Those Xeon E3's flying off the shelves: did its compatibility with consumer motherboards made the success of E3?

[maxtch]

I believe some non-overclockers here have a Xeon E3 based rig with on a consumer motherboard. Those E3's packs significantly higher CP ratio than equivalent i7's by performing similar but cost way less money and in some cases getting rid of the unused iGPU.

Rumors say that the reason Intel cut off support of Xeon E3's on consumer boards because their consumer (responsible of consumer-grade stuff) and business divisions (responsible of server- & workstation-grade stuff) are separate units. The business division got mad seeing their Xeon E3's flying off shelves but their server-grade chipsets stall in sales.

So do you think that the success of Xeon E3's, especially revisions of E3-1230 up to Haswell Refresh (E3-1230, E3-1230v2, E3-1230v3 and E3-1231v3) are due to their compatibility with consumer grade boards?

[Starelementpoke]

I believe some non-overclockers here have a Xeon E3 based rig with on a consumer motherboard. Those E3's packs significantly higher CP ratio than equivalent i7's by performing similar but cost way less money and in some cases getting rid of the unused iGPU.

So do you think that the success of Xeon E3's, especially revisions of E3-1230 up to Haswell Refresh (E3-1230, E3-1230v2, E3-1230v3 and E3-1231v3) are due to their compatibility with consumer grade boards?

That plus they were locked I7's for $80-$100 less.

[Atmos]

Xeons for the savy consumer, are often a far better option than the available i5.

So, in short, yea its basically what you've already said.

They're compatible, and 9 times out of 10 better than the i5, anyone who knows their tech stuff I'd hope would spring for the better cpu :3

[Enderman]

yes

 

and now intel is putting a stop to that by making the skylake xeons require a server motherboard

[CommandMan7]

They are releasing gaming boards with server chipsets, although no word on pricing as far as I can tell:

 

http://www.tweaktown.com/pressrelease/10280/asus-announces-e3-pro-gaming-v5-motherboard-based-intel-c232-chipset/index.html

 

http://www.tweaktown.com/pressrelease/10279/asrock-announces-intel-c232-chipset-motherboards/index.html

 

If these remain in the $100 to $150 range, Xeons would probably continue to be a better bang/buck than the I7's.

[Slyhawk]

yes

 

and now intel is putting a stop to that by making the skylake xeons require a server motherboard

why would they stop it though since its just an increase in sales, is the pricing in US that different between the Xeon and i5? 

[Enderman]

why would they stop it though since its just an increase in sales, is the pricing in US that different between the Xeon and i5? 

the pricing is different between the xeon and the i7

about $100 different

and consumers are supposed to buy the consumer chips, not the server chips

[SteveGrabowski0]

the pricing is different between the xeon and the i7

about $100 different

and consumers are supposed to buy the consumer chips, not the server chips

 

It was more like $60. E.g., i7-4771 for $310 vs Xeon E3-1231v3 for $250. Still a pretty big difference for those of us who could give a shit about integrated graphics though.

 

EDIT: Holy shit, the i7-4771 is $330 now on newegg. It was $310 last year when I bought my Xeon for $250.

[runit3]

@maxtch yep, what you said. Add in the fact that Intel undoubtedly knew that it was only a matter of time before MOBO manufacturers got around to releasing BIOS's capable of BCLK OCing non-K SKU on Skylake. The only chips worth buying would be Xeon's. i5 price, i7 core count, and with a little OC magic -equal clock speeds.

[maxtch]

why would they stop it though since its just an increase in sales, is the pricing in US that different between the Xeon and i5?

E3-1231v3 is slightly more expensive than i5-4690K

[maxtch]

They are releasing gaming boards with server chipsets, although no word on pricing as far as I can tell:

http://www.tweaktown.com/pressrelease/10280/asus-announces-e3-pro-gaming-v5-motherboard-based-intel-c232-chipset/index.html

http://www.tweaktown.com/pressrelease/10279/asrock-announces-intel-c232-chipset-motherboards/index.html

If these remain in the $100 to $150 range, Xeons would probably continue to be a better bang/buck than the I7's.

Those boards aren't exactly as cheap as consumer boards.

However at least in China the difference between an i7-6700+H170 rig is still more expensive than E3-1230v5+C232 fig, and the delta is about the same as the delta between GTX 750 Ti and GTX 950.

Cost about the same, I would like to see how well i7-6700+H170+GTX 750 Ti stack up against E3-1230v5+C232+GTX 950