I was considering a new build with GA-P55-UD4P as the mobo of choice, and G.Skill Rapjaws 1600 as memory, gtx 470... The main thing I will be using my PC will be for gaming...a bit of rendering too.. From what I've researched, Xeon X-3440 seems like a good buy... Socket: LGA 1156 Price: between that of i5 750 and i7 860 Overclocking: can go up to 3.8 without changing voltages Stock clock: 2.53 GHz HT: yes Also, from what I have heard, it can use the same hardware as say, an i5 750 or an i7 860...ive seen some people using this setup on some forums and newegg etc... Should I go forward with this processor or is there anything that I need to be aware of when choosing this processor for gaming like known issues or compatibility.... Any help is appreciated....also if someone uses a similar setup, please give your feedback...
Well I dont have a Xeon but the thing I would comment on here is that Xeons are really designed for servers / workstations, so I doubt they will be very optimized for games. Having said that I have no experience with xeons apart from on servers and workstations so I could not really comment. I guess they cant be bad as I do know people use them. I have a slight tingle at the back of my head which says that xeons may need a special motherboard or RAM (registered) which you may need to look at However I would say that the i5 750 or i7 860 are safer bets for gaming. The 750 if you are going to overclock and the 860 if you are not going to.
I'm also planning a fairly meaty upgrade in the next few days. I'm currently using an E6300 that was overclocked to 3+Ghz but for no apparent reason inst stable there any more. It's 3 years old now and getting a little tired so I'm having a similar quandary to you. I'm considering the i5 750 or the i7 860 or quite possibly the i7 930. I wonder whether I would notice a significant difference between them particularly as I plan to game heavily with them. Sorry to hijack your thread a little, its kinda along the same line
There's absolutely no reason for a gamer to pick a Xeon chip, it's pretty much that simple. i5 750 is good value for money and the 860 is for people who want 930 perfomance but can't afford it.
for a gaming rig get the i5 750, OC the crap out of it and slurge the money you save on a better gfx card.
Absolutely no problem... BTW IMO, one should not upgrade now solely because their previous system is getting outdated....and if its absolutely necessary to upgrade, don't go for LGA-1336 UNLESS you are going for crossfire/sli setup....if you need to upgrade, wait till Q2 2011 when new sockets come out... Thanks for your opinion...there are a few things of not though: 1. It doesn't need some special memory...so I am not spending extra on the memory... 2. It costs only ~$20 more than the Core i5 750, has HT and has almost the same base clocks...
Why ask the question if you don't listen to the answers? Xeon's are for SERVERS. Thats: S E R V E R S You are gaming.
Well, for one, I asked for an opinion not an ORDER!!!! Thats: O P I N I O N "There's absolutely no reason for a gamer to pick a Xeon chip, it's pretty much that simple." That's called a dogmatic expression....if you really have a point to prove, do so with logic or facts to prove....people DO game on Xeons and if you do have a reason why one shouldn't prove it; else just keep shut....
Sounds to me like you know exactly what you want. So why did you bother starting this thread at all? Its pretty clear you don't care about the opinions that you asked for. So go buy your Xeon and be the kool guy running a server chip in a gaming machine.
@OP Whilst I can understand why going for a Xeon may be a tempting option, it's an unknown at the end of the day. It may be that you happen to be the guy who can't get it to work. Play it safe and get an i5 750.
The Xeon has hyper threading the i5 750 doesnt, being a server based chip they generally require less voltage iirc so if the price is about the same, and your mobo supports it go for the xeon, I would.
theres no reason why it shouldnt work, and if it does you will be getting a better chip for not alot more money. one thing, the CPU support list of your MB only has the consumer chips - so you are on your own if it doesnt work... http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support/Motherboard/CPUSupport_Model.aspx?ProductID=3160&ver=#anchor_os
its exactly the same core as the 750 - only difference being it has a lower multiplier and HT enabled. it might overclock very well (you dont know), but the 750 is a known quantity and is the safer route.
