Upgrade from i7 950 to Xeon W3690?

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

That's a Gulftown CPU not a Westmere EP & heat becomes an issue really fast..

i might just do a thermal test.. i still have my old X5660 that I can compare to my i7 970, and this new W3690 coming in. i'll run both ~ 4.2GHz with the closest possible QPI, Uncore, and RAM speed in the same ambient temp and see if they differ. They should both be able to hit 4.2GHz at a reasonable vcore, and vtt.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Again, the X5680 is Westmere EP NOT Gulftown! Gulftown (W3690) doesn't overclock as well.

They (Gulftown) don't overclock as well ...... ? My i7 (gulftown) is able to do 4.6GHz (no turbo, no speed-step, all 6 cores @ 4.6GHz) at 1.371v

 

[E. C. Yian]

Yes, you will The X58 platform isn't dead.. for those who need the number crunching power of a hexcore at least

BTW, the link you posted for the X5690 was for a dual cpu setup. That's why it shows a higher score..

The L5640 is a capable cpu, but limited by it's multiplier. An X5670 or X5675 has higher multiplier and overclocks well too. Heck my X5650 has seen 5Ghz on occasion $90 for a 95 watt X5670 is money well spent.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/SLBV7-Intel...000?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item33a590cf58

Thanks for catching my error. I show it corrected below.

I am scratching my head
the W3690
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Xeon+W3690+%40+3.47GHz&id=1275
and the X5690
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Xeon+X5690+%40+3.47GHz&id=1314
Have very similar specs but the X5690 has a lower performance rating. Looks like I should upgrade using the W3690!?

So now you know how little I know abut these matters!

So looks like the suggestions here have been extremely helpful. I will get a better performing computer with a small investment. Save money and time that it would it would have taken to build a new computer.

So for now it seems I should get the W3690 since I do not OC. It has a higher Average CPU Mark than all the other processors suggested here. Is the Average CPU Mark a dependable way to judge performance?

 

[Burpo]

Yes.. It's a good indicator of relative performance. If not over clocking then buy what you want. I'd take the X5670 with a mild overclock at 4.2Ghz for the value win! 95 watt processors do not create heat like 130 watt cpu's, even overclocked.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Here is a screen shot of the type of temps you could expect from a 144w processor. This is the X5690 (Westmere EP) on all stock settings. As you can see it runs very cool for a system with 2 fans running at very low rpm for silence. The ambient temps have been in the low 70s F, and this machine has been running for 5hrs.

Here is a screen shot of the type of temps you could expect from a 130w processor. This is the i7 970 (Gulftown) processor. All stock settings. Same room (5' away from the X5690) Same ambient temps. It's been running on and off for the past 2hrs.

 

[Burpo]

Those are stock settings & you never mentioned what you're using for cooling.. My X5650 gets too hot above 4.8ghz

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Those are stock settings & you never mentioned what you're using for cooling.. My X5650 gets too hot above 4.8ghz

The OP said he wasn't planning on overclocking. Those are both on Megahalems btw.

 

[Burpo]

Unlike the OP, I need the speed for rendering and do overclock. The 95 watt CPU's can take higher bclk & not throttle The X5675 is the highest clocked 95 watt cpu, but I may consider an X5680 or 90 for the Dell T3500 I just got (since I can't overclock it)

 

[Burpo]

Check the differences in those 2 processors and you'll see the Tcase temp difference. 67.9 for Gulftown.
http://ark.intel.com/products/52586/Intel-Xeon-Processor-W3690-12M-Cache-3_46-GHz-6_40-GTs-Intel-QPI

78.5 for Westmere that handles 12X more memory & has 2 QPI links and cost $300+ more new.
http://ark.intel.com/products/52576/Intel-Xeon-Processor-X5690-12M-Cache-3_46-GHz-6_40-GTs-Intel-QPI

This is what I mean by more headroom to overclock.. Gulftown will throttle first..

The 95 watt Xeons are the highest at 81.3.. It matters when you raise volts, trying to achieve max bclk overclocks..

 

[mfenn]

Did you disable core parking yet?

I don't see any reason to do that in normal operation. It just adds to power consumption for a very minimal gain in some benchmarks (not the real world).

