blackhawk95 :
Hello,
I dont post much here but do read quite a bit on here for all the great info.
Im in the process of putting together a list of components for workstation system for running Solidworks and mastercam. and was wanting to know what would be the performance differences between a Xeon based system over a a 980x system?
From what i gather the Asus p6t7 supercomputer mobo, it can run either cpu. I was looking to use a quadro 4000 vidoe card, but am not sure if i should go Xeon or 980x?
any suggestions would be great.
thanks,
Jerid
There are two Xeons that are similar to the i7 980X, the W3680 and the X5680. All are LGA1366 3.33 GHz CPUs with 6 cores, 12 threads, and 12 MB L3 cache. The difference is that the Xeons support error-correcting (ECC) memory, while the i7 line does not, according to Intel. ECC also requires motherboard support to function and from what I saw by flipping through the P6T7's manual, ECC is not supported. You can put ECC modules in the board and they will run, but ECC will be turned off. The Xeon X5680 is additionally able to work in a dual-processor setup and use registered memory as well, but again, both are moot points as the P6T7 is a single-socket board and will not work with registered memory. So in your case, get yourself the i7 980X or get a workstation board that supports the Xeons' additional features instead of the desktop P6T7.
http://www.overclock.net/general-processor-discussions/697081-980x-2-x-e5620-xeons.html
http://forums.creativecow.net/thread/2/977129
http://superuser.com/questions/122914/intel-i7-vs-xeon-quad-core-processor
http://recomparison.com/comparisons/100492/comparison-of-xeon-vs-i7/
Only X series of XEON 5600 can compete with i7-980X. Also I have heard that both have same architecture, techincally both have 12M cache, 6.4 GT/s QPI & Clock Speed 3.33 GHz if you go with X5680. But being XEON, X5680 cost $700-800 more than i7. So i decide to go with SINGLE X5660 or X5650 as of now & upgrade later with another X5680 (if Compatible) when price come down.
The reason the X5680 costs more for basically being the same chip is that it is able to be run in dual-CPU setups, while the i7 980X and Xeon W3680 (which is not much more expensive than the i7 980X) cannot. You could decide to go with a dual-socket board and one 6-core Xeon and then upgrade later, but you're getting a slower system for the same money at the present. You just have to make the tradeoff between more speed now versus more speed later.
Xeon
* Descended from the Pentium II
* Mostly used for servers and workstations
* While the lower end versions are cheaper than the i7's low-end version, most models are quite a bit more expensive
i7
* Descended from the Core 2 line
* Intended mainly for desktop PCs
* Has a number of features that make it well suited to photo editing, video encoding and gaming
* Moderately priced compared to the Xeon
The current Xeons and the i7s are basically the same chips. They all trace their lineage back to 1995's P6-based Pentium Pro server chip, which was first brought to the consumer market as the Pentium II. The P6 microarchitecture used in the Pentium Pro and Pentium II was used in the Pentium III, Pentium M, the original Core laptop chips, and the Core 2 before being used in the Nehalem-based chips as well as Sandy Bridge. Nehalem and Sandy Bridge are a lot different from the original Pentium Pro, but that's where their lineage goes back to.
The reason the lowest-end Xeons are less expensive than the lowest-end Core i7 900 series is that the Core i7 900 series is intended to be a high-end enthusiast chip, so all of the models have to be at least decent. All are at least quad-core units with 8 MB of L3 cache, HyperThreading, and Turbo Boost. There are some very low-end Xeons that are very crippled to make certain price points, such as the $199 E5502. It's a dual-core unit with half of the L3 cache turned off, no Turbo Boost, no HyperThreading, and the memory controller is locked at DDR3-800 speeds. It may be less expensive than the i7s, but it's also a far inferior chip.
The single-socket Xeons (3400/3500/3600 series) don't cost that much more than their analogous i7 models. The only thing you're paying extra for is unbuffered ECC memory support. The high-dollar feature on Xeons is multiple processor support. The Xeon 3000 series can only be used in single-socket arrangements, so Intel doesn't charge a high premium for it over an i7 that can also only be used in single-socket arrangements. The 5000s can be used in dual-socket arrangements, so they're considerably more pricey. The Xeon 7000s can be used in 4+ socket arrangements so they are absolutely ridiculously priced as they start at over $1000 for a quad-core 2.0 GHz part.
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