Dual Xeon 5160 3.0 vs Phenom X4 9950 Black Edition 2.8

[wesshaw]

Ok so I've scoured the internet for 2-3 days but I can't find any recent information about the Xeon 5160.

I have a gaming PC with a Phenom X4 9950 Black Edition running at 2.8Ghz and I've come across a motherboard with dual Xeon 5160s running at 3.0Ghz. Which is better??

Passmark gives the 9950 a 3.027 and dual 5160s a 3.954.

The only information I have been able to find relating to gaming on the 5160s is that most games cannot use all 8 cores so I wouldn't be any better off with 2 CPUs. However, none of the posts that I read were after 2009.

Both motherboards have 4gb ram and either way I'll use my Radeon HD 5870 GPU.

 

[WR2]

What kind of support does the Xeon server board have for PCI-e graphics cards?

 

[wesshaw]

it's from a workstation so it's got a single x16

Another unrelated bonus is that Xeon board has twice the Sata ports..

 

[wesshaw]

bump

 

[wesshaw]

bump

 

[electricfirebolt]

Stick with the 9550, Its the same as in my current rig (Upgrading in a few weeks time). There is no point in running a dual xeon setup as ECC Ram will be required which will be generally more expensive and will be "much" slower than non ecc. Your best sticking with your current setup.

 

[electricfirebolt]

Also if you require a slight boost as the 9550 that you have is a black edition you could perhaps spend some money on a cpu cooler and overclock the cpu to 3.2ghz or around.

 

[amuffin]

DO NOT LOOK AT PASSMARK, IT IS FAKE AND GIVES FALSE RESULTS! Might as well spend that money on an i5-2500k and z68 motherboard.