Intel I5 2500K or Intel Xeon E3-1220 3.1GHz

[denisberea]

I have an Intel I5 2500k and I want to change it and opt for an Xeon E3-1220 3.1GHz.
What do you think...is it worth the change? Is the Xeon series better than the Core I's?
What kind of experiences (Good or Bad) did you have with this processors?
Thank you in advance!

 

[jasjeet]

Afaik that Xeon is slightly slower in our day to day tasks and has no on board GPU. The only reason to go Xeon is for Dual CPU support or if overclocking a purer silicon, but that Xeon has a locked multiplier, so its a downgrade!

Xeon just means its server grade HW, purer silicone and less leaky transistors means reduced heat output (important when you you got server racks). And it supports ECC RAM which is useful for error checking bits in the Ram to prevent any failures.

The Xeon uses the same sandy bridge architecture as the i5, so all we are looking at is clock speeds, and the i5 is higher clocked which means its faster.

 

[shibirian]

The Xeon is the clearly worse processor and not worth the money. (Especially when you already own a i5!)

 

[denisberea]

Afaik that Xeon is slightly slower in our day to day tasks and has no on board GPU. The only reason to go Xeon is for Dual CPU support or if overclocking a purer silicon, but that Xeon has a locked multiplier, so its a downgrade!

Xeon just means its server grade HW, purer silicone and less leaky transistors means reduced heat output (important when you you got server racks). And it supports ECC RAM which is useful for error checking bits in the Ram to prevent any failures.

The Xeon uses the same sandy bridge architecture as the i5, so all we are looking at is clock speeds, and the i5 is higher clocked which means its faster.

Thank you, jasjeet! I think I'll upgrade to an I7 2600K. What do U think?

 

[jasjeet]

Have you got the upgrade bug? lol There is no difference apart from Hyperthreading, which means that if an application supports splitting its Floating Point and Integer instructions down 2 threads per core you can get a boost, otherwise again the physical die is exactly the same as the i5 2500k.

Just overclock the i5 2500k to 4.5Ghz, every application can take advantage of that.

 

[denisberea]

Have you got the upgrade bug? lol There is no difference apart from Hyperthreading, which means that if an application supports splitting its Floating Point and Integer instructions down 2 threads per core you can get a boost, otherwise again the physical die is exactly the same as the i5 2500k.

Just overclock the i5 2500k to 4.5Ghz, every application can take advantage of that.

I have it @4.9GHz ...I only use it for Photoshop, Lightroom and FinalCut Pro...
And I thought and thought and came up to the point where I'll buy some PC parts and build my little sister a Hackintosh...For the prine of an I7 I can build a good Hack, don't U think?

 

[SG-]

save your money, i think next month Ivy Bridge CPUs will be released and they are the same socket and will work in most Sandy Bridge motherboards with a BIOS update.

 

[shibirian]

For the prine of an I7 I can build a good Hack, don't U think?

That's a very good idea, I think.

 

[denisberea]

Have you got the upgrade bug? lol There is no difference apart from Hyperthreading, which means that if an application supports splitting its Floating Point and Integer instructions down 2 threads per core you can get a boost, otherwise again the physical die is exactly the same as the i5 2500k.

Just overclock the i5 2500k to 4.5Ghz, every application can take advantage of that.

I have it @4.9GHz ...I only use it for Photoshop, Lightroom and FinalCut Pro...
And I thought and thought and came up to the point where I'll buy some PC parts and build my little sister a Hackintosh...For the prine of an I7 I can build a good Hack, don't U think?

You are probably right ... Gotta love them Hackintoshes!