Intel Xeon E5 Platform build. Question

[Cypher0wnz]

Ok so here we go I am building a new machine, well a new to me rig with some new and some used parts. I just got my case delivered today so I have a few pieces already. I have an Intel Xeon E5-2690 it has 8c/16t 2.8Ghz max 3.8 Ghz. I ordered this AliExpress Kit now the processor that come with this kit is the Intel Xeon E5-2630V4 while i was looking at the spec sheets from intel E5-2630v4 and while comparing it to this E5-2690 < I already own this chip it is sitting on my desk. > My question is this the 2630v4 is a 10c/20t @ 2.2Ghz and the max turbo is 3.2 Ghz. Are the extra cores and threads really worth using? If not should I just use the CPU I already have? also their is a power difference that I forgot to mention the v4 TDP is 90Watts and the 2490 is 125 Watts. I might have already answered my own question at this point. However a little input from the community would be much appreciated. Also any recommendations on a cooler would be greatly welcomed. 

 

This is my first build on a server type platform for use as a gaming machine. With all the videos that Linus and the gang make I feel confident that I should be able to fix any issues that might come up. If not I can always come here and do some research or ask a question. 

Thank you everyone for your time and any input that might come from this post. Have an amazing day and stay positive and don't panic. 

 

[AbydosOne]

5 minutes ago, Cypher0wnz said:

Are the extra cores and threads really worth using? If not should I just use the CPU I already have?

Doesn't matter as V1 and V4 chips aren't compatible in the same motherboards.

[Motifator]

I wonder when we'll stop seeing these shitty X99 combos on Alibaba's... why don't you just go with Zen at that point?

[GOTSpectrum]

Just now, Motifator said:

I wonder when we'll stop seeing these shitty X99 combos on Alibaba's... why don't you just go with Zen at that point?

I have a ryzen and a X99 system. 

 

X99 is so cheap, if you really need the PCIe lanes it makes the most sense financially 

[Zando_]

1 minute ago, Motifator said:

I wonder when we'll stop seeing these shitty X99 combos on Alibaba's... why don't you just go with Zen at that point?

^^^ X58 and X79 were a good value proposition for gaming back before Zen/Zen+ had a solid footing. There was a tiny window where X99 was a pretty decent value proposition, but now you can just get a 3600/3700X cheap used, slap it in a $90 motherboard, and call it a day. I believe the old LGA1366/2011/2011-3 stuff is still a good value overseas, thus why you see Chinese companies making boards for them still. On the US market, Ryzen is usually cheaper. 

1 minute ago, GOTSpectrum said:

X99 is so cheap, if you really need the PCIe lanes it makes the most sense financially 

This is true, PCIe lanes are one of the few things making it still worth it. Sheer core/thread count also, if you don't need particularly fast ones, just a lot of them, then you can get a nice stack of cores with LGA2011-3 stuff especially. 

 

FWIW, no need to have a PC be a good value proposition, I still use X299 despite being keenly aware of its shortcomings, because I find the platforms neat to work with (I am slowly moving away from them though, but have yet to actually get rid of my X58/79/99/299 hardware). 

17 minutes ago, Cypher0wnz said:

Ok so here we go I am building a new machine, well a new to me rig with some new and some used parts. I just got my case delivered today so I have a few pieces already. I have an Intel Xeon E5-2690 it has 8c/16t 2.8Ghz max 3.8 Ghz. I ordered this AliExpress Kit now the processor that come with this kit is the Intel Xeon E5-2630V4 while i was looking at the spec sheets from intel E5-2630v4 and while comparing it to this E5-2690 < I already own this chip it is sitting on my desk. > My question is this the 2630v4 is a 10c/20t @ 2.2Ghz and the max turbo is 3.2 Ghz. Are the extra cores and threads really worth using? If not should I just use the CPU I already have? also their is a power difference that I forgot to mention the v4 TDP is 90Watts and the 2490 is 125 Watts.

As @AbydosOne said, the two Xeons are not cross-compatible. There's LGA2011 and LGA2011-3, same physical socket but some slight pinout differences IIRC. V1/V2 Xeons should be on LGA2011 (X79, I forget the C chipset number for servers), V3/V4 on LGA2011-3 (X99 and its respective C chipset). If you want a better gaming machine, you want a 2011-3 platform with a Broadwell chip (this should be V4 Xeons, though I believe some are still Haswell). Broadwell is the first generation of 14nm chips, and has a pretty strong IPC increase over Haswell (V3) and Sandy/Ivy Bridge (V1 and V2). My i7 6950X performed the same as my i7 5960X at 200Mhz lower clocks. If you're just tinkering for fun, then any gen is good 'nuff. 

21 minutes ago, Cypher0wnz said:

Also any recommendations on a cooler would be greatly welcomed. 

I like Noctuas, so whichever tower cooler of theirs you can get for a fair price. These chips do not put out much heat at all until you get into manual OCing and push 1.3v or higher on vCore, which you won't be doing with a Chinese board and a locked Xeon. If you don't like the price of Nocs, look at Thermalright, they typically perform the same or better while being cheaper, and they should have a 120mm tower cooler compatible with LGA2011/2011-3. The nice thing about these sockets is that the threaded holes for CPU coolers are already part of the socket itself, so cooler install is typically easy, you dodge a lot of the shenanigans some cooler mounting systems require. 

24 minutes ago, Cypher0wnz said:

This is my first build on a server type platform for use as a gaming machine. With all the videos that Linus and the gang make I feel confident that I should be able to fix any issues that might come up. If not I can always come here and do some research or ask a question. 

Assuming that's one of the better Chinese boards, you should have no issues. A few folks here have had even the older ones and unless you're asking them to do a bunch of advanced stuff, they're pretty much issue-free. 

[jaslion]

33 minutes ago, Cypher0wnz said:

This is my first build on a server type platform for use as a gaming machine.

Its not gonna be good at gaming tho.

 

Either way v1 and v4 xeons use different chipsets they are NOT intercompatible.

 

Id cancel the order and simply get a used ryzen based system.

 

Even a ryzen 1600 WIPES THE FLOOR with that xeon you have.

 

Hard in single core and also still in multi core.

 

This is not a good gaming platform. Even the best gaming v4 xeon is still easily beaten by a ryzen 1700 which is available for like 60$ used.

 

Yes a whole used ryzen kit will be like 140$ so 15$ more than the xeon kit. But that will include a non shit b450 board and 2 sticks of 8gb of ram.

 

That single stick of tam is going to KILL the xeons performance even more.

 

Cancel the order and shop somewhere else used.

[Needfuldoer]

Used Xeons are great if you want to build a machine that takes tons of cheap RAM and needs 40 PCIe lanes, but the affordable ones aren't all that great for gaming these days.

[Cypher0wnz]

Thank you everyone for all of the replies, I appreciate the compatibility information. This system is really just more of an extra machine and not for a primary setup. I am hoping to go with the next AMD platform with RTX 5000 hopefully next year when things start coming out. Trying to save up about 5,000 USD for the next real build. My current main system is still able to run most of the new games not at 4K or anything with real ray tracing. Currently I am running a intel i7-6700, 16GB 2133, RTX 2070 and some other stuff. It can run most stuff pretty well. Older games run well at 4K so that works. However thank you everyone for the input and your time.