Intel Xeon E3-1231V3 Haswell 3.4 GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1150 80W BX80646E31231V3 Server Processor

Pros: - Fast - Hyperthreading - Inexpensive compared to i7 - Lower TDP than i7 - Decent operating temperatures (~70C load with Noctua NH-L9i + AS-5 in mini-ITX case)

Cons: - No integrated GPU - Locked multiplier - Not supported by all desktop motherboards

Overall Review: The E3-1231v3 is essentially a i7-4770 without the integrated GPU at an i5 price. Definitely the best price/performance ratio if your motherboard supports Xeons (usually works even if not officially supported). Xeons are also supposedly binned for stability, which is great for a non-overclocking CPU.

Pros: 1. Runs cool (never went above 51°C) even with the stock Intel heat sink when gaming; however I used Arctic Silver 5 instead of the pre-applied thermal paste Intel uses, and I never did a Prime95 stress test. But I have heard of these things hitting 80°C (apparently 80°C is not harmful to the CPU) easily w/Intel stock heat sinks on Prime95. 2. Low wattage and lower heat output. It's meant to be on 24/7. Heck of a lot better than my 125W Phenom II X4 965BE. The Phenom never got over 65°C, but it needed a better heat sink and fan to even stay at that temperature because it outputted more heat. 2. The time it takes to compress/decompress a zip file using 7-Zip significantly decreased. It's insanely fast when using HT to compress or decompress zip files. I was able to compress 6GB of data into 1GB (your millage may very depending on the type of data) in under 3 minutes. My old AMD processor use to take anywhere from 15-20 minutes to do that. 3. Entry level i7 (aka Hyper Threading) performance for a bit more than i5 price, and because I will never get to overclock the Xeon E3-1231v3 I don't have to spend extra on high-end motherboards or cooling solutions. I'm running this on a budget H81 board and it's doing fine. 4. NO MORE GAME BOTTLENECKS! Well for the most part at least. All my games except Battlefield 4 runs smoothly with the processor, and the processor does not bottleneck the GPU even at 1440p resolutions with the settings cranked to maximum or near maximum.

Cons: 1. I'm not sure if it's just the server I play on or it's normal with BF4, but even with this cpu BF4 spikes constantly. The spikes cause micro-stutters at 1080p, but they are honestly negligible; however they still exist and if you really pay attention close enough you can notice the spikes causing minor fps dips. I still get ~60+fps average on 1080p with the Ultra preset. At 1440p the spikes becomes more noticeable, and I don't have a 4K monitor but I can only imagine what the spikes would look like with a 4K monitor. Still the Xeon E3-1231 is way better than what I had before, which was an AMD Phenom II X4 965BE (my spikes were atrocious with that thing unless I set a 45fps cap), and the processor runs every other game I have flawlessly, but so did the Phenom.

Overall Review: 1. You can't OC the CPU. If you wanna OC the cpu get an i5-4690k instead. I've read an OC i5-4690K @4.5+GHz will perform the same, if not better than the Xeon E3-1231 w/HT enabled on multi-threaded applications, but do know you will need to buy higher end motherboards and an aftermarket heat sink/cooler. I think i5-4690Ks OC to 4.5GHz rather well with aftermarket parts and a high end motherboard. 2. Honestly, HT does little to benefit gaming if that is all you care about. You'd be much better getting an i5 if all you care about is gaming. I use the Xeon for CPU video encoding and solid works in addition to gaming so I need all the benefits I can. 3. Lower single core performance than an i5-4690k by about 3%. Not noticeable in real-world performance but it's still there. If you can get the E3-1241v3 then you'll get slightly better single core performance compared to the i5-4690k. 4. It has no iGPU, but that is not a problem for me because I prefer having a dGPU, and I have two spare dGPUs around in the event my main dGPU fails.

Pros: -One of the best bargains out there. Picked this CPU up for $209 locally. As others have said its pretty much an i7 4770 without the iGPU, sign me up. -Plenty of power for all of my needs- gaming, photoshop etc. -Runs cool with stock cooler. Those who think it runs hot either did not properly install their cooler or apply their thermal grease (most likely, either too much or uneven) or got unlucky with their CPU (pretty unlikely). The stock cooler that comes with this xeon is actually better than normal i7's if you compare them. The blades are thicker, it moves more air and isn't quite as loud. Couple that with the fact that the iGPU is disabled and is clocked lower so it draws less power than a typical i7. My CPU idles at 32c and max temp under load/stress test is 58-62 depending on ambients with stock cooler. I received a hyper 212 evo cooler as a gift otherwise wouldnt have even needed one, but that brought my temps down another 5 degrees or so.

Cons: Nothing. Great bargain under the radar CPU, highly recommended over an i5 at similar pricing unless you are obsessed with overclocking.

