Question 1

is this a socket LGA 1150?

Accepted Answer

Yes it is

Question 2

What motherboard and case are you using with this?

Accepted Answer

SUPERMICRO MBD-X10SLH-F-O uATX Server Motherboard, ARK 4U-500-CA Black 4U Rackmount Case, Kingston Technology ValueRAM 32GB Kit of 4 (4 x 8 GB) DDR3 1600MHz PC3 12800 ECC CL11 DIMM with TS Server Workstation Memory KVR16E11K4/32. Running ESXi 5.5 for a home lab. Using separate physical  NexentaStor SAN build for VM storage over iSCSI. Booting ESXi from a USB stick. It's been running solid since I built the rig in June.

Question 3

does it come with a cooler?

Accepted Answer

Yes it does, and since you can't over clock a xeon it's the only cooler you will need.

Question 4

I've heard that this cpu is made for server tasks and not gaming, was wondering if I would better performance for gaming with this or an I5 4690k?

Accepted Answer

i5-4690k is clocked at 3.5 GHz, and E3-1231 is clocked at 3.4. Turbo boost to 3.9 GHz on the 4690k, and turbo boost to 3.8 GHz on the E3-1231. The two processors as they come are near equally matched in terms of speed. However, the 4690k is unlocked and capable of being overclocked for a fairly significant speed increase (not sure exactly how much). With pure clock speed in mind, an overclocked i5 is a superior chip.

That's not the whole story though. The E3-1231 is hyperthreaded, which means it has 8 logical cores- though only 4 physical ones like the i5. So for desktop performance/rendering/multithreaded applications the Xeon will be superior. It's my understanding that most games today still don't actually do multithreaded support well, so having 8 cores isn't as important as having a faster processor. Hopefully it will be in the future. Still, I have no problems running titles like Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare on max settings so it won't let you down.

Two more considerations: The E3-1231 draws slightly less power than the i5, if that's an issue for you. It also does not come with Intel integrated HD graphics, which shouldn't matter since you'll probably get a graphics card for gaming.

So, to make a very long answer a short one, if you plan on overclocking and only doing gaming on this machine then the i5 is probably the better choice. If you want a great all-around performer that's a much better chip for everything but gaming and no slouch there either, go with the Xeon. The price difference is negligible.

Do a search for "Xeon E3-1231v3 vs i5-4690k" and you'll find more information than you've ever wanted to know comparing these, too.

Question 5

is this xeon on the lga1150v3 (3 ""gen"")? also any heat issues when really giving the cpu something to bite on ?

Accepted Answer

The heat will depend on your case/cooler setup.  In my very small mini-itx case (Lian-Li PC-Q11), using the stock heatsink, my cpu hit 90C running hyper pi or prime95.  I switched to an aftermarket heat sink (Noctua NH-L12) and when running the same stress test I keep it under 70C now, which seems acceptable all things considering.

Question 6

Would this be better for a flight simulator than say an i5 or i7?

Accepted Answer

Unless you feel a need for ECC RAM, i5 or i7 would probably be a cheaper option for running a flight sim or games. I used this CPU to build an ESXi lab box. For gaming, I run a overclocked i5 chip in a different PC. Check how many cores your flight sim can utilize and see if it benefits from core multithreading. See if you can find benchmarks. If it likes cores and benefits from multithreading, buy a newer gen i7 like a 4970k and overclock it. Get a motherboard that supports overclocking. If the flight sim is more GPU bound in benchmarks, consider an i5 chip and dump more money into GPUs.

Question 7

How well would this be for gaming?? would it bottleneck a GTX 970?

Accepted Answer

It's pretty much a Core i7 4770 without the integrated GPU and will do great for gaming. Most games are GPU limited rather than CPU, so it shouldn't bottleneck your GTX 970. However, there are games that are exceptions though.

Question 8

Will this CPU be powerful enough to run digital Blu-ray movies through plex server without buffering because of transcoding?

Accepted Answer

Yes, I have had mine running multiple high bit-rate streams and the only bottleneck I have ever come across was due to network bandwidth.

Question 9

What would the difference be between this and the i5-4690K?

Accepted Answer

The E3 is hyperthreaded, so you'll see 8 threads instead of the 4 on the i5. There are also some server-oriented features on the E3 like a larger cache and ECC RAM support. It can't be overclocked (or at least, you won't get much of anything out of it if you try).
The i5 has an unlocked multiplier making it much easier to overclock.

The E3 might have more limited desktop motherboard compatibility, so check that before making a purchase.

Question 10

Is this compatible with the MSI z97 gaming 7 LGA 1150?

Accepted Answer

Certainly should be. Just keep in mind there is no video chip in the xeon line of cpus so the onboard video will NOT work on the motherboard. If you're doing a PCIe GPU, then you're good to go. Also, note that Xeons don't really overclock; if you want to overclock, go the i5/i7 route

Questions & Answers