What do you consider the best value in used processors today?

[cbn]

You don't have to go with X5650's. You can get the L series 5600's (low power) for less. I paid $55 each for my last batch of L5640's. 60w hex cores? Yes please. Given you're going dual socket and are on a budget, I'd just go with a pair of quads and save the $30-$40. Keep in mind, these are Hyperthreaded where as the 771's are not.

X5570 (4C/8T) 2.93 Ghz base with 3.33Ghz turbo is going for $22 shipped in ebay "Buy it now" auctions.

Not a bad deal when we consider i5-750 (4C/4T) 2.66 Ghz base with 3.2 Ghz turbo goes for $43 shipped.

Of course, those are 45nm chips.

I'm still price researching the 32nm quad cores listed in Intel Ark:

http://ark.intel.com/products/series/47915/Intel-Xeon-Processor-5600-Series#@All

 

[MongGrel]

Xeon Hexcores, although finding a board for them is harder / expensive then finding the cpu now...


But if i had to build a used machine, i would need to know what role its going to play...
Cant really say cpu X is the best, unless one stated the exact role.

Yeah, I have a couple running atm, managed to find s pristine board dirt cheap I used for a HTPC with a X5650 and stuck a X5680 in the main, but if I all ready didn't have a lot of things laying around to do it building a X5650 setup would be redundant these days from scratch.

They do make nice upgrades, if you all ready have a board.

 

[cbn]

32nm quad core LGA 1366 Xeons:

X5687 32nm 4C/8T 12MB cache 3.6 Ghz/3.86 Ghz turbo, 130W: starts at $95 shipped ( a good spread of listings from $95 to $105)

X5677 32nm 4C/8T 12MB cache 3.46 GHz/3.73 Ghz turbo, 130W: starts at $75 shipped ( next two buy it now listings are $85 and $95)

X5672 32m 4C/8T 12MB cache 3.2 Ghz/3.6 Ghz turbo, 95W: starts at $65 shipped

X5647 32nm 4C/8T 12MB cache 2.93 Ghz/3.2 Ghz turbo 130W: starts $40 shipped.

 

[MongGrel]

One of those "Yeah I'm doing it again" things I guess.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2335636&page=95&highlight=l5639

 

[cbn]

Price research on standard power 32nm hexcores (using ebay "buy it now" listings):

X5690 6C/12T, 12MB cache, 3.46 Ghz/3.73 Ghz turbo, 130W TDP starts at $222 shipped
X5680 6C/12T, 12MB cache, 3.33 Ghz/3.6 Ghz turbo, 130W TDP starts at $150 shipped
X5675 6C/12T, 12MB cache, 3.06 Ghz/3,46 Ghz turbo, 95W TDP starts at $115 shipped
X5670 6C/12T, 12MB cache, 2.92 Ghz/3.33 Ghz turbo, 95W TDP starts at $99 shipped
X5660 6C/12T, 12MB cache, 2.8 Ghz/3.2Ghz turbo, 95W TDP starts at $80 shipped
X5650 6C/12T, 12MB cache, 2.66 Ghz/3.06Ghz turbo, 95W TDP starts at $75 shipped

 

[Atreidin]

For me, a $30 E5450 was the best option for an old socket 775 system from my E6600. A 3.6GHz quad core is enough to make that system last a couple more years. Nicer than just getting a faster quadcore, and way better than the crazily overpriced Q9650. Also it is fun feeling like I am getting away with doing something I shouldn't be doing.

I don't recommend doing that unless you have the board already, as others have already said, old motherboards get stupid expensive. There are reasons why people end up with collections of working CPUs and piles of dead motherboards.

 

[cbn]

I don't recommend doing that unless you have the board already, as others have already said, old motherboards get stupid expensive. There are reasons why people end up with collections of working CPUs and piles of dead motherboards.

Agreed.

Although three new LGA 775 motherboards are available on Newegg, and they have either the G31 or G41 chipset so they work with 5xxx Xeons (The G41 boards also use DDR3). I feel the price of $65 to $70 dollars is too high relative to what an Athlon x4 860K/A68H sale combo costs (as low as $79.99 AR free shipping).

