Should I get i5 or Xeon? Why is Xeon so cheap?

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Scott Yun

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Nov 13, 2013
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I need a computer for mostly gaming. (No CAD, Photoshopt, nothing fancy)
Once I buy it, I will probably use it for next 5 years, so I do want to build a decent one.

At first, I was going to buy i5 4570@160, but now it's sold out at MC.
Then, I missed the great great grrrreat deal that was going on last 3 days at MC.

As of now, my choices are i5 3570K@190, i5 4670K@200, or Xeon E3 1230@200.
I've heard that Xeon is identical to i7 except couple of things like lack of integrated VGA.
I've never done OC. And if I try to do it, I know that it will increase totals.
Considering that, for me, I think my best possible choice is Xeon.

However, I wonder why Xeon is so cheap. Is there any problem with it?
Is there any merits that people who don't want OC to buy i5, i7 instead of Xeon?

Why don't people buy Xeon???
And what would you recommend for me?

BTW, if I somehow end up buying i5 or i7 K version, well then,I might consider OC, but OC shouldn't be the main factor which determines my purchase.
 
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CTurbo

CTurbo

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Aug 27, 2013
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The E3 Xeons are awesome, and people are mostly unaware of them. People don't realize that there are LGA1155 and LGA1150 Xeons out there. Some are quad core without hyperthreading(basically i5s) and some are quad core with hyperthreading(basically i7s) like the E31230v2 and v3 for example.

I would never buy a locked i5 when I could get a E3-1230v3 for just a little more. It doesn't have integrated graphics, but that's no problem. Some Xeons do though. The models that end in 5 do like the E3-1245v2.
v2 = Ivy Bridge
v3 = Haswell
 
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lazyboy947

lazyboy947

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Jun 11, 2012
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The xeon is obviously just an i7 2600/3770/4770 with more server/enterprise orientation without an igpu and a non OC part but at stock is basically a i7 so for pricing a very good cpu if ur not gonna OC. CTurbo put it quite well people who buy non k i7s should rlly look at these xeons lol.

If i didnt overclock and was low on money id prob get one for myself over the i5 for sure, as id go i7 before i5 and would stay amd over the i5 but the xeon as many say is a hidden gem for price to performance.

Also the xeons are prob at that pricing point because they prob dont have the full feature set of a usual xeon, and as said are a rebadged slightly modified i7. Prob i7s that had bad igpus off the production line and y junk something if u can just stick another tag on it and make money off a rejected part. Not saying thats completely true it just seems reasonable, as i have no idea why they actually make these xeons lol
 
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SoNic67

SoNic67

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Jun 9, 2012
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^ You have no clue what are you talking about. They don't add the GPU's in them because it would be a wasted space and heat load. For example, 90% of people using an I7 will install a dedicated GPU so why waste the heat on that?
This way it allows the TurboBoost feature to really work, as opposed to an I7 with GPU.
The Xeons are actually selected from the same batch, the ones with lower power draw get the Xeon badge and higher multiplier. Some of them are cheap on second hand because people don't know whet they are, they are not cheap at all when they are new.
Some of them they are still expensive, because they have extra cache memory in the space of that GPU.
The multiplier is not "unlocked" boo-hoo. The argument about OC is lame at this point in time. The bottleneck in a system moved away from CPU almost a decade ago...

PS: Some of the Xeons in the second gen (Ivy bridge) go up to 15 cores/30 threads, 37.5MB of cache and 4 memory channels instead of only 2 in i7.
There is no rebadging there: http://ark.intel.com/products/75251/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E7-4890-v2-37_5M-Cache-2_80-GHz

More to read: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivy_Bridge_(microarchitecture)#IVY-BRIDGE-E
 
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synphul

synphul

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Mar 11, 2011
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Many people by now are aware of the xeons. Some have integrated graphics and some don't, the 1230 and 1231v3 don't. It's nearly identical to an i7 4770 minus the igpu. The xeons are alright, they lack some features the i7 has so they're a bit cheaper. At $200 at microcenter it is a good deal. However not everyone lives near a microcenter and they don't ship cpu's. The rest of us look at standard retail prices which put a 1230 and 1231v3 at around $260-270, not $200. With that in mind it's not always 'such a deal'. So it really depends on the prices available to you.

An i7 4770 only runs around $30-40 more than one of those xeons and you get the igpu. Depending on the needs the i7 could be easier to deal with. No need to buy a gpu just to get a display if all it's being used for is office type work, non gaming etc. $40 isn't going to buy much of a gpu so there's no real price savings there in that instance. Your needs are a bit different which is why there's different products out there to suit different situations.
 
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