 

[E. C. Yian]

Before I pull the trigger and get the W3690 http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Xeon+W3690+%40+3.47GHz&id=1275
I need to know if I will get a least a 50% performance boost over my current 950 processor.
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7+950+%40+3.07GHz&id=837
Anything less the 50% may not be worth the trouble?

Secondly, is there anything I need to do when I exchange the 950 with the W3690?

Will my processor cooler and PSU be ok to run the W3690?
Cooler: Scythe SCMG-2100 Sleeve CPU Cooler (Mugen 2 Rev. B)
PSU: CORSAIR CMPSU-850TX 850W ATX12V 2.2 / EPS12V 2.91

How bad of an idea is buying a used processor?

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

#1, I need to know if I will get a least a 50% performance boost over my current 950 processor.

#2, Secondly, is there anything I need to do when I exchange the 950 with the W3690?

#3, How bad of an idea is buying a used processor?

#1 Single thread performance = no. Think of it this way. With each chip clocked at the same speed the single thread performance is BASICALLY the same.

Multi thread peformance = Are your apps multi threaded?

#2 Just make sure your bios is up to date.

#3 Always buy from a seller that is selling server processors.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

BTW the W3690 has an unlocked multiplier. Depending on your board you'll be able to use up to possibly a 60x multiplier (which is totally unnecessary! hah!)

Good Luck and let us know what you end up doing

p.s. so basically your overclocking is down to 1 step

 

[Burpo]

Will my processor cooler and PSU be ok to run the W3690?
Cooler: Scythe SCMG-2100 Sleeve CPU Cooler (Mugen 2 Rev. B)
PSU: CORSAIR CMPSU-850TX 850W ATX12V 2.2 / EPS12V 2.91

How bad of an idea is buying a used processor?

No problem buying a used CPU from Ebay (money back guarantee), and with that CPU cooler & power supply, there's no reason you can't overclock if you wanted to..

 

[E. C. Yian]

#1 Single thread performance = no. Think of it this way. With each chip clocked at the same speed the single thread performance is BASICALLY the same.

Multi thread peformance = Are your apps multi threaded?

#2 Just make sure your bios is up to date.

#3 Always buy from a seller that is selling server processors.

So on a single thread performance the W3690 is a bit faster than the 950.
W3690 3.47GHz 6 cores
950 3.07GHz 4 cores
I am not good at reading the specs but it seem that the W3690 will give less than 50% better performance? Correct?

I will remember:
Always buy from a seller that is selling server processors.
disable core parking.

When you OC your W3690 will I be able to use your settings to also OC my W3690. It is likely that we have different motherboards so will this be an issue?

 

[E. C. Yian]

BTW the W3690 has an unlocked multiplier. Depending on your board you'll be able to use up to possibly a 60x multiplier (which is totally unnecessary! hah!)

Good Luck and let us know what you end up doing

p.s. so basically your overclocking is down to 1 step

That the "W3690 has an unlocked multiplier" is this good or bad news?

So "overclocking is down to 1 step" you mean (joke?) I will not OC!
But if you give me your OC setting I can then OC my W3690!

 

[E. C. Yian]

No problem buying a used CPU from Ebay (money back guarantee), and with that CPU cooler & power supply, there's no reason you can't overclock if you wanted to..

Great to know that my cooler and PSU are adequate even for OC, just in case.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Correct. At stock speeds your 950 (3.07GHz) vs the W3690 (3.46GHz) you will not see a 50% increase IN SINGLE THREAD PERFORMANCE. Do you understand what single thread performance is?

You could follow the parameters of my overclock with my W3690 on yours. It literally will be 1 step, then hit F10 and save.

An 'Unlocked multiplier' is GREAT news!! Your i7 950 has a default multiplier of 23. e.g. 23x133=3059 (23 is the multi, 133 is the BCLK, 3.06GHz is the end result) With the W3690 the multiplier has a huge maximum limit. I've heard up to 63. So for example 63x133=8379MHz (63 is the multi, 133 is the BCLK, and 8.38GHz is the end result) So you can use any multiplier up to 63. This is what's referred to as an unlocked multiplier.

Do you understand how Turbo boost works?

