16 Cores for $16

[@exaltedb]

I love old Xeons due to how stupidly cheap they are for what you get

[@sijedevos2376]

Yeah but often hard to find a motherboard without spending to much.

[@mircomputers]

sadly the AliExpress boards are stupid unreliable nowadays, used to be good in 2020

[@EvilEng9]

@@mircomputers With that, I wouldn't invest in these old platforms anymore for gaming. I have a 2020 Machinist RS9 with a e5-2667v4 & it crashes with a lot with new AAA games.

[@DJ_Dopamine]

Huananzhi X99-TF is solid and well specced out.

[@gg2324]

yeah but motherboards can be expensive, the single core performance is quite bad and I think the newer ones require ecc or registred ram (not sure about that though)

[@TheMichaelAltman]

As a Server Technician (been in the server business around 15 years) I love seeing people using Xeons and keeping them circulating on the used market.

[@RandomGaminginHD]

Yeah it’s like giving an old CPU a new home after retirement 😁

[@AXLP_LaZEReD]

As a fellow Xeon owner, I gotta say - they are beasts. Got a X5650, used it for gaming from 2021 till January 2023. Didn't decommission it, though! It is now used in my Home Theatre PC! Paired with a 1050, it does the job for 1080p videos/movies, and lighter games (Currently playing Ori and the Blind Forest lol). I also had a delidded Xeon E5520 (but I traded it in for a more modern Pentium because I have no way to get my hands on a direct die cooler without losing my kidney)

[@adamgrant1787]

Older Xeon's can also be used to build a custom NAS like I just did I bought a Lenovo ThinkStation P510 that came with a quad core and it's basic config and I upgraded it with a 8 core and went a little crazy on the upgrades Spec's 128GB DDR4 2400MHz ECC quad channel memory(Eight 16GB sticks) XEON E5-2667 V4 3.2GHZ 8 core 16 thread ASRock Challenger D Radeon RX 6650 XT 8GB Samsung 980 Pro 500GB SSD HGST Ultrastar He10 HUH72101OALE601 10TB enterprise hard drive(x2 =20GB) HGST Ultrastar HE10 HUH721010ALE600 10TB enterprise hard drive(x2= 20TB) HGST Ultrastar He10 HUH721010ALE604 10TB enterprise hard drive Creative Sound Blaster AE-7 Sound Card ASUS AX3000 WiFi 6 dual band PCIe wireless/Bluetooth 5.0 adapter LG Blu-Ray burner(WH14NS40) 650 watt power supply Windows 10 Pro( it came with Windows 11 Pro installed that was the first to go lol) @@AXLP_LaZEReD

[@helenHTID]

So over 15 years then 😆

[@TheMichaelAltman]

@helenHTID My man I had a whole brain fart LMFAO

[@scroopynooperz9051]

It's an absolute tragedy that, from Skylake onwards, Intel started c0ckblocking consumer grade motherboards from using Xeons. Haswell and Broadwell were the last generations to allow this. These companies and the regulators / politicians in their pockets claim to care about the environment but where the rubber hits the road, they clearly dont give a toss. Older xeons that companies replace could be used by general consumers in cheap desktop builds, instead of ending up as e-waste. seems there's a rather large cognitive dissonance here. Stated policy goals and interests arent always in sync with their actions. Wonder why that is lol

[@TheQuentincc]

You can still use them, you mainly need to mod and disable ME in the bios, a bit like the coffee lake mod to Z170/270

[@latioseon7794]

@@TheQuentincc Can confirm, running a coffee lake refresh Xeon E-2286M laptop CPU in a Z170 board, Intel blocking coffee lake from earlier LGA 1151 boards was so stupid all to upsell new motherboards...

[@slimjimjimslim5923]

Often it’s because they are trying to compete over AMD, who also have different server motherboard for different chips. Usually server chips require higher bandwidth. More pcie slots, larger number of pins, and heatsink. For example intel sierra forest gonn have 244 cores on a chip package. That thing is huge and definitely need a larger motherboard.

[@scroopynooperz9051]

@@TheQuentincc how? I have an Intel H110 mobo with a crappy i3 6100 that I would love to replace with a meatier 8 thread xeon i7 equivalent on the cheap. The pricing on OLD skylake and kabylake i7's are still pretty ridiculous - cant believe old 4 core 8 thread i7's still command such a premium on completely dead platforms. No ways i'm paying close to $100 for an old used skylake i7

[@scroopynooperz9051]

@@TheQuentincc is this possible on the H110 el cheapo chipset?

[@TigTex]

You might get a little bit more of gaming performance by disabling hyperthreading on those CPUs. There's a bit of overhead with hyperthreading that harms applications that are not optimized for 16+ threads such as all games basically. It will also reduce a bit the power consumption which should allow better clock speeds if you are hitting the power limit of that CPU

[@RandomGaminginHD]

Ah ok good call

[@MarcosCodas]

@@RandomGaminginHD You'll also likely get better results with an AMD GPU due to driver overhead.

[@robgrenzeback3425]

how much power does it pull? is it power hungry?

[@TigTex]

Not much. 120w for 16 cores. You will be hitting the power limit under most workloads. The v3 xeon series have a bug that allow you to bypass this limit and also unlock all core turbo so they are the better choice for gaming

[@adamdurrani1071]

​@@TigTextrue, currently running an 2696v3 with 10 cores enabled with an underclock that can stay at boost 3.8 GHz on all cores

[@satvikshauryasingh1152]

It's amazing to see the xeon performing so well in gaming and holding up to i7

[@lucasrem]

AMAZING, true, noobs only need 60 FPS 1080p, any pentium can do that on 1080p samsung TV levels !!!!!!! why use money if you only need slow PC !!!!! But 4060 ti for it, yeah, WHY NOT ???????????

