator feels cool to the touch because metal conducts heat better than air, so your hand feels colder when touching it but it is still at ambient temp.
There is nothing we can do to fix the temperature reading in our motherboard without writing a new bios but there is a very simple and easy fix by estimating the offset. Here is what I did.
I know my CPU will idle around 5c above ambient. So if my ambient is 22c my CPU idles at around 27c. The temperature probe on the mobo shows 9c so 27-9=18 and this is the offset. So basically whatever temperature my probe shows, I add 18c to it in order to estimate my real temperature.
So I went in the bios and configured my fan profiles based on this offset. I set them to run at max speed when the probe sees a temp of around 38c and turn off completely when the probe reads 10c or less. I have confirmed that this works fine in my SLI3 over the past 3 days by stress testing with Prime95 and checking the temperatures and fan speeds. Everything seems to be in order with this approach although we can never know for sure the exact temp of our CPUs. In fact that offset may be different as the temperature rises but going by ballpark numbers and setting the fans to max quite early, prevents any overheating. I have never seen the CPU throttle even with 3.8GHz overclock and 1.37v. Temperatures shown by the probe are around 40c and i am assuming I am hovering somewhere near 60c in reality.
In any case, I don't run  the CPU overclocked, I only did it for testing and the CPU will throttle itself if the temp is too high regardless of what the mobo probe sees. The thermal protection circuit is built-into he CPU and does not rely on the mobo to kick in.
After doing all this, you can try CoreTemp which allows you to set an offset to the temps so you can always monitor your CPU without calculating anything. I hope this helps.