Intel Xeon 5160 faster and cheaper than Core 2 DUO Extreme Edition X6800?

[Imy]

Intel Xeon 5160 (Woodcrest) - 3.0GHz - 1333MHz FSB - 4MB L2 Cache - $850

Intel Core 2 DUO EE X6800 (Conroe) - 2.93GHz 1066FSB - 4MB L2 Cache - $999

Can anyone spot my confusion here....

 

[mercyless]

i think woodcrest is a server based chip rather than desktop.

 

[Imy]

Yeah I know, but why is it apparently cheaper and faster?

Any reason why anyone would not want to use a server board over a desktop board (other than price)?

 

[Jokester]

Probably will be very limited overclocking wise, but you never know.

Jokester

 

[NathanE]

The motherboards is where you're going to get stung with the Woodcrests. They aren't the mainstream 775 socket so that's an immediate license for them to bump prices up on the motherboards.

Other than that, yes it is faster.

 

[cleanbluesky]

The motherboards is where you're going to get stung with the Woodcrests. They aren't the mainstream 775 socket so that's an immediate license for them to bump prices up on the motherboards.

Other than that, yes it is faster.

Is that why desktop technology is always different from server tech?

 

[Gibbo]

Hi there

Are these woodcrest chips a different socket? Whats to stop one of them from working in a S775 975X board?

 

[m3csl2004]

771 or something arnt they? - ill check


edit: yeah there lga -771

 

[NathanE]

Is that why desktop technology is always different from server tech?

Sort of. The real driver is market seperation. Why spend engineering resources trying to ensure things don't blow up (slight exaggeration) when somebody plugs a Xeon into a desktop board... when they can just make the chip physically incompatible (i.e. pin count or pin layout).

 

[Imy]

Whats always put me off server motherboards is not the price or features, its the lack of 3rd party coolers for the sockets.

 

[utherpendragon]

Plenty of waterblocks available

 

[Imy]

Plenty of waterblocks available

Good point. I always chicken out at the last minute and go with air cooling though

 

[Flanno]

I have 2 of them in my rig and they are passively cooled (sort of). 2 very ordinary heatsinks a little shorter then the artic freezer 7 pro but with zero heatpipes and a slow turning 120mm fan blowing air accross them. Mind you I have not bothered or had the need to try and overclock them which is sort of difficult on a Dell rig. And indeed they are a different socket design (771) and the heatsink attaches with 4 captive screws which physically screw down into the mobo. Easiest heatsink I have ever attached. The mobo chipset is an Intel 5000x (same as in the Mac Pro) and only has 1x16x pci-e slot and 2 other smaller pci-e slots altogether supporting only 24 lanes. I have to say it's dead reliable and I have been able to overlock the balls out of my 7950GX2 which I could not do on the 975 chipset (630/800).