Xeon vs i7

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w0rmh0lez

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Sep 29, 2013
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Hello guys,

I was given by a friend an EVGA SR-x motherboard which supports dual Xeon processors. He just gave me the mother board and no CPUs so I was planning on buying some used ones online.

However all I do on my machine is gaming. And I am concerned that the xeons will bottleneck my 2 7970s. I really love the look of this motherboard but if it will give me bad gaming performance then screw it. So what should I do? Sell the motherboard and buy an i7+ different mobo or grab the cheapest used xeons I can find and run them. What do you guys think?
 
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Obnoxious

I agree that $1,000 is a huge amount to spend on CPU, RAM and PSU. With those funds you could build a new high-end machine, however if you spend that much with the EVGA SR-x motherboard, unfortunately you won't get very far. I apologise to have to state so, but I'm being honest. :(

After conducting some research (hence why my reply is late as usual :D), you can only accept Xeon CPUs, more specifically the one's noidea_77 listed are the only compatible CPUs, and only the one's he/she listed are compatible.

Personally I would go with a new build and create a top-end machine, however if you want to use the EVGA motherboard, you could go with something like this (personally I think the CPU cost...
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CTurbo

CTurbo

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Aug 27, 2013
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The majority of the dual socket Xeons would not be all that great for gaming, and the ones that would be, are expensive. Performance wouldn't be terrible, but it wouldn't be near as good as a single i7. Maybe you can get a used E5-1xxx Xeon for it for cheap. It would be good for gaming, but you could only use one.
 
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noidea_77

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Jul 28, 2012
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The cheap E5-Xeons are not supported:
Xeon E5 2687W - 3.10 GHz
Xeon E5 2690 - 2.90 GHz
Xeon E5 2680 - 2.70 GHz
Xeon E5 2670 - 2.60 GHz
Xeon E5 2660 - 2.20 GHz
Xeon E5 2650 - 2.00 GHz
Xeon E5 2640 - 2.50 GHz
Xeon E5 2630 - 2.30 GHz
Xeon E5 2620 - 2.00 GHz
 
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w0rmh0lez

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Sep 29, 2013
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So which do you fellas think would be the best solution? My remaining budget is $2000 which $1000 is gonna be going for custom water loop and then the rest for cpu, ram, and power supply. I've already got the mobo, case graphics cards and storage
 
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Obnoxious

Obnoxious

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To be honest, you could probably build a better gaming computer with a standard socket 1150 motherboard and an i5, which would also be cheaper. However your EVGA motherboard has a lot of potential, only if you spend like no tomorrow. The Xeon processors for socket 2011 aren't what we'd call affordable, however as mentioned by CTurbo, try getting an Xeon E5-1xxx, such as the E5-1620. The E5-1650 and E5-1660, especially the latter costs way too much; an i7 could rival the E5-1660.

The cheapest Xeon you could possibly get is the Xeon E5-2603, but for the price, the performance is awful. A Haswell Pentium performs similarly to the E5-2603. If you could get the E5-1620 for cheap, that would be decent and wouldn't bottleneck your GPU's severely.

I'm not entirely sure which CPU's are compatible however, I can't seem to find a compatibility list nor does the manual state compatible CPUs. Also if you do intend to use the motherboard, if you don't already know, the CPU socket on the right is the primary CPU socket, and the one of the left is secondary, according to the manual (opens a PDF.)

All the best. :)
 
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iron8orn

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Intel E3-1231 v3 3.4GHz is one of latest models and i think it would perform on the same level as the 4770k and i dare to say in everything. I would like to hear if someone has different to say.

If you are going liquid cooling and have a z87/z97 mobo you should certainly get a k model so you can see what your liquid cooling has to offer.
 
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w0rmh0lez

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Sep 29, 2013
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Thank you all for your answers. It seems I have a lot of thinking to do. You all contributed very much so I honestly have no clue which to pick for best answer. So I will +1 all of you instead. Again thank you everyone for your help!
 
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Obnoxious

Obnoxious

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Jul 24, 2012
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I agree that $1,000 is a huge amount to spend on CPU, RAM and PSU. With those funds you could build a new high-end machine, however if you spend that much with the EVGA SR-x motherboard, unfortunately you won't get very far. I apologise to have to state so, but I'm being honest. :(

After conducting some research (hence why my reply is late as usual :D), you can only accept Xeon CPUs, more specifically the one's noidea_77 listed are the only compatible CPUs, and only the one's he/she listed are compatible.

Personally I would go with a new build and create a top-end machine, however if you want to use the EVGA motherboard, you could go with something like this (personally I think the CPU cost is daylight robbery):

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E5-2630 2.3GHz 6-Core Processor ($603.78 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($69.99 @ Micro Center)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($69.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: Corsair 760W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($159.99 @ Best Buy)
Total: $903.75
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-06-14 17:38 EDT-0400

To be honest, I've gone way over the top with the PSU, but you can get a cheaper one such as (to be honest, you can still go even cheaper with PSU depending on what you want):

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E5-2630 2.3GHz 6-Core Processor ($603.78 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($69.99 @ Micro Center)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($69.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($79.99 @ Best Buy)
Total: $823.75
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-06-14 17:41 EDT-0400

Whichever way you look at it, the CPU takes up around 60% of your budget and an i7-4770 is much more powerful than the Xeon, whereby the i7-4770 can be had for half the price at $300. It's completely your choice however.

All the best. :)
 
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