[SOLVED] Is it going to be an upgrade?

[JackFive]

Hello guys,
I was browsing around the local market place in my country and i found a decent enough pc for really cheap price(Around 76 USD)...and thinking of upgrading from core i5 2400 and 8 gigs of ram(HP compaq 6200 pro mt).
So the system is a Dell precision t5500 with E5620 (2 processors) and 16 gigs of ddr3 ram(dont know if its ecc or not)... i'm thinking of overclocking if possible..
My main questions are:
Is it going to improve my overall performance(Games like gta v, csgo and android emulator) video editing and heavy chrome browsing.?
is it overclockable with that default hardware ?
if overclocked or not can it outperform i5 2400?

Note: I'm using gtx 1050 2gb.
and if i sell my i5, im going to get around 75-80 USD so that's a free upgrade .

https://www.olx.com.pk/item/dell-precision-t5500-workstation-gaming-machine-iid-1046568255

So should i go for it?
Thanks in advance!

 

[kanewolf]

Hello guys,
I was browsing around the local market place in my country and i found a decent enough pc for really cheap price(Around 76 USD)...and thinking of upgrading from core i5 2400 and 8 gigs of ram(HP compaq 6200 pro mt).
So the system is a Dell precision t5500 with E5620 (2 processors) and 16 gigs of ddr3 ram(dont know if its ecc or not)... i'm thinking of overclocking if possible..
My main questions are:
Is it going to improve my overall performance(Games like gta v, csgo and android emulator) video editing and heavy chrome browsing.?
is it overclockable with that default hardware ?
if overclocked or not can it outperform i5 2400?

Note: I'm using gtx 1050 2gb.
and if i sell my i5, im going to get around 75-80 USD so that's a free upgrade .

https://www.olx.com.pk/item/dell-precision-t5500-workstation-gaming-machine-iid-1046568255

So should i go for it?
Thanks in advance!

Xeon CPUs are not generally overclock friendly.
You are going to lose 800Mhz of max clock speed going from the i5 to the Xeons. You will get twice as many physical cores plus hyperthreading so you will go from 4 threads to 16 threads.
16GB RAM is NOT optimal for two Xeons of that generation. The CPU has a triple memory controller so you want multiples of six DIMMs for maximum performance.
That would mean six 4GB DIMMs (24GB) or six 8GB DIMMs (48GB). For video editing you want as much RAM as possible.
ECC DDR3 RAM should be pretty easy to get on E-Bay or equivalent.

 

[JackFive]

Xeon CPUs are not generally overclock friendly.
You are going to lose 800Mhz of max clock speed going from the i5 to the Xeons. You will get twice as many physical cores plus hyperthreading so you will go from 4 threads to 16 threads.
16GB RAM is NOT optimal for two Xeons of that generation. The CPU has a triple memory controller so you want multiples of six DIMMs for maximum performance.
That would mean six 4GB DIMMs (24GB) or six 8GB DIMMs (48GB). For video editing you want as much RAM as possible.
ECC DDR3 RAM should be pretty easy to get on E-Bay or equivalent.

So should i go for it?

 

[kanewolf]

So should i go for it?

I would ask the seller how the 16GB is physically installed. One 8GB DIMM per socket?
What do you have for a GPU?

 

[JackFive]

I would ask the seller how the 16GB is physically installed. One 8GB DIMM per socket?
What do you have for a GPU?

i've mentioned a GTX 1050 2gb...will be upgrading afterwards...
and i will ask him about the ram

 

[alceryes]

You will most likely lose performance in games. Dual CPUs are practically useless in gaming. That Dell workstation is designed for a completely different load.

Save up your money and put it towards gaming components/upgrades.

 

[CountMike]

just like dual GPUs, dual CPUs have to be recognized by software and games are mostly no dual CPU aware so you'd be stuck with only one in games.

 

[lordmogul]

25% less clock and around 30% weaker IPC for double the cores and 4 times the threads. In gaming that will hurt performance hard, for editing it can give quite a push if the program can handle two sockets.
Westmere in general is more oc friendly, including the Xeons (they are relatively popular because they sell for less on the used market) But with a workstation like that the required features for oc are most likely not available.