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...d=1&N=100007627 600007879 600008179 600008210

However, I think the Windows 7 LGA 775 Pre-builts (compatible with E5xxx Xeon) from a reputable refurbisher are another story. This provided the person finds a good sale price.

As far as compatibility goes, Delidded.com has tested motherboards listed here so a person can line that up with various pre-builts and DIY boards to find out what works with E5xxx Xeon.

 

[Dave2150]

Something I don't understand, when I see people today investing into very old motherboards - don't you use SSD's or USB3 devices?

I'm currently using a x58/i7 920 setup - and the main reason I'm upgrading to Skylake/z170 is for all the new 'goodies' - SATA3, PCI-E M.2, USB3 (I have many devices I'm forced to run at USB2 speeds) and of course, PCI-E V3 (currently stuck on PCI-E V2) plus no 4pin PWM fan connectors.

Granted, you get a decent level of CPU performance out of old LGA775/1366 boards - but your limiting yourself to all the old I/O standards for years to come.

 

[scannall]

Something I don't understand, when I see people today investing into very old motherboards - don't you use SSD's or USB3 devices?

I'm currently using a x58/i7 920 setup - and the main reason I'm upgrading to Skylake/z170 is for all the new 'goodies' - SATA3, PCI-E M.2, USB3 (I have many devices I'm forced to run at USB2 speeds) and of course, PCI-E V3 (currently stuck on PCI-E V2) plus no 4pin PWM fan connectors.

Granted, you get a decent level of CPU performance out of old LGA775/1366 boards - but your limiting yourself to all the old I/O standards for years to come.

I'm on an x58 as well, though with a 5660. I couldn't resist the price. When Skylake comes out, that will be enough of a sea change to get me to upgrade. Memory standards tend to last for quite a while, so my DDR4 investment will be good for a while. And Thunderbolt is getting to where I want it to be as well. Of course the PCI-E lanes, and the M2 drives would make a really tasty Hackintosh.

 

[cbn]

Something I don't understand, when I see people today investing into very old motherboards - don't you use SSD's or USB3 devices?

I'm currently using a x58/i7 920 setup - and the main reason I'm upgrading to Skylake/z170 is for all the new 'goodies' - SATA3, PCI-E M.2, USB3 (I have many devices I'm forced to run at USB2 speeds) and of course, PCI-E V3 (currently stuck on PCI-E V2) plus no 4pin PWM fan connectors.

Granted, you get a decent level of CPU performance out of old LGA775/1366 boards - but your limiting yourself to all the old I/O standards for years to come.

How many expansion slots do you have?

For usb 3.0 a PCIe 2.0 x 1 add-in board will work for that.

SSD will work with X58 native SATA ports, but you will be limited to SATA 3 Gbps speeds. If you want something faster I would look into getting a PCIe x 4 to M.2 adapter.

(See below for examples of PCIe x 4 to M.2 adapters)

 

[rchunter]

I'm on x58 x5660 also but no way would I try and buy a used x58 board now. If my board died today i'd move on to X99 chipset. I'll probably end up upgrading to Broadwell-E wether my board dies or not, and just use this x58 xeon rig as a linux machine.

 

[Leyawiin]

FX-4300 in the FS/T subforum here for $50.

 

[rchunter]

Some of them work some of them don't. Just yesterday I tried installing a Apricorn X2 SSD converter into my P6X58D Premium with a samsung 840 pro. In the bios it recognized it as a scsi card but wouldn't boot from it. That card will work with a lot of x58 boards but not my particular board apparently.

How many expansion slots do you have?

For usb 3.0 a PCIe 2.0 x 1 add-in board will work for that.

SSD will work with X58 native SATA ports, but you will be limited to SATA 3 Gbps speeds. If you want something faster I would look into getting a PCIe x 4 to M.2 adapter.

(See below for examples of PCIe x 4 to M.2 adapters)

 

[HeXen]

I wish I could ship something for that cheap. I can't Ebay because anything I ship seems to cost a fortune compared to what everyday sellers pay.

 

[ehume]

Something I don't understand, when I see people today investing into very old motherboards - don't you use SSD's or USB3 devices?

