Xeon As A Gaming Machine?

[TheLoneRanger]

I am thinking of building a new machine and was looking at the options. Currently I could get a Core2 Duo or Quadro on a single socket motherboard. I could even get a motherboard to plug in a Duo today and a Quadro tomorrow when the price comes down. Then it dawned on me that I might be able to get a dual socket motherboard into which I could plug a single Duo today, and another Duo later. Or even two Quadros down the road. I have been unable to find such a beast.

However, you can get Xeon motherboards that are dual socketed relatively cheaply. So, I was thinking that it might be beneficial to get one of those, plus in a Xeon Duo today and expand it later. Other than the inevitable improvements to memory and FSB timings, what would be the disadvantages of this approach vs. using a normal Core2 Duo? Are there features missing from the Xeon that would be important for gaming? What effect would CPU clock differences make? How about the memory interface differences?

Given that parallel cores seems to be the primary route to speed increase going forward, this all seems to make sense to me, but I don't want to buy a Xeon and find that it won't run something, or that it will be a poor performer.

 

[ajfink]

A dual-socket Intel board? Bad idea. Expensive motherboards, expensive FB-DIMM memory, ONE PCI-E slot...etc.

 

[Wisecracker]

Check out 2cpu.com.

There are some older SMP rigs that you can build that won't cost yah an arm and a leg and will function just dandy . . .

If you have to spend a bunch o' money and keep up with *the latest trends* and the fastest bunny rabbits it may not be what you are looking for . . . .

Older workstation builds generally make decent gaming rigs but there are limiting factors (such as ecc RAM) so that you will never scream your way to the top of the *benchmark world*

They just run and run and run . . . .

 

[m25]

A dual-socket Intel board? Bad idea. Expensive motherboards, expensive FB-DIMM memory, ONE PCI-E slot...etc.

Yep, more than a bad idea for gaming, ...maybe a workstation but never in this world a gaming rig!

 

[heartview]

I am thinking of building a new machine and was looking at the options. Currently I could get a Core2 Duo or Quadro on a single socket motherboard. I could even get a motherboard to plug in a Duo today and a Quadro tomorrow when the price comes down. Then it dawned on me that I might be able to get a dual socket motherboard into which I could plug a single Duo today, and another Duo later. Or even two Quadros down the road. I have been unable to find such a beast.

However, you can get Xeon motherboards that are dual socketed relatively cheaply. So, I was thinking that it might be beneficial to get one of those, plus in a Xeon Duo today and expand it later. Other than the inevitable improvements to memory and FSB timings, what would be the disadvantages of this approach vs. using a normal Core2 Duo? Are there features missing from the Xeon that would be important for gaming? What effect would CPU clock differences make? How about the memory interface differences?

Given that parallel cores seems to be the primary route to speed increase going forward, this all seems to make sense to me, but I don't want to buy a Xeon and find that it won't run something, or that it will be a poor performer.

If you were to use it solely for gaming, then it would not be your best choice, but would still work just fine. If you are one of those gamers that just has to have the best of the best then you won't be happy, but otherwise it would perform just fine for gaming with a decent video card.

If you plan to do any other sort of workstation-class work on it then it could be a better choice. But, I'd have to say, with the Duo upgrading to the Quad later, I wouldn't expect you have to worry about using more than 4 cores in gaming for a few more years. That being said, I'd personally go Core 2 Duo now and then just up to the Core 2 Quad later when the price goes down a bit. Chances are very good that by the time that Core 2 Quad starts feeling slow you'd be looking for a whole new rig anyway.

 

[dasickninja]

Simply, no. If you want a Xeon for gaming, stick to the LGA775 30XX series.

 

[Dante_Jose_Cuervo]

I am thinking of building a new machine and was looking at the options. Currently I could get a Core2 Duo or Quadro on a single socket motherboard. I could even get a motherboard to plug in a Duo today and a Quadro tomorrow when the price comes down. Then it dawned on me that I might be able to get a dual socket motherboard into which I could plug a single Duo today, and another Duo later. Or even two Quadros down the road. I have been unable to find such a beast.

