Used Xeon Workstation vs Build New - Pros / Cons ?

[Roarion]

Hey everyone,

So i'm looking into building a desktop primarily for gaming purposes. I've been looking around a lot about info for Xeon vs i5-7 for gaming. I've seen plenty of threads that will state Xeon isn't really made for gaming, and others mention the chips are basically the same just have different features.

For example -

Clocks a 13k CPU score
http://www.ebay.com/itm/231820158506?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

vs

Clocks a 11k CPU score
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7-4790K+%40+4.00GHz

Now lets say I have a max budget of $800, the Intel Core i7-4790K alone costs more then the entire used Xeon workstation and will limit the amount of money I could throw into getting a much better GPU (unless I buy a much less powerful processor). Would anyone think the Xeon is even worth touching for a gaming build? I feel the biggest risk with a machine like this is no warranty but besides that it seems like I could come out ahead with nearly $400 to invest solely into a GPU.

Another reason I would like to invest more solely into the GPU is with laptops like the Razer Blade Stealth coming out I could also use the card on the go with a Razer Core setup (or a competitor brand i'm sure many other manufactures will have these out in the next 1-2 yrs when i'm due for a laptop upgrade).

A co-worker of mine also mentioned he wouldn't touched these used workstations. He stated that,
1) Any larger graphics cards won't fit in them (which seems false to me).
2) They are ran into the ground from being used a servers / computational machines and will burn out quickly.

If this question has been repeated somewhere please let me know, I just haven't been able to find any real good factual information about buying a used Xeon server and re-purposing it as a gaming rig.

Thanks for your time,
Jacob

 

[CBender]

I would agree with the second point of your friend. These machines are used is 24/7 scenarios by larger companies. So while everything might at working order there is no telling when something would give up. Essentially it becomes a lottery. As for the first point of your friend, he is not far from the truth. A lot of PC OEMs use cheap cases that are built to fit just the specific hardware. So in terms of upgradability you could run into some problems.

If you were to build a workstation the best available solution (price/performance) would be the Xeon 1231v3. Which is an i7 with no intergrated gpu and consts roughly the same as an i5. You could easily build something for 800$.

Having a build where half the budget has gone into a gpu and the other half on (over)used components doesn't really make sense. First of all buying a 400$ gpu needs a good power supply. Those workstation usually come with really cheap ones. So another 80-100$ has been added to the budget. And the same thing applies for all the other components.

In your position I would try to build a moderate balanced system. If you gaming is your only purpose I would stay away from prebuilt workstations and invest in either an i5 or a 1231v3 platform.

 

[frapport]

A used workstation is a quality built business class machine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1LQD5mnpMU

The machine you listed is an 8 core/16 thread DDR4 based machine.
It is a current 3.0 GHz CPU.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQ59vHSFfZA

Basically it is equivalent socket 2011 x5960 build.

With the OS included it seems to be a great deal.