You can take a 2008 dual core Core Duo and replace the 500GB spinning disk with a Samsung 500GB for a few hundred. It makes the old Dell sit up and scream. It's better than it was when it was new. The CPU was not upgraded, so that cost was zero. Even running an SSD at SATA II is so much faster than a spinning disk, you get more life from an old machine.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

You can take a 2008 dual core Core Duo and replace the 500GB spinning disk with a Samsung 500GB for a few hundred. It makes the old Dell sit up and scream. It's better than it was when it was new. The CPU was not upgraded, so that cost was zero. Even running an SSD at SATA II is so much faster than a spinning disk, you get more life from an old machine.

I wanted to retire a 780i-SLI configuration with 7 fans -- a power-hog with a 2x500GB HDD RAID0 array and 8GB of RAM. It still has the E8600 chip in the socket.

I can use it later to replace a dead 680i which is currently running fine in my WHS machine. If I change up to a Win 2012 R2 Essentials OS, I'll use newer technology. If I need to replace a mobo in the meantime with WHS, the change-up should be as simple as booting up, installing the 780i chipset driver,and installing any onboard feature controllers that I use (and I'm even using an Intel-Pro PCI/-e NIC instead of nForce). The more I think of it, I don't even use any of the 680i feature controllers -- or the NVidia nFarce SATA for that matter. Nothing but the IDE controller for the optical drive. No fix required for that, either.

The WHS is already outfitted with a Samsung 840 EVO boot disk connected to a PCI-E SATA-III Marvel controller. But the PCI-E 2.0 slots of the 780i board would fulfill more potential, along with the 4x HDDs in my storage pool.

 

[cbn]

Regarding LGA 1366 for Workstations, I decided to make the following thread:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2434197

 

[VirtualLarry]

The WHS is already outfitted with a Samsung 840 EVO boot disk connected to a PCI-E SATA-III Marvel controller. But the PCI-E 2.0 slots of the 780i board would fulfill more potential, along with the 4x HDDs in my storage pool.

Is it worth buying a SATA6G controller card for a "modern" SATA6G SSD, compared to simply running the SSD in a mobo native SATA2 port? Especially, if the controller card is PCI-E 2.0 x1, and not x2 or x4?

I struggled with that issue. I bought some controller cards anyways, when they were $12-13 ea from Newegg. I originally bought two 2-port cards with a Marvell chipset, for like $21-23 ea. I think I'm going to save those to put into my unRAID server, because Linux supports those controllers natively.

I have a couple of "customers", that I built some 775 boards with 2.5Ghz dual-cores, and 500GB WD SATA HDDs, and optical drives. The mobos are a late-model 775 board, that takes DDR3. They currently have a single 4GB DIMM in single-channel mode. Those boards only had two SATA ports (cost-cutting by Biostar?)

So all available SATA ports are full. I could clone the install on the HDD, to a 120GB SSD, or I could install one of the cheaper (ASmedia, AHCI) controller cards in the PCI-E x1 slot, and install a fresh copy of Win7 on a 120GB SSD connected to the controller card, and then after it boots, re-attach the HDD, and use the native SATA2 ports for the HDD and optical.

I don't think the native SATA2 ports support AHCI (ICH7).

 

[SPBHM]

Is it worth buying a SATA6G controller card for a "modern" SATA6G SSD, compared to simply running the SSD in a mobo native SATA2 port? Especially, if the controller card is PCI-E 2.0 x1, and not x2 or x4?

x1 1.0 is to slow for sata III, just use the onboard sata 2 ports

even x1 2.0 is a bottleneck but less,



E5450 is a fine CPU for current usage, I wouldn't say the same about an e8400
the extra cores show the advantage very easily while watching some videos on chrome for example.

 

[rchunter]

Is it worth buying a SATA6G controller card for a "modern" SATA6G SSD, compared to simply running the SSD in a mobo native SATA2 port? Especially, if the controller card is PCI-E 2.0 x1, and not x2 or x4?

Probably not. Most SATA-III controller cards that i've seen are x8 cards. You can usually get away with installing them in x4 slots but I wouldn't go any lower.
I have 3 x16 2.0 slots on my board (P6X58D Premium). I was hoping to find a bootable pcie 2.0 card that will run with a samsung 840 pro. I tried a Apricorn Velocity Solo x2 and it didn't work.

