Cheap VR computer from used workstation

[droidling]

Looking around on Ebay I found a used HP Z420 Workstation for $300. I'm looking at building it into a Media center/VR gaming computer. It has a Xeon E5-1620 3.6 GHz processor. I'm wondering about a possible CPU upgrade. HP lists several v2 processors as "available". Those are still relatively expensive. A used E5-2660 is around $50 and seems to be a lot better processor than the E5-1620. Can I expect it to work on the motherboard? I've read that there a 4 different LGA2011 sockets but I'm not sure how you tell what CPU would work on a particular MB. I haven't been able to find an MB part number.

It comes with 8Gb (4x2GB) UDIMM ECC memory. I'd probably want to trash that an put 4 x 8GB UDIMMs in it. Is there any reason the MB would require ECC? If I don't need ECC then that should be about $170

It has 2 PCIe x 16 Gen3 slots So a GPU upgrade should not be an issue. I'm figuring I can get a used GTX 780, or GTX 970 for around $200

To sum up I'm looking at 300+50+170+200=$720 for a VR ready gaming computer if what I outlined above will work.

 

[Barty1884]

That's a lot of upgrades to simply make it work - not to mention you'll likely have to factor in a PSU upgrade (if it's even possible) to run a 970.

While Xeon's should be VR capable, they're not part of any 'official' support list.

For a little less, you can put together a new rig, with an i5-6500 and GTX 1060..... and it pushes the budget to $792 if you need to include an OS (which I assume you do).

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($198.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Asus H110M-A/M.2 Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($52.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: GeIL EVO POTENZA 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($51.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($45.88 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1060 6GB WINDFORCE OC 6G Video Card ($269.95 @ B&H)
Case: DIYPC DIY-F2-P ATX Mini Tower Case ($24.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 520W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($58.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($88.88 @ OutletPC)
Total: $792.65
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-08-23 13:12 EDT-0400

 

[logainofhades]

The E5 2260 would not be better, with its low clock speed. The E5-1620 would perform similar to a stock i7 2700k. If it has ECC ram now, that is what you will have to use. I have to agree with Barty, though.

 

[dark_lord69]

"Is there any reason the MB would require ECC?"
"Only ECC DIMMs are supported." -Your HP Z420 User manual

These are compatible with your system:
Intel® Xeon® Processor E5-1680 v2 3.0 25 MB 1866 MT/s
Intel Xeon Processor E5-2650 v2 2.6 20 MB 1866 MT/s
Intel Xeon Processor E5-1660 v2 3.7 15 MB 1866 MT/s
Intel Xeon Processor E5-1650 v2 3.5 12 MB 1866 MT/s
Intel Xeon Processor E5-1620 v2 3.7 10 MB 1866 MT/s
Intel Xeon Processor E5-1607 v2 3.0 10 MB 1600 MT/s
Intel Xeon Processor E5-1620 3.6 10 MB 1600 MT/s
Intel Xeon Processor E5-1603 2.8 10 MB 1066 MT/s

I got my GTX 970 on craigslist for $180.

I recommend...
I recently bought an HP with 8GB of RAM and an 4690S CPU (with onboard graphics).
To make my $350 purchase VR Ready I only need to add a new power supply and a VR Ready Graphics card.
$350 + $80 + $180 = $610

You may have a hard time getting the deal I got on that HP so it might cost something more like $400 for the PC.
You may be able to pickup a power supply for as little as $50
So, slight adjustments aside you may be able to get what you want for less especially since the system you mentioned requires ECC.

 

[droidling]

The E5 2260 would not be better, with its low clock speed. The E5-1620 would perform similar to a stock i7 2700k. If it has ECC ram now, that is what you will have to use. I have to agree with Barty, though.

I was going by Passmark score to pick the CPU (i5-6500 - 7023, E5-1620 - 9097, E5-2660 - 11535). Is this type of bench mark not reliable for gaming? I would think the E5-2660 would be significantly faster. What am I missing?

 

[Barty1884]

IIRC Passmark takes many additional factors into play - things like added cores/threads (of which the E5-2660 has 8/16) that gaming will never* use.

A Passmark score (for gaming at least) is about as much use as judging on clock speed alone.

*At least no time soon.

 

[droidling]

That's a lot of upgrades to simply make it work - not to mention you'll likely have to factor in a PSU upgrade (if it's even possible) to run a 970.

While Xeon's should be VR capable, they're not part of any 'official' support list.

For a little less, you can put together a new rig, with an i5-6500 and GTX 1060..... and it pushes the budget to $792 if you need to include an OS (which I assume you do). ...

If I need to upgrade the PSU I have a Corsair 1000HX sitting in the garage. Other than power is there an issue with running a GTX 970 on this type of system? I'm not quite sure if you meant it might not be possible to upgrade the PSU, or if the GTX 970 wouldn't work.

I'm at work and won't have time to look at the system you mentioned until this evening. As I mentioned in my reply to Logainofhades, I was under the impression that the i5-6500 was a much slower processor. Maybe after I understand that i'll be able to make more sense of this.

