[SOLVED] What Should I get? i5 3470 or Xeon X3470?

[natedog1636]

Hello, what should I get? an i5 3470 and motherboard for $120 NZD + shipping ($20 NZD)? or a Xeon X3470 for $30 NZD that I already have a motherboard for?... At the moment I only have 8gb ram 4x2. and If I got the Xeon I would be able to upgrade to 16gb 2x8. I can not figure this one out could someone please guide me.

Rest of the specs (I already own)
RX 580 4gb
H57D01-1.0-8EKS3H LGA1156
240 Kingston SSD
1tb HDD
8GB DDR3 4x2
550w Bronze Cooler Master PSU

At the moment I am using an old i3 530, the main game that I want to play is Post Scriptum. If any of you could help me with this it would be appreciated

 

[SamirD]

Depends on how much you really want to spend. I don't think the i5-3470 is a good value at $120:
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compar...el-Xeon-X3470-vs-Intel-i5-3470/737vs1291vs822

 

[natedog1636]

Depends on how much you really want to spend. I don't think the i5-3470 is a good value at $120:
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compar...el-Xeon-X3470-vs-Intel-i5-3470/737vs1291vs822

Thats $72 USD for the cpu and a decent motherboard, and over here in New Zealand parts are not very cheep everyone is very money hungry.
On user benchmark it says that the Xeon is only 16% worse than the i5. I don't know how true that is though.
https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Xeon-X3470-vs-Intel-Core-i5-3470/m24530vs2771

 

[Schlachtwolf]

There is not a MASSIVE difference between them, they are both old ...... but.... the i5 is on 22nm lithography and the xeon is 45nm, for gaming the single core speed is better in the i5 and it has slightly more memory bandwith. Also the i5 support 1600mhz RAM whereas the xeon is only 1333mhz. The xeon has faster multicore speeds but that is not really relevent to what you want to play.

I would (if I only had this choice) go for the i5 but DDR 3 Ram is pretty cheap so getting 2x8 gb sticks should be easy enough.... you can even ask around if anyone has upgraded lately to ddr4 and have sticks left over.

I presume you are on a budget, but look around for a good deal on a Ryzen 3 1600 and a b350 motherboard....bit of ddr4 ram and you'll have lots of fun.

 

[natedog1636]

There is not a MASSIVE difference between them, they are both old ...... but.... the i5 is on 22nm lithography and the xeon is 45nm, for gaming the single core speed is better in the i5 and it has slightly more memory bandwith. Also the i5 support 1600mhz RAM whereas the xeon is only 1333mhz. The xeon has faster multicore speeds but that is not really relevent to what you want to play.

I would (if I only had this choice) go for the i5 but DDR 3 Ram is pretty cheap so getting 2x8 gb sticks should be easy enough.... you can even ask around if anyone has upgraded lately to ddr4 and have sticks left over.

I presume you are on a budget, but look around for a good deal on a Ryzen 3 1600 and a b350 motherboard....bit of ddr4 ram and you'll have lots of fun.

I did have a Ryzen 3 2200g but I soon found out it was a bit ambitious of me to be planing on spending $180 for the cpu $150 for the motherboard and $120 for ram and $200 for the gpu and $100 for the case and $50 for the ssd when I was only 14 so I sold it for $150 and now im 16 and have freed up a bit on the idea of buying used and still don't have much money lol

 

[SamirD]

Thats $72 USD for the cpu and a decent motherboard, and over here in New Zealand parts are not very cheep everyone is very money hungry.
On user benchmark it says that the Xeon is only 16% worse than the i5. I don't know how true that is though.
https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Xeon-X3470-vs-Intel-Core-i5-3470/m24530vs2771

Yeah, if anyone here in the us complains about prices, they should check out other parts of the world. You can get an entire 3470 system here for $70 these days.

As far as the xeon being only 16% worse, I don't think that's going to be true except in highly threaded processes where the hyperthreading would help. Otherwise, the xeon is going to be at least 25% slower just on the single thread speed. But the thing to keep in mind is not how much slower than the 3470 the xeon is, but how much faster it is than your current i3--you will have 2x the core performance and at least 10% faster core speed. On today's software that will feel like a 100% improvement.

Go for the xeon and by the time you need to upgrade again, the 3470 and hopefully 3770k will be within your range.

 

[SamirD]

...and now im 16 and have freed up a bit on the idea of buying used and still don't have much money lol

So buying used is part of the solution--knowing where to buy stuff used in good condition and cheap is what gets you the deals. Keeping your eyes open and always watching for deals helps you land them.

 

[natedog1636]

So buying used is part of the solution--knowing where to buy stuff used in good condition and cheap is what gets you the deals. Keeping your eyes open and always watching for deals helps you land them.

Lol I did manage to get my RX 580 for $160 nzd, The cheepest one other than that was $230 nzd. Thanks for your help I think I might get the xeon to get me through well I save for a better cpu and motherboard.

 

[SamirD]

Lol I did manage to get my RX 580 for $160 nzd, The cheepest one other than that was $230 nzd. Thanks for your help I think I might get the xeon to get me through well I save for a better cpu and motherboard.

Nice! Yep, I would start with the xeon and then just keep saving and watching for deals. Remember that upgrades also come in cycles so keep your finger on the pulse of that so you know what to expect in terms of used equipment hitting the market and can really take advantage of 'hand me down' upgrades. Sometimes you can even get stuff for free!