i7 vs Xeon Building a new computer in late winter/early spring.

[88keys]

Okay my PC in my sig is 5 years old now and I've been putting it through it's paces to say the least and I need something quite a bit more powerful for what I do.

Those tasks are:

Sony Vegas
Adobe Premiere
Adobe After Effects
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Audition
Audacity
Blender
Paint.NET

As you could Imagine I need something very powerful so I'm looking at spending over a grand on my next system. It's been 5 years so I'm entitled to splurge.

I personally don't play much video games anymore so I'm probably going to get a decent $100 video card that supports 3 monitors.

I recall being told that the Xeons are a better deal if you plan on building with dedicated graphics. Can someone here confirm whether this is true?

 

[ClockHound]

As a Vegas Pro/AE/PS/HitFilm user, with a hexcore Xeon here's my simple answer:

5960X...8 haswell cores that can overclock. Current leader in CB 11.5 rendering. Damn it.

Too rich? Then go for the 5820K - six cores for a little bit more than a 4790K. For video/motion graphic/image work moar coars is more better.

Vegas, AE and PPro can take advantage of a fast GPU. Check the Sony Vegas board and you'll see many using the 290/290x, not for gaming, but because it chews through OpenCL efx/compositing on the timeline.

280x is no slouch either...A 980 in Vegas, however, is not a good value for money. On the other hand, Adobe does well with lots of CUDA cores.

If you plan on working with multiple tracks of 4K footage, even with an OC 5960 and dual 290x config, expect to still use proxies when lots of efx are applied.

If you want to spend much, much more, then a higher clocked 14 core Xeon, say the 2697 v3, would be nice too. Or a pair of them....at $2,700 each, it will hardware-accelerate your build cost. ;-)

The 4 core Xeons are not the best choice now that the 6-8 core Haswell-E X99 platform is available. Despite the DDR4 early adopter tax, it best matches your requirements and hopefully your budget.

If you decide the X99 platform is too costly, then a 4790K would actually be better than the Xeon equivalent, because Vegas can use the iGPU's QuickSync to accelerate rendering. Not so useful for timeline efx acceleration. However, a 280 (or 260x) with a 4790k is a very effective low cost Vegas rig. To use QuickSync in Vegas, the iGPU needs to be driving a monitor. But, like cores, can you ever have too many monitors for video work? ;-)

Enjoy your upgrade, it's going to be great!

 

[Omar F1]

Too rich? Then go for the 5820K - six cores for a little bit more than a 4790K. For video/motion graphic/image work moar coars is more better.

Exactly, don't settle with less than a hex core processor
But in the mean time, if you currently have a 1366 socket board, you may grab a used Xeon X5670 for $65-90 from ebay.

 

[frowertr]

I'd go for an E5-1660 V3 over the 5960X so long as you buy an X99 board that will support Xeon's. They are basically the same chip but higher binned which should in turn allow better overclocking. You can do a search and read plenty of reports supporting that.

 

[Denithor]

As I understand it, the Xeon chips do not support overclocking at all? Or am I mistaken?

 

[Lepton87]

As I understand it, the Xeon chips do not support overclocking at all? Or am I mistaken?

That's what I thought, too. If this wasn't the case then people would be interested in many different Xeon SKUs like back in the QPI overclocking days.(Socket 1366)
8 unlocked cores for 6XX dollars or 10 cores for the price of 5960X would make such CPUs immensely tempting. How about an extremely cheap six cores CPU(starting at just a hair over 200$), surely that's too good to be true or am I wrong?

 

[turtile]

If you want to save money, a Xeon will not help. For one, it uses a different socket than i7. On top of that, you'll likely need to buy ECC memory which is more expensive than regular memory since it has an extra chip per 8.

E3 uses unbuffered ECC while E5 uses registered which is slightly slower but supports many more sticks.

If you want power for cheap, just get a refurbished Dell Precision (that's what I did):
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Precis...1768707137?pt=Desktop_PCs&hash=item3a9e959841

The dual CPUs alone would cost you $600 and it comes with dual Quadro graphics. Just add in a better SSD and a bunch of drives for storage.

Like already mentioned, invest in a GPU instead.

 

[Lepton87]

If you want to save money, a Xeon will not help. For one, it uses a different socket than i7. On top of that, you'll likely need to buy ECC memory which is more expensive than regular memory since it has an extra chip per 8.

E3 uses unbuffered ECC while E5 uses registered which is slightly slower but supports many more sticks.

If you want power for cheap, just get a refurbished Dell Precision (that's what I did):
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Precis...1768707137?pt=Desktop_PCs&hash=item3a9e959841

The dual CPUs alone would cost you $600 and it comes with dual Quadro graphics. Just add in a better SSD and a bunch of drives for storage.

Like already mentioned, invest in a GPU instead.

Not true, Xeons use the same sockets as consumer Core CPUs.There are Xeons for the socket 1155 the same that the 4790K uses and there are Xeons for the socket 2011-3 the same as Core i7 HW-E CPU use.