 

[droidling]

IIRC Passmark takes many additional factors into play - things like added cores/threads (of which the E5-2660 has 8/16) that gaming will never* use.

A Passmark score (for gaming at least) is about as much use as judging on clock speed alone.

*At least no time soon.

So is there a good benchmark for gaming CPUs? I just built a computer with an i7-5820K. Did I mess up royally by using Passmark?

 

[droidling]

"Is there any reason the MB would require ECC?"
"Only ECC DIMMs are supported." -Your HP Z420 User manual

These are compatible with your system:
Intel® Xeon® Processor E5-1680 v2 3.0 25 MB 1866 MT/s
Intel Xeon Processor E5-2650 v2 2.6 20 MB 1866 MT/s
Intel Xeon Processor E5-1660 v2 3.7 15 MB 1866 MT/s
Intel Xeon Processor E5-1650 v2 3.5 12 MB 1866 MT/s
Intel Xeon Processor E5-1620 v2 3.7 10 MB 1866 MT/s
Intel Xeon Processor E5-1607 v2 3.0 10 MB 1600 MT/s
Intel Xeon Processor E5-1620 3.6 10 MB 1600 MT/s
Intel Xeon Processor E5-1603 2.8 10 MB 1066 MT/s

I got my GTX 970 on craigslist for $180.

I recommend...
I recently bought an HP with 8GB of RAM and an 4690S CPU (with onboard graphics).
To make my $350 purchase VR Ready I only need to add a new power supply and a VR Ready Graphics card.
$350 + $80 + $180 = $610

You may have a hard time getting the deal I got on that HP so it might cost something more like $400 for the PC.
You may be able to pickup a power supply for as little as $50
So, slight adjustments aside you may be able to get what you want for less especially since the system you mentioned requires ECC.

I saw where it said unbuffered only, I guess I missed the "ECC Only" line. So cheaper memory is out.

From your post, and several others it looks like I need to learn a lot more about gaming computers before I do another build. I think I'll pass on this computer for now and do some research.

 

[Barty1884]

If I need to upgrade the PSU I have a Corsair 1000HX sitting in the garage. Other than power is there an issue with running a GTX 970 on this type of system? I'm not quite sure if you meant it might not be possible to upgrade the PSU, or if the GTX 970 wouldn't work.

You may run into problems upgrading a PSU in a pre-built. Not all pre-builts use standard connectors & PSUs, so switching out the PSU that comes with it & replacing it with an HX1000 may not be 'that' simple. Then again, it might.

Workstation desktops normally come with workstation grade PSUs & GPUs. 'Budget' orientated workstation GPUs use PCIe power only, a lot of the time. Meaning there may not be any available PCIe power connectors to power a 970.

I'm at work and won't have time to look at the system you mentioned until this evening. As I mentioned in my reply to Logainofhades, I was under the impression that the i5-6500 was a much slower processor. Maybe after I understand that i'll be able to make more sense of this.

As a very, very basic (theoretical) breakdown of Passmark scores - there's much more to it.
E5-2660 - score of 11535. 8 cores/16 threads works out to be a score of either 1,442 per core or 721 per processing thread.
i5-6500 - score of 7023. 4 cores = 1756 per core.

Again ,there's a lot more to it (least of all, base & boost clock speeds).

If gaming could you 16 threads, you might be able to use the total processing 'score' of 11535 with the Xeon.
Gaming does not though - it barely used 4 cores. Therefor, the i5 will win out everytime (in gaming alone).

So is there a good benchmark for gaming CPUs? I just built a computer with an i7-5820K. Did I mess up royally by using Passmark?

No, you didn't mess up.....at least not royally. The i7-5820K is a solid CPU. Does it give you any significant gains over say, and i5-6600K in gaming alone? Likely no. But it's not as if the i7-5820K is a 'bad' CPU.

 

[droidling]

As a very, very basic (theoretical) breakdown of Passmark scores - there's much more to it.
E5-2660 - score of 11535. 8 cores/16 threads works out to be a score of either 1,442 per core or 721 per processing thread.
i5-6500 - score of 7023. 4 cores = 1756 per core.

Again ,there's a lot more to it (least of all, base & boost clock speeds).

If gaming could you 16 threads, you might be able to use the total processing 'score' of 11535 with the Xeon.
Gaming does not though - it barely used 4 cores. Therefor, the i5 will win out everytime (in gaming alone).

Thank you. It's making sense now!

I noticed that passmark includes a "single thread rating". You just have to dig a bit deeper. So what I'm looking for in an upgrade is a minimum 4 threads and the highest possible single thread score(that I can afford). That should give me a first order approximation of relative CPU gaming performance.

 

[Barty1884]

It'll give you some sort of idea, yes.

As I mentioned, my example was very, very basic. While single core performance is a solid indicator, you want a balance across your cores.

For a gaming rig, your best bet is to look up specific benchmarks of a given CPU & see how it compares to others in it's 'class' (pricepoint, cores et al.)