Xeon w3550 vs X5670?

[gojira]

I recently bought an HP Z400 workstation PC that came with an Xeon W3550. I don't know much about the difference between either series of processors. Is it worth replacing it with either an x5660/x5670 and would it improve performance? 

[Electronics Wizardy]

the x5650's are 6 cores instead of 4 and support dual socket systems.

 

What you doing on the system? Do you need more cores?

[bimmerman]

I'd do some googling on the processor first, I'm not familiar with those as much as the x56xx Is yours a quad or hex core?

 

For LGA 1366...

The X56xx chips are designed to be used in single or mulit-processor arrays, i.e. 1+ chips per motherboard. None had unlocked multipliers.

The W3xxx chips are designed to be the only processor on the motherboard. Some of them even have unlocked multipliers.

 

Functionally they should be the same. I'd say do some googling to figure out which of the W-series you have. Unlocked multiplier may only matter if your motherboard is compatible.

 

I literally just put an X5675 in my computer last night, as an upgrade from an i7-950, and will be tinkering with that going forward. Goal is to see if I can delay upgrading the main rig another year or so with a quick and dirty processor swap.

[NTDaws]

the x5650 tends to have a little more power then the w3550, I would go with the x5650

[gojira]

10 hours ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

the x5650's are 6 cores instead of 4 and support dual socket systems.

 

What you doing on the system? Do you need more cores?

I just bought it as a cheap system to mostly play games and do light editing, I don't plan to do any intensive workloads with it. My specific PC is a single socket motherboard, but with a bios update I can upgrade to x56xx series cpus.

[crzyces]

43 minutes ago, gojira said:

I just bought it as a cheap system to mostly play games and do light editing, I don't plan to do any intensive workloads with it. My specific PC is a single socket motherboard, but with a bios update I can upgrade to x56xx series cpus.

The x5650 is a very good gaming chip oc'd. Very good. Downside. They only support 24 mb RAM. What the heck kind of limit is that for a Xeon that can be used in a dual socket? Anyway, an x5650 oc'd to 4.0 can game with mid tier top end chips, and are not going to be gaming bottlenecked (1 chip, not dual) by anything short of a 1080ti. It is a great budget chip. Tech city has a phenomenal set of videos overclocking them to 4.0 on the standard cooler and testing them against other chips. It's multi-core performance is also very impressive, and for the price, you can't beat it. I love that chip.

[crzyces]

2 minutes ago, crzyces said:

The x5650 is a very good gaming chip oc'd. Very good. Downside. They only support 24 mb RAM. What the heck kind of limit is that for a Xeon that can be used in a dual socket? Anyway, an x5650 oc'd to 4.0 can game with mid tier top end chips, and are not going to be gaming bottlenecked (1 chip, not dual) by anything short of a 1080ti. It is a great budget chip. Tech city has a phenomenal set of videos overclocking them to 4.0 on the standard cooler and testing them against other chips. It's multi-core performance is also very impressive, and for the price, you can't beat it. I love that chip.

PS Yes, it is a HUGE upgrade. With Ryzens launch their prices have been cut in half as well. I am seeing "Buy it Now" for about $27 usd. Oh my goodness.

[gojira]

I've been watching tons of tech city in anticipation for this PC . Unfortunately I can't OC because it's an OEM motherboard. Originally I was going to go down the x58 route but compared to the cost of this PC ($100 shipped) I had to pass. I've seen  x5670s going for as little as $11 atm. Absolutely nuts. 

[crzyces]

1 hour ago, gojira said:

I just bought it as a cheap system to mostly play games and do light editing, I don't plan to do any intensive workloads with it. My specific PC is a single socket motherboard, but with a bios update I can upgrade to x56xx series cpus.

I said I was not going to do this until I finished 2 other Xeon builds and overhauled this PC, but I just found a dual x5650 on a super micro board with 48 gigs of RAM (24 per cpu) for $270 bucks. that's 2 x5650's, the board, 48 gigs of RAM, 2 of their huge heatsinks, for under $300. The downside? It only has 1 PCIe x16 2.0 and sata 2.0 (x6) 4 x8 slots though, so I could use that for a faster drive. It has usb 3.0 though. Odd as usually they have either all 3.0 or nothing. I'm going to offer $225 usd and see if they take it...

[gojira]

10 hours ago, crzyces said:

I said I was not going to do this until I finished 2 other Xeon builds and overhauled this PC, but I just found a dual x5650 on a super micro board with 48 gigs of RAM (24 per cpu) for $270 bucks. that's 2 x5650's, the board, 48 gigs of RAM, 2 of their huge heatsinks, for under $300. The downside? It only has 1 PCIe x16 2.0 and sata 2.0 (x6) 4 x8 slots though, so I could use that for a faster drive. It has usb 3.0 though. Odd as usually they have either all 3.0 or nothing. I'm going to offer $225 usd and see if they take it...

