Can You Make a Cheap Xeon Gaming System

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Thefirstbuild

Thefirstbuild

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Sep 22, 2015
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Now first off I'd like to say I'm not talking about the New Xeon Processors. I'm referring to older models that sell for cheap. Also I don't want to compare xeons to i7 processors (I'm building a budget Gaming PC not a professional rig).
An example: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-Xeon-Quad-Core-W3550-3-06GHz-8M-4-80-SLBEY-LGA1366-CPU-Processor-/262049976119?hash=item3d03654f37
As seen above the CPU is a quad-core that has 3Ghz of speed. With this CPU or a cheap xeon cpu can I build a budget gaming pc?
 
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Darkbreeze
You can build a cheap gaming PC with any processor, it just isn't going to perform as well as a newer or higher tiered processor. Even more relevant than clock speed is the fact that those old Xeon, and other processors, can't process as many instructions per cycle/clock (IPC) as newer hardware so any current or recent Gen CPU, even at 3Ghz and with the same number of cores, is going to perform much faster.

Plus, those older Xeons had their own architectures that were essentially different from mainstream and enthusiast processors, and did tend to have some lack of optimization when it comes to drivers and game titles. Will it work, sure. But, it's getting older already so don't expect too much from a chip several generations old with...
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You can build a cheap gaming PC with any processor, it just isn't going to perform as well as a newer or higher tiered processor. Even more relevant than clock speed is the fact that those old Xeon, and other processors, can't process as many instructions per cycle/clock (IPC) as newer hardware so any current or recent Gen CPU, even at 3Ghz and with the same number of cores, is going to perform much faster.

Plus, those older Xeons had their own architectures that were essentially different from mainstream and enthusiast processors, and did tend to have some lack of optimization when it comes to drivers and game titles. Will it work, sure. But, it's getting older already so don't expect too much from a chip several generations old with a rather low clock speed and IPC. Those Bloomfield chips were real pigs and had serious performance issues in some cases even unrelated to gaming.
 
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My brother built a dual Intel Xeon X5650 rig with SLI 780s and runs everything high-ultra at 1440p (including things like MGSV, Farcry 4, Hitman Absolution, Shadow of Mordor, etc.) and has 0 issues performance wise. I have an i7 960 LGA1366 that performed pretty much identically with a GTX 780 as my 4770K did with games at 1440p. I also never had any performance issues on LGA1366 with gaming; from 2009 to now. If you're on an extreme budget LGA1366 is a viable option cpu wise, but the other thing to consider is motherboards; finding a good X58 LGA1366 motherboard can be pricey depending on what you want it to have (like SATA III or SLI). It will be more of a headache to build LGA1366 than an i5 1150 system, so if you want something that isn't going to be a PITA then you can get an i5/8GB RAM/GTX 950 for $581.31 including mobo/psu/case, everything except OS (not sure which one you want)

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4430 3.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($180.90 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock B85M-DGS Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($52.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Mushkin Silverline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($34.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($50.49 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 950 2GB Video Card ($149.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Silverstone PS08B (Black) MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($39.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-118CB/BEBE DVD/CD Drive ($20.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $581.31
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-09-27 00:47 EDT-0400

I only use Newegg and Amazon with pcpartpicker (personal preference); so if you use other retailers then you would find some of these parts a hair cheaper.
 
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Sure you could, it would just depend on the price of the other parts. But don't expect a 3 ghz xeon from 6 years ago to be comparable to a modern quad at the same speed. It's more about transistor count then transistor speed and the i5 4430 has almost double the transistors working for it.

I would probably build around the intel q6600 or q9550. A quick look on ebay shows the motherboards are quite a bit cheaper, plus both cpu's should hold up well when paired with a GTX 750 or 950.
 
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Those are not Bloomfield chips, and cannot be compared to these different, older gen units. They're not even remotely comparable. Westmere is NOT Bloomfield.
 
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Awesome! Shout Out to Everyone who has answered! I'm happy to say you answered my question by telling me about how IPC is crucial and that a budget gaming PC can still use these parts. Using this information I'm going to buy a core i7 900-960 Bloomfield series Overclocked. The LGA1366 socket type is rare but I have a computer guy who'll hook me up. As for a GPU he's going to get me a Radeon series GPU (forgot name) worth $200 for $50. It's only a year or so old so, Awesomeness! My case will be a Antec 900 (Yah one of those 😀 ) for $50. My build will be totalling around $250 and I should be able to run most games 40fps on high to ultra.
Thanks Again Everyone
P.S All your comments were useful but I can only pick one answer 🙁
P.S.S. I forgot to mention my cooling will be decided based on availability. If my computer man doesn't have any liquid cooling solutions for cheap we'll go for a cooler master evo 212.
 
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I'm very happy with my i7 960 rig; I got it to 4.1Ghz with little trouble on an H55 (obviously this will depend on the lottery), my brother got his old i7 920 to 3.6Ghz with little trouble as well. Last year I was pushing 40-50FPS on high/ultra at 1440p with my i7 960 paired with a GTX 780, so if you have an R9 290 or 290X it should be the same or better.

Personally I'm going to slap an R9 Fury into my i7 960 rig in January/February along with a better cooler to see if I can crank that o/c a bit higher.
 
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I'm very happy with my i7 960 rig; I got it to 4.1Ghz with little trouble on an H55 (obviously this will depend on the lottery), my brother got his old i7 920 to 3.6Ghz with little trouble as well. Last year I was pushing 40-50FPS on high/ultra at 1440p with my i7 960 paired with a GTX 780, so if you have an R9 290 or 290X it should be the same or better.

Personally I'm going to slap an R9 Fury into my i7 960 rig in January/February along with a better cooler to see if I can crank that o/c a bit higher.
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Yah, that's the gpu(R9 290) ! Couldn't remember the name, but anyway I'm going to my computer guy's house tomorrow and we BUILD!!! We're gonna browse his parts and if we can't find any LGA1150 boards with ddr3 memory we'll order a 900 series i7 cpu and build what I said earlier. Hopefully we find a MOBO, because when I have enough money I might be able to upgrade to a 4690k (hopefully lol).
 
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