My Dual Harper - Asus Z7S WS living review *56K warning*

[drewhemm]

I will quote myself

...has anyone been able to go much higher than 441/3.3Ghz with the non power saving E5420 variant?

Just did some searching on this topic and on Google and it seems like people struggle to get stable with the E5420 past 2.8-3.0Ghz so it does appear as though the L5420 has more headroom - rock solid stable at 3.3GHz...

It wouldn't surprise me if the L5420s are machined to a higher quality than the E5420s, that would explain their better thermal efficiency, better overclocking potential and of course the 25% higher price point!

[Jaco]

My E5420's (C0 stepping) did 3.0Ghz at stock vcore on the Asus Z7S.
(400x7.5)
435x7 was also possible , so I knew the cpu's needed more vcore.

Stock vcore was 1.2v IIRC , Asus Z7S gave me ~1.18vcore full load.

[jcool]

I will quote myself



Just did some searching on this topic and on Google and it seems like people struggle to get stable with the E5420 past 2.8-3.0Ghz so it does appear as though the L5420 has more headroom - rock solid stable at 3.3GHz...

It wouldn't surprise me if the L5420s are machined to a higher quality than the E5420s, that would explain their better thermal efficiency, better overclocking potential and of course the 25% higher price point!

Lol dude.. the L is exactly the same as the E or X, they just have different VIDs and are binned differently. How good a given set of chips are depends solely on luck of the draw and their stepping.

For example, my 5420 C0 could do 430x7,5 even back when the Z7S was released, no Vcore nothing. Z7S gave them 1,14V Vcore under load, VID is 1,2V.
I couldn't go higher than 430 stable even with 6x mult, because they would need more VTT to go higher, which the Z7S still doesn't provide.
Any E0 step CPU will do FSB 440-450 on the Z7S regardless of what they are binned for.
The B1 step E5440 I had wouldn't go past FSB 370, go figure.

My X5450 which are also E0 can do a max of FSB 452 primestable (at any multiplier). Above that either the CPUs or mobo have reached their limit.

[drewhemm]

Lol dude.. the L is exactly the same as the E or X, they just have different VIDs and are binned differently. How good a given set of chips are depends solely on luck of the draw and their stepping.

That's cool - it still means I have a setup at least equal in performance to 2 x E5420 but with up to 60w less power draw/heat generation - it gets very hot here in the summer and cooling is a challenge; no, I don't want air conditioning - I didn't move to the Costa del Sol to be cold!!!

In addition to being a power-saving freak, I am also a silence-man. I am looking forward to getting an external RAID enclosure for my mechanical hard drives so I can take them out of my case and leave the SSDs to run Windows and everyday file storage and just turn on the mechanicals when I need something (which will be nearly never) and enjoy the sound of my thoughts the rest of the time!