[@unknownname6519]

​@@lucasremok

[@bignose1752]

@@lucasrem are you ok?

[@fabr1cated]

​@@lucasremwhat is blud wafflin about

[@the_expidition427]

@@lucasrem Glad you entertained yourself, pick up your ass on the way out and reattach it

[@vwbug1975]

My most recent build, Sept 2023, is an x99 with dual XEON E5 2699 v3 CPUs (18 cores, 36 threads, $36 per CPU), 64gb ECC (8x8gb), and a 4tb m.2. It's an absolute monster and it was a super inexpensive build for the power it provides. I'll be upgrading to a used 24gb 3090 before the end of the year.

[@BucifalulR]

What motherboard dif you get and at what cost? What about the RAM ?

[@DerekDavis213]

The old dusty Xeons have decent multi-core performance, but single-core performance is awful compared to modern Intel or AMD Ryzen chips. Also, the latest NVME SSD drives are super-fast, but those drives will not work with old Xeons.

[@ProcessedDigitally]

the latest ssds will still work but at pcie gen 3 speeds. @@DerekDavis213

[@Abberaeitsneozm]

@@DerekDavis213 May i introduce the v3 bug which allows for indefenite all core turbos?

[@DerekDavis213]

@@Abberaeitsneozm All core turbos won't change this fact: Xeon E5 2699 V3 is basically *slow* *as* *a* *turtle* when compared to a modern Ryzen 7700x or 7900x processor. And 6000 MHz DDR5 low-latency memory is much faster than DDR3 memory on that old dusty Xeon! LOL

[@tomohara4220]

I just replaced an i7-5820k with an E5-2687W V4 (12c/24t). It does all core boost at 3.2Ghz. That Xeon is more expensive than the Xeon you are using here but still relatively cheap for what it is. Still trying to figure out what useful things I can do with it, but with my Titan Xp in it, it can still play some games while I try to figure it out.

[@TheThunderwars]

Kept my 5820k since 2014.... just changed recently my whole system to a Ryzen 9 for the next decade. It still held up beautifully OC'd to 4.5ghz, 1.3v per core for nearly ten years. But it warmed up my room way too much with the GPU ahah and electricity consumption was ... well. Great chip though.

[@sovo1212]

Sorry for the ignorance, but what it does mean "core boost at 3.2 ghz"? It means it can run at that speed permanently, like sort of an "official" overclocking? Do you have to enable it in the bios or using Intel software?

[@m8x425]

@@sovo1212 All-Core boost.... is what he's referring to. It's kind of like the i9-9900k for example. The box specs say it has a frequency of 3.5Ghz, but any z390 motherboard will run the i9-9900k at 4.7Ghz across ALL cores, provided the CPU isn't getting too hot. Most games will run the said CPU at the unlisted all-core turboboost frequency.

[@sovo1212]

@@m8x425 Yes, but is this all automatic when the CPU is on load? What if I get one of these chinese motherboards?

[@mrkiplingman]

The 2690v4 14c can do all core boost 3.2ghz aswell

[@kuva07]

Timely video! I just got my Xeon 2660v4 yesterday and will be putting my media computer together today

[@RandomGaminginHD]

Very nice

[@barrycheesemore2928]

Those older Xeon CPU's are a great bargain really, especially if you're doing more productivity tasks and a bit of gaming, rather than the other way round. I currently run an old HP Z620 workstation PC, and although my GPU is utter shite it runs fine, it'll run Diablo 3 relatively well but not great. Excellent video as always!!

[@classicundergroundmixes3112]

*E5-2697 v3 with HT disabled = 14 cores/14 threads @ 3.6GHz* _or_ *E5-2696 v3 with HT disabled and 8 cores disabled = 10cores/10threads @ 3.8GHz* Are the best for gaming right now. _*Assuming turbo boost unlock is implemented in both cases._

[@Jorell1000]

False. The all core turbo of the 2697 V3 is 3.1GHz The all core turbo of the 2696 V3 is 2.8GHz Single core max turbo is irrelevant in games. You'll never see that frequency while gaming. Those chips are not ideal for gaming. The E5 2697V3 is only a good chip if you have an expensive motherboard that allows you to hack and force the single core turbo on all cores (which is a difficult process even with the right motherboard). Then it becomes badass. But that defeats the budget argument and puts you in i3 12100f price territory. The E5 1660V4 is an 8 Core chip with 3.5GHz all core turbo. The 1650 has higher clock speeds but 2 less cores, and pushes less frames ultimately. Therefore E5 1660V4 is the budget champ.

[@d.7303]

Id love to see you test out the e5 2667v4. Base clock of 3.2ghz and a bost clock of 3.6ghz Dont think it would be bad for a $10 USD cpu.

[@Khalid_100_25]

E5 2697v3 better

[@joey_f4ke238]

@@Khalid_100_25Idk man, the only good thing about that one is that you can force max turbo boost on v3 xeons but it´s a fair bit less efficient. It´s not a bad chip but most likely you often won´t even get the full turbo boost because of TDP throttling

[@Nxrth6666]

@@Khalid_100_25 its only better in synthetic multi core benchmarks due to it being 14 cores vs 8 in the 2667v4. There isnt a single game that would run better on the 2697v3 due to it being a much older architecture, 22nm vs 14nm. Raw clock speeds dont mean better performance.

[@misael960]

​@@Nxrth6666There's a way to "unlock" the all cores max clock in the v3's X99 Xeons that can get a really good single thread performance , the E5 2667 v4 is still one of the better ones but you can buy something cheaper and with more cores with not so much of a performance drop.

