SPOT THE DIFFERENCE: Xeon L5420 VS Xeon L5420!

[HolyDoom Witch]

H!

I wanted to buy a processor that would take wattage as much as my current E2140, but would be a quad core. And I got one-- the Xeon L5420!

But at the new egg, I found two entries-- same price. The only difference between them is the letter "P" instead of "A" in the model number:

BX80574L5420A
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117169

BX80574L5420P
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117170

Of course, this small change also means a change in the actual product, however small it may be. And the change is, that the A comes with a heat sink and a fan, while the P comes only with a heat sink.

Now here are my questions.

Q1
Is the A model, a better version with the fan along with the heat sink, and this is the one I should buy?

Q2
Is the P model, an advanced version of the A model, like the latter letter suggests, in which the fan was removed because this CPU model heats less, and probably the fan made noise?

Q3
Would the P model require me to buy a fan separately for the CPU?

Q4
Never heard about these ones. Are these discontinued models?

I was very happy, if it was not for this confusion, because all the AMD quads equivalent to this one seem to come without the cooling device, while spending at least some more watts.

EDIT:
I shall use my computer for mainly gaming, with the Sapphire 4870 I have. Hope this would be a good quad core for this, serving me for a few years. (Yeah, I know I would need to change my 945G, the LGA 775, motherboard.)

Thanks

 

[EXT64]

This weirdness arises because those are server chips. They are identical, however as you noted, one has a passive heatsink while the other has a fan and heatsink. Even at 50W, passive would be bad for a normal PC. The reason they have it is because it was meant to be put in a 2U Rack mount PC which has a bunch of fans in the front forcing a bunch of air over it. The other is for 1U racks, so is probably a really short heatsink. Either way, don't be surprised if either of the included heatsinks/fans is not what you would expect out of a CPU cooler. I would reuse an old one for that socket or buy a new fan. you could wait until after you get it, but I'd suspect they are both insufficient for tower PCs.

 

[EXT64]

Here is the site showing all of this. It also appears the coolers are shown at the bottom.

http://www.intel.com/cd/channel/reseller/asmo-na/eng/products/server/processors/q5400/feature/index.htm

 

[HolyDoom Witch]

"...I'd suspect they are both insufficient for tower PCs."

Do you mean a fan and a heatsink combined would not be sufficient to cool the CPU? I forgot to mention that I want to use this chip for gaming only (with the Sapphire 4870 I have); no server. Do you here mean somehow, that this processor would not be very useful? I thought this one would rip through applications, apart from the games. (Yeah I know that just an E4500 would max the frequencies required by my 4870 and get rid of the current bottleneck. You can say I like a real fast processor that may last a few years, but one that spends very low wattage.)

Thanks

 

[wuzy]

What EXT64 meant was the air-tunneling effect when utlised with a 1U or 2U chassis (depending on which bundled HSF) would be gone when used in a typical tower case.

I forgot to mention that I want to use this chip for gaming only (with the Sapphire 4870 I have); no server.

Then you have clearly wasted some serious money there.

 

[amnotanoobie]

You do know that you could buy already a decent C2Q with a new board with that price.

What do you mean by:

I wanted to buy a processor that would take wattage as much as my current E2140, but would be a quad core

do you mean:
- Thermal, meaning as cool running as the E2140
- Electrical current, meaning same power consumption.

 

[mi1ez]

Will the Xeon work in your motherboard? what mobo is it you're looking at getting?

Have you looked at the Q8x00S chips for low power quads?

 

[outlw6669]

Q1
Is the A model, a better version with the fan along with the heat sink, and this is the one I should buy?

Q2
Is the P model, an advanced version of the A model, like the latter letter suggests, in which the fan was removed because this CPU model heats less, and probably the fan made noise?

Q3
Would the P model require me to buy a fan separately for the CPU?

Q4
Never heard about these ones. Are these discontinued models?

1:
a) No, the CPU's are exactly the same, only the included cooling is different (A=Active, P=Passive?).
b) Neither, they are both a total waste of your cash.

2: No, they are both exactly the same. The 'P' version is probably designed to run in data centers that have a specific airflow pattern designed to work with that type of passive heat sink.

3: Yes

4: No, they are S771 server parts and are not often talked about on a consumer hardware site (no real reason for them here). They are nothing more than higher validated Yorkfield cores in a different package (S771).

Do not waste your cash on one of these server grade CPU's.
There are much better low power options for you like an Q9550s or an x4 905e.
Not only do these CPU's cost tons less, they will work on conventional, gaming orientated, platforms.
If you get a S771 CPU, expect to shell out tons of cash on a mediocre (at least for your usage) motherboard and server RAM.

 

[HolyDoom Witch]

You do know that you could buy already a decent C2Q with a new board with that price.

What do you mean by:

I wanted to buy a processor that would take wattage as much as my current E2140, but would be a quad core

do you mean:
- Thermal, meaning as cool running as the E2140
- Electrical current, meaning same power consumption.

power consumption I meant.

 

[HolyDoom Witch]

GOT IT! GOT IT! GOT IT!

We hereby declare the current project of buying myself an L5420 as null and void, and hence shelve the project. We hereby thank all the candidates for saving the buck and shattering the discovery that we had found out one hell of a chip for gaming, which turned out to be a joke, that also a dumb one.

New tenders are now invited for a new project regarding a fresh purchase of a Q9550 or similar processor for gaming and ripping through the dumb Java and Dot Net applications like Firefox and the Internet Explorer, that take upto half a minute to open for the first time. Though this CPU uses twice the wattage, but now we have understood that that is the best solution in the current scenario.

We may also proudly inform that we had to Yahoo all the terms we were unable to understand, like the "2U rack" and stuff. We must tell you that we were successfully able to find out the meaning of these terms.

Your sincerely,
Extremely Senior Manager, BBI
(Bankrupt Bank of India)

 

[wuzy]

The LGA775 platform has been long EOL'd and was already lesser in value than AM2+/AM3 anyway. LGA1156 or AM3 (depending on budget) would be the way to go now for fresh builds. Both platforms has quad chips that are below 65W.

 

[Shadow703793]

^Agreed. Or if OP wants hexcores in 2010 LGA1366.