CPU Dilema

[merango75]

Hi,

Not sure if this is the right place to post this but I need a little help on a CPU battle between 2 rigs I have. I have posted a new rig thread one the Home build forum which has been a great help, but I wanted to ask help on what old rig would be better for Steam Games etc for my Son as I need to get rid of one rig to make way for my new one.

Rig 1:

Dell Precision 690
2 x Intel Xeon X5355 @ 2.66Ghz (8 cores)
8GB Ram
64 Bit Windows 7 Pro
4 x 160GB 10K rpm Raptors Raid 5
Nvidia Quadro FX 4600 GPU
Windows 7 rate: 7.6, 7.6, 6.8, 6.8, 6.5 (overall 6.5)


Rig 2:
Dell Precision T3400
Intel Core 2 Extreme X9650 @ 3.0Ghz
8GB Ram
64 - bit Windows 7 Pro
4 x 160GB 10K rpm Raptors Raid 5
Nvidia Geforce GTX 280 1GB GPU
Windows 7 Rating: 7.3, 7.3, 7.3, 7.3, 6.5 (overall 6.5)

So I have a slight dilemma, I am not sure if the Xeon's will be better for the games etc and should simply move the GTX 280 to the bigger rig or bin them and keep the Extreme CPU rig?

Any help would be great as I will only be keeping one rig.

Cheers

 

[rolli59]

I would keep the extreme it has higher clock and more L2 cache (12mb versus 8mb)

 

[merango]

Thanks guys for the reply, wasn't sure if the single Extreme CPU would be better that both the Xeon's running together, not that most games would use them but would the 2 be better than 1?

8 Cores better than the 4?

Cheers

 

[enzo matrix]

CPU: Currently, most games can utilize between 2-4 cores, depending on the game. However, both CPUs will be able to keep up with the GTX280 in gaming and will not cause a major bottleneck if at all. Some games will be able to use up to 4 cores of the xeon system.

Assuming you can move the GTX280 to either system (it is the only option as the FX 4600 is a workstation GPU and not designed for gaming), here are the advantages and disadvantages of each:

Xeon system:
http://www.dell.com/downloads/emea/products/precn/precn_690_uk.pdf
-Likely uses slower ECC memory that is important for server applications but not for gaming. Performance difference? Probably not much.
-User guide claims the system only supports Graphics cards up to 150W. You will likely need to move the PSU from the other system over to this system in order to have the proper power connections for the GTX280


-Supports a lot more memory for upgrades (up to 32GB or 64GB depending on chassis). Not that you'll need it now or in the near future.
-has 8 CPU cores for the games that use it now and the ones that will in the future
-clockspeed will not hinder GTX280 performance in most current games.


Core 2 system
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/wst3400/en/ug/ug_en.pdf
-no real disadvantages besides not having the advantages of the Xeon system


-Supports an upgrade to up to a quad core
-Much faster per core processor that will be slightly better for any current games that cannot use more than two cores
-only supports up to 8GB of memory in the system.



Two other things to consider:
The Xeon system will consume more power so higher electricity cost.
The Xeon system will sell for more money because it is a server system. You might be able to get $1-2K for it as is.

Being the kind of person I am, I would take the xeon system with a GTX280 in it. But there are a lot of things I do besides gaming and I'm not a whole lot electricity-usage worried. Dual cores are starting to go the way single cores went for gaming a few years back.