[@bulldozerfx621]

no longer $10 usd :(

[@EvilEng9]

Great stuff but I believe gaming performance would be better with equally cheap E5-2667 v4 & E5-2697 v3 (w/Turbo Boost Unlocked BIOS & HT disabled). Please consider these in another video! Thank you!

[@harrytsang1501]

E5-2697v3 is an even older Haswell 22nm processor, I wouldn't recommend anything older than14nm Broadwell at the moment since they are just as cheap. E5-2686v4 has 18C36T at 2.3GHz base 3.0GHz boost and is around $25 per CPU

[@lux8075]

Is the xeon e5-2650 v4 good?

[@MueedVI]

​@@lux8075Yeah, but you should go with Xeon 2660 v4 and turn off hyper threading for extra performance and power efficiency. V4 series is more power efficient than V3, but you can not unlock the turbo boost in v4, which means less performance as compared to v3 in some cases.

[@MueedVI]

​@@lux8075That v4 would consume 45-60w of power on full load, on the other hand v3 can consume 60-85w of power. So, if power consumption isn't an issue, v3 would be a better option for you.

[@Jorell1000]

Yeah but motherboards that support turbo unlock are so costly that it totally defeats the purpose of using a budget xeon.

[@LArmor6S]

That was quite interesting. One thing I think you could add to these types of reviews, is power consumption. It would be interesting to see how much power they draw too, as especially with electricity prices being more expensive, I think it's an important metric to look at too.

[@guillermoenrique5489]

Great video, here in Brazil it is quite normal to assemble xeon kits for a gaming PC, I would love to see tests on your channel in the future with the xeon 2667 v4 and 2690 v4 (best value for money).

[@Jorell1000]

Those chips are not ideal, because all-core turbo is much slower than single core max turbo. E5 1660V4 with 4 x 2400mhz ddr4 dimms is ideal. All-core turbo of 3.5GHz on 8 cores.

[@diegoleiva7242]

So Cyberpunk peaks at 66% CPU usage while all the other games rarely hit 30%, Starfield included. I read that CP2077 used up to 8 threads only but it's gotta be more than that for sure. I would have expected Starfield to also use more CPU threads.

[@alexturnbackthearmy1907]

That why E-cores are worse in general then no E-cores cpu. Almost all games made for average (4/6/8) processors, not 16 cores monster. That why SLI wasnt good too, it just never worked properly to begin with.

[@xynonners]

​@@alexturnbackthearmy1907I'd still very much rather have the extra cores, they are godsend for video editing also, SLI had bandwidth issues

[@Jorell1000]

Your GPU may still be under-utilized. These games are not threaded that widely.

[@bdhale34]

The reason BCLK doesn't work on most processors anymore is that motherboard manufacturers save money by not including an external clock gen on the board itself so every bus is synced with the front side and changes to the bclk cause instabilities. On boards that do still include a external clock gen bclk overclocking is an option.

[@Simmonsumers35]

It's amazing that no matter the specs of the system, Starfield always runs horribly.

[@ImNumb-il8hp]

Since its a dual-capable processor imagine using that. 32 cores for 32 dollars!

[@itsTyrion]

can we just appreciate how well Cyberpunk 2077 scales with high threads counts? we're seeing a bit over 50% total utilization here, so it uses 16! threads, which is *a lot* for a game

[@jb678901]

Still happy with my E5-2696v3 build...paired to a new HuananZhi X99TF + RTX 2080Ti (undervolted) + 48GB DDR4 Corsair Vengeance (XMP, 4 channel, 2133Mhz). I prefer the locked V3 as the TURBOUNLOCK using MiyConst's Mi899 is very easy to do and it really opens up performance that makes the V4 less appealing (though V4 has slightly better IPC). The turbounlocked all-core is still limited by TDP...which on the 2696v3 is 145W. With all 18 cores, 36 threads it will all core to just under 3.8Ghz when gaming. For heavy loads approaching 100% utlization, it will downclock to 2.8Ghz all core. CBR23 multi hits 14,050 pts. Not bad for a CPU that costs around $45 and a total build (excl keyboard, mouse, and monitor) running around $640 (incl. case and PSU).

[@BadBoy11m]

U just use mi899 and choose the bios dump and backup then u chose modify bios with undervolt from sliding menu then patched rights

[@AmaraTheBarbarian]

At the moment there aren't really the chinese remanufactured boards to make the platform cost cheap, BUT Skylake Xeons are getting pretty cheap as well, both LGA 3647 and LGA 2066. Cascade lake ones aren't ridiculously expensive either, but still a fair bit more than skylake. My main PC currently uses a Xeon W-3235 that I got for $150 from china, but the board was also $350, so it may have been cheaper to get a 5900x and a decent AM4 board. As luck would have it though I get some nice to haves with the xeon I wouldn't get had I gone with high end AM4, 6 channel memory with ECC support (cost wise I was also able to pick up that RAM for a little less than $1/GB on a 96GB kit), and 48 PCIE lanes usable. So with a GPU and 1 NVME drive in I've got 20 lanes to spend, checking the block diagram on how they're wired might be important though don't want certain things sharing bandwidth.

[@XeloX]

great video, would've loved to see a comparison without hyperthreading though!

[@T.Lspitz]

I too, love old zeons! I just bought a xeon e5 2687w v4 for less than $40! 12 core 24 thread running 3Ghz stock to 3.5Ghz boost clock. Running like a champ on a Gigabyte x99p-sli board. Also won the silicon lottery with a 1650v3 recently! Overclocked to 4.5 no problem. Probably will get it to 4.7 or higher with some fine tuning.

[@abdulbasit34310]

Gigabyte x99p-sli price??

