Choosing A CPU

[EAGLEye52]

I don't know what to choose. I am either going to pick a i5 4670k, FX-8350 or a Xeon E3-1230 V3. I am mainly going to use this for gaming (BF4 mostly but other FPS as well) and as well as some light CADD work, Photoshop and Sony Vegas. I just want to know which to pick. If I get the FX-8350 or the i5 4670k then i will be overclocking with a HYper 212 Evo. Will that make difference.

 

[Cerb]

Not the FX. That one's easy. What about going to GH and starting a thread about the whole build (fill out the sticky)? One of those CPUs has HT and can't overclock, while one can overclock but has no HT. If not overclocking, yyou might even want to save a buck and get the non-K.

 

[Yuriman]

The Xeon doesn't have onboard video, FWIW. I was sorely tempted to get one for my brother's most recent build, but we enjoy overclocking and the K won.

 

[ShintaiDK]

i5 4570K if OC. The FX is a joke in that list.

 

[Racan]

Pcgameshardware.de tested the Xeon E3-1230 v3 along with i5 4670k and the FX-8350

http://www.pcgameshardware.de/CPU-Hardware-154106/Tests/Xeon-E3-1230-v3-Test-1099616/

In BF4 the Xeon beats the 4670K even when OC'ed to 4.3 Ghz

 

[Blain]

"K" version or not, they all can be OC'd to one degree or another.
Multiplier locked Intel CPU's have been OC'd for years.

 

[zir_blazer]

"K" version or not, they all can be OC'd to one degree or another.
Multiplier locked Intel CPU's have been OC'd for years.

But you had a loot of freedom with the Base Clock/FSB at those times, something that you currently have not. Its a step backwards to the time where PCI and AGP locks didn't existed, you risk data corruption or damage to a component with low tolerance for out of spec.

 

[EAGLEye52]

I'm not a big overclocker so I think that I;m going to go with the E3 1230 V3. Thanks for your help.

 

[JumBie]

I'm not a big overclocker so I think that I;m going to go with the E3 1230 V3. Thanks for your help.

Good choice.

 

[Venomous]

But you had a loot of freedom with the Base Clock/FSB at those times, something that you currently have not. Its a step backwards to the time where PCI and AGP locks didn't existed, you risk data corruption or damage to a component with low tolerance for out of spec.

I've been Overclocking since the beginning when fsb were the only option and I've never experienced data corruption or damaged components other than soldering vrms to pump up voltages on memory and video cards mods that went bad. These are of my own doing not because of how fsb Overclocking affects data integrity or damaged parts.

 

[Lepton87]

BCLK overclocking with a locked Intel CPU is not a viable option since SB. In most cases you can't overclock past 5%.

 

[Gikaseixas]

Pcgameshardware.de tested the Xeon E3-1230 v3 along with i5 4670k and the FX-8350

http://www.pcgameshardware.de/CPU-Hardware-154106/Tests/Xeon-E3-1230-v3-Test-1099616/

In BF4 the Xeon beats the 4670K even when OC'ed to 4.3 Ghz

According to the link the FX 8350 beats the 4670k i various tests and i'm not saying it's the best choice. It's just that people dismiss it way too fast. It's certainly a comparable cpu imo.

BF4 (higher is better)
4670K – 128,7 FPS average
FX8350 – 124,8 FPS average

7-Zip (lower is better)
4670K – 313 secs
FX8350 – 218 secs

Lightroom 5.3 (lower is better)
4670K – 181 secs
FX8350 – 181 secs

Luxmark Sala (higher is better)
4670K – 385 pts
FX8350 – 484 pts

X264-UHD (higher is better)
4670K – 4,42 FPS
FX8350 – 4,62 FPS

 

[Gikaseixas]

I'm not a big overclocker so I think that I;m going to go with the E3 1230 V3. Thanks for your help.

Out of the tree yeah, great choice

 

[Lepton87]

According to the link the FX 8350 beats the 4670k i various tests and i'm not saying it's the best choice. It's just that people dismiss it way too fast. It's certainly a comparable cpu imo.

I don't think it's comparable. Most applications don't utilize 8 threads and it's only comparable if you can make use of all of its threads. There's still too many apps that are predominately bound by the performance of a single thread, in those cases FX will lag by 40%.

 

[Gikaseixas]

I don't think it's comparable. Most applications don't utilize 8 threads and it's only comparable if you can make use of all of its threads. There's still too many apps that are predominately bound by the performance of a single thread, in those cases FX will lag by 40%.

That's why i said "according to the link"
I'm well aware of it's shortcomings as i have firsthand experience with it and believe me, it's not as bad as some say it is. What i hate about it is the consumption numbers were Intel is so much better.
Also for poorly threaded games (which are the majority) the FX just plain sucks, no way to sugarcoat it.

 

[Conroe]

I've been Overclocking since the beginning when fsb were the only option and I've never experienced data corruption or damaged components other than soldering vrms to pump up voltages on memory and video cards mods that went bad. These are of my own doing not because of how fsb Overclocking affects data integrity or damaged parts.

I remember setting multiplier and vcore with dip switches with socket 7. I don't think locked multipliers came around until pII.

 

[Cerb]

According to the link the FX 8350 beats the 4670k i various tests and i'm not saying it's the best choice. It's just that people dismiss it way too fast. It's certainly a comparable cpu imo.

The problem is that to get those results, they're using tests tailored to more threads, and not showing the power consumption difference, which is generally high enough to matter, even with cheap U.S. power rates.

Case in point: 7-zip. Compressing and decompressing with 7-zip rarely uses more than 2 threads, unless you use DEFLATE or BZIP2. And when decompressing, it's dependent upon the compression settings used, so similar limits apply.

With a wider variety of tests, including those not using >4 threads, the FX-8350 would not look so good, while the Xeon and i7 still will. It's dismissed quickly because, as a whole package, it lacks too much in comparison to Intels at $75+ more.

 

[cytg111]

I don't know what to choose. I am either going to pick a i5 4670k, FX-8350 or a Xeon E3-1230 V3. I am mainly going to use this for gaming (BF4 mostly but other FPS as well) and as well as some light CADD work, Photoshop and Sony Vegas. I just want to know which to pick. If I get the FX-8350 or the i5 4670k then i will be overclocking with a HYper 212 Evo. Will that make difference.

I'd hit a haswell i5 or i7. This CPU can last you a long long time, so the investment right now is worth it. Id stay clear of the FX though.

 

[JumBie]

Just check out my two threads. they are filled with benchmarks and comparisons.
i5 2500k vs 3570k vs 4670k (stock and oc)
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2366448
Intel Xeon E3-1230 v3 (page 2 for bench)
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2367204