i7 vs xeon

Xeons for starters can not be overclocked to my knowledge, while the i7 "k" series can be. Xeons are lower quality silicon, so thats mostly why they arent overclockable. Xeons are "Server" processors because they support ECC RAM And are rated to run 24/7 like a server would. I heard that the Xeon v3 1230 v3 is basically the same chip as the i7 but the thigns above are still true about it. It works in the same motherboard as the i7 though (most 1150 sockets mobos).

update: And obviously no built in GPU in a Xeon while i7 has Intel HD graphics
 
i7 are for the masses, xeons are for the chosen ones.

basically the are the same chip with a few exceptions - xeons support ecc memory, are designed to run 24/7 and support more virtualization features. also they have connection support for another cpu - and without it cpu can't work together.
 
It is the feature set

Xeons: ECC memory 24/7 running multi CPU config higher core count etc.

i7: Consumer Non ECC, no multi config, iGPU, quick sync etc.

They are both based on the same silicon if they are the same generation. just with different features
 
You need t decide what u want t do wit t PC. But unless you will b running your PC at max load for really long periods (eg 3d rendering), you r doing mission critical stuff (eg financial data calc) or u really need the sort of CPU power that can only b got from a dual chip setup (eg 3d rendering, again), you're probably better of with an i7, or i5, etc.

Btw u can overclock Xeons, if u hav t right mobo, etc, but not in t same way as u can K-series i7s etc, n they're not designed for it like t K-series chips
 


Ya you might want to do an upgrade because that is a lot of rendering. What is your budget? that will determine if upgrading if worth it and how high you can go?

Which program are you using though? You might want to look at getting a quadro card to speed things up too depending on if your program supports it.
 
my full specs are
win 8 pro
AMD fx 8350 4.5ghz h80i
gtx 780
16gb 1600mhz ram
ga-970a-ds3 motherboard
850w psu
1tb hdd
3tb hdd
250gb samsung evo ssd
corsair m95 mouse
corsair k95 keyboard
2x vga monitor running through dvi-i adaptor and hdmi to vga active adaptor

i use a mixture between camtasia(is the only rendering software that will use all 8 cores of my cpu) and vegas pro(because i can do batch rendering with it) to render

budget would be about 1000 but im not shaw whether i would use it as my main pc or build it as a second pc just for rendering
 

For what purpose?

If you have a massively multithreaded and cpu intensive requirement, then yes.
You would be looking at a server motherboard, likely with dual lga2011 sockets and Xeon cpu's.
Even then, there are 12 core chips so a single cpu could work also.

If your purpose is gaming with no budget limit, then a overclockable 6 core cpu and a conventional lga2011 motherboard would be better.

 


For that I would get a quadro card this would be the best one. for substantial CPU upgrades you really need more because you would need a new motherboard etc.
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/pny-video-card-vcq5000pb
 
Find out where the issue lies so you know what to upgrade.

Only the Xeons beginning with 2 or greater(like the e5-2620 for example) can be used in multiple cpu applications and a setup like that is going to be expensive. The number also indicates how many cpus can be used. All of the e3s, like the e3-1230v3, and some of the e5s, like the e5-1650v2, can only be used in a single cpu PC. The e5-2xxx series can use dual socket setups, the e5 and e7 4xxx series can used up to four cpus and the the big boy e7 8xxx series can use up to eight cpus at a time.
 


i have noticed that even on 64bit vegas pro my ram usage never goes about 3gb