[@T.Lspitz]

@abdulbasit34310 i got the motherboard for a somewhat reasonable price on ebay along with an EVGA 1200W power supply as a package deal, but the motherboard itself came out to around $140-$150. I think it was worth it though. The board might not have some features i was hoping for (such as a debugger LED code readout for example) but it had all the important features i needed such as a sturdy VRM set up and good heatsinks to cool them down. Plus at least one m.2 port and a thunderbolt 3 port on the back i/o

[@abdulbasit34310]

@@T.Lspitz cool

[@radix7]

I'm still using a Xeon E3-1230 v2 (similar to i7 3770) and I have to say that it's still pretty nice for me (it's 11 years old, incredible). I can do anything I want without any problems. I don't usually play the latest and greatest AAA titles, but it could defend itself if that was the case (Cyberpunk, AC, TLOU...). Anyway, for esports and normal tasks it's still a pretty decent and enough cpu

[@joey_f4ke238]

Definitely a good chip, i had the 1270 v3 (i7 4790) and it still goes amazingly

[@PurpleSanz]

I started my build with an i3-3220 back in 2014 and I was always curious about the famous i7-3770, then I found the Xeon E3-1240 V2 for $20 and decided to give it a try. Man, it's been such a little beast! I've enjoyed RetroArch and every emulator out there: PS1, PS2, PS3, Wii, WiiU, even Switch, you name it (not to mention tons of PC games)! I'm even waiting for the remaster of Super Mario RPG and I know my old Xeon will handle it like a champ. Easily one of my best purchases EVER.

[@radix7]

@@PurpleSanz yeah, it's insane how this old Sandy Bridge/Ivy Bridge/Haswell chips perform till this day. It seems that they are never gonna surrender!

[@tyttuut]

It has a TDP of 69 watts 😎

[@PurpleSanz]

I just wanted to add that Super Mario Bros. Wonder hasn't even been released and I already finished it two days ago on my good old Xeon. Proud? Hell, yeah! 🤘😎

[@hitbm4755]

Impressive performance in most of the titles! It would be interesting to see how those AMD Server CPUs (I think Opteron before Ryzen came out) would perform.

[@diyVT]

I just got a Dell workstation and put dual E5-2698 v3 processors in it. So i have 32 cores and 64 threads. It's a bit impractical but the whole system including the processor upgrades was under $300 and it came with 32 gigs of ram. And I am going to mainly use it as a workstation.

[@ancientmadness-rlk]

I would love to see you add stuff like temperatures for the CPU tests and add a test for 4k video encoding using ffmpeg. They're not gaming related, but would be decent info none the less.

[@thaddeus2447]

Using e5 2696v3 as backup pc for two year now, last year used it with 3080 untill zen 4, 18 core 36 threads beast 3.8ghz with turbo boost mod, set to 10 core 20 threads will give you locked 3.8ghz on all cores. Performs really nicely, in most scenarious matching my previous 5800x. That massive 45mb of cache certenly helped it a lot.

[@MaxIronsThird]

Isn't it better to disable HT instead turning off 8 cores?

[@thaddeus2447]

@@MaxIronsThird nope its worse. Because at 18 cores it will only give 3.2-3.3ghz maximum. Setting it to 10 cores gives rock solid 3.8ghz all core

[@user-th4cj8pp3e]

Just for consumers wanting to buy one of these.. some info as I'm using two of these in my desktop. I have a setup with two of this exact cpu (it brought me to this video), 64gb DDR4 and a 3070 ti and considering I only had to buy the board, case and GPU it's a beast, runs pretty much any modern game at 1080p, some at 1440/2k, I run Arma 3 servers off it with around 10-15 players and can play while hosting with no issues at all. I'm aware there are better GPUs but that's what I could afford when I built it, and to match an ageing xeon it's more than enough. Sadly the motherboards are expensive for a dual slot, power usage is extremely high and they get HOT! You definitely need powerful cooling, I have 6 fans in my rig and it's as you imagine...loud. Water cooling may be a better option but as I've never configured water cooling I went for fans. I'm a virus lab tech and got the cpus and ram for free around two years ago and I'd be skeptical to purchase them myself if doing this build, while it's cool having a 32c/64t PC, the power usage and cooling are a huge concern and compared to a modern cpu designed for gaming they will fall behind, as I mentioned I host my own Arma 3 server with work and online friends so it's why I have this build. In total the build cost me around £700 ($800-900?) with the gpu and motherboard being almost equal in price at the time I bought them.

[@stew_redman]

I used a 5820K for years and upgraded to a 5960X - overclocked as much as possible. It lasted for 2yrs before going "pop" and taking the motherboard with it! Good times.

[@shaneeslick]

G'day Random, It is crazy these once Extremely Expensive CPUs are now found so cheap & funny how the CPUs were 2x-5x the cost of the Motherboard when new but now Motherboards are the expensive part of the Combo even exceding 5x-10x the cost of a CPU in some markets.

[@sleepcyclesgaming]

I had no idea you could pick these up for so cheap. I have a couple of top end X99 boards just sitting about doing nothing, one holding my old faithful 5960X that was supposed to become a system at some point. I forsee a bit of building fun in my future!

[@SomeDude0881]

Those X99 boards can be worth quite a bit. You may want to look into selling them!

[@Nxrth6666]

These boards are gonna hold value for years to come due to an absolute ocean of premium cpus for them. I had a gigabyte x99 gaming motherboard a few years back that i sold for 100€. I bought the same board recently but it costed 130 😂

[@sleepcyclesgaming]

Wow, right enough! I should keep a closer eye on the used market. One of my boards is used once then kept in its box since 2017. Gigabyte GA-X99-Designare EX. I had planned a white and blue build and it just didn't materialise for whatever reason... The other is a Rampage V Extreme (one holding the 5960X). Might be wise to cash in! Thanks for the info fellas!

