Is a Xeon x5365 for Gaming any good for gaming?

[bondfan123]

Hi,

So my brother happened to have a Dell Precision 490 that he didn't seem to need anymore, so he gave it! ! Anyways, so the specs of this computer include:

Xeon 5160 Processor (Dual Core)

NVS 290 GPU (Terrible Gaming card, terrible business card)

6GB DDR2 RAM

750GB Hard Drive

Windows 7 Ultimate

Motherboard: GU083 rev. A07. (This board is the somewhat uncommon one who can support a x5365 Xeon CPU)


Having everything working and set up, I was thinking of upgrading it to a Quad Core Xeon x5365 CPU and a R7 260x. I can do this for only about $150, which is perfectly fine. The games in which I am interested in running would be Battlefield 3/4 , Garry's Mod, Left for Dead 2, Civilization V, Counter Strike GO, Skyrim, and possibly Titanfall. I would fully expect to have to bring down some settings, hopefully only to medium, and still get forwards of 40 FPS.


So again, this computer was really just handed to me, and I wanted to start a small project. Do you think, understanding that this is a SERVER/Workstation PC, it may meet my needs??? Thanks to all in advance, and I appreciate your time!

 

[littleleo]

This isn't a gaming CPU it was okay back in 2012, designed for running business apps using a smaller power footprint with okay performance. But for $150 including a 260x it's not much too lose. Try it and see how it does. Expect to have to lower the game setting to get any where close to your target.

 

[Hello man]

Hi,

So my brother happened to have a Dell Precision 490 that he didn't seem to need anymore, so he gave it! ! Anyways, so the specs of this computer include:

Xeon 5160 Processor (Dual Core)

NVS 290 GPU (Terrible Gaming card, terrible business card)

6GB DDR2 RAM

750GB Hard Drive

Windows 7 Ultimate

Motherboard: GU083 rev. A07. (This board is the somewhat uncommon one who can support a x5365 Xeon CPU)


Having everything working and set up, I was thinking of upgrading it to a Quad Core Xeon x5365 CPU and a R7 260x. I can do this for only about $150, which is perfectly fine. The games in which I am interested in running would be Battlefield 3/4 , Garry's Mod, Left for Dead 2, Civilization V, Counter Strike GO, Skyrim, and possibly Titanfall. I would fully expect to have to bring down some settings, hopefully only to medium, and still get forwards of 40 FPS.


So again, this computer was really just handed to me, and I wanted to start a small project. Do you think, understanding that this is a SERVER/Workstation PC, it may meet my needs??? Thanks to all in advance, and I appreciate your time!

First off littleleo's comment about a smaller power footprint is not exactly all that true. That X5365 has a 150W TDP out of the box. Thats freaking ridiculous! Not to mention its average running power consumption is about 120W. My 125W FX8350 has a fairly high TDP but delivers more than twice the performance of that Xeon. It will run games, sure thing, but you would be better off buying a better used GPU and more RAM (keep in ind that system uses FBDIMM, not DIMM).

 

[octavecode]

It won't be able to do much even with Xeon x5365.
Save your money and make a new budget build.
Even a haswell Pentium will do better than this cpu and with way less power.
This is my opinion.

 

[Hello man]

Check this link out. It is a comparison of the i5 3210M (a mobile CPU designed on Broadwell) to the X5365. The i5 is what I have in my macbook pro retina 13IN and it beats the quad core Xeon in performance running only 2 physical cores and two hyper threaded ones. Plus the i5 has a 4.3x lower annual energy cost. It just doesn't make much sense. However I know the position you are in, go ahead and give it a go, you can always upgrade later

 

[littleleo]

Hi,

So my brother happened to have a Dell Precision 490 that he didn't seem to need anymore, so he gave it! ! Anyways, so the specs of this computer include:

Xeon 5160 Processor (Dual Core)

NVS 290 GPU (Terrible Gaming card, terrible business card)

6GB DDR2 RAM

750GB Hard Drive

Windows 7 Ultimate

Motherboard: GU083 rev. A07. (This board is the somewhat uncommon one who can support a x5365 Xeon CPU)


Having everything working and set up, I was thinking of upgrading it to a Quad Core Xeon x5365 CPU and a R7 260x. I can do this for only about $150, which is perfectly fine. The games in which I am interested in running would be Battlefield 3/4 , Garry's Mod, Left for Dead 2, Civilization V, Counter Strike GO, Skyrim, and possibly Titanfall. I would fully expect to have to bring down some settings, hopefully only to medium, and still get forwards of 40 FPS.


So again, this computer was really just handed to me, and I wanted to start a small project. Do you think, understanding that this is a SERVER/Workstation PC, it may meet my needs??? Thanks to all in advance, and I appreciate your time!

First off littleleo's comment about a smaller power footprint is not exactly all that true. That X5365 has a 150W TDP out of the box. Thats freaking ridiculous! Not to mention its average running power consumption is about 120W. My 125W FX8350 has a fairly high TDP but delivers more than twice the performance of that Xeon. It will run games, sure thing, but you would be better off buying a better used GPU and more RAM (keep in ind that system uses FBDIMM, not DIMM).

For 2012 it was an improvement on power use for a Xeon keep it in perspective. It is not any where like a more modern AMD gaming CPU.

 

[LookItsRain]

Can the power supply handle the increase in load? Other than that i think you have a solid machine for your investment.

 

[littleleo]

It won't be able to do much even with Xeon x5365.
Save your money and make a new budget build.
Even a haswell Pentium will do better than this cpu and with way less power.
This is my opinion.

$150 isn't bad for a working system does it come with a monitor and O/S?

 

[rcurtis033]

I also have a dell 490 that was gave to me, people said it wouldn't be a good gaming pc for whatever reasons. But let me tell you, that are so wrong,

NVidia gtx 760
Samsung evo ssd
hybrid hard drive
16 gig ram (remember this is quad channel ram when in matching pairs)
Xeon 5160 in each cpu socket, for a quad core. system
pcie sata3 card
pic3 usb 3.0 card


It runs games beautifully, loads times are seconds, I couldn't be any happier. if I wanted more performance I could always upgrade GPU. But the machine is a beast, I added a few more fans inside to keep it cooled down. will take upto a x5365 cpu

 

[Hello man]

I also have a dell 490 that was gave to me, people said it wouldn't be a good gaming pc for whatever reasons. But let me tell you, that are so wrong,

NVidia gtx 760
Samsung evo ssd
hybrid hard drive
16 gig ram (remember this is quad channel ram when in matching pairs)
Xeon 5160 in each cpu socket, for a quad core. system
pcie sata3 card
pic3 usb 3.0 card


It runs games beautifully, loads times are seconds, I couldn't be any happier. if I wanted more performance I could always upgrade GPU. But the machine is a beast, I added a few more fans inside to keep it cooled down. will take upto a x5365 cpu

Oh no doubt you can upgrade it to the point where it runs games well. But with the proprietary motherboard fan plugs and ridiculously expensive FBDIMM that runs at only 800Mhz its not really that worth it to put a bunch of money into one at this point. The amount of money that OP would have to put into his system to get that result would be a lot.

 

[BIG JOOMZ]

Here is some footage of a dual x5365 xeons paired with a AMD r9 280x at 1080p

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9cYW84c29k