 

[cbn]

Another update on the LGA 1366 CPU prices.

45nm quad cores:

X5570 4C/8T 8MB cache 2.93 Ghz/3.33 Ghz, 95W: starts at $20 shipped
X5560 4C/8T 8MB cache 2.80 Ghz/3.2 Ghz, 95W: starts at $19 shipped
X5550 4C/8T 8MB cache 2.66 Ghz/3.06 Ghz 95W: starts at $20 shipped
W5590 4C/8T 8MB cache, 3.33 GHz/3.6 Ghz 130W: starts at $43 shipped
W5580 4C/8T 8MB cache, 3.2 Ghz/3.46 Ghz 130W: starts at $30 shipped

And the 32nm processors (today's prices):

32nm quad cores:

X5687 4C/8T 12MB cache 3.6 Ghz/3.86 Ghz turbo, 130W: starts at $95 shipped
X5677 4C/8T 12MB cache 3.46 GHz/3.73 Ghz turbo, 130W: starts at $65 shipped
X5672 4C/8T 12MB cache 3.2 Ghz/3.6 Ghz turbo, 95W: starts at $55 shipped
X5647 4C/8T 12MB cache 2.93 Ghz/3.2 Ghz turbo 130W: starts $40 shipped.

32nm Hexcores:

X5690 6C/12T, 12MB cache, 3.46 Ghz/3.73 Ghz turbo, 130W TDP starts at $222 shipped
X5680 6C/12T, 12MB cache, 3.33 Ghz/3.6 Ghz turbo, 130W TDP starts at $150 shipped
X5675 6C/12T, 12MB cache, 3.06 Ghz/3,46 Ghz turbo, 95W TDP starts at $120 shipped
X5670 6C/12T, 12MB cache, 2.92 Ghz/3.33 Ghz turbo, 95W TDP starts at $99 shipped
X5660 6C/12T, 12MB cache, 2.8 Ghz/3.2Ghz turbo, 95W TDP starts at $80 shipped
X5650 6C/12T, 12MB cache, 2.66 Ghz/3.06Ghz turbo, 95W TDP starts at $81 shipped

 

[cbn]

Passmark score comparisons:

i7 4790K ($339, 88W): 11237 CPU Marks http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7-4790K+@+4.00GHz
i7 4790 ($305, 84W): 10074 CPu marks http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7-4790+@+3.60GHz
i5 4670 ($224, 84W): 7407 CPU marks http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i5-4670+@+3.40GHz

45nm quad cores:

Dual W5590 ($86 for 2 processors, 260W): 10646 CPU marks http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Xeon+W5590+@+3.33GHz&cpuCount=2

Dual X5570 ($40 for 2 processors, 190W): 9696 CPU marks http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Xeon+X5570+@+2.93GHz&cpuCount=2

32nm quad core:

Dual X5677 ($130 for 2 processors, 260W): 11815 CPU marks http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Xeon+X5677+@+3.47GHz&id=1310&cpuCount=2

32nm hexcore:

Dual X5675 ($240 for 2 processors, 190W): 12869 CPU marks http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Xeon+X5675+@+3.07GHz&cpuCount=2

Dual X5660 ($160 for 2 processors, 190W): 11821 CPU marks http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Xeon+X5660+@+2.80GHz&cpuCount=2

Some observations:

1.) If a person has a 2P motherboard that can use 130W processors, running dual X5677 32nm quad cores will be $30 lower cost than dual X5660 32nm hexcores. Single thread performance will also be better on the X5677 quad cores since the base clocks (3.46 Ghz vs. 2.8 Ghz) and turbo (3.73 Ghz vs. 3.2 Ghz) are higher than X5660. However, multi-thread performance per watt will be lower

2.) Dual X5570 45nm quad cores are cheap and have decent MT performance. They would also work on any 2P motherboard since they are only 95W CPUs.

 

[Burpo]

Those are @ stock settings (mostly)..
My overclocked X5650 beats the I7-4790k

 

[cbn]

Those are @ stock settings (mostly)..
My overclocked X5650 beats the I7-4790k

What clocks on your X5650?

And how many CPU marks did you get when you ran Passmark Performance test?

 

[rchunter]

My x5660 @ 4.2
Passmark cpu 11,130