[@vylbird8014]

There's a notable downside: Those old chips still offer decent performance, but they really demand a lot of power.

[@naamadossantossilva4736]

It's not one downside,it's two.Power=heat,so you gotta add the cost of the cooler too.

[@sihamhamda47]

The fact that 35W laptop CPU these days can surpass the performance of those old beast CPUs are showing how far the efficiency has improved

[@dunkie1332]

@@sihamhamda47 Yes my i5 9300h kicks that but im stuck with an old gtx 1650

[@TheRealWALLABI]

I have a Xeon E5-2690 V4 with (14c/28t) running at a max boost speed of 3.5 ghz with 24 gb of ddr4 in quad channel and it's a really decent platform despite its age! In Cyberpunk I can get a healthy 75-80 fps with Ultra settings and low RTX in 1440p with my RTX3070 Ti. The GPU is pretty much maxed out, hovering between 97 and 99% usage... So no cpu bottleneck there. I think it probably has similar performance compared to the E5-2683 V4 you tested, perhaps slightly better thanks to higher clock speeds, despite having 2 fewer cores. Great setup and I'm honestly thinking of upgrading the 3070 Ti to a 4070 Ti or a 4080. I'm pretty sure the games I play still wont be CPU-limited anyway (Cyberpunk, RDR2 etc).

[@Jorell1000]

I love this. I wish I went X99 back in 2014, but Alas, I'm on a i5 12600k now.

[@thomaswest2583]

i think for such a old cpu it performed good

[@uhohtannerly]

These old Xeons are still crazy power houses. I've recently started running a Xeon E5 2687w and it's been so far great. 8 cores, 16 threaded chip for not that much at all.

[@teh0theif]

I have an sli 1080s system running with an i7-6850k on an x99 deluxe mb 64gb of ram, and use it for some AI tasks, running 3d printers, laser engravers, and whatever else I need in my craft area.

[@Innosos]

Crazy how well Cyberpunk scales with cores.

[@IceBergs]

Dual E5-2690v4 user here. Have saved loads of money using them for my video/photo workflow. Haven't not used Xeons since early days of LGA 775 pin modding

[@alexferguson8893]

Great, thank you for letting me know about this, just ordered one, homelab upgrade for $16

[@keg6256]

Old xeons are the best choice for low budget gaming. Thanks for this video

[@qwepoi222]

Try the Xeon E5-2667 v4 (8C16T, 3.2Ghz, 3.6Boost). Biggest upside is +20% better single core performance. Noticeably snappier and performs better in games. Downside is -20% multicore, but only for tasks that can use that many cores to begin with. Price is similar, TDP is higher at 135W, but I've never seen it use more than 90W or so.

[@Jorell1000]

E5 2667 V4 only boosts to 3.3GHz on all cores. The E5 1660V4 hits 3.5 and is marginally the better choice. The single core turbo spec is pretty useless and I wish intel wouldn't even mention it.

[@zoomzabba452]

The price of well featured x99 motherboards is murder

[@julianfiacconi709]

Sad really. Checking ebay and most name brand boards are selling for more than new. I was fortunate to find an Asus A-II for $200 CDN a year ago, and now are asking sometimes 20% more a year later. Nonetheless, it is an amazing quad channel 64GB memory system when used for dl/machine learning tasks, paired with a Quadro RTX 5000. Started with the i7-6850k, but substituted with a Xeon E5-2680v4 (14c 28t).

[@hostile1ne]

I luv X99 boards.. They're so loaded from m.2 slots to wifi module slot, just literally customizing your build at ur hearts content, plus not to 4get d ecc rams that are so stable..

[@DarrenReidAu]

I built an older dual socket dell workstation with two E5-2680v4s (14 cores), and they are absolute work horses. DDR4 ECC is coming down nicely too and recently upgraded it to 256GB of memory. It’s not the most power efficient setup to act as a home server, but I can throw anything at it and it does well. And for the price, they really are still a great choice, and better than just becoming more e waste.

[@ferdianaditya281]

actually i got the xeon e5-2687w v4 paired with asus m ws x99, paired with 3060 12GB, and 20GB of ram ( i know it looks odd), but for 1080p gaming in high setting, i'm pretty glad for old xeon for enjoying some games ❤

[@Sonic6293]

It's crazy how this only outspits a modern i3(12100F), Intel's single thread performance has come a long way.

[@ARCAD3BLOOD]

16 cores 32 threads is some pretty neat server specs.

[@DemiDVD]

personally i think the peak of xeons was when intel didn't lock any of their chips and you could overclock any of them, but the slightly later ones are still quite appealing because of the raw core count and hyperthreading

[@RandomGaminginHD]

Yeah love an unlocked Xeon!

[@3D_foos]

just bought 2 of these for $16ea (shipped) to put in my Dell Precision T7810 i just picked up for $169 (shipped) and picked up 8x16gb of of 2166 ecc ($87 shipped). obviously not for gaming but hard to beat in price/performance for a home lab

[@peppercornsauce5067]

Incredible I'd be more than happy using this chip... Thanks for the video 👍

[@couriersix2443]

Not a bad showing from the old Xeon! I still think it’s a substantially better chip than any of the older Opterons from AMD for the sheer amount of cores you get & their superior IPC. Also surprised at how well it managed to push a 3060ti of all cards; I have mine OC’ed to around 2100mhz on the core and have it paired with a R5 5600 @ 4.8Ghz. Naturally it performs better in my case, but this older chip with a locked multiplier was getting decent utilization out of the same GPU (minus the OC)

[@raven4k998]

16 cores 32 threads for 16 dollars time to shit your pants🤣🤣🤣

[@solocamo3654]

Considering the clock speed differential the Xeon held up way better than I expected. Would love to see this compared to a 4790k or so.

