I did this along time ago and ended up using the Q9550 because its more stable and takes less power and my xeon was riding at 80c when anything got demanding when the q9550 stayed below 60c at all times
I just used the standard intel copper core heatsink and oddly didn't have any problems with heat. However, I can imagine that they would run hotter as they use more power. If it had something like more Cache or hyperthreading though, I think we'd all deal with the additional heat and power usage.
I actually own an Xeon X5460 and a Core 2 QX 6700. I chose the Core 2 QX for my Windows XP machine, because it runs WAY cooler. The X5460 needs pretty aggressive cooling to stay reasonably cool. With silent cooling it jumps up near 100 degrees C and throttles. With the Core 2 QX I can run it with a heatsink and a Noctua 80 mm silent fan. For retro computing purposes, a silent computer that's a little bit slower is more important to me than maximum performance.
Wow. I didn't know this kind of thing was a thing. I like your videos. You cover older stuff and in some ways that is more interesting. Plus, old stuff is fun to tinker with and cheaper to tinker with especially if you have some old parts laying around already.
Thank you! Yeah its fun I think because its cheap. All those things we wanted to own or play with but couldn't afford, we can now do for very little $$$.
I think it all depends if you have a cheap 775 motherboard or not. If you have a good motherboard where you can just overclock is not worth ruining it. I recently completed my xp pc with a cheap q9550 and a p5q deluxe. I also have some other interesting motherboards like p45 platinum, p45 neo2 and a x48-dq6, but i wouldn't dare ruining those good working ones. Nowdays 775 socket is in the spot of "not good enoigh for new stuff" and "very good for retro stuff", so for me is just for collection...plus some motgerboards are really becoming more rare to find in good working order...and in some years even rarer and more expensive.
200$ + for lga 771 xeons in a pair? is that screenshot of the ebay page current? cuz i remember when you could get these xeons for pennies on the dollar! i did that mod on a lga 775 dell desktop and i think i paid less that 10$ for both the cpu and the overlay thing...
Yup. There's obviously lower priced ones here and there but chose that because that's generally what I found. Think its probably because people are starting to realize they can buy them instead of extremes.
G'day Jim, I liked the video as far as the Benchmarks comparing 2.83MHz + both Stock but... the price comparison of Unicorns C2Extreme QX9770 & X5492 (not your Xeon Q9550 & X5460 CPUs in the tests) at the end was irrelevant to push the point of "Xeons being far Cheaper", for most a price comparison of your X5460 to C2Q Q9650 which are not only closer in price (Down here in Australia $40-$50AUD - $25-$35USD for either) plus also more widely available would be more appropriate.
I have a xeon x5470 which untill last year was my main machine, since then i got a i3 13400f. I also own a q9650 an there is not much performance diference betwin both. The x5470 is retired but i still use the q9650 in one of my machines. A small correction to the video, the xeon does not support ECC memory, the memory controller on these machines is on the chipset not on the cpu.
I'll always recommend going with the E54xx Xeons over the X54xx simply because they run far cooler, and typically can be clocked higher. Ran my E5450 at 3.6GHz for quite a while, though the northbridge memory controller degraded (at stock voltage) with the FSB at 1600, so I stopped using the system when I was no longer able to run 8GB RAM.
Dont forget the e54xx xeons. Lower TDP meaning they are better binned. In theory they will offer better OC performance at better voltages vs the X54xx or the C2Qs
The prices of the old Core 2 Quad CPUs surprised me. I tinker with older computers but once the price of a niche CPU is higher than another CPU plus a motherboard it makes less sense. I guess if you have an older machine that has sentimental value, and you want to max it out?
If I remember right many of the 9000 series c2q and 5400 series Xeons could oc to 3.5 - 4ghz with a decent air cooler. But don't think it really made a huge difference in gaming back then as GPU performance was the bottleneck. Maybe someone could do a video (cough cough) showing stock vs oc with something like a GTX960 in windows xp or Vista.
It runs games quite a lot better at 4 ghz with a newer gpu. GTA 5 runs almost locked at 60. Same with fallout 4 if I remember correctly. Fallout 76 I experienced some stutter, but I think that’s been patched now.
