Dell Precision T3500 CPU Upgrade Advise, 4 or 6 Core?

gryffinwings

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Sep 28, 2018
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Hi guys, I'm looking for some advice on what processor I should look into to upgrade this thing when I get it. I plan on doing some gaming, maybe Battlefield 1 and other games, but I also plan on doing photo editing and quite possibly some video editing.

The 2 processors I had in mind are the following

Intel Xeon W3570 (4 Core)

Intel Xeon X5675 (6 Core)

Thoughts? I believe these are the best for the money, but maybe I missed a processor that would be better, there are so many choices, the 6 core is the one I hear about the most.
 

Burpo

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Sep 10, 2013
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You are correct! The 6 core Xeons are CHEAP and work well. The X5675 is the highest clocking @ 95 watts (Westmere EP), and will run cooler than the 45nm Bloomfield W3570. :)
 

gryffinwings

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Sep 28, 2018
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You are correct! The 6 core Xeons are CHEAP and work well. The X5675 is the highest clocking @ 95 watts (Westmere EP), and will run cooler than the 45nm Bloomfield W3570. :)

What Burpo said. It's a no brainer.

So what's the deal with Xeons such as the W3680 and W3690 those seem just as good, minus the fact that they are 130 watt CPUs. Can any explain the differences and why you would want one or the other?
 

Markfw

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well, thanks to this thread I just got 2 X5675's for $75 for the pair to replace my X5570's. Like I needed that like a hole in the head, but somehow I could not resist, 4 cores and 8 threads at 3.06 for $75
 
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Shmee

Memory & Storage, Graphics Cards Mod Elite Member
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Actually, the 5675 is a 6c 12t. And if you can overclock, just get the X5660, you will be vcore or temp limited before you are limited by the core multi.
 

scannall

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So what's the deal with Xeons such as the W3680 and W3690 those seem just as good, minus the fact that they are 130 watt CPUs. Can any explain the differences and why you would want one or the other?
The 5675 (And the rest of the 56xx series) are 32nm parts. Most are 6 cores and 12 threads. Overclock better on less voltage. Run quite a bit cooler than the "W" series, 45nm 4 core and 8 thread. Since all of them cost almost nothing, may as well get the better chip.
 

gryffinwings

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Sep 28, 2018
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The 5675 (And the rest of the 56xx series) are 32nm parts. Most are 6 cores and 12 threads. Overclock better on less voltage. Run quite a bit cooler than the "W" series, 45nm 4 core and 8 thread. Since all of them cost almost nothing, may as well get the better chip.

Just looked up the W3690 it’s a 32nm lithography at 6c 12t. Just 130 watts. So the information you provided isn’t entirely correct. Either way I’ll likely get the X5675 to keep cooler.
 

Burpo

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Sep 10, 2013
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The Gulftown W3690 came 2 years after the W3570 Bloomfield, and on 32nm instead of 45. It's the exception, still the Westmere EP @ 95 watts is the way to go.

I just got 2 X5675's for $75 for the pair to replace my X5570's
I could not resist, 4 cores and 8 threads at 3.06 for $75

Understood Mark.. For you the 4 extra cores & 8 thread improvement means a lot for DC ;)

Too bad you can't overclock them.
 

gryffinwings

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Sep 28, 2018
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The Gulftown W3690 came 2 years after the W3570 Bloomfield, and on 32nm instead of 45. It's the exception, still the Westmere EP @ 95 watts is the way to go.



Understood Mark.. For you the 4 extra cores & 8 thread improvement means a lot for DC ;)

Too bad you can't overclock them.

Understood, I'll keep an eye out for a deal on an X5675 on ebay.
 

Arkaign

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God I love the Xeons for budget grunt. Just built a budget work/gaming rig for an old buddy using an E5 1660v2 (6C/12T, 3.7 / 4.0T, 15MB Cache), 32GB Quad Channel DDR3 1600, 610W PSU, 256GB Crucial SATA SSD, 4x2TB WD RED, DVDRW, W10 Pro x64, was $299 free shipping for all of that, then added a used RX580 for $190. $300 wouldn't even buy 16GB of DDR4 + a decent CPU, let alone also :

Quality Mobo, PSU, HSF, SSD, 8TB of HDD, Windows License, nice case, etc.

