Curious about Xeon

[Ace Lean]

I really want to get a Xeon Cpu for my new rig which will  be enclosed in a corsair 250D...

 

I was told the Xeon would be perfect for the small case for a lower heat output.

 

I will be using the rig for gaming and school so is it worth it? and which xeon should I buy... keep it in the 200-350 range I guess..

[Rheinwasser]

1231v3.

its basically an 4790 without the iGPU. yes, its worth it. but it consumes exactly as much power.

[Ace Lean]

1231v3.

its basically an 4790 without the iGPU. yes, its worth it. but it consumes exactly as much power.

 

So what are the pros of using the xeon then?

[Real_PhillBert]

So what are the pros of using the xeon then?

Its cheaper than a 4790K.

[Judahnator]

So what are the pros of using the xeon then?

 

Think of the Xeon parts as super-high binned CPU's. They will consume the same amount of power, but will output less heat.

They also have features that consumer CPU's dont need, like ECC RAM support.

[Rheinwasser]

So what are the pros of using the xeon then?

its cheaper.

and you can use ecc ram with it and it has a few additional features which you most likely wont benefit from.

[SteveGrabowski]

I really want to get a Xeon Cpu for my new rig which will  be enclosed in a corsair 250D...

 

I was told the Xeon would be perfect for the small case for a lower heat output.

 

I will be using the rig for gaming and school so is it worth it? and which xeon should I buy... keep it in the 200-350 range I guess..

 

I have a Xeon E3-1231v3, and it stays very cool on the stock cooler (55C max temp recorded playing Crysis 3 Very High for a couple of hours with room temperature ambient) and runs on very low voltages. It's slightly weaker than an i7-4770 (for example, in Firestrike my Xeon gets 10270 Physics while an i7-4770k at stock gets 10484 Physics), but has better temperatures and is significantly cheaper. It scored 731 in cinebench. It's a monster gaming CPU, as even in Crysis 3 I'm always at 100% GPU usage when I play 1080p Very High with VSync off. Right now the best deal for a Xeon is the Xeon E3-1241v3 at $260 with the promo code GIVELOVE over at SuperBiiz.

 

http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=E3-1241V3B&c=CJ

 

The Xeon E3-1241v3 is 100MHz faster than the Xeon E3-1231v3 and $3 cheaper right now. If you get a Xeon E3, get one ending in either a 1 or 6 instead of a 0 or 5, and the 1,6 are Haswell Refresh and run cooler than the 0,5, which are original Haswell. Also anything in the 1220's doesn't have hyperthreading, while anything 1230 or above does.

[Ace Lean]

I think I am going to go ahead and buy a Xeon E3- 1245

[SteveGrabowski]

I think I am going to go ahead and buy a Xeon E3- 1245

 

Don't. Get an E3-1246 if you need an IGP. 1245 is original Haswell. Another poster has the E3-1230v3 (original Haswell) and he said his temps are awful (80s on the stock cooler), while the Haswell Refresh version of the same chip that I have, E3-1231v3, runs in the 50s at load on the stock cooler.

[Blade of Grass]

Think of the Xeon parts as super-high binned CPU's. They will consume the same amount of power, but will output less heat.

They also have features that consumer CPU's dont need, like ECC RAM support.

Just a note, if they consume the same amount of power, they will output the same amount of heat. The only form of work (the physics type) that processors do is converting electrical energy into heat energy, so any watt of electrical energy will be directly converted into a watt of heat energy. 

[i_build_nanosuits]

1231v3.

its basically an 4790 without the iGPU. yes, its worth it. but it consumes exactly as much power.

 

Think of the Xeon parts as super-high binned CPU's. They will consume the same amount of power, but will output less heat.

They also have features that consumer CPU's dont need, like ECC RAM support.

xeon are indeed binned chips and this means they can do the advertised clockspeed at much lower voltages (useful for server chips that runs in cramped dirty servers for 10+ years, hence the binning process).

so yeah, the xeon does consume noticeably less energy and therefore they run cooler + the fact that the entire igp section of the chip is disabled also improve energy efficiency!

[sgtcool]

I really want to get a Xeon Cpu for my new rig which will be enclosed in a corsair 250D...

I was told the Xeon would be perfect for the small case for a lower heat output.

I will be using the rig for gaming and school so is it worth it? and which xeon should I buy... keep it in the 200-350 range I guess..

