Z620/Z420 v2 overclocking - best practices ?

[bibikalka]

@SDH @Rhothgar @BambiBoomZ @DGroves @Paul_Tikkanen

What are best practices for overclocking E5-1650 v2 these days? These chips are now cool $10 on Ebay!

From what I gathered, these are the key requirements:

1) motherboard with 2013 BB

2) older pre-2018 CPU microcode (both in BIOS, and Windows)

3) XTU utility - which version?

4) Heat sink - can I keep stock Z620? Do I need stock Z640?

I think item 4) is the most tricky. What can I achieve with stock Z620 heatsink??? What's the cheapest upgraded heatsink I could move to with higher cooling capacity?

[SDH]

Bibikalka,

Happy to help and keep us updated. Don't forget Brian1965, BeemerBiker, and NonSequitur777! Here's some tips/info:

1. Yes, the v2 motherboard update is needed with its 2013 boot block date (seen in BIOS). It is pretty easy to upgrade to one of those via an eBay purchase of a v2 motherboard if you were to only have a v1. There are specific part numbers on the motherboard's bar code label that tells you it is a v2, also. Some sellers don't know the difference and may use stock pics but send you a v1. So, make sure to clearly communicate what you need.

2. I only use the latest BIOS so I should have the latest microcode due to that. All the old v1 and newer v2 motherboards and processors are supported in the newest BIOS. I only update BIOS from within BIOS after harvesting the .bin file from the latest BIOS update SoftPaq... I can help you with that if you need. Don't install a newer processor when running an old BIOS because the old microcode can result in a boot failure and then you don't know what is bad.

3. I don't overclock now because XTU appears to have become unreliable when running W11 (I use the latest W11 23H2). I'd reconsider if XTU was shown to be reliable again. Bambi and Brian will know.

4. Check out my related post down at the bottom of this LINK. Note that HP is actually using the stock Z440 big heatsink/fan in a kit for much hotter running processors in the Z4 G4 than your E5-1650 v2. HP has one processor certified for recent Z4 G4 workstations that runs at 168W max TDP, and a bunch certified at 165W max. That Z440 cooler is the main part of the kit they provide for those hot processors. That is the only air cooler I'd recommend. They come with a 6-hole fan plug for the original 6-pin ZX40 motherboard header. For your 5-pin Z620 motherboard header you'd instead use the first 5 holes and leave hole 6 hanging 1/8" out in space. Hole 6 is just a ground jumper fed from hole 5 (the #6 hole is entirely unnecessary for ZX20 workstations).

5. You'd surely want the optional front cooling fan in its black plastic fan holder. Plus, you'd want the front/rear memory bank's cooling saddle which fits perfectly over that Z440 big cooler in both the Z420 and the single-processor Z620 builds. The situation is different with the Z440/Z640... the Z440's memory cooling saddle won't fit properly in a single-processor Z640 build. Let us know if you need part numbers.

6. I'll put in a plug for getting a Z440 instead. There is no v1/v2 motherboard issue with those, the prices have really come down for memory and processors, the technology is several quantum leaps above the ZX20 workstations, and a souped up Z440 can be very close to the performance of a well-tuned Z4 G4.

[bibikalka]

@SDH

Appreciate your detailed points!!!

For 1) & 2) there is a way now to easily upgrade BB2011 to BB2013, and ME7 to ME8 purely from a DOS USB in about 15 minutes, so it's faster/simpler than a motherboard swap! I already updated my ancient Z620 motherboard that had factory installed BIOS 1.02 to v2 Xeon after appropriate updates, and things work just fine

For 3), it appears that the post-2018 microcodes that were embedded into the latest BIOS might be hindering the overclocking under W11, which also has it's own microcode patches, in case BIOS is too old. Here is some recent overclocking success, but this needs to be checked in a cleaner experiment:

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Business-PCs-Workstations-and-Point-of-Sale-Systems/Z620-XTU-on-Window...

Regarding 4) & 5) This is very much appreciated!!! Especially, I do see that $15 cooler on ebay that you referred to! Low budget upgrades are just awesome 🙂

6) As for Z440, thanks for the plug! I investigated v3 & v4 Xeon datasheets, and these seem rather underwhelming CPU upgrades to v2.  Also, using methods from 1) ZX20 can now be brought up fully to Z440 level of capability, minus the TPM 2.0 chip. Z440 is not on the official W11 list, just like ZX20. I now believe that while ZX20 hardware is old by its physical age, it's very capable even today, and its various upgrades on eBay are just cheap. Like an 8 DIMM 128GB DDR3 kit going for ~$35, and all the $10 Xeons that can be found. So ZX20 is still a great platform for many uses - and with the overclock a single threaded performance would be very respectable too!