I don't see much point in the Xeons for my purposes. Of course eight cores would be a nice, small benefit over six, but I'm aiming for close to 4.5GHz O/C on the replacement 22mm Extreme whenever that is. Too many processes of apps are single-threaded and also CPU bound to accept a slow CPU frequency.
Ivy Bridge details
- Thread starter Chewy509
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ddrueding
Fixture
It's just that it doesn't get you much that you can't already get with a normal i7. If you want the main thing that you can't get with an i7 (8 real cores), you still get squeezed for a workstation class board.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
I stuck an E3-1225 on a DH67BL this morning and it works just fine. Which means I have board + CPU for about what a baby i7 CPU normally costs. I fail to see how this is anything but a good thing.
time
Storage? I am Storage!
The E3-1225 is just an i5-2400 by another name, only more expensive. It's a 4-thread CPU, definitely not an i7.
The only differences are an extra PCIe port (does this translate into more lanes?) and perversely, it comes with HD3000 graphic instead of HD2000 at a 23% higher max frequency. WTF?
And of course, it supports ECC - but NOT on the desktop boards like the DH67BL. That's the main reason for workstation-class boards, which some people tend to overlook.
The only differences are an extra PCIe port (does this translate into more lanes?) and perversely, it comes with HD3000 graphic instead of HD2000 at a 23% higher max frequency. WTF?
And of course, it supports ECC - but NOT on the desktop boards like the DH67BL. That's the main reason for workstation-class boards, which some people tend to overlook.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
I purchased the e3-1225 for the relatively high per-core clock speed (gaming system) anyway. It does still support the e3-1260, which is cost-equivalent the baby i7 I was referring to. I had my doubts that it was going to work with a consumer board and consumer RAM, but lo-and-behold it did.
time
Storage? I am Storage!
The e3-1260L is an undervolted, underclocked CPU that has 30% less performance than the "baby" i7-2600, yet costs about the same. If your application needs a low power CPU with 8 not very fast threads, you've found it. 
You're looking for an arbitrage opportunity in Intel's pricing - good luck with that!
You're looking for an arbitrage opportunity in Intel's pricing - good luck with that!
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
I'll have an opportunity to test the e3-1260 and the e3-1225 over the next couple weeks since I'll have one of each sitting around. Of course, my predominant interest is video encoding, so that's what I'll test. I might keep the e3-1260 as a replacement for an older i7-920 I'm still using.