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Core 2 Quad vs. Xeon

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by Xir, 22 Jul 2008.

  1. Xir

    Xir Modder

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    Hello,

    maybe I'm a bit slow but:

    Where's the difference between the Core 2 Quad Q6600 and the Xeon X3220? They've moved togethen in price very close (after the latest Intel pricedrop)

    Core 2 Quad Q6600 :
    4 Core, 2 × 4 MByte L2, 65 nm, Socket LGA775, 2,4 GHz, FSB1066, 105 Watt, Intel pricing: 193 US$
    Xeon X3220
    4 Core, 2 × 4 MByte L2, 65 nm, Socket LGA775, 2,4 GHz, FSB1066, 105 Watt, Intel pricing: 198 US$

    Am I missing something?
     
  2. wyx087

    wyx087 Homeworld 3 is happening!!

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    you really want the G0 stepping of q6600, which is rated at only 95w.
     
  3. okapi

    okapi What's a zebra?

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    The label on the packaging. There is absolutely no other difference.
     
  4. Cupboard

    Cupboard I'm not a modder.

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    I am probably wrong but I had thought that the Xeons were slightly better quality, i.e they are all designed in the same way but some finish their manufacture slightly better, like the difference between Tesco Carrots and Tesco Finest* Carrots or something.
     
  5. cjmUK

    cjmUK Old git.

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    This is my understanding too.
     
  6. ParaHelix.org

    ParaHelix.org What's a Dremel?

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    Xeons are primarily designed for servers, rather than your standard desktop, it seems they are "finished off" better at the factories to make sure they are 100% fine for running 24/7. Hope this helped.
     
  7. chrisb2e9

    chrisb2e9 Dont do that...

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    Can you even buy the B3 stepping? I thought that they stopped making them almost a year ago. you would think that the stock would of run out by now otherwise there would be threads about how people ordering the 6600's are still getting B3 chips when they wanted the G0.
     
  8. wyx087

    wyx087 Homeworld 3 is happening!!

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    just pointing out, since he listed 105w q6600
     
  9. chrisb2e9

    chrisb2e9 Dont do that...

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    yeah I know. I assume it must of been a typo on the stores part.
     
  10. Smegwarrior

    Smegwarrior Fighting the war on smeg

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    What does G0 stepping mean?
     
  11. cjmUK

    cjmUK Old git.

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    The original Q6600 had B3 stepping and was rated at 105W. Later on they released a G0 stepping rated at 95W.

    The 'stepping' is effectively a version number: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stepping_(version_numbers)
     
  12. LordLuciendar

    LordLuciendar meh.

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    At the last Intel TST we were at we were informed from Intel server support staff that they are 100% identical chips. They are even supported (if you put a core 2 in a server MB that is).
     
  13. Smegwarrior

    Smegwarrior Fighting the war on smeg

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    I am sure I have read somewhere that the Xeon CPU's allow you to use 2 separate CPU's in dual (or multi, e.g. 4, 8 etc) CPU motherboards but if you put 2 or more normal dual or quad core CPU in a multi CPU motherboard it won't work.
     
  14. sjhujh

    sjhujh Minimodder

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    I maybe completely missing the point here, but I remember a Custom PC explaining the diffrence... something to do with the with the way that the prefetch (i may have it wrong i'm trying to find the info via google) The Xeons are optimised for server based tasks (obviously) where as the Core 2 Quad are optimised for desktop based tasks... This equates to slower performance in say gaming for a xenon, but much better performance in encoding etc etc...

    edit: Saying that I don't think that its a huge difference...
     
  15. sjhujh

    sjhujh Minimodder

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    http://www.custompc.co.uk/labs/601820/cpus/products.html -

    "However, the Xeon X3200-series CPUs aren't just Core 2 Quads with a different name engraved in the top of the heatspreader. As Xeons are aimed at servers and workstations, the four prefetchers are tuned for these sorts of applications, rather than standard desktop applications and games. As a result of this subtle tuning, the X3220 was 3 per cent slower than the otherwise identical Core 2 Quad Q6600 in our Media Benchmarks, and 25 per cent slower in games. However, in our Folding@home test and Cinebench R10, the X3220 was 3 per cent faster than the Q6600. Unless you're building a server or workstation, you're better off buying a Q6600 over an X3220"

    this is the bit of interest... hope it helps...
     
  16. ParaHelix.org

    ParaHelix.org What's a Dremel?

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  17. lamboman

    lamboman What's a Dremel?

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    Something isn't right there, though. There might be a small difference, but it certainly shouldn't be 25%. Nor have I read any other test where the difference is that large.

    I would go for the G0 Xeon X3220 if you can. Mainly because they can take 85C as a peak, rather than the lower 71C of the Q6600.
     
  18. Splynncryth

    Splynncryth 0x665E3FF6,0x46CC,...

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    I don't know if this is terribly helpful, but here is a dump from CPU-Z of a Conroe based Xeon:
    Processor 1 (ID = 0)
    Number of cores 2 (max 2)
    Number of threads 2 (max 2)
    Name Intel Xeon 3060
    Codename Conroe
    Specification Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU 3060 @ 2.40GHz
    Package Socket 775 LGA (platform ID = 0h)
    CPUID 6.F.6
    Extended CPUID 6.F
    Core Stepping B2
    Technology 65 nm
    Core Speed 2400.3 MHz (9.0 x 266.7 MHz)
    Rated Bus speed 1066.8 MHz
    Stock frequency 2400 MHz
    Instructions sets MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, EM64T
    L1 Data cache 2 x 32 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64-byte line size
    L1 Instruction cache 2 x 32 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64-byte line size
    L2 cache 4096 KBytes, 16-way set associative, 64-byte line size
    FID/VID Control yes
    FID range 6.0x - 9.0x
    max VID 1.350 V
    Features XD, VT
     
  19. notatoad

    notatoad pretty fing wonderful

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    edit: ignore me, i said the same as lamboman but got the numbers wrong.
     
  20. Moriquendi

    Moriquendi Bit Tech Biker

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    That's the 5xxx series, the 3xxx series are single socket only. In fact socket 775 is single socket only whereas multi-processor boards/processors use socket 771 which is incompatible.

    I would be surprised if the performance difference were 25%, Xeons are not only designed for servers where the usage patterns are significantly different from a standard desktop but also for workstations where the usage patter would be very similar I imagine with the only important difference being reliability.

    Moriquendi
     

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