I understand your point but I never over clock my CPU’s and even with my current pentium (especially since it’s unlocked and easily overclockable). Also when seeing a LinusTechTips video, he showed benchmarks where the xeon and i7 have the same score for games and other stuff. I’m also not going to use any ECC and Buffered memory because it’s slower than Unregistered and buffered ones.
If you do not OC your CPU and you will not use ECC/REG you could place a e3 1231v3 in your PC instead of a i7 4770(K)
Advantages would be having exactly the same CPU for less money, both would run on a 1150- mainboard. With the E3-1231v3 having same cores, same amount of lanes and same capabilities.
I’d wonder why a i5 4690K at the same speed wouldn’t be enough (for Gw2) and use the same mainboard and be OC-able
Or a i5 4690 at 235 euro, which would be the non OC version at same clock speeds still the same TDP/ lanes, except no multithreading for the i5’s.e3 1231 v3 , 4 core/8 threads 3.4Ghz, 3.8 turbo, no OC, allows eec/reg DRAM (80W)
@ ~305 euro
i7 4770, 4 core/8 threads. 3.4Ghz, 3.9 turbo, no OC (84W)
@ ~320 euro
i7 4470K , 4 core/8 threads. 3.5 Ghz 3.9 turbo OC-able (84W)
@ ~375 euro
i5 4690 , 4 core/4 threads. 3.5Ghz, 3.9 turbo non OC (84W)
@ ~235 euro
i5 4690K , 4 core/4 threads. 3.5Ghz, 3.9 turbo OC-able (84W)
@ ~260 euroAll socket 1150, all DDR 3, all 16 PCI lanes. the i5’s will lose 2 MB L3 cache. then again they have 6 MB for 4 threads vs 8 Mb for 8 threads so they have 1.5 times the amount / thread.
I’d however run the 4770k as I could clock the CPU to the turbo limit without real worries (3.9 Ghz) instead of the stock value with little or no risk and gain 15% speed at all times. This said, -if- you run a decent cooling solution you should be able to maintain the 3.8 or 3.9 on the other 2 as well Ghz without real problems, while not forcing the CPU to do so.
If you want to get above 3.9 …. well… tough luck with e3 or 4770, in that case 4770K would be a LOT easier. OC-ing isn’t that dangerous. Provided you can keep your ambient temps in tome and make sure you have decent cooling for your box.
The i7s are generally faster in multitask environments due to the fact the cpu is better used due to the 2 threads/ CPUcore, But you will need to do stuff above 4 threads to notice anything, and have the ram to make sure everything stays smooth.
But in all cases if you need an i7 for work/ applications multitasking make sure you get one. The i5 is more for -PURE- gaming IMHO.Oh and I noticed the E3 being a server CPU uses 4 watt less power so your CPU will use 4% less energy compared to the other CPU’s, but the GPU, peripherals and mainboard will make the difference very small in the end.
Any OC-ing will raise the TDP and will reduce the efficiency of the CPU. (Only valid for the K’s)
In the end I guess there is nothing bad about choosing a server CPU and the 4770 was a very good CPU. PLS Post if you had succes. Check if your BIOS if your BIOS version supports the 4770K and the e3 1231 (which should be the case I guess, unless it’s a really, really old MoBo)
The reason I went with the xeon and not an i5 or i7 is because 4 cores/8 threads will become a standard for gaming and such while 4 core/4 threads are still really good but they are starting to lack behind. Especially with the AMD RayZen cpu’s around the corner with the least expensive one being a 4 cores/ 8 SMT. Also the prices are different from where I live. The i5 4690k is 319.75 (for the i5- 4690 the price is 295.25 so about 30$ less than the xeon) vs the xeon e3 1231v3 being 334.99$ more for 8 threads. Meanwhile, the i7 4770 is (non-K) is 432.41$ and for the lowest i7 I can see is the i7 4790 for 400$. I know it’s safe to overclock and all, but I’ve just never done it and don’t like the idea to to increases the electricity bill and shorten the lifespan of my components and also I’m mostly not gonna take advantage of the extra speed so I’d have to turn off in BIOS then putting it back in, etc. Also as you mentioned it does indeed use 4W less, but that’s because it has no iGPU in it. And yes I have checked the mobo, it does support the xeon I’m about to buy. So for my case, I believe, the best balance between performance and cost would be to go with the xeon.
But again, you’re right about OC, but it’s simply not gonna happen lol. Even my GPU comes with a software that allows me to just push a button on the screen to overclock it but I’m not doing it. It’s not a fear or anything, it’s just that it’s not an option to me. I don’t want to overclock anything. I prefer to keep everything stock.
P.S. if you wanna check out yourself (if you’re using pcpartpicker) I am Canadian and using CAD currency.
Thanks for the info though.