HexaCore Restoration Project under way (AMD Phenom II 960T)

[Storm-Chaser]

So the other day I was randomly going through my old hardware and taking inventory of some of my older CPUs. Just a little later that day my main rig, an HP z820, up and died out of nowhere. Low mileage chassis so I'm not really sure what the deal is with that yet. Wont post or power on at all now and I already swapped PSUs to a 1125 watt unit and still its a no go. And cant check for trouble codes either.

In any event, that situation with my main rig gave me incentive to bring back an old workstation favorite, the AMD Phenom II. Specifically, the Zosma based X4 960T that comes from the factory with two hidden cores. Untilimtely, its it a Thuban based Phenom II and when its unlocked in hexacore form is still a force to be reckoned with. Pair with low latency CL7 1600MHz memory and you have quite the little powerhouse rig on your hands. At first blush, it's just as snappy as my 5.0GHz X6 9600KF rig, which has a Samsung 970 PRO nvme SDD drive and 4266MHz DDR4 dual channel memory kit. I would be using that rig in place, but the MSI Z390 ACE that I was using in it lost a PCIe slot. So that's been sent back to MSI for RMA.

In the interim, we will proceed with the AMD 960T restoration using all spare parts from my old computer storage inventory. I found a good, but battered Antec case of about the same vintage in my old parts storage to match the build. I also found a 500W Antec PSU from about the same vintage. I was up until about 3AM last night working on cleaning up the case and fitting new hardware. More details, OC results to follow. One of my goals is sub 45 ns memory latency. Not sure if it's doable with this memory kit but we will give it a shot nevertheless. And because I am running a Hyper 212 I am aiming for a more conservative overclock this time around. These are the core parts I am working with.

Motherboard: Biostar TA970, 140W TDP rated
Supports bios unlocking of hidden cores but not the greatest OC board, but that's okay because this one is going to be conservative in terms of OC






Memory:
CMX4Gx3M1A1600C6
7-8-7-20 1.65v ver 5.11 Dual Channel 1600MHz CL7 kit


Case I am using is the Antec Wired2Fire Diablo MaXcore Gaming Tower


GPU:
MSI Radeon RX 5700 XT 8GB



Rats nest in the case that needed to be dealt with:


Busted up Antec case that will be restored to its former glory


Swapping in the Noctua 120mm fan. Coolermaster CPU fan is relegated to the chassis. Although the Biostar TA970 does not have PWM control (other than for CPU cooler), so it may become a nuisance if it's turning to much RPM.
Also in the picture is a thermaltake 140mm chassis fan that will be mounted in the top of the chassis. The hyper 212 we will be using has been cleaned up and is ready for use and is seen here in the lower left.


Ultra quiet Noctua NF-A12 x 25 CPU cooler fan, PMW - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED



Looking a little better, cleaned out with compressed air and swapped in the X6 960T processor in place of the pre-existing and very sluggish FX 4350 X4 CPU


This is a badass video card if I don't say so myself

MSI has one of the best cooling solutions out of any RX 5700 XT on the market at this time: Consequently, the video card greatly improves internal case temps.
Even under heaving gaming, the backplate is only "warm" to the touch. Not the case with my old MSI RX 580... you could fry an egg on that backplate!


Wire management 101


The pigtails we will need to power the 5700 XT. The gaming X requires two 8 pin power connectors and has a TDP of 225 watts.


Power connectors and heatsink


The PSU only has provisions for one 6 pin power connector, so I needed two six pin to eight pin adapters to make it work



Sick Noctua fan which is virtually silent


Someone had spliced into the Antec PSU in the past, so we had to get that issue resolved for good with electric tape and shrink wrap


Had to cut a little bit out of the front area of the case to get the massive 5700 XT to fit in this chassis


All set!


Looking more like a high performance machine by the minute:


I was up until about 3 AM working on this. I still have many plans for it so stay tuned. Case is all cleaned up and front cover fixed!


MUCH BETTER!



Biostar's own BIOunlocking utility allows you to unlock hidden cores on a Zosma based chip. It's nice to see the X6 in the upper right, because it usually means the extra cores are going to work. Although that's by no means the end of the torture testing / vetting that will occur.


Almost forgot, we are running a 512GB SK Hynix SSD drive for this build.


It was fun doing something a little different and building a system with only spare parts. Means you usually have to get a little more creative with your tech solutions. Stay tuned for OC results and further upgrades...

 

[hunterjwizzard]

That's an evening well-spent.

 

[Storm-Chaser]

Initial performance results in bone stock form...





