LGA1366 CPU Dilema

[silentbogo]

I have an opportunity to get either really cheap Core i7 930 or XEON L5630.
Both are Quad-core CPUs with HT, but Core i7 is faster, while XEON has a lot more cache and TDP of only 40W.

Which do you think will do better in a regular desktop?

Another really important question: Is it worth considering a new AMD APU (A6800 or higher) instead?

 

[Ferrum Master]

Are you going to OC?

 

[Tatty_Two]

Personally, I would go with the 930, I am guessing you are likely to get better motherboard compatibility plus from what I can see the Xeon will be memory speed restricted, it looks like it only supports upto 1066mhz. If you overclock though and you are sure of good board support and have researcheed a decent overclocking track record for the Xeon it would possibly be more of a challenge!

I am a great supporter of APU's but I don't think they will match even a 6 year old i7 in all round CPU performance.

 

[Ferrum Master]

Xeon will be memory speed restricted, it looks like it only supports upto 1066mhz.

I had bunch of those, none of them are different memory wise. The locked uncore is the the main problem, but using XMP ram it overrides the limitation. Westmere CPU's clocks differently in votlage department, otherwise the only gain is the AES instruction set.... nobody uses it anyways...

Take one that better clocks, usually the best one is with the higher multi, so the 930...

 

[Tatty_Two]

I had bunch of those, none of them are different memory wise. The locked uncore is the the main problem, but using XMP ram it overrides the limitation. Westmere CPU's clocks differently in votlage department, otherwise the only gain is the AES instruction set.... nobody uses it anyways...

Take one that better clocks, usually the best one is with the higher multi, so the 930...

That would have been a problem for me however, only because of the 3 setups I had/have, none of them like xmp settings and required manual input and in all of their cases would only operate overclocks stably with the 2:8 memory divider, to be fair though I didn't have a Xeon in any of them, just a 920, 940, 930.

 

[Ferrum Master]

I didn't have a Xeon in any of them, just a 920, 940, 930.

Well I had my hands on one MSI X58 Pro-E, this was the worst I ever had seen, that board was so bad it could not handle any ram speeds over 1066 without BSOD, and that wasn't CPU limitation then, the board is at fault usually... also had Sabertooth X58(RIP) and Intel X58SO (again a design failure and BIOS, such a character of a capricious child, but the board clocks so good).

The fun with Xeons is ECC ram, I had it, and OC RAM is such an easy job with such feature, as you get an log immediately as some problems occur and can fine tune timings.

 

[silentbogo]

Thx, guys. I guess I'll have to go with 930 then.

 

[Tatty_Two]

Well I had my hands on one MSI X58 Pro-E, this was the worst I ever had seen, that board was so bad it could not handle any ram speeds over 1066 without BSOD, and that wasn't CPU limitation then, the board is at fault usually... also had Sabertooth X58(RIP) and Intel X58SO (again a design failure and BIOS, such a character of a capricious child, but the board clocks so good).

The fun with Xeons is ECC ram, I had it, and OC RAM is such an easy job with such feature, as you get an log immediately as some problems occur and can fine tune timings.

I'm glad you said that, I always had a suspicion that it was the boards and not the memory controllers that were causing my issues, I had/have an EVGA, Asus and this Gigabyte and all of them have been similar, and beleive me in trying to solve the issues I have flashed more Bioses than I care to remember! On the bright side, my hawell setup has arrived so no doubt I will get a fresh set of issues to contend with

 

[Outback Bronze]

Yeah go the i7 930 mate. I had one a while ago now and I ended up getting 4.5ghz at about 1.4 volts. Was a really good CPU. I cant say you will get that same type of OC tho.
Good Luck.

 

[silentbogo]

When I moved back to Ukraine, I left my i7 920 rig with my brother in states and got a decent laptop instead. If it was possible to mail it over here without risk of damage, all this headache could have been avoided. Unfortunately even in parts and pieces it is cheaper to buy it here.

That little beast was pushing around 4.2 GHz with HT enabled! Had to cool it with gigantic noctua cooler.

I was already thinking about selling my old rig here on TPU and put the money towards a new build =)

 

[Countryside]

When I moved back to Ukraine, I left my i7 920 rig with my brother in states and got a decent laptop instead. If it was possible to mail it over here without risk of damage, all this headache could have been avoided. Unfortunately even in parts and pieces it is cheaper to buy it here.

