THE FINAL SHOWDOWN! - Intel Xeon E3-1321v3 vs Intel i5-4690k

[Pixelatedtrollface]

I have a new build:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($242.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-L9i 57.5 CFM CPU Cooler ($44.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: MSI Z87I GAMING AC Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard ($107.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance Pro 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($89.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($88.98 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Hitachi Travelstar 1TB 2.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card ($338.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Lian-Li PC-TU100B Mini ITX Tower Case ($92.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: Silverstone Strider Gold 450W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular SFX Power Supply ($88.79 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: LG GT80N DVD/CD Writer ($21.99 @ Mwave)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ OutletPC)
Other: Slimline SATA to SATA Adapter ($1.49)
Total: $1279.15
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-17 14:49 EST-0500

I need some help for the processor, which one is better? I need help from people who know their stuff.

The processors: Intel Xeon E3-1231v3 VS Intel i5-4690k

I will be using it for a gaming/workstation PC. I need it to run a browser with a few tabs, a skype call, and a modern game (BF4, Metro: Last Light, etc.) at 45-60+ fps.

Thanks for the help! 😀

 

[Suztera]

If you into some light overclocking, the i5 4690k is a good choice else the xeon will offer hyperthreading which the i5 doesn't have.

 

[Pixelatedtrollface]

I'm not going to overclock because i'm not taking chances with ruining my CPU therefore ruining my motherboard so... yeah

Also the hyperthreading is nice

 

[TofuLion]

you won't really see much of a performance increase in gaming with the hyper-threading. most games don't use more than 4 cores anyway, and for those that do, the i5 still handles them very nicely. the clock speed is much more important than the number of threads. and in either case, the GPU is what will handle most of the graphics processing (hence Graphics Processing Unit) and the GTX970 will run any of those games at max setting ~60 FPS @ 1080p

 

[Pixelatedtrollface]

So the Xeon is good? Or not, and I should switch it with the i5?

 

[Suztera]

So the Xeon is good? Or not, and I should switch it with the i5?

If you are doing some video editing, image rendering then the xeon will finish it faster than the i5.
It is essentially an i7 without integrated graphics and no overclocking. If the xeon is cheaper than the i5 then I would suggest you should get it.

 

[logainofhades]

I'm not going to overclock because i'm not taking chances with ruining my CPU therefore ruining my motherboard so... yeah

Also the hyperthreading is nice

Do not use that cooler, it is actually worse than the stock cooler. Z87 with either CPU will probably need a bios update to run. 4690k will do 4.0ghz, with a decent cooler, without changing anything but the multiplier. I vote Xeon, though, because it will multitask better, and should do better in BF4, in multiplayer 64 man modes. Keeping the case you want, I would go with something more like this.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($242.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H97M-ITX/AC Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard ($89.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Team Zeus Blue 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($67.97 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Crucial MX100 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($104.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: Hitachi Travelstar 1TB 2.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card ($338.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Lian-Li PC-TU100B Mini ITX Tower Case ($92.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: Silverstone Strider Gold 450W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular SFX Power Supply ($88.79 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: LG GT80N DVD/CD Writer ($21.99 @ Mwave)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($90.99 @ NCIX US)
Other: Slimline SATA to SATA Adapter ($1.49)
Total: $1211.16
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-17 15:18 EST-0500

 

[Pixelatedtrollface]

What is the team zeus ram stuff?

 

[Pixelatedtrollface]

Vengeance pro = Mine

And you will have to pry it out of my cold, dead hands to get it from me 😀

 

[Pixelatedtrollface]

So there http://pcpartpicker.com/p/z8xxNG

 

[Pixelatedtrollface]

Any CPU cooler you would reccomend besides the stock?

 

[logainofhades]

What is the team zeus ram stuff?

Ram really isn't much different. It comes from just a few factories, and companies slap their name on it. For a non overclock rig, stock is sufficient, but Zalman CNPS8900 Quiet is a decent low profile cooler. It is actually a THG recommended cooler.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/low-profile-heat-sink-mini-itx,3639-22.html

 

[mdocod]

If you're not overclocking, the E3 is the better value.

In workloads that do not scale beyond 4 threads, they perform about the same, with the i5 having a 3% advantage in clock speed, and the E3 having a larger L3 cache advantage.. that's a wash.

In workloads that do scale beyond 4 threads, the E3 is up to ~25% faster.

Even if a game specifically doesn't scale into that advantage, any time you create workloads via multi-tasking (gaming with background tasks like streaming for example), then you are potentially creating a workload that does scale into that advantage.

 

[Pixelatedtrollface]

Thanks!