Overall Review: -I have this CPU on an ASUS Z87 Pro motherboard. I was disappointed to learn after researching that some motherboard companies purposely took away a turbo boot feature (per intel's request) starting with non-K haswell CPUs that essentially controls your max turbo speed for all 4 cores. This is why some people are able to get a max speed of 3.8GHz on all 4 cores while others can only get 3.6GHz (myself included). I could probably find an older bios to load on and get around this but compatibility is a concern for Z87s and haswell so I am not going to bother, but this is something to be aware of, if you want the CPU's max speed of 3.8GHz, first do some research and pick a Z87 motherboard that for sure allows this. Also, make sure the motherboard's current bios revision supports this haswell as some older Z87 bios dont at all and in order to upgrade the bios you would either need a MB that supports USB flashing, or an older socket 1150 CPU to first connect with. The easier solution is to just buy a Z97 MB, but in going that route you likely wont find one that supports 3.8GHz turbo boost.

Pros: The CPU works great, it has the speeds of an i7 at a much cheaper cost.

Cons: Not Free, please fix

Pros: Fast, Cool, and does not use a lot of power to perform.

Cons: None.

Overall Review: I bought this local at a lower price. It performs very well. I am totally satisfied. Using this with a z87 Sabertooth that I purchased here before they sold out. I did not want the 4790k too much money or the 4690k I needed the hyperthreading for video work. This one came in at the right price and performance is not too far behind the 4790k. If you need a stable cpu and do not need to overclock, save yourself a few bucks and go with this one. You will not regret it. Highly Recommended.

Pros: 1. This is a great quadcore CPU with hyperthreading and a generous 8MB L3 cache. Very nice clockspeed for a locked processor too at 3.6GHz turbo with all cores loaded and 3.8GHz single core turbo. 2. In benchmarks this CPU has just a hair lower performance than an i7-4770. But I think it's a better value than the corresponding i7 if the lack of integrated graphics doesn't matter to you. 3. Games run incredibly on this CPU. If I turn off VSync this CPU keeps my GTX 970 pinned at 95%-100% GPU usage. It's a beautiful thing to have a CPU/GPU combo that allows me to run a locked 60FPS ultra on everything at 1080p. 4. My Xeon runs at a quite low voltage, even lower than what my Pentium G3258 ran at stock, and that was a sample that overclocked very well on the stock cooler. And with that my Xeon runs very cool on the stock cooler. The ambient temperature in my house is 75F, and this thing maxed out at 50 degrees C on a couple of cores (the other two were in the high 40s) in a long gaming session. When running Prime95 Small FFT it cracked 80C every once in a while, but mostly ran in the mid to high 70s. This is a lot more than I expected, as I have heard horror stories of Haswell quadcores (with AVX) getting up to 100C running Prime95 SmallFFT. Needless to say I'm very impressed by the temperatures on the stock cooler, and have no need to buy an aftermarket cooler. To me that's a huge plus to get i7 level performance on the stock cooler at very nice temperatures. Very budget friendly.

Cons: The only real con I could come up with is the lack of Intel QuickSync since this chip has no integrated graphics. So if you're someone who streams an i5 or an i7 will be a better choice for the Intel QuickSync video encoding.

Overall Review: I seem to have done very well in the silicon lottery with CPUs I have bought from newegg. My Pentium G3258 was capable of some pretty serious overclocks on the stock cooler, and now my Xeon E3 1231v3 seems to be a very good binned chip based on the temperatures and voltages it runs at. After running this chip through stress tests and gaming tests today after getting it, I think I got a great deal and can highly recommend this chip for gaming.

Pros: Perfect for gamer and renderer 80w

Cons: Doesn't overclock (trivial)

Overall Review: As a gamer I wouldn't use the intel HD4600 graphics on the i-series chips, and I don't really benefit from overclocking, so I decided not to pay for those things. This E3 works as hard as an i7 at 3.4GHz for less cash, about the same as an i5, and without the features I won't use anyway. And it's low TDP too? How perfect can it get? It runs on an H97 chipset mobo. Xeon E3 1231 v3 3.4GHz 16GB Corsair Vengeance RAM 1600 Gigabyte GA-H97N-WIFI MB 240GB PNY Optima SSD GIGABYTE GV-N970IXOC-4GD GPU Corsair CS450M 450W 80-PLus Gold PSU DIYPC HTPC-Cube Mini-ITX case

Pros: Cheaper than an i7 better than an i5 in multithreaded tasks works with most all 1150 socker motherboards.

Cons: It runs a little hot with the stock cooler, mine would thermal throttle and reduce its speed when stress testing with cpu burner. Used Furmark cpu burner and real temp along with cpu-z to stress test the cpu it will go over 80* c when stressing it like this.

Overall Review: I de-lided mine and got the temps way down with the same stock cooler now running 60* c after 30 mins of running cpu burner, using arctic mx-4 Thermal compound. So do not expect much from the stock cooler if you plan on doing cpu intensive tasks I would recomend investing in a different cooler.