If you buy a 20 core Xeon i think itll run bad in games,because games use 4 cores max

[typographie]

So what are the pros of using the xeon then?

 

Some Xeons used in server/business/high-end computing applications are designed for heavy multithreading, with 8-20 cores clocked relatively slowly. But a Xeon E3-1231 V3 is just a rebranded Core i7-4770 or -4790, which makes it a way for the well-informed to get a quad-core, hyperthreaded Haswell processor for about $50 less than the cheapest i7 SKU. You give up the integrated GPU (which is actually somewhat helpful for recording games via QuickSync), and none of the above can overclock. The pro is basically just the price.

 

If this is primarily for gaming, I'd rather recommend an overclocked Core i5-4690K for about the same $250. Per-core performance is still way more important in gaming.

[Ace Lean]

Some Xeons used in server/business/high-end computing applications are designed for heavy multithreading, with 8-20 cores clocked relatively slowly. But a Xeon E3-1231 V3 is just a rebranded Core i7-4770 or -4790, which makes it a way for the well-informed to get a quad-core, hyperthreaded Haswell processor for about $50 less than the cheapest i7 SKU. You give up the integrated GPU (which is actually somewhat helpful for recording games via QuickSync), and none of the above can overclock. The pro is basically just the price.

 

If this is primarily for gaming, I'd rather recommend an overclocked Core i5-4690K for about the same $250. Per-core performance is still way more important in gaming.

 

The i5 4690k has been the other option that I was thinking about getting...  I am just worried about heat output in such a small case... Thats why I am getting a blower GPU.... (still undecided)

[typographie]

The i5 4690k has been the other option that I was thinking about getting...  I am just worried about heat output in such a small case... Thats why I am getting a blower GPU.... (still undecided)

 

What CPU cooler are you considering? I think that case is compatible with all-in-one coolers, so something like an H100i should be an option. I can't imagine that an i5-4690K with an H110i or similar with have any problem with overclocking in that case.

 

All of the processors being considered are rated at either 84 or 88 Watt TDP, so they aren't likely to vary much in heat output. Aside from the i5 if overclocked, of course. But if you don't think overclocking is going to be doable, the Xeon is a better choice than a locked i5 or locked i7.

 

The blower GPU isn't a bad idea as long as it's something that runs fairly cool, like a GTX 960 or 970. You won't want an R9 290(X) with a blower.

[imperialplanet]

I love my 1230v3, id recommend it.

[Ace Lean]

What CPU cooler are you considering? I think that case is compatible with all-in-one coolers, so something like an H100i should be an option. I can't imagine that an i5-4690K with an H110i or similar with have any problem with overclocking in that case.

 

All of the processors being considered are rated at either 84 or 88 Watt TDP, so they aren't likely to vary much in heat output. Aside from the i5 if overclocked, of course. But if you don't think overclocking is going to be doable, the Xeon is a better choice than a locked i5 or locked i7.

 

The blower GPU isn't a bad idea as long as it's something that runs fairly cool, like a GTX 960 or 970. You won't want an R9 290(X) with a blower.

 

Hyper 212 Evo possibly, I would probably have trouble with installing a water cooler.... 

 

My problem is I am not trying to spend so much on a 300 dollar GPU for a 970 but is the 960 really all that good, I am going to be doing 1080p gaming so how will it do? Are there any better choices out there.

[typographie]

Hyper 212 Evo possibly, I would probably have trouble with installing a water cooler.... 

 

My problem is I am not trying to spend so much on a 300 dollar GPU for a 970 but is the 960 really all that good, I am going to be doing 1080p gaming so how will it do? Are there any better choices out there.

 

The GTX 960 was a bit more boring than expected, but it's a good card that performs where it probably should for it's price. In a mid-tower I'd probably steer someone toward an R9 280/280X instead but the 960 sips power and would be well-suited to a cool, quiet mini-ITX machine. In terms of performance it's not too far behind a GTX 770, so certainly fine for 1080p.

 

I see photos of the 250D with 240 mm radiators so I'm fairly sure it's designed to allow for them, at least Corsair's own. But if you're going to stick to a cheaper air cooler it might be better to avoid overclocking in this machine. I'd go with either the $250 locked Xeon, or if you want to go cheaper, a Core i5-4590/4690/whatever.