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Check the differences in those 2 processors and you'll see the Tcase temp difference. 67.9 for Gulftown.
http://ark.intel.com/products/52586/Intel-Xeon-Processor-W3690-12M-Cache-3_46-GHz-6_40-GTs-Intel-QPI

78.5 for Westmere that handles 12X more memory & has 2 QPI links and cost $300+ more new.
http://ark.intel.com/products/52576/Intel-Xeon-Processor-X5690-12M-Cache-3_46-GHz-6_40-GTs-Intel-QPI

This is what I mean by more headroom to overclock.. Gulftown will throttle first..

The 95 watt Xeons are the highest at 81.3.. It matters when you raise volts, trying to achieve max bclk overclocks..

If you are referring to when my i7 970 Gulftown will BSOD from heat we are talking about 90*c, not 67.9*c. The X5660 just BSOD from heat @ 80*c yesterday. Whether you are talking about max blck clock or not the heat is paramount any way you cut it.

 

[E. C. Yian]

Correct. At stock speeds your 950 (3.07GHz) vs the W3690 (3.46GHz) you will not see a 50% increase IN SINGLE THREAD PERFORMANCE. Do you understand what single thread performance is?

You could follow the parameters of my overclock with my W3690 on yours. It literally will be 1 step, then hit F10 and save.

An 'Unlocked multiplier' is GREAT news!! Your i7 950 has a default multiplier of 23. e.g. 23x133=3059 (23 is the multi, 133 is the BCLK, 3.06GHz is the end result) With the W3690 the multiplier has a huge maximum limit. I've heard up to 63. So for example 63x133=8379MHz (63 is the multi, 133 is the BCLK, and 8.38GHz is the end result) So you can use any multiplier up to 63. This is what's referred to as an unlocked multiplier.

Do you understand how Turbo boost works?

“With each chip clocked at the same speed the single thread performance is BASICALLY the same.” So 3.07 vs 3.47 is not a noticeable performance improvement.

In music creation one may use several plugins each taking up one or more cores. I have read the more cores the better (perhaps with a limit) but to sacrifice speed, I do not know. So having extra cores with the W3690 should be helpful. So the question is it worth to upgrade to the W3690 even if the performance gain will be well below the 50%?

As for OC, “1 step, then hit F10 and save” sounds interesting. Just may try it!

'Unlocked multiplier' I always like good news!

As for Turbo boost I checked it out on Google.

So things are looking up again. Well kind off.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

“With each chip clocked at the same speed the single thread performance is BASICALLY the same.” So 3.07 vs 3.47 is not a noticeable performance improvement.

In music creation one may use several plugins each taking up one or more cores. I have read the more cores the better (perhaps with a limit) but to sacrifice speed, I do not know. So having extra cores with the W3690 should be helpful. So the question is it worth to upgrade to the W3690 even if the performance gain will be well below the 50%?

As for OC, “1 step, then hit F10 and save” sounds interesting. Just may try it!

'Unlocked multiplier' I always like good news!

As for Turbo boost I checked it out on Google.

So things are looking up again. Well kind off.

Look at it this way, if you are not happy with the results of the new chip, just sell it and upgrade the system. Just because you buy it doesn't mean you are stuck with it. And if you sell if for 20$ less than what you paid for it then you aren't doing too bad.

Before you swap out chips, why don't you run some benchmarks that are close in comparison to your work load environment. Then do it again with your new chip.

 

[E. C. Yian]

Look at it this way, if you are not happy with the results of the new chip, just sell it and upgrade the system. Just because you buy it doesn't mean you are stuck with it. And if you sell if for 20$ less than what you paid for it then you aren't doing too bad.

Before you swap out chips, why don't you run some benchmarks that are close in comparison to your work load environment. Then do it again with your new chip.

You suggestions sounds reasonable.

You can PM me the OC instruction. Keep in mind I cannot reply to you with a PM as I do not have more than 25 posts. Or if you like post them on this thread. The "hit F10 and save" sounds easy enough but I do wonder about the “1 step”.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Do you know how to get into your motherboard's bios?

 

[E. C. Yian]

Yes! I've done that a few times. I have built my last two computers and to my surprise they booted on the first try. But saying that I have big lapses of computer knowledge so I am glad that you are asking these questions.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Well get familiar with your bios before you go doing anything just yet with your W3690. I'm presuming you bought one, correct?