G'day @10WA, yeah my Q9650 with it's G33M-S2 easily does 4GHz, I have had it to 4.5 but got worried about the Mobo VRM Temps as it does not have a cooler
The difference is in overclocking i have this mod done and i have a x5460 cpu overclocked to 4.4ghz on an asus p45 p5q turbo motherboard. The core 2 quads cant go that high. My passmark score is a 4072. Im also using mushkin ddr2 1066mhz 8gb of it
G'day @AZTech25, Maybe I have a really good one but I have had my Q9650 in a G33M-S2 with a CoolerMaster AIO (Custom 92mm to fit my HP Pavilion Case) up to 4.5GHz stable looping Cinebench, can't quite remember the voltage but was over 1.3 something Volts & I was more worried about my Mobo VRM temp as it has no cooler than CPU.
I would have to be very desperate for performance to do that mod. Of course, back then it might have been worth it, but these days? Just get a first gen i5. Always enjoy seeing your videos, thanks for making them. :)
Nice vid, would be nice to include overclocking though. Got a xeon x5470 ($40) on a asus striker 2 formula, with modded bios, running at 4.425 ghz on air for win xp gaming. It reaches 3800 points in passmark. Modding the bios, to add the lga 771 microcodes, is super easy and you can buy the cpu already modded.
@@zach-Computerstuff Reality is the way around. The xeons don't use more energy clock for clock and got solder between ihs and die, the consumer parts have thermal paste. The xeon is not only a fraction of the price but oc better too. These are the same as the much more rare extreme editions of the consumer cpu only without unlocked multiplier. These boards can do very high fsb, with unstrapped ram speeds making the multiplier useless.
@mealot7613 i had this mod done and had a x5460 cpu overclocked to 4.4ghz on an asus p45 p5q turbo motherboard. My passmark score was a 4072. I was using mushkin ddr2 1066mhz 8gb of it. It was a fun mod and used that system for along time stable everyday Reply
"Select" is an exaggeration, but you do generally need an Intel chipset from the two last generations, Bearlake and Eaglelake. I believe the board I'm using for the X5460 is a P35 chipset. The Wikipedia page for Socket 775 has a list of chipsets. I haven't heard of any success using NVidia or SiS chipsets. Also, for some boards you'll need to flash a BIOS mod to get full functionality. Most boards will boot fine without the BIOS mod, but you might not get all of the features of the CPU.
@@jims_junk the core2quads......core 2 has 2 dual cores that communicate with each other via the motherboard it doesn't work like a quad core die the die in the core 2 is 2 dual core dies do you think the xeon is 2 dual cores.....can you do anything like i5 4440 up against an fx,I really like your content and I've seen most of your videos
@@Mr.1.i Thanks and yeah I'm aware of it being two cores, but as far as I"m aware so was the xeon of this gen. Far as the video...I do have one that I made earlier an i5 ivybridge against an fx ruclips.net/video/F-FMzHLjyuI/видео.html
@@incandescentwithrage I getcha but I do like being able to do things like overclock the shot out of em knowing I can just buy a new one for $5 But overclocking on camera is kinda like applying thermal paste. No matter what you do a dozen people will complain that you're doing it wrong and they're better at it.
I did this along time ago and ended up using the Q9550 because its more stable and takes less power and my xeon was riding at 80c when anything got demanding when the q9550 stayed below 60c at all times
I just used the standard intel copper core heatsink and oddly didn't have any problems with heat. However, I can imagine that they would run hotter as they use more power. If it had something like more Cache or hyperthreading though, I think we'd all deal with the additional heat and power usage.
I had this exact same experience. (I just posted a similar comment.)
I actually own an Xeon X5460 and a Core 2 QX 6700. I chose the Core 2 QX for my Windows XP machine, because it runs WAY cooler. The X5460 needs pretty aggressive cooling to stay reasonably cool. With silent cooling it jumps up near 100 degrees C and throttles. With the Core 2 QX I can run it with a heatsink and a Noctua 80 mm silent fan.
