Any 8 core plus X79 bargains yet?

[bemaniac]

Like the lucky X58 board owners I've been hanging on with X79 and will be until there are sub £300 bleeding edge server processors like with X58. Is there any sign of this being soon?

Specifically Intel Xeon E5-2697V2 12 cores/24 threads. Was about £3500 originally.

 

[theaterix]

Like the lucky X58 board owners I've been hanging on with X79 and will be until there are sub £300 bleeding edge server processors like with X58. Is there any sign of this being soon?

Specifically Intel Xeon E5-2697V2 12 cores/24 threads. Was about £3500 originally.

Well you can get them on the controversial auction house for £1245 from the UK aswell, so for what your getting, its not bad!

 

[Reality|Bites]

You would probably find that server CPU's might perform slower in games due to the instruction sets being coded differently. Suppose it depends what you are going to use it for.

 

[ALXAndy]

I have an X79 rig with a ES 8 core Ivy in it. It works perfectly well in games.

The only issue with the X79 Xeons is that they usually have crap clock speeds and are completely locked on both multi and strap.

The 12 core ones are still uber expensive too, so no, I don't think you'll find a bargain yet.

 

[DragonQ]

I have an X79 rig with a ES 8 core Ivy in it. It works perfectly well in games.

The only issue with the X79 Xeons is that they usually have crap clock speeds and are completely locked on both multi and strap.

The 12 core ones are still uber expensive too, so no, I don't think you'll find a bargain yet.

Aren't all Xeons multiplier locked? I thought the only reason X58 ones were bargains was because, on X58, the base clock is actually overclockable.

 

[Cyanide]

I imagine it'll be a while before enough places replace them to bring them down that much. They're still very capable server chips.

 

[Dave2150]

I have an X79 rig with a ES 8 core Ivy in it. It works perfectly well in games.

The only issue with the X79 Xeons is that they usually have crap clock speeds and are completely locked on both multi and strap.

The 12 core ones are still uber expensive too, so no, I don't think you'll find a bargain yet.

Yep, as Andy said, there won't be any Xeon 5650 1366 style deals here, as Intel completely locked down these CPU's so that you cannot overclock them.

 

[wam7]

Specifically Intel Xeon E5-2697V2 12 cores/24 threads. Was about £3500 originally.

I've seen them going for ~£1200. Which isn't too bad considering you get 4 cores more than 8 core 5960x (£800). Though it's a lower clock speed at 2.7Ghz (Max 3.5Ghz) and as stated, it is locked.. but 12 cores, great for video, rendering etc.

 

[ALXAndy]

Aren't all Xeons multiplier locked? I thought the only reason X58 ones were bargains was because, on X58, the base clock is actually overclockable.

Yeah see they made a mistake with X58 leaving the bus open. A mistake that sadly they have not let happen again.

They are all multi locked yes, but then so were chips like the I7 950. That's why people knew exactly what to do when these Xeons became cheap.

There are a few very, very rare Xeons out there that are ES that Intel 'forgot' to lock the bus and multi on apparently but I've never seen any actual evidence of this. Apparently some guy posted on here a while back saying he was going to be buying an unlocked X79 ES but when I asked him for concrete proof of it he went quiet..

And Intel have really, really derped the speed on these Xeons. Mine is 1.7ghz, pretty damn awful. You can lock Turbo on though, so 2ghz but yeah, compared to a 4.5ghz 5960x? you can probably imagine how much slower that is.

It's not all complete doom and gloom though. In properly threaded Mac OSX apps for example I was churning out over twice the performance of a 4670k @ 4.2ghz but for Windows and gaming like the 5960x they're pretty much useless.

And all but the ridiculously priced X79 Xeons are pants in the clock department. Most of them are set between 2-3 ghz apart from the insanely expensive models which are clocked in the mid 3s.

But yeah, overall? it's not worth holding onto X79 stuff on a hope and a prayer because sellers know what they have, it's not in huge supply or demand and so prices are stupid.

I guess you could say I lucked out buying my 8 core ES for £100 even, but I got it from a guy who built and sold hackintoshes and basically this chip refuses to work on any more than 1 core in that environment unless you use a specific method, one he obviously didn't know about so thought the chip was junk.

 

[DragonQ]

I seem to remember the reason that the base clock wasn't overclockable on Sandy Bridge is because it was tied to more components, not that it was purposefully locked. You could still overclock it but going beyond 102-103 MHz just left your system unstable.

Not sure if that's a DMI thing and doesn't affect X79/X99 but, as you say, it's all locked down now anyway.

 

[ALXAndy]

I seem to remember the reason that the base clock wasn't overclockable on Sandy Bridge is because it was tied to more components, not that it was purposefully locked. You could still overclock it but going beyond 102-103 MHz just left your system unstable.

Not sure if that's a DMI thing and doesn't affect X79/X99 but, as you say, it's all locked down now anyway.

On Sandybridge 1155 chipset boards that is the case yes. You'd be lucky to get 105 on the base.

However on X79 Sandy E that is not the case. There is a strap which is pretty much the FSB and you can overclock using that.

Sadly on the 2011 Xeons this is locked along with the multi. Like, completely locked will be greyed out on your bios.

2011 Xeons are not the Easter Egg that X58 ones are sadly.