Thankyou for your opinion...although you do have a point, I stumbled across this thread AFTER I had started this one...At least 4 guys have a Xeon X3440 which they have overclocked to 3.8 on air with HT enabled: http://www.overclock.net/intel-cpus/583473-overclocking-p55-asrock-extreme-xeon-x3440-2.html Yeah and X3440 has extra features such as demand based switching which saves power and I dont remember where but I heard that server processors run cooler compared to a similarly spec'ed i5 or i7...the rest is almost the same.... http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=42928 http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=42915 Yeah I thought about that but since it is working for everyone that I have come across as of now, I think I will keep my fingers crossed
Yeah, that is the only thing that goes in favour of 750...and it is a major one... And I really think bit-tech should do a review of this specific processor...comparison of this against 920, 860, 750 and phenom II x4 965/955 would be sweet... And BTW if I can overclock a 2.53 GHz Core2Duo E7200 to 4.1 GHz on stock intel cooler, I can pretty much handle a Xeon I think... And I will be getting a Corsair H50 for cpu cooling as well...
If anything, you probably won't notice any difference between them for gaming. Any of those CPUs coupled with your selected GPU will murder any game. As you said you might do a bit of rendering, I would put quite a bit of weighting on that. I know that the i5 isn't as good as the i7 for rendering, and as the xeon is basically an i5 with HT, I am not sure if the HT will make up the difference or if the architecture is just not capable of keeping up in the rendering department. It seems like you are going to go Xeon anyway, but I thought I would put my thoughts forwards. If you do go that route, make sure you post back so we know how successful or not it is.
OK... 1) I don't approve of how you've gone against Ph4ZeD with an "STFU" response when you asked for opinion, although I accept that he should have made the point a bit more clearly. That is: The Core iX processors have pre-fetchers optimised for consumer applications (gaming, Photoshop, etc). Xeon processors have their pre-fetchers optimised for HPC applications (Cinebench, Euler3D and Flammap are the only ones I've head of that benefit Xeons, but they're all benchmarks). Your graphics card will be the limiter on games, and Photoshop will probably benefit the faster-clocked, more optimised i5-750, especially when the extra budget will go to a better graphics card (at this point in time, ATi hold the performance/price crown by a considerable margin - you'll get better framerates acorss nearly all games by going for the 5870 as opposed to the GTX470) 2) As far as overclocking goes, YMMV (that's "Your mileage may vary", since you're new) - you're not GUARANTEED 3.8GHz on stock voltages, because you don't know what stock voltages will be for your chip before you plug it in. For example, with LLC enabled, I can get 3.6GHz out of my i7-920 C0 with less-than-stock voltages. Not many people can say that! 3) Give us a budget! We can't tell you what setup's gonna be best for your particular situation without that! If you're heavily multi-tasking outside of games, you might be better off with a Phenom II X6. Likewise, if your budget constrains graphics cards choice, you might find yourself at the same limit with most of the graphics cards available. In an ideal world, we'd have resolution, budget, components you can carry over from any other PCs, and EXACT games played/applications used. If you provide them, we can give you a full build. Probaby save you some money in the process.
+10^(infinity) 1. Sorry phazed, and you but I couldn't resist 2. If n00b is what you are calling me , I am a bit better than a n00b...I overclocked my E7200 to 4.1GHz on reference Intel Cooler and that was my first ever overclock 3. My budget will be around 1500 Canadian Dollars (doesn't include peripherals, monitor etc.) and I am sorry but I can't predict how much will that be in Pounds...gaming includes all games including the likes of Crysis, FC2, BFBC2, Assassins Creed II, COD, pretty much every good game...apps include mainly photoshop, WinRar, 1080p playback on MPC HC...other apps include C4D, 3DSmax, and so on....resolution is full HD(1920x1080)...use AA and AF in games.... And thanks again for the reply....
Bear in mind: as the Gigabyte website doesn't mention support for the CPU, that the BIOS may not like it either and you may be left waiting a week for returns etc. I'd say go for the i5-750.