That little beast was pushing around 4.2 GHz with HT enabled! Had to cool it with gigantic noctua cooler.

I was already thinking about selling my old rig here on TPU and put the money towards a new build =)

I think you already have the answer anyway going with 930 is a good idea. Good luck and Слава Україні!

 

[silentbogo]

I think you already have the answer anyway going with 930 is a good idea. Good luck and Слава Україні!

Thx! Once I get everything together, I'll share some pics and benchmark scores. I want to try something unusual for cooling (it's a secret).

 

[kniaugaudiskis]

If you have a decent X58 mobo you may get a hexa core Xeon X5650 and OC it to 4GHz. They go for around ~$70 on ebay. Just adding my two cents.

 

[RejZoR]

Core i7 920 D0. 4,4GHz (with turbo) at 1,35V. Core i7 980X would be better option though, 6 core Extreme. It's old so it should be fairly affordable.

 

[XL-R8R]

Should just jump on a X5650 like was already pointed out.

6 cores for so few bones? Makes me wanna pull out the X58 rig o' mine and break into some OC madness.

 

[silentbogo]

Core i7 920 D0. 4,4GHz (with turbo) at 1,35V. Core i7 980X would be better option though, 6 core Extreme. It's old so it should be fairly affordable.

High-End CPUs(even the old ones) are still expensive here. So are motherboards. I'm actually going to ask my brother to send me an x58 board from states, because it will cost me more than $200 here.

Should just jump on a X5650 like was already pointed out.

6 cores for so few bones? Makes me wanna pull out the X58 rig o' mine and break into some OC madness.

I'll wait on hexa- or octa-cores until x99 gets cheaper
It's only a temporary build on really tight budget to replace my laptop.

 

[XL-R8R]

If youre going to ask your brother to send you a board, ask him to put a X5650 in it while hes doing that. eBay will provide a nice one for cheap monies.

Also, good luck holding out for "X99 to get cheaper".... its just been introduced.


If $200 X58 boards are out you price range, $400 CPU's, $400 boards and $400 RAM surely is wayyyy out of range?

 

[silentbogo]

If youre going to ask your brother to send you a board, ask him to put a X5650 in it while hes doing that. eBay will provide a nice one for cheap monies.

Also, good luck holding out for "X99 to get cheaper".... its just been introduced.


If $200 X58 boards are out you price range, $400 CPU's, $400 boards and $400 RAM surely is wayyyy out of range?

It'll be at least a year before my x99 build.

For this one there is no reason to spend $200 on used motherboard based on the platform, which is no longer supported. Hopefully my GA-X58A-UD3 will get here undamaged. So far I'm within my $400 budget, including a 22" monitor.

 

[XL-R8R]

I never said spend $200 on a motherboard?

And to be totally fair and honest regarding the X58 platform; having both a 3570K and (if I desire) a equally clocked X58 Xeon, I can attest to their being very little difference in real world applications and scenarios.

I hope by 'not supported any longer' you meant that its just an old, non-manufactured socket... because its still a powerhouse for the money you spend on buying this platform in the second hand market.

 

[silentbogo]

I never said spend $200 on a motherboard?

And to be totally fair and honest regarding the X58 platform; having both a 3570K and (if I desire) a equally clocked X58 Xeon, I can attest to their being very little difference in real world applications and scenarios.

I hope by 'not supported any longer' you meant that its just an old, non-manufactured socket... because its still a powerhouse for the money you spend on buying this platform in the second hand market.

By 'not supported' I mean that there will be no 22nm Haswell or Haswell-E CPU for this platform in any foreseeable future. Maximum upgrade path I have left is replacing a CPU with 6-core Xeon W3690 or Core i7 990X (which will be almost 5 years old by then). At lower price level it is already possible to get 5920K with decent motherboard. The only problem is that DDR4 SDRAM is twice as expensive as DDR3 set.

 

[Countryside]

By 'not supported' I mean that there will be no 22nm Haswell or Haswell-E CPU for this platform in any foreseeable future. Maximum upgrade path I have left is replacing a CPU with 6-core Xeon W3690 or Core i7 990X (which will be almost 5 years old by then). At lower price level it is already possible to get 5920K with decent motherboard. The only problem is that DDR4 SDRAM is twice as expensive as DDR3 set.

I would say a little bit more than twice as expensive