INtel E3-1231 ..... Have I been living under a rock?

[Lyfer]

Core i7 goodness that is $50 cheaper? Is this too good to be true?

Btw do most of the 9 series mobo's supported this cpu? - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819117316

Thank you.

 

[crashtech]

No, it's true. 4C/8T for just a bit more than an i5. No iGPU, though. It's best to look at the supported CPU list check for official support, but in the past I have seen E3 Xeons boot up in boards that didn't "officially" support them.

 

[richierich1212]

Yeah, we had a brief discussion on the same subject 6 months ago: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2367204&highlight=xeon

 

[videogames101]

It's that good, no OC tho

 

[Engineer]

No, it's true. 4C/8T for just a bit more than an i5. No iGPU, though. It's best to look at the supported CPU list check for official support, but in the past I have seen E3 Xeons boot up in boards that didn't "officially" support them.

and if your board doesn't support them, you might be able to patch the BIOS with the supported Microcode (downloaded from the net) and then flash your board. I have done this with the E3-1230V2 Xeon on a Biostar board. No issues but it does take some reading and nerves of steel.

 

[zir_blazer]

and if your board doesn't support them, you might be able to patch the BIOS with the supported Microcode (downloaded from the net) and then flash your board. I have done this with the E3-1230V2 Xeon on a Biostar board. No issues but it does take some reading and nerves of steel.

Technically current Xeons E3 V3 are all Haswells, support has to be there because they're the same thing than LGA 1150 Core i5/i7 with a different brand name. Are you sure that what you did wasn't adding Ivy Bridge support to a Sandy Bridge Motherboard?

 

[Engineer]

Technically current Xeons E3 V3 are all Haswells, support has to be there because they're the same thing than LGA 1150 Core i5/i7 with a different brand name. Are you sure that what you did wasn't adding Ivy Bridge support to a Sandy Bridge Motherboard?

The E3 V2 chips were Ivy Bridge. The board supported Ivy Bridge but not Xeon chips. When asking Biostar if they would release a BIOS for the board to support the E3 Xeons, they responded via email and told me that the Xeon chips are server level and that their board do not support them and they would not release an updated BIOS to do so.

At that point, I read around, found the procedure and the microcode downloads, downloaded the utility and patched the Biostar BIOS. Worked like a charm the first time.

The board is a P67 board that was already able to run non Xeon Ivy Bridge chips.

And just because the V3 chips are Haswell doesn't mean that the BIOS of the boards contain the Microcode to support them. The board makers could just as well run non Xeon chips just fine and not work at all on Xeon chips.

http://www.biostar-usa.com/app/en-us/mb/introduction.php?S_ID=526#cpu

Notice no Xeons on that list? I tried and it would not boot. I used a 3770 chip to boot and flash the board.

 

[Lyfer]

I just checked the AsRock H97M Pro 4 board I was interested has official supported for this cpu.

 

[bononos]

Core i7 goodness that is $50 cheaper? Is this too good to be true?

Btw do most of the 9 series mobo's supported this cpu? - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819117316

Thank you.

The xeons have a lower clock speed, no integrated graphics and no overclocking capability.

 

[crashtech]

E3 models that have the number 5 or 6 before the v3 have an iGPU.

 

[Blue_Max]

The xeons have a lower clock speed, no integrated graphics and no overclocking capability.

...a fantastic upgrade for anyone with a non-overclocking chipset and a video card.

 

[wintermute000]

ppl have been doing this for awhile - want i7, do not want OC, get Xeon, save 50-100. As noted above just be careful with your mobo to make sure it will run.

 

[Denithor]

Yep, I have owned a couple of Xeons over the years.

ASRock motherboards seem to be class-leading in supporting these chips out of the box.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

ppl have been doing this for awhile - want i7, do not want OC, get Xeon, save 50-100. As noted above just be careful with your mobo to make sure it will run.

One difference this time though - no more +4 turbo bin overclock
Have an E3 1275 V2 that is running at 4.1-4.3GHz using that trick.