LGA1366 upgrage to X5670 or 980X

[klyde]

Hello, hardware experts!

I have LGA1366 motherboard and want to make a little upgrade from i7-950 to i7-980X or to Xeon X5670. How do you thing which is better?

[FrostKiwi]

How do you thing which is better?

The i7-980x, no questions asked. If you slap any decent 20$ cooler on it you can overclock it, if you have the time. There is not much upside to xeon vs core.

But all in all, this is neither a good upgrade, nor worth the money. If you have some amazing deal, then by all means, go for it. But in 2016 there are way better alternitives, like the i7-5960X, even if it may cost a touch more.

[tomislavn]

I would go with Xeon rather. They are very cool and overclock massively with a good MB. Not to mention you will pass way cheaper with Xeon as well.

[klyde]

Thank you for reply, the price is almost the same, about $140-150

[tomislavn]

Thank you for reply, the price is almost the same, about $140-150

Not if you go with X5650 which is your best bet in the class :) You can OC it to 4.0 Ghz without much hassle on a good motherboard that supports it.

Anyway, the conclusion in my case is that there is no point in getting X5670 over X5650 since you won't be using it on a professional motherboard (they don't support overclocking). Keeping that in mind, the only difference between them is their base clock (2.66Ghz vs 2.93Ghz) which you will pass anyway with OC.

Just get X5650 for like 60-80$ and OC the hell out of it :)

[klyde]

I also have Xeon w3680, what do you think about that?

my MB is Gigabyte GA EP31-DS3L

[tomislavn]

I also have Xeon w3680, what do you think about that?

my MB is Gigabyte GA EP31-DS3L

Very good processor also! Same socket, pretty good OC-ability (somewhat faster then X5650 out of the box). Actually, the only bigger difference between the two is that W model doesn't support more then 1 CPU in a configuration, where with X5650 you can make a Dual-CPU machine.

In your case it might even be a better choice :)

[klyde]

I also have Xeon w3680, what do you think about that?

my MB is Gigabyte GA EP31-DS3L

Very good processor also! Same socket, pretty good OC-ability (somewhat faster then X5650 out of the box). Actually, the only bigger difference between the two is that W model doesn't support more then 1 CPU in a configuration, where with X5650 you can make a Dual-CPU machine.

In your case it might even be a better choice :)

Is there a big difference in rendering times between x5650($100) and w3680($157) as single CPU with medium OC?

[tomislavn]

Both should be about the same (probably a difference margin of 5% tops).

[klyde]

Both should be about the same (probably a difference margin of 5% tops).

Thank you for advising, tomislavn. Just ordered x5650!

Will GlacialTech F101 PWM for Socket 1366 be good for OC?

[tomislavn]

Both should be about the same (probably a difference margin of 5% tops).

Thank you for advising, tomislavn. Just ordered x5650!

Will GlacialTech F101 PWM for Socket 1366 be good for OC?

No problem :) you are welcome. Honestly, I would use some AIO water solution or a Noctua if I would go with air - but really any 3rd party cooler that fits s1366 should work without problems.

Btw, depending on how good of a chip your luck gets you, you might even get that baby up to 4.6Ghz or more! If not, then around 4.2 Ghz should be achievable.

P.S. About that mobo that you said you have (Gigabyte GA EP31-DS3L) - are you sure you are right? That mobo is an older socket LGA 775 that doesn't really work with i7 930 nor here mentioned X5650 which are both s1366. That one is for older Core2Duo/Quad platform before i3/i5/i7 came out. Please, check again :)

[klyde]

tomislavn Really, I was wrong (Gigabyte GA EP31-DS3L), it's my even older motherboard, just wrote down this number to search another Xeon for it to use it as rendernode. So, as I discovered, it will have no sense to upgrade this computer. My actual MB is Gigabyte GA-X58-USB3

[tomislavn]

My actual MB is Gigabyte GA-X58-USB3

Ah ok :) that's better! This one should work with X5650 without problems.

[klyde]

Which is the best MB (2x lga 1366) for overclocking between following ones?
ASUS-z8nr-d12-LGA1366
Intel S5520SC
HP Z800 2xLGA1366 MB

[Juraj]

What are you trying to do ?

None of those (dual-socket server boards) feature overclocking capability.

You can only overclock 5xxx family on x58 mobo board (single-socket).

[klyde]

What are you trying to do ?

I'm trying to assemble old hardware into a suitable workstation for rendering by minimal cost.

[Juraj]

Just making sure you were not intending to re-use that i7 or try to fit single-socket Xeons into dual-socket motherboard, it's actually pretty common mistake.

[tomislavn]

What are you trying to do ?

None of those (dual-socket server boards) feature overclocking capability.

You can only overclock 5xxx family on x58 mobo board (single-socket).

Shame that this EVGA SR-2 mobo is not being sold anymore :) ...second hand ones are insanely hard to find as well. It had crazy OC capabilities for dual s.1366 Xeons. 2x 4.5Ghz X5650 mmmmm, sexy!

http://www.evga.com/articles/00537/

[klyde]

Shame that this EVGA SR-2 mobo is not being sold anymore :) ...second hand ones are insanely hard to find as well. It had crazy OC capabilities for dual s.1366 Xeons. 2x 4.5Ghz X5650 mmmmm, sexy!

How much points in cinebench R15?

[tomislavn]

How much points in cinebench R15?

Dual X5650 @ stock, score around 1300 score in Cinebench R15 - it's quite big, this is the score that new 600$ i7-5930K is getting @ stock!

Clocked at 4Ghz, they should be like 1600-1700! About the performance you get out of new 1000$ i7-5960X with 8/16 cores!

For comparison sake, i7-4770K in my modelling rig scores something around 900 @ stock clocks what one x5650 in a decent X58 motherboard can easily reach with minor OC :)

Conclusion - These old bastards are still very powerful.

[klyde]

Crazy perfomance

[klyde]

Installed my x5650, and overclocked it, now it runs @ 3,95Ghz,

Corona Renderer Alpha 4 benchmark scene
 Living room 100 passes
Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X5650 @ 3.96 GHz
Time: 0:4:5, Rays/s: 5,189,592

The CPU Cores get too hot I think. Is 81-82*C a normal max temp?

[Jann]

The CPU Cores get too hot I think. Is 81-82*C a normal max temp?

I'd try to keep the temps under 75.

[tomislavn]

Hey! Congrats on your new cpu :)

Hmm not sure about those temperatures, they don't seem very normal for that OC to be honest. Mine work at around 50-55c under load in a dual CPU workstation setup (running stock clocks since I cannot OC though).

You should check if the cooler is sitting okay once again. How did you OC? Auto voltage?

[klyde]

Yes, everything is auto besides BCLK Freq.

[klyde]

Thank you guys for guidelines, I've achieved max core temp 76*C by lowering CPU voltage in manual mode.