 

[frowertr]

Not true, Xeons use the same sockets as consumer Core CPUs.There are Xeons for the socket 1155 the same that the 4790K uses and there are Xeons for the socket 2011-3 the same as Core i7 HW-E CPU use.

This.

And the E5-16xx series are all unlocked and overclock just fine. I was under the impression from the OP (by the programs he listed he wants to use) that this would be a workstation build. So ECC RAM fits it just nicely.

Now of course he doesn't have to overclock if he doesn't wish to. However there is less than a $100 difference between the E5-1660 V3 and the 5960x. I'd take the Xeon with the ECC RAM over the 5960x if going for a workstation build. There are plenty of X99 boards that will take Xeons and, if he chooses too, he can crank up that 1660 V3 up to around 4Ghz+ like the 5960x's can do.

 

[ClockHound]

...However there is less than a $100 difference between the E5-1660 V3 and the 5960x.

Please post a link...most sites show a $200+ difference.

Not sure the OP is building a work workstation or a home workstation - his current rig is i7-870 on 1156. Had it been a X58, then popping in a used $100-150 Xeon 56xx hexcore would be the cheapest option.

While a full Xeon setup with a E5-1660 V3 and ECC RAM is a great option, might be too pricey. Even the 5820K might be pushing it. He did say he could spend over a grand on the new system, just not how much over. Of course, we're here to help ensure it's way, way over. ;-)

 

[Cerb]

I recall being told that the Xeons are a better deal if you plan on building with dedicated graphics. Can someone here confirm whether this is true?

It was true, but no longer is. For LGA1150, the i7-4790K is the obvious choice.

 

[Ratman6161]

Not true, Xeons use the same sockets as consumer Core CPUs.There are Xeons for the socket 1155 the same that the 4790K uses and there are Xeons for the socket 2011-3 the same as Core i7 HW-E CPU use.

A couple of corrections. The i7-4790K is socket 1150 not 1155. 1150 is for all Intel Haswell desktop CPUS from the lowly Pentium up to the i7-4790K. The i7 58xx - 59xx are socket 2011 V3 (no idea about compatibility with older Socket 2011). The xeon E series are socket 2011 as well.

Another item to consider is that if the OP considers spending "over a grand" on the whole system and considers that "splurging" then it's pretty likely he isn't going to be interested in $1000+ Xeon's or $5960x's. An i7-5820 is a lot more reasonable. here is a link to a page that includes a 5820 + motherboard bundle for $520, leaving $480 for the rest of the system.

http://www.microcenter.com/site/brands/intel-processor-bundles.aspx

But then you have to consider what, if any components can be re-used from the old system - not forgetting that the 5820 want's DDR4 RAM winch is still rare and expensive and could have a heavy impact on overall system price.

Which leads you back to the i7-4970K. The same link above shows a 4790K + Z97 MB bundle for as low as $365.00. Now when I first started thinking about a rebuild from my current 2600K I was thinking that the 5820 wasn't all that much more - but when you also factor in RAM and the fact that with a 4790K I could re-use the 16GB of DDR-3 1600 I already have...there ends up being a big difference. PS: Even if you have to buy new RAM, DDR3 is currently much more widely available and cheaper than DDR4. If you wait a while that may change.

All these factors add up.

I haven't made my final choice yet. Now I'm thinking in terms of weather or not the 4790K is really going to be that much faster in the real world than my OC'd 2600K I've already got.

 

[Lepton87]

A couple of corrections. The i7-4790K is socket 1150 not 1155. 1150 is for all Intel Haswell desktop CPUS from the lowly Pentium up to the i7-4790K. The i7 58xx - 59xx are socket 2011 V3 (no idea about compatibility with older Socket 2011). The xeon E series are socket 2011 as well.

Another item to consider is that if the OP considers spending "over a grand" on the whole system and considers that "splurging" then it's pretty likely he isn't going to be interested in $1000+ Xeon's or $5960x's. An i7-5820 is a lot more reasonable. here is a link to a page that includes a 5820 + motherboard bundle for $520, leaving $480 for the rest of the system.

http://www.microcenter.com/site/brands/intel-processor-bundles.aspx

But then you have to consider what, if any components can be re-used from the old system - not forgetting that the 5820 want's DDR4 RAM winch is still rare and expensive and could have a heavy impact on overall system price.

Which leads you back to the i7-4970K. The same link above shows a 4790K + Z97 MB bundle for as low as $365.00. Now when I first started thinking about a rebuild from my current 2600K I was thinking that the 5820 wasn't all that much more - but when you also factor in RAM and the fact that with a 4790K I could re-use the 16GB of DDR-3 1600 I already have...there ends up being a big difference. PS: Even if you have to buy new RAM, DDR3 is currently much more widely available and cheaper than DDR4. If you wait a while that may change.

All these factors add up.

I haven't made my final choice yet. Now I'm thinking in terms of weather or not the 4790K is really going to be that much faster in the real world than my OC'd 2600K I've already got.

Yeah right I confused 1150 with 1155 but that's just one correction. 2011-3 is not backwards compatible with other socket 2011 CPUs so you can not plug an IVY Bridge Xeon in there.