Building MoBo: Buying CPU with faster BASE frequency, OR slower base frequency but higher TURBO

[mandreto10]

Hi,

I am building mITX MoBo for home server, with 4core cpU, and I do not understand pros and cons of a:

(1) CPU with higher BASE (4.0GHz) frequency vs.
(2) CPU with lower BASE (3.4GHz), but higher TURBO(4.5Hz) frequency.

This sounds ridiculous but I do not understand:
(A) which is faster.
(B) Does base frequency 4.0GHz mean that CPU will ALWAYS run at that speed?

I am simply looking for CPU that requires very little GHz to run throughout the day, but when I need more (db queries, streaming 4K) I want the CPU to be absolutely snappy.

Can anyone help out?

Here are two example CPU:
1. https://ark.intel.com/products/134854/Intel-Xeon-E-2124G-Processor-8M-Cache-up-to-4-50-GHz-
2. https://ark.intel.com/products/129943/Intel-Core-i3-8300T-Processor-8M-Cache-3-20-GHz-

Thanks!

 

[kanewolf]

Base frequency 4Ghz means that all cores will run at that speed with a standard factory configuration. When there is no load, if you haven't disabled the features, the CPU will slow the clock to 1Ghz or less.
The Turbo frequency is the maximum single core frequency that comes without overclocking.

In your two examples, the i3 does not have a turbo frequency, for example. The fastest it will run is 3.2Ghz. The Xeon will run at least 1 core at 4.5Ghz and will run all 4 cores at 3.4Ghz.

The Xeon requires a different chipset motherboard than the i3 also.

 

[mandreto10]

(UPDATE): I think I found the answer: https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php)

Thanks. follow up question:

CPU 1

• 
  #cores: 4
  # threads: 8
  Base freq: 4.20 GHz
  Max turbo freq: 4.50 GHz

CPU2

• 
  #cores: 6
  # threads: 12
  Base freq: 2.40 GHz
  Max turbo freq: 4.00 GHz

Which one will execute operations on PC faster now: CPU 1 or 2?

My instinct would be CPU, because frequency in this case matters more than # of cores.

Is there some sort of benchmarking tool where one can test these scenarios?

Thanks!

Base frequency 4Ghz means that all cores will run at that speed with a standard factory configuration. When there is no load, if you haven't disabled the features, the CPU will slow the clock to 1Ghz or less.
The Turbo frequency is the maximum single core frequency that comes without overclocking.

In your two examples, the i3 does not have a turbo frequency, for example. The fastest it will run is 3.2Ghz. The Xeon will run at least 1 core at 4.5Ghz and will run all 4 cores at 3.4Ghz.

The Xeon requires a different chipset motherboard than the i3 also.

 

[huntlong]

It depends on how many cores and threads whatever you’re asking your PC to do can use.

Also older CPU’s with higher clocks that newer CPU’s can actually be slower than the new ones. This is because new CPU’s can execute more instructions per clock cycle than older ones.

For a server I’d go with 6c/12t.

Any CPU will slow itself down when not being asked to do anything.

If you type i3 8300T vs Xeon E2124G one of the first results will be for a site called userbenchmark which will break down the percentage differences for any CPU’s.

https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Xeon-E-2124G-vs-Intel-Core-i3-8300/m559340vsm484077