Question 1

How does Xeon compare to, say, an i7?  Please don't rant about how Xeon's are better in general.  I edit videos and my current i5 spikes to 100% and blazes through video in the course of hours and I'd love to build a computer that will cut that time in 1/2 or better.  So, when it comes to calculations per second, is it better to go with a Xeon that touts slower 2.0 GHz? Or should I stick with a super speedy i7 at 3.3GHz?  What is it about a Xeon that is supposed to be so much better?

Accepted Answer

It is not just your CPU. Think of where your bottlenecks are based on what you have now, and design the system to minimize bottlenecks. Usually that's your HDDs that are the slowest component.

My video/CAD/photoshop/stitching rig is dual Xeon E5, 128Gb RAM (256Gb soon), half of which is RAM drive, 2x PCI-e SSDs, 2x SAS RAID0 (4xSSD each) - that's the working space, and 2x RAID10 normal HDDs (storage). And a workstation videocard... 
results - video editing - realtime with proper software settings (swaps and temps on separate drives).

So don't think about CPU only, design the whole thing for the purpose.

Question 2

While rating this product, someone made the comment that this processor is not compatible with 1600 (mhz) ram. Is that true or can I use this processor with 1600 mhz ddr3?

Thanks!

Accepted Answer

The original E5-2620 was not compatible with 1600Mhz Ram. The E5-2620v2 is compatible with 1600Mhz DDR3 RAM. Since the picture on the website doesn't show v2 anywhere I would be careful. The memory compatibility is listed on the Intel Website.

Question 3

I am thinking of purchasing this CPU for a workstation that will process video, will this CPU be suitable for that type of work?

Accepted Answer

Glenn,

I use dual 2620s in a workstation that we use for processing large image sets (hundreds to >1000 images). These work well for this but it is also important to get a good graphics card to speed up and image/video processing. Check into what type of video processing software you'll be using and see what type of parallelization technology it uses. It will probably be OpenCL or CUDA. If CUDA then you'll need an nVidia card, if OpenCL you can use nVidia or ATI.

Question 4

would that work with the dell precision 7600 ?

Accepted Answer

Only if the Precision 7600 motherboard supports a sandy bridge processor.  Not all Dell Precision 7600

Question 5

does this chip support hyper threading?

Accepted Answer

Yes it does. One caveat on this board as well as others, is the mode of the PCI-express bus. If you find you can't get a windows server installation to complete, lower the version of the PCI mode to push it through.

Question 6

Are the cooling fans and heat sinks specific to the server manufacturer this goes in?  If so, I'm ordering up a DL160G8 server from you with a processor already in it and need this second processor for the VMs it will run.  Do you sell the cooling device for that model server?

Accepted Answer

Yes, rackmount servers usually have heatsinks specific to that model/series of server. It looks like the gen8 DL160 uses HP Part # 668515-001 for the heatsink. Doesn't look like newegg sells this part, but HP or another online retailer would. I would also recommend giving HP a call to verify that is the correct part number for your configuration, and to make sure no additional brackets/fans are needed for installation.

Questions & Answers