For retro computing purposes, a silent computer that's a little bit slower is more important to me than maximum performance.
I recommend undervolting the cpu using thermalstop or Intel xtu in that case.
I did this back in 2013 to upgrade my plex server to a quad core. Worked well for a few years till I got my hands on a cheap X58 board.
always on the look out for your vids bro, keep em coming.
Thanks! I appreciate that
Wow. I didn't know this kind of thing was a thing.
I like your videos. You cover older stuff and in some ways that is more interesting.
Plus, old stuff is fun to tinker with and cheaper to tinker with especially if you have some old parts laying around already.
Thank you! Yeah its fun I think because its cheap. All those things we wanted to own or play with but couldn't afford, we can now do for very little $$$.
I think it all depends if you have a cheap 775 motherboard or not.
If you have a good motherboard where you can just overclock is not worth ruining it.
I recently completed my xp pc with a cheap q9550 and a p5q deluxe.
I also have some other interesting motherboards like p45 platinum, p45 neo2 and a x48-dq6, but i wouldn't dare ruining those good working ones.
Nowdays 775 socket is in the spot of "not good enoigh for new stuff" and "very good for retro stuff", so for me is just for collection...plus some motgerboards are really becoming more rare to find in good working order...and in some years even rarer and more expensive.
200$ + for lga 771 xeons in a pair? is that screenshot of the ebay page current? cuz i remember when you could get these xeons for pennies on the dollar! i did that mod on a lga 775 dell desktop and i think i paid less that 10$ for both the cpu and the overlay thing...
Yup. There's obviously lower priced ones here and there but chose that because that's generally what I found. Think its probably because people are starting to realize they can buy them instead of extremes.
how about core2quad overclock to 3ghz?
G'day Jim,
I liked the video as far as the Benchmarks comparing 2.83MHz + both Stock but...
the price comparison of Unicorns C2Extreme QX9770 & X5492 (not your Xeon Q9550 & X5460 CPUs in the tests) at the end was irrelevant to push the point of "Xeons being far Cheaper", for most a price comparison of your X5460 to C2Q Q9650 which are not only closer in price (Down here in Australia $40-$50AUD - $25-$35USD for either) plus also more widely available would be more appropriate.
I have a xeon x5470 which untill last year was my main machine, since then i got a i3 13400f. I also own a q9650 an there is not much performance diference betwin both. The x5470 is retired but i still use the q9650 in one of my machines.
A small correction to the video, the xeon does not support ECC memory, the memory controller on these machines is on the chipset not on the cpu.
Yeah you're right. I think I was thinking more of modern xeons in general.
I'll always recommend going with the E54xx Xeons over the X54xx simply because they run far cooler, and typically can be clocked higher. Ran my E5450 at 3.6GHz for quite a while, though the northbridge memory controller degraded (at stock voltage) with the FSB at 1600, so I stopped using the system when I was no longer able to run 8GB RAM.
Dont forget the e54xx xeons. Lower TDP meaning they are better binned. In theory they will offer better OC performance at better voltages vs the X54xx or the C2Qs
W vid🎉
The prices of the old Core 2 Quad CPUs surprised me.
I tinker with older computers but once the price of a niche CPU is higher than another CPU plus a motherboard it makes less sense.
I guess if you have an older machine that has sentimental value, and you want to max it out?
same here. I wanted to pickup some older extreme processors....yeah no. Not paying $150+ for a 15+ year old cpu.
If I remember right many of the 9000 series c2q and 5400 series Xeons could oc to 3.5 - 4ghz with a decent air cooler. But don't think it really made a huge difference in gaming back then as GPU performance was the bottleneck. Maybe someone could do a video (cough cough) showing stock vs oc with something like a GTX960 in windows xp or Vista.
It runs games quite a lot better at 4 ghz with a newer gpu. GTA 5 runs almost locked at 60. Same with fallout 4 if I remember correctly. Fallout 76 I experienced some stutter, but I think that’s been patched now.
LOL I somehow missed this. I'll see what I can do.
