Advice Needed: Upgrade to Xeon E5 1650 or I7 4770K

[Khaled Al Hamdan]

I am planning to upgrade my computer, and I am finding it difficult to choose my upgrade path as my Budget is around USD300 or less. My main reason to upgrade is to be able to play Total War: Attila and Cities Skylines (I only Play those for a while now). My current setup is not bad as I feel it is sufficient enough to play but once the population reaches 100k in cities skylines the gameplay become undesirable., as these the games I usually play, the reason for this upgrade is in order, I can enjoy playing these games smoothly after work. Sometimes I convert videos to watch on my phone, and I like to multi-task such as playing Cities Skylines and watching Netflix on 4K. Further, my current setup is:

CPU: FX-6300 @ 4.5
Mobo: Asus M5A97 R2.0
GPU: PowerColor PCS+ Radeon R9 390 8GB
Ram: 2 x 8 GB Kingston KHX1600C10D3 and 2 x 2 GB Kingston 9905403-133.A00LF
HDD: Samsung 850 EVO SSD
CPU Cooler: Hyper 212 EVO
PSU: Antec TPQ-1200 1200W

I have two Options to Upgrade to:


Option 1:
Intel Xeon E5-1650 Six Core CPU - $100
Intel DX79TO Intel X79 chipset - $180

Total cost for Xeon system= $280

Option 2:
Intel CPU Core i7 4770K - $240
ASUS Z97-A/USB 3.1 LGA 1150 Intel Z97 - $100

Total cost for I7 system= $340

I have done some calculations that are as follows:

Xeon E5 1650 @ 4.6
Cinebench R15 single core score is 169
Cost: USD240

I7 4770K @ 4.6
Cinebench R15 single core score is 181
Price: USD340

The results show that the I7 4770k is 6.85% better performer than Xeon E5 1650. However, the I7 4770k system is 34.4% more expensive. Also, I am on a very limited budget as I have many commitments in the upcoming months.

I need help understanding the differences as I calculated it the Xeon have better value than the I7. I am planning to get a decent cooler after a month or two. So cooling won't be an issue.

Now after adding the whole cost (motherboard and ram) it made me more confused.

 

[Ironsounds]

Hello... You cant OC a Xeon... like you can a "K" so your calcs are wrong there https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Xeon+E5-1650+%40+3.20GHz
Your model xeon will give you 2 more cores... and also 4 memory channels... you will need 4 sticks of (identical Ram$$?) to use it. http://ark.intel.com/products/64601/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E5-1650-12M-Cache-3_20-GHz-0_0-GTs-Intel-QPI

 

[Khaled Al Hamdan]

Hello... You cant OC a Xeon... like you can a "K" so your calcs are wrong there https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Xeon+E5-1650+%40+3.20GHz
Your model xeon will give you 2 more cores... and also 4 memory channels... you will need 4 sticks of (identical Ram?) to use it. http://ark.intel.com/products/64601/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E5-1650-12M-Cache-3_20-GHz-0_0-GTs-Intel-QPI

Xeon E5 1650 is an overclockable Xeon

 

[Ironsounds]

Hello... Can you send me a link to that? B /

 

[Khaled Al Hamdan]

Hello... Can you send me a link to that? B /

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPrNC3xxIJQ

 

[Ironsounds]

Hello... THX
In the past there were ways to alter the socket/contact or Cpu/GPU too, And open up (fool) the CPU or GPU for BLK/Freq override OR Xeon compatibility.

Now days MB's are being wired to do this... ASRock being the first example in this... in your example he is using the a Gigabyte board to do this with... I would advise you to purchase the MB he is using, Because there is a good chance the "intel" MB you have picked will not have this BIO's option? B / something to verify before you commit here... the "k" CPU already has this option hardwired inside it.

Also the four identical RAM sticks (2 x 8 GB Kingston KHX1600C10D3 OR 2 x 2 GB Kingston 9905403-133.A00LF) Will need to be added to your Parts list.

