Would upgrading a I7-930 to a Xeon X5680 be worth it?

[pooptastic]

I have a ASUS X58 Sabertooth board, but it only lists the 920-930-980x-etc I7's as compatible. However, there is someone else in this forum who claims they're running a Xeon on this same board.

Xeon X5680's can be picked up fairly cheap, less than half the cost of the more popular 980X and apparently faster too.

I've read that most Xeon's will work in 1366 boards so I'm curious about maybe giving this a shot. My 930 is overclocked up a bit, but couldn't I also try overclocking the Xeon too?

 

[Justinbaileyman]

Yes, upgrade it will be an amazingly huge improvement. All you have to do is update your bios on your motherboard. its not hard at all and you'd be set. I had gone from a i7 920 to a lower clock speed L5639 and it was awesomely fast. Overclocking is easy as well just go to the Xeon L5639 thread here on anandtech forums and you'll get all the needed info.

 

[Burpo]

I'm running the Asus Sabertooth X58. It's one of the best X58 boards for a stable overclock there is. I have pushed a cheap X5650 to 5Ghz just for grins, but usually leave it at 4.3Ghz for long render jobs. I have tried the X5675, X5670 as well, just be aware the higher binned Xeons are 130 watt chips and REQUIRE serious cooling if overclocking. The 95 watt X5670 was the sweet spot for serious work and manageable temps. I'm currently waiting on a a $49 X5649 (80 watt) because I want to drop temps further during long render jobs. Below is bench of the X5670 @ 5Ghz, but you won't get that kind of overclock with a 130 watt CPU (X5680). Heat becomes an issue quickly. With air cooling, I wouldn't go higher than X5670.

$80 Xeon X5670

 

[laamanaator]

The Xeon X5680 is physically completely identical compared to the 980X; basically the same chip, but the xeon has a locked multiplier. So i'd say it works without a doubt. A fine example is my Gigabyte GA-X58 UD3R and Xeon E5620 combo. The mobo doesn't offically have support for it, but it works like a charm. The mobo identifies the chip right, and works(and OC's) right. If you have proper cooling, you could get that xeon up to 4,7ghz, mayby even more depending on the silicon lottery. Definitely give it a go.:thumbsup:

 

[pooptastic]

I'm running the Asus Sabertooth X58. With air cooling, I wouldn't go higher than X5670.

Woah this is great, thanks for the info everyone!

Will i need ECC ram or anything? Or just stick with what's working on the board now with the 930...

The 212 air cooler is cheap and does great on the 930, think it would be ok to re-use it on a X5670?

 

[MongGrel]

X5680 run pretty hot, I bought one awhile back and it does 4.7 with a Noctua NH-D14 on it in a good tower case with a lot of modified fans.

You do not need ECC RAM.

X5670 would probably be a nice little kick for less heat but Burpo all ready pointed that out, even more so if you keep using the 212.

I imagine a X5680 would struggle a lot with a 212 trying to push it.

 

[Burpo]

That depends on how far you overclock. The 212 should be adequate for a 4.4Ghz full time overclock. Also, no bios update is needed, just drop in the new cpu and there's a post here on the forums with the settings you'll need. This was my old settings for X5650, but will get you in the ballpark. You can adjust as needed.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=36707876&postcount=1593

 

[pooptastic]

Wow, thanks so much for everyone's input. I'm really glad i asked this question.

I'm going to try the X5670 route with my 212 air cooler. I'll try and get some before/after benchmarks and post back up here when I do.

 

[SPBHM]

you could consider selling the board and going for something newer (some z170 boards are quite cheap), those high end x58s are worth an unreasonable amount of money on ebay still, and kind of defeats the purpose of using a cheap CPU,

 

[MongGrel]

you could consider selling the board and going for something newer (some z170 boards are quite cheap), those high end x58s are worth an unreasonable amount of money on ebay still, and kind of defeats the purpose of using a cheap CPU,

You called my CPU cheap, I 'm offended.