G'day @10WA, yeah my Q9650 with it's G33M-S2 easily does 4GHz, I have had it to 4.5 but got worried about the Mobo VRM Temps as it does not have a cooler
The difference is in overclocking i have this mod done and i have a x5460 cpu overclocked to 4.4ghz on an asus p45 p5q turbo motherboard. The core 2 quads cant go that high. My passmark score is a 4072. Im also using mushkin ddr2 1066mhz 8gb of it
G'day @AZTech25, Maybe I have a really good one but I have had my Q9650 in a G33M-S2 with a CoolerMaster AIO (Custom 92mm to fit my HP Pavilion Case) up to 4.5GHz stable looping Cinebench, can't quite remember the voltage but was over 1.3 something Volts & I was more worried about my Mobo VRM temp as it has no cooler than CPU.
I would have to be very desperate for performance to do that mod. Of course, back then it might have been worth it, but these days? Just get a first gen i5.
Always enjoy seeing your videos, thanks for making them. :)
But first gen i5s are dual cores
Nice vid, would be nice to include overclocking though. Got a xeon x5470 ($40) on a asus striker 2 formula, with modded bios, running at 4.425 ghz on air for win xp gaming. It reaches 3800 points in passmark. Modding the bios, to add the lga 771 microcodes, is super easy and you can buy the cpu already modded.
Thing is, if its the same as the quad but uses more power then it would theoretically overclock worse, so no point.
@@zach-Computerstuff Reality is the way around. The xeons don't use more energy clock for clock and got solder between ihs and die, the consumer parts have thermal paste. The xeon is not only a fraction of the price but oc better too. These are the same as the much more rare extreme editions of the consumer cpu only without unlocked multiplier. These boards can do very high fsb, with unstrapped ram speeds making the multiplier useless.
@@mealot7613 Thanks for explaining that
@mealot7613 i had this mod done and had a x5460 cpu overclocked to 4.4ghz on an asus p45 p5q turbo motherboard. My passmark score was a 4072. I was using mushkin ddr2 1066mhz 8gb of it. It was a fun mod and used that system for along time stable everyday
Reply
@@AZTech25 Nice, Yeah nice project. I think the passmark score gets a bit lower with every update.
My dell is occupied with E7500 can I fit modified x5460 in it
Does this work only on select motherboards?
"Select" is an exaggeration, but you do generally need an Intel chipset from the two last generations, Bearlake and Eaglelake. I believe the board I'm using for the X5460 is a P35 chipset. The Wikipedia page for Socket 775 has a list of chipsets.
I haven't heard of any success using NVidia or SiS chipsets.
Also, for some boards you'll need to flash a BIOS mod to get full functionality. Most boards will boot fine without the BIOS mod, but you might not get all of the features of the CPU.
Get a Asus P5Q MB or similar and you can flash it as well.
Ive not even watched it and i know the core2quad is hindered with half its brains hanging in the mother board
maybe you should watch it then 😀cuz uh nope
@@jims_junk the core2quads......core 2 has 2 dual cores that communicate with each other via the motherboard it doesn't work like a quad core die the die in the core 2 is 2 dual core dies do you think the xeon is 2 dual cores.....can you do anything like i5 4440 up against an fx,I really like your content and I've seen most of your videos
@@Mr.1.i Thanks and yeah I'm aware of it being two cores, but as far as I"m aware so was the xeon of this gen.
Far as the video...I do have one that I made earlier an i5 ivybridge against an fx
ruclips.net/video/F-FMzHLjyuI/видео.html
Not worth it. All junk as per channel name.
Get something 5x faster for between free and $50.
For some its not a matter of the fastest thing, its just about messing around with old hardware.
@@jims_junk Yeah I get that with the retro stuff, but this..to me at least..is current era but functionally useless.
@@incandescentwithrage I getcha but I do like being able to do things like overclock the shot out of em knowing I can just buy a new one for $5
But overclocking on camera is kinda like applying thermal paste. No matter what you do a dozen people will complain that you're doing it wrong and they're better at it.
@@jims_junk probably by someone like incandescentwithrage