For the OP, that 5675 will be rad. Do some before and after benchies!
 
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gryffinwings

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Sep 28, 2018
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God I love the Xeons for budget grunt. Just built a budget work/gaming rig for an old buddy using an E5 1660v2 (6C/12T, 3.7 / 4.0T, 15MB Cache), 32GB Quad Channel DDR3 1600, 610W PSU, 256GB Crucial SATA SSD, 4x2TB WD RED, DVDRW, W10 Pro x64, was $299 free shipping for all of that, then added a used RX580 for $190. $300 wouldn't even buy 16GB of DDR4 + a decent CPU, let alone also :

Quality Mobo, PSU, HSF, SSD, 8TB of HDD, Windows License, nice case, etc.

For the OP, that 5675 will be rad. Do some before and after benchies!

I'll be sure to do that as the upgrades continue.
 

MrTeal

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Dec 7, 2003
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Can you overclock on the T3500? I never really tried much, but I don't recall seeing any way to do so in the stock Dell BIOS. Do you need to flash a custom one?
 

gryffinwings

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Sep 28, 2018
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No overclocking the Dell.

Indeed this is true, honestly, it's not something I'm really going to be doing right now, I just want to have a good solid base for a budget computer to do the things I need it to do, including 1080p gaming.
 

spikespiegal

Golden Member
Oct 10, 2005
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Hi guys, I'm looking for some advice on what processor I should look into to upgrade this thing when I get it. I plan on doing some gaming, maybe Battlefield 1 and other games, but I also plan on doing photo editing and quite possibly some video editing.

The 2 processors I had in mind are the following

Intel Xeon W3570 (4 Core)

Intel Xeon X5675 (6 Core)

Thoughts? I believe these are the best for the money, but maybe I missed a processor that would be better, there are so many choices, the 6 core is the one I hear about the most.

Best for the money if they are free. Honestly, all the Xeons mentioned here have a per thread rating that is dismal compared to a basic quad core i7 rig which can be had for refurb prices. There's a reason they are cheap.
 

Arkaign

Lifer
Oct 27, 2006
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Best for the money if they are free. Honestly, all the Xeons mentioned here have a per thread rating that is dismal compared to a basic quad core i7 rig which can be had for refurb prices. There's a reason they are cheap.

This isn't remotely true.

IPC hasn't been a big difference in ages. And Xeons are just Core i-series cores with a few extra things added depending on model. The buff to triple channel or quad channel ram and 40 PCIe channels vs 16 also helps mitigate gen gaps pretty well (eg; a Xeon Ivy EP Quad @ 4Ghz is almost directly equal to an i7 6700 Quad in performance despite multiple gens in terms of core version). Add to this potential for 6C or 8C skus for less than what you can get a recent i7 Quad for, and you really start to see some value.

I mean go find me anything that will compete with this :

E5-1660v2 4Ghz 6C/12T
32GB DDR3 1600 Quad Channel (8 slots supporting 256GB)
610W PSU
256GB SSD + 8TB HDD (4x2TB)
$300

Even an i7 7700 would have some weaknesses comparatively, while depending on expensive DDR4. 8700k is definitely better, but the CPU alone is more expensive than the entire Xeon rig that isn't far behind.


 
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Shmee

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I suspect that most Xeons X5650 and above should do around 4.2GHz, sometimes higher, depending on motherboard and cooling.
 
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Arkaign

Lifer
Oct 27, 2006
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I suspect that most Xeons X5650 and above should do around 4.2GHz, sometimes higher, depending on motherboard and cooling.

That fits the range fairly well. I haven't run OC on a T3500 myself, but have with Z400s. It appears T3500 users can pretty easily add a fan directly to the tower heatsink to improve thermals pretty effectively as well :)