 

[Khaled Al Hamdan]

Hello... THX
In the past there were ways to alter the socket/contact or Cpu/GPU too, And open up (fool) the CPU or GPU for BLK/Freq override... Now days MB's are being wired to do this... ASRock being the first example in this... in your example he is using the a Gigabyte board to do this with... I would advise you to purchase the MB he is using, there is a good chance the "intel" MB you have picked will not have this BIO's option? B / something to verify before you commit here... the "k" CPU already has this option hardwired inside it... Also the four identical RAM sticks needed will add to your cost too.

Do i need 4 sticks to use it? Can I put one stick in each side? How can I verify that the motherboard will overclock it as most of the x79 motherboards doesn't support this CPU but it will work on it.

 

[Ironsounds]

Hello... Good questions... it takes $$ and parts to do this... experimenting... Googling and utubing...

If you want to copy his results/work you better copy his part list... Don't apply his results to all other MB's/BIO's and hardware makers, Did he get a special "altered OR engineering sample" of the Xeon E5 1650 ? B / these questions can be posted to his utube video page... simply ask him before you commit... it's either the MB/BIO's or "special" CPU letting him do this OC to it.

The CPU memory controller is four channels.... you saw four sticks of memory in his Gigabyte board... that is the design of it, for extra memory bandwidth in a server system B /

I enjoyed the Video... But these questions were not answered in it for me... I am left to assume it's the Gigabyte MB/Bio's letting him do this at this point.... But I try NOT to spend $$$ on assumptions. B )

Is the i7 "k" seem to look much better price and time wise choice now? B )

 

[Khaled Al Hamdan]

Hello... Good questions... it takes $$ and parts to do this... experimenting... Googling and utubing...

If you want to copy his results/work you better copy his part list... Don't apply his results to all other MB's/BIO's and hardware makers, Did he get a special "altered OR engineering sample" of the Xeon E5 1650 ? B / these questions can be posted to his utube video page... simply ask him before you commit... it's either the MB/BIO's or "special" CPU letting him do this OC to it.

The CPU memory controller is four channels.... you saw four sticks of memory in his Gigabyte board... that is the design of it, for extra memory bandwidth in a server system B /

I enjoyed the Video... But these questions were not answered in it for me... I am left to assume it's the Gigabyte MB/Bio's letting him do this at this point.... But I try NOT to spend $$$ on assumptions. B )

Is the i7 "k" seem to look much better price and time wise choice now? B )

The Xeon e5 16xx is unlocked processor and it doesn't require any special bios or mod.

The video was a reference to prove that this chip is overclockable. I read many threads regarding this processor and from these threads i got the benchmark results.

Regarding the memory sticks i do have 2 other ddr3 ram sticks am not using at the moment.

I tried my best to do a logical calculations in order to help me in my choice. However, the calculation made it even harder for me to choose.

 

[Ironsounds]

Hello... OK... B ) I look to learn something every day... investigate/calculate the extra heat and power generated/needed in 6 (130 watts) cores vs 4 (84 watts) times the freqs above intel spec sheet... The ambient temperatures also play into this of your location.... are the intel regulator/socket/MB up to it... is my next logical/design question, for long time usage? B / you could be the pioneer too give us all the answers to this... it's sounds like a wonderful powerful build option, that I have not considered B )

 

[Khaled Al Hamdan]

Hello... OK... B ) I look to learn something every day... investigate/calculate the extra heat and power generated/needed in 6 (130 watts) cores vs 4 (84 watts) times the freqs above intel spec sheet... The ambient temperatures also play into this of your location.... are the intel regulator/socket/MB up to it... is my next logical/design question, for long time usage? B /

Thank you for your replies.

The electricity usage is not an issue hence i am using amd fx6300 overclocked to 4.5ghz 24/7 since i bought it few years ago.

Cooling is not an issue as I plan to buy a decent cooler.

My question is is that intel x79 motherboard can overclock the xeon? If not which one can?

Is there a better option (cpu+mobo) for the same price?

 

[Khaled Al Hamdan]

Thank you all for your valuable advice and support . I really appreciate all your replies. The location of my job got changed today and as per the management it might change again. Now I have mobility in mind. So I decided to wait few months to save more money then I plan to get Dell Inspiron I7559-2512BLK Laptop for around USD 750 on amazon. I have no how it will perform compared to my current rig.