J/K

 

[ClockHound]

LOL!

 

[Makaveli]

I would do it OP.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

Might want to look into a X5660. Should be quite a bit cheaper.

 

[rchunter]

You should be able to buy a x5660 for around $90 or less and get to 4.2ghz with it fairly easily if you have any kind of decent cooling.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

I bought a couple of them a few weeks ago for $74 a piece on eBay.
Worked out well.

 

[Burpo]

Prices have gone up lately.. I've been looking every day/night. Best deal I could find tonight was X5670 for $100.. X5650's are bringing $90.. It's obvious they've become more valuable to those waiting on a substantial upgrade from intel..
We're dealing with a finite number of these & prices are going up..

 

[jihe]

Wow, thanks so much for everyone's input. I'm really glad i asked this question.

I'm going to try the X5670 route with my 212 air cooler. I'll try and get some before/after benchmarks and post back up here when I do.

Should just go for a cheap 5650. Once you crank up the base clocks heat instead of multiplier becomes the bottleneck. For 24x7 use a 5650 at 1.3v and 4.0-4.2Ghz is good enough for today's games.

 

[jihe]

Prices have gone up lately.. I've been looking every day/night. Best deal I could find tonight was X5670 for $100.. X5650's are bringing $90.. It's obvious they've become more valuable to those waiting on a substantial upgrade from intel..
We're dealing with a finite number of these & prices are going up..

Nah. Prices will go down because there's a smaller finite number of x58 boards. Just wait for the 5650s to go back to 50-60 dollars again.

 

[Burpo]

Yeah, cheap Xeons..

http://www.ascendtech.us/intel-xeon-six-core-x5675-3-06ghz-1366_i_cpq1366xeon5675.aspx

 

[mysticjbyrd]

I have a ASUS X58 Sabertooth board, but it only lists the 920-930-980x-etc I7's as compatible. However, there is someone else in this forum who claims they're running a Xeon on this same board.

Xeon X5680's can be picked up fairly cheap, less than half the cost of the more popular 980X and apparently faster too.

I've read that most Xeon's will work in 1366 boards so I'm curious about maybe giving this a shot. My 930 is overclocked up a bit, but couldn't I also try overclocking the Xeon too?

I also have a 930, but I am just going to wait until next year, and either get Zen, Skylake-e (if it's out), or kabylake.

I don't see a point in a minor upgrade until then.

 

[VirtualLarry]

You called my CPU cheap, I 'm offended.

J/K

I wouldn't be offended if someone called my CPUs cheap... LOL.

 

[readers]

The real issue with X58 is not just the CPU, no SATA 3, no PCI-E3, no USB 3.

 

[pooptastic]

The real issue with X58 is not just the CPU, no SATA 3, no PCI-E3, no USB 3.

My Asus board does have a pair of USB3 ports. Only 2.0 PCI though, and only two 6gbps sata ports.

I just want to try this to maybe bring my older machine more up to spec cheaply, instead of blowing ~$600 on skylake stuff.

The Xeons go for around a hundred bucks. That's cheap enough to give upgrading a shot, and gaining a few more cores to boot.

(plus it's hacky and fun)

 

[escrow4]

My Asus board does have a pair of USB3 ports. Only 2.0 PCI though, and only two 6gbps sata ports.

I just want to try this to maybe bring my older machine more up to spec cheaply, instead of blowing ~$600 on skylake stuff.

The Xeons go for around a hundred bucks. That's cheap enough to give upgrading a shot, and gaining a few more cores to boot.

(plus it's hacky and fun)

$100 spent but still stuck in 2009. Skylake alone is worth it for the chipset improvements if you have something primitive.

 

[pooptastic]

$100 spent but still stuck in 2009. Skylake alone is worth it for the chipset improvements if you have something primitive.

It's a good point. It looks like a 6600K build is only around $360 too.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/BPv8NG

No idea how accurate cpubenchmark.net is, but it does look like it might do ok against one, though it is missing the newer instruction sets and newer mb chipset too.