Best of luck with that. I don't know if you'll be interested or not, but before I bought this PC I was going to purchase a Dell XPS 730x x58 motherboard currently for $79 shipped on ebay. There's not a lot of information on it but people seem to have success getting xeon support and overclocking with just a bios update. https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/westmere-xeon-upgrade-project.2463698/ Definitely something to consider 

[Electronics Wizardy]

53 minutes ago, crzyces said:

They only support 24 mb RAM.

You can run up to 144gb per chip(288 per system) with 9x 16gb dimms, but you need a server board(and maybe lrdimms?)

[crzyces]

15 minutes ago, gojira said:

I've been watching tons of tech city in anticipation for this PC . Unfortunately I can't OC because it's an OEM motherboard. Originally I was going to go down the x58 route but compared to the cost of this PC ($100 shipped) I had to pass. I've seen  x5670s going for as little as $11 atm. Absolutely nuts. 

A lot of 51 is asking $445 or best offer right now as well. I bet the seller would take $375. I knew this was going to happen, I just thought the server switches would take a bit longer. You can still OC on the OEM board, but not very high, as the blck is, well not the same as normal blcks. It overclocks some things over what is set, and under clocks, I've only played on 1 OEM board so maybe it was the reference board I was on, but I see your hesitance. Supermicro seems to make fantastic Xeon boards across the line, especially the dual sli ones. If you look at my profile it has the build I'll most likely be mounting to my wall as a personal rig. Loving it. I'm still waiting on some things though, and I have to get the exact size down before I order the tempered tinted glass (I'll search for it first, as I may find an old coffee table on Craigslist for free that works great; I love the free section of craigslist).

[crzyces]

Just now, Electronics Wizardy said:

You can run up to 144gb per chip(288 per system) with 9x 16gb dimms, but you need a server board(and maybe lrdimms?)

• 12x 240-pin DIMM slots
• Supports up to 192 GB 1333 / 1066 / 800MHz DDR3 ECC Registered memory
• Supports up to 48 GB 1333 / 1066 / 800MHz DDR3 ECC / Non ECC Unbuffered memory
• Memory Mirroring supported

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, crzyces said:

• 12x 240-pin DIMM slots
• Supports up to 192 GB 1333 / 1066 / 800MHz DDR3 ECC Registered memory
• Supports up to 48 GB 1333 / 1066 / 800MHz DDR3 ECC / Non ECC Unbuffered memory
• Memory Mirroring supported

you need ecc ram to use more, makes sense

 

that board only has 12 dimm slots, not the max of 18 the cpus can support.

[crzyces]

7 minutes ago, gojira said:

Best of luck with that. I don't know if you'll be interested or not, but before I bought this PC I was going to purchase a Dell XPS 730x x58 motherboard currently for $79 shipped on ebay. There's not a lot of information on it but people seem to have success getting xeon support and overclocking with just a bios update. https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/westmere-xeon-upgrade-project.2463698/ Definitely something to consider 

Maybe. I really have to start finishing these builds, as 1 I'll be using for gaming, creating, streaming, another is going to my son who just turned 7 (The one I am upgrading. Just an old 3570k oc'd to 4.0 now since I still haven't cleaned the stock heatsink and fan for a year w/ 8 gigs of RAM and an 8mb rx480, which I am switching into my main pc along with another, probably throwing a used gtx 960 or 970 in his), then sell the other 1 (two if the seller accepts or negotiates my offer).

[crzyces]

2 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

you need ecc ram to use more, makes sense

 

that board only has 12 dimm slots, not the max of 18 the cpus can support.

I'll be using consumer Corsair Vengeance as that is what the kit came with.

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, crzyces said:

I'll be using consumer Corsair Vengeance as that is what the kit came with.

you might as well get used server ram. Its normally cheaper, and you might as well use ecc if you can.

[crzyces]

Just now, crzyces said:

I'll be using consumer Corsair Vengeance as that is what the kit came with.

If he accepts the offer on this, how much do you think I can grab for a dual x5650 oc'd to 4.1 with custom heatsinks (I'll add side and top blowers) 24 gigs commercial ddr3, probably an rx 580 8 gig or gtx 1070, a 1k watt be-quiet psu, and a custom case case (I'll charge more if they want an OS obviously), a 128 pcie ssd, and a 2 tb seagate or wd hd (not sure what brand, I'll have to check my basement), along with a bluray/dvd/rw (I always put optical drives in. $1300 or so depending on how much I have to put into the case?

[crzyces]

5 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

you might as well get used server ram. Its normally cheaper, and you might as well use ecc if you can.

The thing is, I already have the ram. In the future I will use the ecc.

[crzyces]

Just now, crzyces said:

If he accepts the offer on this, how much do you think I can grab for a dual x5650 oc'd to 4.1 with custom heatsinks (I'll add side and top blowers) 24 gigs commercial ddr3, probably an rx 580 8 gig or gtx 1070, a 1k watt be-quiet psu, and a custom case case (I'll charge more if they want an OS obviously), a 128 pcie ssd, and a 2 tb seagate or wd hd (not sure what brand, I'll have to check my basement), along with a bluray/dvd/rw (I always put optical drives in. $1300 or so depending on how much I have to put into the case?

I'll obviously be selling it to a gamer/content creator.