Edit: That last CPU z screenshot says 799MHz, but it throttled up to 3.4 turbo for all of the above tests... and remains at 3.0GHz for the most part at idle / low load. Just a blip then it clocks back up.

 

[Storm-Chaser]

Okay! So I just made some OC adjustments and I'm pretty happy with the results overall. Overclocking has been set static at 3.5GHz across all six cores, which is starting to push the limits on this cooler (but still well below the thermal threshold) This is especially important because this will ultimately be my retro gaming rig, to play older FPS games, etc and even some newer games to max it out just for fun, so for reliability sake I am keeping it toned down in terms of clock speed. The processor is capable of 4.0GHz but for benching only and only reliable for about an hour, according to some torture tests I've run with it in that configuration. Plus I have to pump lots of voltage to it and can do without the extra heat.

I think if you factor in the massive performance gains on this OC it's pretty easy to tell this CPU has a great potential in terms of cost/performance ratio. In fact, I will make the statement that a Zosma 960T or Zosma 970 BE OEM has one of the highest performance threshold increases (or average performance gain by orthodox overclocking methods) across all levels of all CPUs, percentage wise from stock to OC. That would actually make for an interesting benchmark competition.... hmm I will keep that in mind.

(compare and contrast with stock runs)

AIDA64 CPU Queen Benchmark


AIDA64 PhotoWorxx Benchmark:


Down to 49.2 ns on memory latency... getting closer! The later Phenom II has a sick memory controller that responds very well to overclocking, as you can see the results here are radically different than performance in stock trim. For air cooling, typically 3000MHz is the limit on the CPU-NB but going sub zero or chilling, you can go higher. My record on air is 3121MHz if I remember correctly. And I did that in the dead of winter with the computer outside on a table in front of my room, with the wires connected through the window.





MSI RX 5700 XT Gaming X Specs:
As I said earlier this GPU is a badass unit and definitely overkill.

I was playing Crysis 3 earlier on this OC configuration and interestingly enough, the old Phenom II I have here is not yet bottlenecking the GPU or the rest of the system. In real time game play the GPU hits about a 75% load and the 960T runs about a 80% across all six cores.. So still a little breathing room, at least with this game.

Once I get my antialiasing dialed in, I will post some FPS numbers. In regards to Crysis 2, I have the graphics settings maxed out on ultra @ 1080p and I'm averaging almost 200FPS. Not to shabby for a rig with a 10 year old processor!

 

[Storm-Chaser]

Out of curiosity I switched memory to some G.Skill Ripjaws CL7, a dual channel 8GB kit. Runs at slightly lower voltage (1.600v vs 1.650v)

Memory tuning will follow. See if I can get a little closer to that 45 ns number that I want to hit....

Here is the 8GB Ripjaws kit, timings are basically the same across the board, but I think I can go lower with this vs the corsair XMS3 memory.

I havent installed Thaiphoon burner to confirm one way or the other, but it's certainly possible both of these kits may have the same die / memory modules.

 

[name stolen]

Nice rebuild log! I enjoyed a Thuban for 4 years before being tempted by an FX 8320 (knowing full well there would be tradeoffs involved - worth it in the end). That case is an Antec 300. I had one until recently and still prefer it to the 302.

 

[williedee]

I still have one of those 960T's in an old LAN party case. I wasn't as lucky with the 2 core unlock, so its still just a quad core. Nice post!

 

[Storm-Chaser]

I ordered a 1090T processor and a Biostar TA880GU3+ motherboard. And five more 960Ts for "binning" purposes.

This is a really great board for overclocking. You wouldn't think by looking at it that it would be up to the challenge,

but it held my unlocked 970BE with six cores @ 4.0GHz for close to 9 years and allowed me to reach 3122MHz on the CPUNB.


So I am buying all the old hardware I had in that rig, down to the identical 1600MHz G.Skill ripjaws 8GB CL7 kit I used to have.

I also picked up a MUCH better power supply off eBay. Now running a 620W Antec High Current Gamer PSU, which has rock solid reliable power delivery.

So I installed the new PSU and the new motherboard this evening. Results are mixed. I can get the 1090T up to 4.0Ghz overclock no problem. But the CPU-NB will only go to 2.8GHz as opposed to 3.0GHz, which should be possible with about 50% of the later generation Phenom II chips.
So I am hoping to do some "binning" with the new 960Ts that are coming, and perhaps can do 4.0GHz CPU and 3.0GHz CPUNB. That's the goal at least....

 

[Storm-Chaser]

I binned all five 960T CPUs.
Three failed to unlock into hexacore chips.
Two, however, did unlock. Including this one, that is stable with all six at 4.0GHz!

I think we found a winner