Xeon Owners Club

[phill]

Hello everybody.

It has been a long time since my last post and the reason is because i took a break from building PCs after my Daughter was born.

In the last few weeks i have been thinking about building a Xeon PC but i am a bit lost about which CPU buy i have 3 in mind but still cant decide that is why i need advices from you guys.

1- Xeon E5-1650 V2
2- Xeon E5-1650 V3
3- Xeon E5-1680 V3

Of course i want to Overclock and the PC is going to be used to play Games.

Any suggestions/advice will be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

A friend tried running a Xeon as a gaming PC and it didn't work so well He found the lack of CPU speed was a limiting factor and as for overclocking you'll get pretty much nowhere with it as it will be limited by the BCLK which might go up to 102 to 103Mhz maybe.. I think some hit 106 but that's a bit of a hit and miss thing...

 

[Zyll Goliat]

A friend tried running a Xeon as a gaming PC and it didn't work so well He found the lack of CPU speed was a limiting factor and as for overclocking you'll get pretty much nowhere with it as it will be limited by the BCLK which might go up to 102 to 103Mhz maybe.. I think some hit 106 but that's a bit of a hit and miss thing...

@phill you can OC @1600 E5 Xeon-series they are unlocked you just need a decent mobo......

 

[phill]

@phill you can OC @1600 E5 Xeon-series they are unlocked you just need a decent mobo......

I apologise I thought that was for just X79 when that stopped?? (which would be the V2 CPU...) I thought from V3 they never worked??

 

[Zyll Goliat]

I apologise I thought that was for just X79 when that stopped?? (which would be the V2 CPU...) I thought from V3 they never worked??

You don't need to apologize @phill and yes you can OC both V2(X79) and V3(X99)....it's about the series all 1600 series are unlocked.....

 

[dorsetknob]

A friend tried running a Xeon as a gaming PC and it didn't work so well He found the lack of CPU speed was a limiting factor

E5 1680 v2 turbos up to 3.9Ghz on 1 core plenty fast enough for gaming

 

[FireFox]

Sure....what ever do the job for you chief but 1680 V2 ain't much cheaper...What about the mobo and cooling?With decent board and cooler those CPU's can OC like crazy......

For Motherboard I was thinking Asus Rampage IV Extreme, Asus Rampage IV Black Edition or Evga Dark and for Cooler still haven't decide yet.

I really want/wanted to get the V3 because you can use DDR4 and for Motherboard I could use my old Asus Rampage V Extreme.

 

[dorsetknob]

8 Core goodness that will turbo up to 3.8Ghz = E5 1680 v3 still good enough for gaming

 

[Zyll Goliat]

For Motherboard I was thinking Asus Rampage IV Extreme, Asus Rampage IV Black Edition or Evga Dark and for Cooler still haven't decide yet.

I really want/wanted to get the V3 because you can use DDR4 and for Motherboard I could use my old Asus Rampage V Extreme.

Aye chief I hear you and I totally agree and it is not such a big difference in price anymore it should perform a bit better and it will use a bit less power...it's a newer tech and also you have NVME on board....

 

[dorsetknob]

and for Cooler still haven't decide yet.

I'm Sure you got Blocks and Rads in storage to plumb that into your Chiller

 

[FireFox]

you have NVME on board...

That + as said before DDR4

I'm Sure you got Blocks and Rads in storage to plumb that into your Chiller

I sold everything.

 

[phill]

You don't need to apologize @phill and yes you can OC both V2(X79) and V3(X99)....it's about the series all 1600 series are unlocked.....

E5 1680 v2 turbos up to 3.9Ghz on 1 core plenty fast enough for gaming

For Motherboard I was thinking Asus Rampage IV Extreme, Asus Rampage IV Black Edition or Evga Dark and for Cooler still haven't decide yet.

I really want/wanted to get the V3 because you can use DDR4 and for Motherboard I could use my old Asus Rampage V Extreme.

@TheMadDutchDude Tried it and found it a little laggy with the Xeon, which was my only concern for @Knoxx29 really.. I hope he has better luck

I think I must have a problem having all of those boards here

I take it it must be the E5 2 series that are locked then?

 

[Zyll Goliat]

E5 1680 v2 turbos up to 3.9Ghz on 1 core plenty fast enough for gaming

Indeed...Those CPU still can handle powerfull GPU's with ease and with a bit of OC they can push to the limit even the best GPU's today.....and I will keep dreaming about one of those CPU'S....tho' Num.1 in my Wish list is 2697 V3(even V2 will do the job)...sure they are locked but they have more then good turbo and with a bit of BCLK OC and hacked bios mod(only X99) you can push all 14 cores to work on turbo (for 2697 V3 3,6Ghz) and that is still perfect for gaming and even better for editing....

I take it it must be the E5 2 series that are locked then?

Yeah E5 2 are LOCKED...tho' there are still some tricks to push them a bit more.

 

[phill]

Do the sockets have any particular power limit for these big Xeons @Zyll Goliath ? I'm upgrading a few R730 servers I have here at home and I'm just curious

I'm looking forward to the madness of a Xeon for gaming

 

[Zyll Goliat]

Do the sockets have any particular power limit for these big Xeons @Zyll Goliath ? I'm upgrading a few R730 servers I have here at home and I'm just curious

I'm looking forward to the madness of a Xeon for gaming

Hmmm...not sure but I don't think so.....

