Xeon PC Build?

[RAM555789]

So I was checking out the Intel Xeon X5690 and many seem to be going from around $120, and I was thinking, for the price would these work well as a gaming PC? Any thoughts out there?

[GitGud]

In general yes, that be a pretty good gaming CPU aswell killer chip for production stuff at that price, but depends on your expectations.

[Rishum]

If you do get it  just be aware that you are limiting yourself to a very old socket making it hard for future upgrades. You might also have problems getting a good cheap LGA1136 board.

[Ground]

The x5690 is terribly priced; if you can pick up a 1366 board a much cheaper x5670 (or even others) can overclock just as well. Without overclocking these Xeons aren't that great though. They also have much lower IPC than modern CPUs - one of these 6 cores at about 4.6 GHz is about as fast as a non overclocked Ryzen 1600 (and if the 1600 is overclocked these Xeons have no way of catching up). 

[RAM555789]

1 hour ago, Ground said:

The x5690 is terribly priced; if you can pick up a 1366 board a much cheaper x5670 (or even others) can overclock just as well. Without overclocking these Xeons aren't that great though. They also have much lower IPC than modern CPUs - one of these 6 cores at about 4.6 GHz is about as fast as a non overclocked Ryzen 1600 (and if the 1600 is overclocked these Xeons have no way of catching up). 

 

Looking on ebay I can find the board and chip found around $110 a piece the same price as a single Ryzen 1600 so there is that to consider.

[bimmerman]

The x5650 through x5675 can routinely be found for $20-60 on ebay, though you still will need a motherboard and ram. At that price, it's not bad for a cheap PC, or to breathe life into an existing one.

 

All of the X58 xeons can overclock to between 4.2 fairly comfortably, 4.5-4.6 is fairly common but requires a good motherboard and cooling. Higher than that is unlikely but not unheard of....BUT these chips aren't modern. Overclocked they can hold their own vs non-overclocked modern chips (skylakes, etc), but the platform is also old. Will you notice a difference day to day? Probably not. If you don't already have an X58 system to tinker with, is it worth it? No, buy a newer ryzen or intel system for the same money.