Which one to keep, which one to let go (Xeon X5650/ i5 4590)

[zackinaus]

I look forward to upgrading my system soon (either Ryzen or Coffee Lake).

I currently have 2 systems, specs are below

1. Xeon X5650 @4Ghz on Gigabyte X58a-UD7, 12GB Corsair XMS DDR 1600 in triple channel

2. Core i5 4590 3.3-3.7Ghz on AsRock Z97x killer 3.1, 16GB KLEVV DDR2400 in dual channel.

I have a ASUS strix GTX 1080 O8G and a Plextor M8PEG 256GB M.2 NVME SSD which can be installed in either one of the systems.

I am wondering which system should I keep until my next upgrade.

The i5 system is more current than the X58 platform hence higher resell value to fund my next upgrade. However I afraid the X58 is less competent in gaming.

I have tried gaming in both systems with the GTX 1080 and honestly I didn't feel there is any difference in gaming performance. All cores on the Xeon were utilized across the board when playing The Division in UltraWide 1080p. (I only require my games to be played at highest setting at 60fps v-synced).

Look forward to have opinion from you guys, cheers!

 

[Barty1884]

At stock, the 4590 would be the much, much stronger gamer but, considering the Xeon is OC'd, it seems like the smarter one to keep.

The gaming performance of an X5650 @ 4GHz is (relatively) comparable to an i7-3770 - and with the added cores/threads, in some larger games that can utilize it, it can be beneficial.

Personally, I'd keep the X58, ideally with the 16GB 2400MHz dual channel.

 

[zackinaus]

At stock, the 4590 would be the much, much stronger gamer but, considering the Xeon is OC'd, it seems like the smarter one to keep.

The gaming performance of an X5650 @ 4GHz is (relatively) comparable to an i7-3770 - and with the added cores/threads, in some larger games that can utilize it, it can be beneficial.

Personally, I'd keep the X58, ideally with the 16GB 2400MHz dual channel.

I am leaning on selling the i5 too. The Xeon is currently only cooled by a Coolermaster Hyper 212 and during 30mins gaming session in The Division it never get over 60C. If I pop on the Corsair H100i v2, I believe I can even push it further to 4.3Ghz. In addition, the extra PCIE lane on the X58 also create possibility for further upgrade into SLI or NVME drive with a PCIE adapter.

For the Corsair XMS ram though, I can't push it further than 1600. The X58 board won't recognize any ram module larger than 4GB each stick. So I may have to stick with the XMS ram. Will there be much difference performance wise?

 

[Barty1884]

Yeah, I've seen reports of those Xeons topping out at 4.4 or 4.5GHz (with a bit of luck), so you might have a decent bit of headroom still, with appropriate cooling.

Yeah, there's definitely more room for expansion on the X58..... honestly, I don't think you'd need to upgrade anytime soon with that setup.
Not 100% whether you can boot from an NVMe drive on X58 though..... that didn't come to mainstream until Devil's Canyon, so I'd be a little surprised if you could on X58 being a fair bit older.

For the RAM, while 16GB vs 12GB and 2400Mhz vs 1600MHz aren't likely to show too much difference overall, obviously 16GB @ 2400MHz would be preferred for the occassions that it can matter....

Have you actually tried the 2400MHz 2x8GB kit in the X58 board? I don't specifically see anything limiting them to 4GB modules.
6 slots, max 24GB would indicate that, but it doesn't always prove to be the case.
The 24GB max is likely true, but you can sometimes achieve that with a limited number of modules.
So, for example, you could populate with 3x8GB modules (or 2x8GB + 2x4GB etc, although not idea) and achieve the same "max" 24GB.
Not always possible though, but it's worth trying.

It does appear the X58 board supports up to 2200MHz and not 2400MHz though, so you'd forfeit a little bit of speed (no big deal though IMO).,

 

[zackinaus]

Yeah, I've seen reports of those Xeons topping out at 4.4 or 4.5GHz (with a bit of luck), so you might have a decent bit of headroom still, with appropriate cooling.

Yeah, there's definitely more room for expansion on the X58..... honestly, I don't think you'd need to upgrade anytime soon with that setup.
Not 100% whether you can boot from an NVMe drive on X58 though..... that didn't come to mainstream until Devil's Canyon, so I'd be a little surprised if you could on X58 being a fair bit older.

For the RAM, while 16GB vs 12GB and 2400Mhz vs 1600MHz aren't likely to show too much difference overall, obviously 16GB @ 2400MHz would be preferred for the occassions that it can matter....

Have you actually tried the 2400MHz 2x8GB kit in the X58 board? I don't specifically see anything limiting them to 4GB modules.
6 slots, max 24GB would indicate that, but it doesn't always prove to be the case.
The 24GB max is likely true, but you can sometimes achieve that with a limited number of modules.
So, for example, you could populate with 3x8GB modules (or 2x8GB + 2x4GB etc, although not idea) and achieve the same "max" 24GB.
Not always possible though, but it's worth trying.

It does appear the X58 board supports up to 2200MHz and not 2400MHz though, so you'd forfeit a little bit of speed (no big deal though IMO).,

I tried to plug 1x 8GB stick on the X58 board but it would not boot up. After checking the motherboard user manual, it looks like it will only work with particular slots when you do not populate all of them so I may try once again. For the memory clocks I can still adjust the memory ratio to lower down to 2200, if it boots....

I have read an article (https://audiocricket.com/2016/12/31/booting-samsung-sm961-on-asus-p6t-se-mainboard/)
The folk managed to use an usb memory stick which contains an custom UEFI loader in it to bypass the legacy bios. The usb key has to be plugged in all the time though otherwise the system will not boot in Windows. I have not personally tried it as I am still waiting for my NVMe PCIE adapter to arrive.

The only draw back of the X58 platform is the outdated storage interfaces. The marvell chip that provide SATA III connection is slow... If I some how made the NVMe PCIE to be bootable, I can easily use the X58 platform for another few years...

 

[Barty1884]

I'd heard of custom BIOS's too, where there was a file added to the "stock" BIOS file, and then flashed..... but I've never tried it, so can't confirm whether it works (and is safe).

 

[zackinaus]

I'd heard of custom BIOS's too, where there was a file added to the "stock" BIOS file, and then flashed..... but I've never tried it, so can't confirm whether it works (and is safe).

The X58 board does actually supports 8GB ram stick at slot 1 & 3 when using dual channel, however I have trouble booting up @2000Mhz... Only able to boot @1600.

I think I will stick with the 12GB triple channel setup which is stable 24/7.