Replacing an I5-3570k with a Xeon E3-1230 V2

leeb2013

Honorable
hi all,

I've just replaced my I5 with a Xeon and thought I'd share my experience as there isn't so much information on this and some concerns the Xeon is somehow special and has compatibility issues.

Firstly, the I5 I have is awesome, it overclocks very easily to 4.4GHz, has low temps and with a bit more voltage will hit 4.7-4.8GHz.

But, I was very interested in the Xeon, particularly as it's slightly cheaper than the I5 here in Oz, and is basically the I7 without the GPU. The main downside being the locked multiplier, however with games and other applications starting to utilise more than 4 cores, I was interested to see the effect of Hyper-threading.

Swapping the CPU was very simple, with the cooler off, it dropped straight into my Asrock Z77 LGA1055 mobo as you'd expect.

The BIOS recognised it and booted straight into windows which automatically installed the Xeon drivers, no issues, all 8 threads were visible in task manager.

I didn't have to reinstall any video drivers, nor anything else.

The main concern was with memory compatibility. The Xeon spec says 1333 or 1600 memory. There are some other discussions about the requirement for buffered/non-buffered, ECC/non ECC memory.

I have 8GB of G-skill Ares 2133, which I normally o/c to 2400 with the same timings using my I5. Surprisingly, this worked straight away with the Xeon too, with no issues, same o/c, same timings, which is awesome.

The temperatures with the Coolermaster Evo cooler are very good, at 55C fully stressed on the lowest fan setting (barely audible)

In the Asrock BIOS there is an option to set the "all core multiplier", but unfortunately this is limited to 37 as expected. Changing this to 37 from Auto, doesn't make all cores run at 37, (3.7GHz), it still reduced this down to 35 when all 4 cores are active and stressed.

The typical CPU voltage is 1v, however it is completely stable at 0.95v, reducing the power consumption by nearly 7W and dropping the temps a little.

I tried some test with adjusting Bclk (I understand it's almost pointless). 105MHz was stable, giving a 5% boost, but I've left it at stock. (EDIT: actually settled on 104MHz BCLK, to bring it closer to a stock 3770k).

In bench marking (with the Xeon at 3.5GHz), I found 3Dmark 11 had a 30% boost over the I5 at 4.4GHz, mainly due to improved physics and Firestrike was about 15% better. Passmark was around 12% better.

In games; Battlefield 4 made good use of all 8 threads and significantly decreased the CPU utilisation to below 50% where-as the I5 @ 4.4GHz was around 60-80%. So the Xeon should be good for multithreaded games which punish the CPU twice as much as BF4 does! Is hyperthreading pointless in games? I'm beginning to think not, but we'll see.

Titanfall by comparison however, places almost no stress on the CPU, using only 3 threads at about 10-20%.

I'll test a few more games over the coming nights.

I tested a couple of video convertors, which made good use of all 8 threads, but I don't have any comparison data with the I5.

Is the Xeon better than the I5? We'll it seems to perform better at 3.5GHz than the I5 does at 4.4GHz in apps that use more threads. Of course, the o/c I5 will perform better in single treaded apps, due to the o/c, but at stock clocks, it's almost the same.

There are a few good looking games coming out over the next few months, it'll be interesting to see how they use hyperthreading.

Thanks for reading.
 
+1

Awesome! Glad to see more and more people using the e3 Xeons. About 6 months ago, I put the 1230v2 in my lil bro's system in place of his i3 2120 and it was a missive upgrade. I've been recommending them ever since.
 
ok, I had a bit more time for benchmarking;

3dmark 11 physics (CPU)

Xeon stock - 8681
Xeon (104BCLK) 3.6GHz turbo - 9717

I5-3570k @ 4.6GHz - 8843

from 3DMark11 website;

Typical I7-3770k 3.9GHz turbo - 9166

Typical I7-3770k @ 4.6GHz - 11773

Typical FX-8350 @ 5GHz - 8943

3Dmark Vantage CPU score

Xeon (104BCLK) 3.6GHz turbo - 26032

From Legit reviews

Typical I7-3770k 3.9GHz turbo - 26646

Overall, very similar to a stock I7-3770k or 3770 and exceeds the I5-3570k whilst running 1GHz slower.
 
That's awesome leeb2013! I've wondered about how the 1230v2/v3 would do in the real world compared to the i5 3570k/4670k. There was a guy on here a few weeks ago that was arguing with me saying that an overclocked 4670k would beat the 1230v3 BADLY in every single situation. He would not listen to reason so I just gave up. Anyway, I've already upgraded a system with a 1230v2 and built a system from scratch with the 1230v3 so I know how great they are. There will be some form of e3 Xeon in my next personal build for sure.

logainofhades, here is my next miniITX(possibly passive cooled) cpu- http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Xeon/Intel-Xeon%20E3-1230L%20v3.html and here is maybe my next(and last because it will last forever) file server cpu- http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Xeon/Intel-Xeon%20E3-1220L%20v3.html
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My file server currently has an i5 2400. I was thinking a 1230 v2 and then getting back into folding again. It would be cheaper and I would get more PPD probably from a GTX 750ti. For my mini-itx rig, I was going to basically replace my current gaming rig. I would reuse the GPU, memory, and possibly a 2tb drive I recently put in. It was in my file server, but it didn't seem to agree with my raid 5 array, so I picked up another drive on Ebay that matched my other 3. Testing the pulled drive in my main rig for awhile. It passed a disk check. The 3570k would go into my file server, probably, and one of my FX 8320 rigs would be replaced with the i5 2400. I also considered selling one FX 8320 and replacing it with an i3 mini itx rig with a gtx 750ti. :lol:
 
some further info, using the settings below;

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xamxkb8glz9xz6y/140409204736.jpg

I managed to reduce power when running Y-cruncher or Prime from 140W to 115W, with a reduction in temperatures (fan on min setting) from 62C to 49C. Y-cruncher or Prime can now run continuously without the CPU fan having to speed up from it's lowest setting.

Idle temp is 27-30C with an internal case temp of 24C.

Vcore of the Xeon is at 0.896v stressed, 0.688v idle.

Single cores turbo up to 3.848GHz, 4 cores (8 threads) up to 3.640GHz with Bclk at 104MHz.
 


crazy, an extra $400 for 200MHz!
 
I wish I had of known about the Xeons when I was building my pc, I would of definitely picked it over my i5....I was about to get the i7 too. I definitely plan on eventually getting the i7 if I ever see one cheap, I was thinking of picking up a barely used i7 2600k as well before.
 

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