 

[geofelt]

No. Likely a downgrade.
Games like CSGO are cpu limited and mostly single thread performance limited.
Your I5-2400 has a single thread passmark rating of 1580:
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i5-2400+@+3.10GHz&id=793
The single thread rating of the E5620 is only 1127:
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Xeon+E5620+@+2.40GHz&id=1249

 

[KyaraM]

Safe that money, and get a 12100F with a decent B660 board like the MSI Pro B660M-A. The CPU got far higher ICP, 4 cores and 8 threads versus your current 4 cores, and will be like day and night in performance. If you can sell the CPU for 85 bucks, you will have to calculate about 130 for the board, another 20-50 for the CPU depending on where you live, and 50 fir the RAM. So minus the money from the old CPU, you look at about 230 bucks. Yes, it's far more than you want to spend. But it will be a huge jump especially in video editing and gaming over either of those CPUs.

For comparison:
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/Intel-Xeon-E5620-vs-Intel-i3-12100F/1249vs4670

You could also see if you can find a used newer CPU, any 8th gen Intel and up should work.

Edit: they are often sold bundled with the mainboard when used, sometimes even RAM.

 

[geofelt]

The strongest cpu upgrade available for your pc is a I7-2600.
It has 8 threads vs. 4 which is a plus.
The single thread performance is some 15% stronger.
Past that, you are looking for a new motherboard and processor.
In the US, you can buy a I3-10100 which is about 2x as strong along with a lga1200 motherboard and 16gb of ram for $250 or so.

 

[JackFive]

LOL guys its too late i already bought it and now im regretting it in almost every game except some..but overall performance is smoother but less fps...csgo and pubg mobile(Emulator) are massively effected with this..other games requiring more cpu cores and ram are running way way better...
Now only option was Overclocking but the pll chip code isn't in setfsb and i can't do that too..
Stuck with this xeon for some years now XD

 

[kanewolf]

LOL guys its too late i already bought it and now im regretting it in almost every game except some..but overall performance is smoother but less fps...csgo and pubg mobile(Emulator) are massively effected with this..other games requiring more cpu cores and ram are running way way better...
Now only option was Overclocking but the pll chip code isn't in setfsb and i can't do that too..
Stuck with this xeon for some years now XD

Did you follow my recommendation and get RAM in multiples of 6 DIMMs?

 

[JackFive]

Did you follow my recommendation and get RAM in multiples of 6 DIMMs?

I dont get your point...can you explain?
It has 4x4gb ram sticks and 6 DIMM Slots and 3 On cpu riser total of 9 but it keep on Alerting that i have non-optimal memory population ...please refer to manual.

 

[kanewolf]

I dont get your point...can you explain?
It has 4x4gb ram sticks and 6 DIMM Slots and 3 On cpu riser total of 9 but it keep on Alerting that i have non-optimal memory population ...please refer to manual.

Each CPU has a triple channel memory controller. Maximum performance from the CPU requires all three memory channel be populated.

 

[JackFive]

Each CPU has a triple channel memory controller. Maximum performance from the CPU requires all three memory channel be populated.

So you mean all of those slots need to be filled?

 

[kanewolf]

So you mean all of those slots need to be filled?

Look at the Service manual -- https://dl.dell.com/manuals/common/precision-t5500_setup guide_en-us.pdf
PDF page 2 has a chart for memory -- You need the dual CPU chart.
For you there should be three DIMMs in slots 1, 2, 3 on the motherboard and slots 1, 2, 3 on the riser for maximum performance.

 

[JackFive]

Okay so I've 4 sticks of 4gb ram and can't buy anymore...any other idea of improving performance without paying ?

 

[kanewolf]

Okay so I've 4 sticks of 4gb ram and can't buy anymore...any other idea of improving performance without paying ?

No.
4GB DDR3 ECC RAM should be dirt cheap on E-Bay or other resale site ...
I see some sold for around $10 ...

 

[JackFive]

No.
4GB DDR3 ECC RAM should be dirt cheap on E-Bay or other resale site ...
I see some sold for around $10 ...

Okay so do i have to buy 2 4gb sticks? How much performance will be improved?

 

[kanewolf]

Okay so do i have to buy 2 4gb sticks? How much performance will be improved?

Improvement will depend on the software. Video editing could benefit. Gaming may not improve much. I can only say that the CPU was designed for three DIMMs for maximum performance.

 

[JackFive]

Improvement will depend on the software. Video editing could benefit. Gaming may not improve much. I can only say that the CPU was designed for three DIMMs for maximum performance.

Okay so I'm finding some memory asap.

Edit: I've found a way of overclock with software (same way i used to oc a q6600) but the overclock rather seem to be useless just 40mhz before crashing...i will show you the application setfsb if you guys can figure out and help me..