[@ryno4ever433]

4790k was such a beast

[@ikannunaplays]

Many of the Intel CPU's on consumer boards being sold are Xeon's of old repackaged. Many Xeons can be plugged into i7 boards by putting tape on a check pin that tests if the cpu is in a server board or consumer board.

[@andybrooks7228]

I'm running a Xeon E3 1270 @ 3.60Ghz and so far have had zero complaints. Mostly using it for VR games and stuff.

[@nyff83]

could you maybe also do cinebench r23 benchmarks? would be easier to compare since many reviews use r23 nowadays

[@dbzdrag0n]

Yeah no clue why he would continue to use r20

[@msteven2]

Great video! I'm using a 1650 v3, which has the benifits of higher base and boost clocks but is still insanely cheap and can be paired with quad channel RAM in a cheap Ali Express board.

[@martin-1965]

Hey man, looking great in yourself :) Haven't checked in on the channel for ages and wow, looking so well. Pleased for ya 👍👍

[@3ofSpades]

If Xeon can still play modern games with DDR3 and lower end cpus, then it’s safe to say they aren’t going anywhere fast. I’m impressed. Good products should last a while, and Xeon has done that with flying colors.

[@ilpanettaio1702]

Have you ever thought of also trying emulation for these cpu? Rpcs3 is one of the most cpu intensive programs i know and it would really cool to see how it would manage it

[@Project-gr6zy]

I run rpcs3 with a 2699 V3, without the x99 full turbo mod it chugs on a lot of 3d titles like Dawn of the dragon Metal gear solid collection (peace walker works fine) Resistance 3 Sly 4 Mx vs atx untamed runs 60 most of the time After the turbo mod all of the games above work great except for resistance 3

[@sebulbableves]

@@Project-gr6zy How is the performance with MGS4?

[@Project-gr6zy]

@@sebulbableves I never ran 4 since I don't own it so I couldn't rip it from my ps3

[@andyknowles666]

I've just ordered parts for build because of this video! 18 Core E5 2695! 64gb DDR2400 quad channel memory 1tb SSD 600w PSU Cheap-o case just over £300!

[@julianfiacconi709]

2695v3 or v4 ?

[@adamgrant1787]

I have the XEON E5-2667 V4 3.2GHZ 8 core 16 thread CPU installed in my Lenovo ThinkStation P510 that I converted into a custom NAS paired with 128GB quad channel 2400MHz ECC RAM. I even installed a RX 6650 XT 8GB GPU I know it's overkill for a NAS but it's nice to have and it replaced the old tried and true RX 580 8GB. Just love the older Xeon's they are cheap for what your getting and the fact that Microsoft don't support this CPU for Windows 11 is a huge bonus also lol.

[@cinemaipswich4636]

I have just finished building a Truenas Server with this chip, with Supermicro M/B and 128 GB of ECC RAM. Super sweet, and lots of grunt. 10Gbe makes Davinci Resolve edit with no buffering or freeze frames.

[@sirBBBmlg]

I got an old z440 Workstation with a e5 1630v3 and paired it with a 980ti for less than 100 bucks that thing rips

[@kajurn791]

The problem with these is trying to get a motherboard for it. But besides that they're amazing for PS4 era games and only a handful of games like Starfield will give it trouble.

[@RandomGaminginHD]

Yeah there are some cheap boards around but it’s important to consider what modern equivalents are out there too after factoring in all costs

[@zat-svi-ua]

huanans to the rescue.

[@star5328]

and miyconst harware to tell you which ones are good and how to turbo unlock the v3s on them.@@zat-svi-ua

[@geertterharmsel]

44 euro on aliexpress

[@capsulate8642]

Cool to see someone using a unique setup like this for a render box. Any other tech youtuber, and it would be "Hey guys, today we're putting an i9 in my theater/bedroom/bathroom/garage PC because the 2yo hardware in it is too old and icky!"

[@LucasCunhaRocha]

and then people bitch that hardware prices are overinflated...

[@FredBloggs919]

Xeon E5 2690 v4 here with RTX 2070 Super and one stick of 32GB 2400 RAM and it runs Starfield flawlessly:)

[@RandomGaminginHD]

Very nice

[@Nxrth6666]

you would benefit greatly from using 2-4 sticks of ram. but as long as it works for your needs thats great

[@FredBloggs919]

@@Nxrth6666 yes, dual or quad channel would be better but I had 2 x 16GB 2133 ECC before and it was giving warning beeps on start up. On a Dell T7810. In one channel, both ram sticks were ok, so,put it down to the ram slot/motherboard. Had the option of getting a cheap 32GB 2400 stick so swapped over to single channel. Not certain, to be honest, but it’s stable now.

[@Nxrth6666]

@@FredBloggs919 surprisingly had encountered a lot of faulty ddr4 recently. and i would think ram sticks werent as fragile as cpus or mobos 😅. im currenly running a 32gb stick of some samsung green ram and a 2x16gb corsair kit i had laying around in dual channel mode cause apparenly half my ram has chosen to unalive themselves

[@shanepotter4635]

@@FredBloggs919 It could actually be the cpu if the memory controller is still in the cpu like they were with sandybridge xeons. I bought 2 on ebay years ago an one of the CPUs had a bad memory controller that blocked 2 rams sticks. I switched cpus around an the memory error followed the cpu.

[@dianaalyssa8726]

It's an interesting choice, nice to have options.

[@rangersmith4652]

I have an 18-core E5-2699 v3 inbound, just to play with. Supposed to be a clean pull. Paid $40 shipped. I'll put in a my Asus X99 Deluxe II in place of a perfectly good 6850K, which will be placed into the CPU archive. I'll run a period-correct R9-290 with it. Having an 18-core behemoth on my desk will be pretty cool.

