Server Processor Vs. Desktop Processor

[henrythomas]

Hi everyone,

I want to build a new system, and I was wondering just what the differences between a sever processor and a desktop processor are.

Would I see gaming performance decrease by using a Quad Server Core or a Quad Desktop Core?

I wanted to build a dual socket server core and have 8 physical cores.

Thoughts?

[theycallmeebryan]

For gaming, its a waste of money honestly. Even the highest graphics cards out right now will still be the bottleneck of the system with a Core i7 processor. Just go with a Core i7 or i5 and spend the rest of the money on a good graphics card, or two to run in crossfire or sli.

[almightybmw]

Do some reading on the new i7 and i5 chips. They have a "turbo" mode that overclocks the chip with need.

Only browsing the web? That only takes one core, not all four. So it "disables" the other 3 cores and overclocks the one. Playing a new game? Farcry 2 will make use of 2 cores, so it "enables" one more core and downclocks the i5 chip. Is it still just as fast? Yes. The second core gives a performance increase for things that need it that just plan megahertz can't.

Go read anandtech.com 's review on it. It's an amazing chip that Intel created.
AnandTech: The Intel Core i7 860 Review

Even if you gloss over the tech details, at least take note of the benchmarks and the price points. The only thing the i5 lacks is the hyperthreading, but it's not really necessary for the majority of things people use.

[theycallmeebryan]

Yup, my i7 920 kicks butt.

Stock, it runs at 2.66ghz. I have it overclocked to 3.8ghz full tilt, and it hits 4.0ghz in turbo mode. When I am idling on the desktop or just browsing the net, it declocks the cpu down to less than 2.0ghz with a low multiplier so that it draws minimal power.

[silicon_toad2000]

I doubt there'd be much gaming stuff out there written to take full advantage of 8 cores.

Server vs Desktop CPU's - PCSTATS Forum

another thread on the same thing.

If you want fast, then spend your money on a fast motherboard, fast normal desktop chip, watercooling, couple of raptor harddrives and a raid pci-x card for your raptors and stripe them. Then overclock the lot.
The biggest bottleneck in most systems is getting data from one place to another inside the system.

[theycallmeebryan]

Originally Posted by silicon_toad2000

The biggest bottleneck in most systems is getting data from one place to another inside the system.

That is definitely true. Its one thing most people in the market for PC parts don't realize. Many people are more concerned with how much data they can put on the drives.

Heck, one of my SATA Seagate 500GB drives w/ 32mb cache transfers info at only 20mb/sec. There are solid state drives on the market that transfer data at 250mb/sec! But its not just the data transfers, its the faster latency times that do the trick.

[NiHaoMike]

How about go for an alternative architecture that is more efficient? The Beagleboard with TI's OMAP is useful as a general purpose desktop or media center and only uses 2w. TI also has a DaVinci that can encode 1080p x264 in realtime.

[dcb]

That beagleboard is pretty cool (and pretty eco as far as computers go)
BeagleBoard.org - default

[roflwaffle]

It's a shame it costs so much, especially w/ all the add-ons for desktop use. One of the low cost small form factor systems could be had for ~$100 easy, w/ more ram, more permanent storage, no adapters needed, and it would only consume about 20W more, but at least I can wait for them to drop in price or find one used later.

[Clev]

Originally Posted by roflwaffle

It's a shame it costs so much, especially w/ all the add-ons for desktop use. One of the low cost small form factor systems could be had for ~$100 easy, w/ more ram, more permanent storage, no adapters needed, and it would only consume about 20W more, but at least I can wait for them to drop in price or find one used later.

My home server is a 1.7GHz Dell C640 laptop that draws 13 watts when idle.