However, you can get Xeon motherboards that are dual socketed relatively cheaply. So, I was thinking that it might be beneficial to get one of those, plus in a Xeon Duo today and expand it later. Other than the inevitable improvements to memory and FSB timings, what would be the disadvantages of this approach vs. using a normal Core2 Duo? Are there features missing from the Xeon that would be important for gaming? What effect would CPU clock differences make? How about the memory interface differences?

Given that parallel cores seems to be the primary route to speed increase going forward, this all seems to make sense to me, but I don't want to buy a Xeon and find that it won't run something, or that it will be a poor performer.

Ok... once again... someone who's doing something like me... only my rig is mainly for workstation/server loads rather than gaming.

SOO.... Dual-xeon for gaming? Not good until they release games that can take advantage of those wonderful cores. Now as for memory timings... those aren't your big concern... your concern will be that while most mobos don't have more than 1 full pci-e x16 slot most have about 2 x8 slots (in an x16 form) and can still run dual-gpus... although I think only the AMD/Nvidia mobos for the opertrons can work with SLI. Now... on that note: you probably don't even need SLI.

Xeons for gaming? Theoretically, there's no difference. People say "server CPUs are worse for gaming", that's not true. A server CPU is a desktop CPU that's been binned higher which would actually make it BETTER. The thing is the chipset/memory that you should worry about. Now...

With this said, would I recommend it? Unless you're doing workstation tasks or multi-tasking... no. If you are, then by all means do so.

 

[harty23690]

Did you not see the article on the Intel 'V8'

Its pointless to have so many cores as not many apps will utilise them all.

Also as has been previously stated expensive and obsolete FB-DIMMs and only 1 PCIe slot make this a bad idea for a gaming system.

 

[Dante_Jose_Cuervo]

Did you not see the article on the Intel 'V8'

Its pointless to have so many cores as not many apps will utilise them all.

Also as has been previously stated expensive and obsolete FB-DIMMs and only 1 PCIe slot make this a bad idea for a gaming system.

Ya know... there are server mobos with more than 1 PCI-e slot
In fact, here's one from iWill

http://www.iwill.net/product_2.asp?p_id=108

It would make a decent gaming machine.

Now about the FB-DIMMs. They're designed with one thing in mind: HUGE AMOUNTS OF RAM. Not speed, just sheer gigabytes.

 

[Apple_Fritters]

This is a little odd. C2D E6300 costs $1 more than Xeon 3040.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?Submit=ENE&N=2010340343+50001157+1050922263+4017&Subcategory=343&description=&Ntk=&srchInDesc=

 

[ryokinshin]

dual gfx cards is useless, for the money its better to jus use it for a single better card in a future upgrade, although im not saying buy workstation lik others said before games dont take advantage of the features in the workstation cpus. and about the dual cards, well sure a few months, tops a year u get top of the chart or high performance, but then a single card comes out that kills a combination of both ur cards, well makes more sense to get a single hard, wont perform the best, but givs gd visuals and performance, and u hav money to move up with the generations. hey if u hav the money for continuous dual cards then go for it, u deserve the top performance

 

[reaperakiller87]

well... i thank ur right ..but very very worg..that said

i have a ibm zpro with 4gb od ram and two 3.4 pros and it runs very very fast and on game it kicks a$$ and its on win7 64bit ohh and yes ecc is a lil slow but haveig 13.6ghs of power dose help they run good ...


ps. if u thank dif on it come and chat with me a aron.kerns@yahoo.com and i will show you up...imb are good for gaming

 

[lavitz1125]

Him fail at englishs! That unpossible.

Ontopic, not worth it at the time, go with a normal CPU.

 

[reaperakiller87]

wtf hey *** u maaaaaaaaaan ..................dont go with juck go with what you thack

 

[warmon6]

Hate to burst your bubble you guys, but me thinks this thread is nearly 4 years

No point on commenting on a thread that old.



Oh lavitz, behave yourself.

Not everybody that's on these forums speaks English as there primary language. for some it's there second or third language. Some of them are still learning it but are still wanting to help.

Just remember that while your one these forums.

 

[captainvera]

Just remember that while your one these forums.

on*