[@datageek9132]

You got mentioned on Digital Foundry again.

[@ristopoho824]

I had an old xeon system before this one. Upgrading or rather sidegrading to this was due to gaming. Dual CPU system has no effect on games, but the quad channels on two chips was powerful, for things i never used it for. One of the xeons was somewhat equal in multi core in benchmarks to my current i7 12700K so it's not really an upgrade, there were two of those, so i practically cut my multicore in half, kinda somewhat whatever something. But single core? oh boy it was a huge boost. The system went to some university, to do something something molecules, maybe protein folding or maybe i misremember, didn't ask too much but i'm happy it went on to do something more appropriate. I sorta miss the huge heap of junk it was. But yea i should probably never have bought it in the first place. Was awesome to have that amount of power at my hands though, didn't have any use for it but i guess the i7 i have now is also over speck for watching youtube all day too...

[@ristopoho824]

Oh right i'm watching another video that mentioned compression and stuff. So yea. That the old gigachad tons of cores PC did real fast. Like Real Fast. The first time decompressing a 2 gigabyte file on this one was a shocker, it took more than a couple of seconds. Multiple minutes maybe or that's what it felt like. Other than that this one has been faster or comparable in pretty much everything.

[@RenatoG1848]

Whoever says they cannot game for cheap in this day and age is being untruthful.

[@sniperstyx]

Used to have an i7-5820K + GTX 970/1070 PC. Beast of a PC, even in 2020-2023. Now I have an i7-13700K + RTX 3070 PC.

[@DuneRunnerEnterprises]

Xeon powa!!! Still using one, first gen E5.

[@25myma]

I think you'd get a snappier platform with something like an 8-10 core with a heavier singlethreaded punch, like a 2689 v4. It's a bit hard to go for a V3/V4 xeon these days, since ram is the same and used R5/i5s sell for peanuts too...but the V2s....with $40 boards and $30 for 64gb of ecc ddr3 you can still build a decent pc for about $4-500, which is pretty impressive these days.

[@builder396]

This Xeon is going to absolutely rip in games like Cities Skylines. The game is ridiculously well multi-threaded and will choke out low core count CPUs as your city gets bigger...which makes it hard to get a read on how well it will perform with a given setup, because how much work the game needs to do varies by an order of magnitude, but if a server CPU isnt the one to tame even the largest cities then I dont know.

[@alpacafursona3128]

i went from an i7-920 to a Xeon x5650 and rode that CPU / mobo combo for nearly a decade .

[@MichaelWestcott]

That's actually a bit surprising, I'd have thought that the higher clocked 5820K would pull ahead in most games as 6 cores is usually enough.

[@echeese63]

My favorite AliExpress x99 board is the Machinist X99-K9, it's like 60 bucks, and has 4 mem channels, good VRM, and the pcie lanes are routed correctly, so no weird compatibility with the 5820k and 6800k

[@Moesuito]

I have a Xeon E5 1660 V3, it can be overclocked and have 8c/16t. I'm using a cheap chinese motherboard (Huananzhi X99-F8) and i'm using without HT, so i'm using at 8c/8t, because this motherboard doesn't supports so much power, without HT i can run at 4.5 GHz at 1.26v stable, with 3.5 GHz cache at 1.20v, in Cinebench R23 it runs at 180W, which is the maximum power this MB "supports", above this, VRMs temperatures go over 100c, below 180W those VRMs runs about 75c degrees. (It's only a 6-phase motherboard) With HT i can run at 4.3 GHz 1.16v without overclocking cache, at the same 180W limit, i run at 4.3 GHz to work daily, with Adobe Suite in Hackintosh and 4.5 GHz "mode" to run games in Windows, i need a more powerful mainboard to run 4.5 GHz 24/7 but they aren't cheap. 4.3 GHz Core/3.0 GHz Cache vs 4.5 GHz Core/3.5 GHz cache in gaming is a good difference, running Warzone at 140 FPS, CS2 above 300 FPS, Battlefield 4 above 300 FPS... It's a good processor, this CPU with a good motherboard can overclock RAMs too, this chinese motherboard doens't support overclocking RAM, then i'm running at 2133 MHz 13-14-14-23 with a cheap chinese DDR4 ECC RAM. This CPU at 4.5 GHz tuned with a good MB, plus cache overclocking (4.0 GHz) and good RAM (Quad Channel at 3000 MHz) can compete with Ryzen 7 5800X in games, KZbin has a video comparing this two CPUs. X99 are very powerful.

[@Moesuito]

I bought everything about 200$ (here in Brazil its about R$ 1.000,00), this CPU is about 20$, very cheap. My RAMs are 4x 16 GB DDR4 ECC that runs at @ 2133 MHz, 64 GB DDR4 Quad Channel below 80$ is cheap too.

[@s3xymasscot]

I remember subbing when you had 15k. Good work bro!

[@undertone2472]

Love rh Xeon content. I run one of those in my home server because ot was so darn cheap. I got it for $15. I run it on a cheap Chinese Machinist RS9 with cheap 64 GB ECC memory. Great cheap build.

[@piecaruso97]

well i a, daily driving a xeon 2699 v4 and it's a dream with lots of IDE instances, containers and vms at the same time, for back end development it's sure a nice chip to have

[@voltare2amstereo]

My fourth gen system was xeon powered. Ran for years. I7 power with low cost

[@Stryder_The_Nite_Owl]

I love videos like this. I collect and test Xeon CPUs from the v3 and v4 era because they're very fun to play around with. I have most of them. Have you considered the E5-2697a v4? It is also a 16-core v4 CPU, but it clocks as high as 3.6ghz, and will clock at 3.1ghz for all cores. At about $65 right now, it's a decent upgrade from the E5-2683 v4.

