[SOLVED] xeon for new pc which one

vampelle

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Aug 20, 2011
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hi,

for gaming, work, which xeon should be considered if i buy in use
xeon 4th gen or 6th gen. depends what available.
should i build a PC or buy pre built hp or lenovo tower.
gpu i will have to purchase separate. going for 4-6gb in used as well.

Can you please write which model to consider and which to stay away from.

regards
 
Solution
xeon 4th gen or 6th gen

Intel Xeon processor naming convention
Xeons are not named per generation, but rather by:
Product line (E3 - Single core, E5/E7 - Multiple cores)
Family (Product/SKU)
Version

List of Xeon processors
Note: The release price in wiki isn't indicative of the current price. They definitely would be worth less today.
*The further you scroll into the list, the more current the release date of the CPU is.

Xeon processors aren't named like standard Intel desktop processors (i.e. Intel Core i5-6600k) where we can infer easily that it's 6th gen due to it starting with "6"

If you mean to say you're looking for a Xeon processor that came out around the same time as intel 6th gen processors...
xeon 4th gen or 6th gen

Intel Xeon processor naming convention
Xeons are not named per generation, but rather by:
Product line (E3 - Single core, E5/E7 - Multiple cores)
Family (Product/SKU)
Version

List of Xeon processors
Note: The release price in wiki isn't indicative of the current price. They definitely would be worth less today.
*The further you scroll into the list, the more current the release date of the CPU is.

Xeon processors aren't named like standard Intel desktop processors (i.e. Intel Core i5-6600k) where we can infer easily that it's 6th gen due to it starting with "6"

If you mean to say you're looking for a Xeon processor that came out around the same time as intel 6th gen processors
6th gen intel processors came out 2015

I would focus either on the E5 or E7 product line for more cores for your use case of gaming/workload

In that case the closest I can recommend you are Broadwell-based processors (They're mostly 2016 released though)
Then you'd have to find a motherboard that can wield those processors.

E5
Any Xeon Broadwell-based CPU you can find available and fits your budget. 8-12 cores you can probably get it for a price way below its original MSRP. Refer to the list for the exact model.

E7
Cost is usually strongly correlated with the number of cores in the Xeon processor (i.e. more cost = more expensive).
However since its 2021, there's a good chance you can find these for cheap.

I got an Intel E5-2697 v2 Xeon CPU for about $160 for my mining rig. It was considerably much more expensive before ($1298 on Amazon), so basically /8 its original price. It has 12 cores. Bought it at around the start of this year.

IPC improvements of CPUs are vast now over a course of 5 years. A CPU back in 2015 has less IPC than a CPU now at 2021.
But what can make up for it is more cores and a cheaper price.

I would avoid going for a Xeon processor with less than 8-12 cores, assuming you can still get a 12 core Xeon for cheap like I did.

The other challenge is getting a motherboard that can wield it, given current situations right now (global chip shortage + pandemic). These old motherboards are usually phased out in retail shops. You are likely to get them as used or if someone's selling their old ones off ebay.

And a further challenge is the possible need to flash the BIOS of that motherboard, if in case the motherboard you've bought isn't updated to the latest BIOS and wouldn't work with the Xeon CPU you chose. There's no way to determine if a board is flashed to the latest BIOS on the outside. You'd even need to ask the seller what BIOS version it is just to make sure.

I was able to overcome this challenge, but by a slim chance. It was a harrowing experience, but in the end I worked it out. Good thing I was using a dual BIOS motherboard and had a working, spare CPU.

If you're going to go for the prebuilt route to look for a Xeon CPU to avoid these potential hurdles, you can but then again you'd have to face as well its potential downsides too (i.e. poor or no documentation of the prebuilt, some prebuilts can't have specific parts replaced, etc.).
 
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