 

[phill]

The only reason I ask about it is that with the cooling I have for the servers, I try to find more efficient CPUs rather than 18 core plus monsters, but I'm always open to suggestions for my daily rig

Still, @Knoxx29 it's great seeing you back here, how is your little girl doing?? Growing up fast I bet!

 

[FireFox]

I'm looking forward to the madness of a Xeon for gaming

A few years ago somewhere in the Forum i posted when i used one of my SR2 Classified + 2× X5675 4.5Ghz and the Evga 1080 Classified for Gaming, honestly i didn't have issues running any Game.

Still, @Knoxx29 it's great seeing you back here, how is your little girl doing?? Growing up fast I bet!

Thanks @phill.

She is doing pretty well already 1 year last October, looks like she will be a tall Girl considering that the doctors said she is too big for her age

 

[dorsetknob]

TPD 140w stock

 

[phill]

I've not tried gaming with my SR-2 yet... I think I was more worried about the power consumption

Glad to hear she's doing well... Sophia is 9 months just and she's already eating whatever we do and more besides She's growing well and has 6 teeth coming through... Gotta watch those damn fingers now!! Sophia was long as well when she was born.. Must be something in the air I think!!

 

[Dinnercore]

A few years ago somewhere in the Forum i posted when i used one of my SR2 Classified + 2× X5675 4.5Ghz and the Evga 1080 Classified for Gaming, honestly i didn't have issues running any Game.

Can confirm :

I scored 22 266 in Fire Strike

Intel Xeon Processor X5690, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER x 1, 49144 MB, 64-bit Windows 10}

www.3dmark.com

 

[lexluthermiester]

For me that is 1680 V3 no question about it.....tho' they are still a bit pricey.....

I have to agree with this. The 1680v3 seems the best of the selections you've listed. However...

what about the 1680 V2?

... if you go with this one, the price is much better and the performance after an OC(presuming a good board) will be much more attractive.

The V3 is still going for around $300/350GBP and for that kind of money a Ryzen would serve you much better.

With decent board and cooler those CPU's can OC like crazy......

This.

 

[Grog6]

I'm using an x5670 in a P6TD deluxe, and it will run 4.4GHz, no problem.
It runs Much cooler than the i7-920 that was in there, that never broke 4.2ghz.
Note: some x79 mobos won't go over 22x multiplier; mine will not. It's a known problem.

22x multiplier, 200fsb, and ~1.55V; I had to tweak around on it.

Under win7, it's about 25% slower than my X79 E5-1650v2 at the same speed.

I finally found out why my x79 is unstable; I bent a pin when I swapped in a 2650v2 to see what I could get. (not much, lol. It's 10/20 cores, but 2.xGHz, so Bclk overclocking only, and this mobo wouldn't OC for crap; probably bent the pin before it got in the socket.)
I's one of the vcc monitoring pins so I have to fix it and go back to 4.4GHz; I had to clock down to 4GHz because of the bent pin.

 

[Dinnercore]

22x multiplier, 200fsb, and ~1.55V

Are we talking Vcore? This seems a little high for 32nm, you use that daily or just for benches? My X5650 runs the same 22x, @210fsb = 4,6GHz with 1,48V and I don´t dare to use that much voltage daily.

 

[Grog6]

Yes, it is. That's what I had to do to get handbrake to run without crashing; it's pretty high, I admit.
It's ran that without issues for months.

It still runs ~70C max, at full 12 cores loaded in handbrake, with a Thermalright black 120 air cooler.
This cooler is within 2 degrees of the AIO I put on the x79 3930k system, that I removed the Air cooler from in an "Upgrade", lol.
More risk for little performance.


The 920 ran 80C+, at 4.3GHz. It always crashed on handbrake; I never got it stable, even with insane voltage, lol.
I tried everything to hit 4.4, but 4.2 was the best it would do stable.

 

[Mr.Scott]

Mmmmm.......... here's an actual.
My 5660 on decent air (Thermalright True and 110 cfm Scythe fan).
Tough bench. Will run the processor hot quick.
Processor will do 4.3-4.4 on any other bench. Same temps and voltage.

Anything over 1.4-1.45v seems pretty high to me unless you're doing something sub-ambient.

 

[Grog6]

I'll have to get HWBot; I'd bet my experience will follow yours.

Some programs load the processor way worse than actual usage, and run fine; but some programs ( handbrake) make stuff crash, that the benchmarks don't.

That computer is converting a bunch of videos to mp4 for my sis's TV to play, and it's only hitting 70C, on 6/12 cores.

The SAS drives help video conversion better than you'd think. Better than SCSI, which is the other computer.
I salvaged a Perc card from a dell, for 4 sas drives; it rocks, and was free.

I have yet to be able to OC the $139 socket 604 server I bought; but it has three 15 disk scsi raid arrays that make video editing easy and fast.
It disturbs the cats, so I don't run it unless I have to.
It sounds like a 747 taxiing to a runway, so it's not an easy thing to run 24/7.

It's what we run as our game server tho; I may fire up Duke Nukem forever this weekend, just because.