[@QuentinStephens]

Interesting video. You should really compare this with a Ryzen 5950 or 7950 for productivity work. Load both up with 64 GB or 128 GB RAM and compare the results and the comparative costs of the whole platform. Something else you might do is compare the results with a high-end GPU at 4k.

[@weltsiebenhundert]

From a comment here: A AMD R7 1800X 8/16 has same Performance if overclocked.

[@halitimes2]

Great video, really enjoyed. Any thoughts on newer "Scalable Xeons"? Like the 5122 or a 6138. Available for under 100 quid each but you do need a more expensive platform. Would be great to see some performance number on those. If of interest, I can send you a spare 5122 I have.

[@julianfiacconi709]

The socket 3647 and 4189 platform motherboards are selling on ebay for almost the same price as the newest Xeon W790 platform socket 4677. Yes some Xeon scalable processors on the lga3647 are affordable, most Xeon scalable cpu on the lga 4189 that are affordable seem to be ES or QS pre-production sample cpus, and may not work in many of the few motherboards available. It’s the motherboard prices that remain ridiculous, and even if you got a reasonably priced scalable Xeon, the price/performance ratio is so far behind he Xeon W790 platform, that there would be no point. The single socket Xeon W3200 and W3300 series are not far in price to the newest W3400 series Xeon’s. How do I know? Well, have been researching and compiling the data (prices) out there in used market for almost 3 weeks now, and for approximately 500-700 dollars you can build a Xeon W790 platform that would embarrass the best previous lga4189 platform without question.

[@markdiii]

Wow! This is great.

[@honahwikeepa2115]

Love these old Xeon's for robust bullet proof reliability. Bought a E5 1650 V3 for $17 Australian for my HP Z440.

[@curvingfyre6810]

A recommendation to all prospective buyers: if you're mostly doing normal gaming and desktop use cases, the xeon e5 16xx cpus will do you better for the same price. Still solid core counts, but clock speeds and core power closer to core-i processors. Probably the best option thag's worth the upgrade right now is the e5 1680 v4. Its 14 nanometer, 8/16 cores, and turbos higher than most x99 i7s, should absolutely fly.

[@someguywithmtndew5691]

1680 V4 is pointless. still expensive and better off getting a ryzen 5 3600/7 2700x

[@joewills7582]

I'd been watching you for a while and must realised you're the guy rich always talks about in the df podcast

[@pctechandgames]

Grabbed a 2670 for $4!!! Awesome videos.

[@dont99know]

I personally like the 2690V4. Higher clock plus boost is higher and 14 cores with all the cache makes it a top performer for me. 2683V4 does have slightly more cache, 2 extra cores but it doesn't matter much when comparing to the 2690V4. I do like this one too though. I'll bet the lows are worse due to the lower clock speed and lower boost vs 2.6ghz clock and 3.5ghz boost for the 2690V4. It's about 200 or so points better in single thread and 2000 or so in multi thread vs the 2683V4. 2011 budget mobo VRMs do get quite hot so I like to actively cool them with a small cheap fan. We're talking near 100c for many boards.

[@dustybadge167]

Nobody's gonna talk about the smoothest transition in the end of cyberpunk with him getting hit by a car?

[@StayMadNobodycares]

time to upgrade my server, even though I don't need to.

[@ThePike220]

always a relaxing watch on the bus

[@bryantallen703]

Yeah, the 10980XE 18c36t was selling for $700 once the R9 5950X was released. Though, i was able to secure a 16c32t i9 9960X with a 2nd Gen x299 Aorus Gaming 7 Pro for a cool $700 for the pair. Also, had 8x8GB dimms of B-die G Skill FLARE X 3200CL14 laying around and boom. Had me new (2nd editing) PC for a really good deal. With a Corsair Platinum 280X AIO and a great VRM, the i9 9960X was boosting to 5GHz on 8cores with the other 8 at 4.6GHz. I already have the z370 Aorus Gaming 7 so i figured why not get the pair. Also, the x299 Aorus Gaming 7 (Pro) 2nd Gen. version actually has the Gaming 9 beat in some features. Including VRM and cooling. So, why not. I couldn't believe the price. It also matches the R9 5950X, which surprised me.

[@julianfiacconi709]

Nice system, but matches it (presuming R9 5950x) in what though? All the benchmarks I see comparing the 5950x with the 10980xe demonstrate crushing the X299 platform within the HEDT market….and remember Ryzen isn’t even HEDT, the Threadripper, which is HEDT is, and it decimates Intel from that era. With no response from Intel until the release of the most recent Xeon W790 platform to compete with the latest Threadripper 79xx series. FYI, I have an i9-10980xe in an Asus X299 Prime Edition30 mb with 64GB DDR4 as a main rig, and love it. I’m not biased, just realistic. Cheers

[@SirGingerOfKnight]

1:10 "Welcome to Good RandomGaming Morning"

[@harrytsang1501]

Recently trying to build a big NAS and the Dell PowerEdge R730 came up with these chips, the duo CPU is basically free, $100 for the server case and motherboard, $100 for 128GB RAM, some hard drives and everything will be fully enterprise grade

[@peterpan408]

An academic project should be undertaken to optimize simulcrum (games) on many slower threads. Then maximum speed/complexity can be acheived by scaling the threads/cores.

[@floorgang420]

With old x99 you can get 256GB of RAM (4x64GB RDIMM) and run the game totally in Ramdisk, nice to see if there is any bottleneck lol.

[@RandomGaminginHD]

Haha that would be interesting