This is Xeon CPU from 2007, literally a decade old CPU.
When this processor released it retailed for a hefty $1245 and was meant for servers, workstations
or other heavy work application and yet...
you can find them online on 2018 for less than 20 dollars.
So.
Should you?
Is this possible?
If this even worth it?
Some time ago I released my first two trashtops videos on which I started building my attempt
at a gaming PC using mainly components that a very dedicated fan had salvaged from trash
and donated to the channel.
At the end of the second video I released, which I highly suggest you watch before this
one, I had an 8 Gingerbytes DDR2, GTX 570 pc with a Core 2 Quad CPU.
While that PC did fantastic on a lot of modern games the CPU was very obvious it's weakest point
which caused the entire comment section to erupt in questions regarding using a Xeon
So let's explain something, in its original state this CPU uses the server-oriented 771
socket, which is different from the 775 on common consumer motherboards from the time.
Because of this, there is a fairly active community and marketplace for modding these
chips so they work on regular 775 sockets and that is when I move to the next part of
this story.
CHINA
Because by using the power of the internet I discovered that you can get these chips,
pre-modded for 775 sockets for less than 15 euros.
WHAT?
There is like a ton of listings for these too!
I have tried to do some research about this and the best explanation I have is that there
is an entire market in China for salvaging CPUs from decommissioned servers or workstations,
then modifying the CPUs for consumer equipment and selling them online.
Heck, from what I have read every time a big company decommissions or upgrades a CPU farm
the price of a certain generation of Xeons drop.
So, back at this little guy that I bought straight from Ali express.
This is a Xeon E5460.
A 3.16 georgeheartz quadcore CPU that is already premoded with a couple of extra holes and
2 inverted pins for 775 sockets.
Before we can pop this in our GA-P35-DS4 motherboard, one final modification is required.
You see Xeons have a bit of a different microcode (that is the firmware of the CPU) than 775 CPUs so a bit of modification is
required to ensure system compatibility.
I will leave the link to the guide I followed in the description, but essentially since
this motherboard uses the award bios
it was a matter of downloading the latest driver, released in 2009, downloading the
775 and 771 microcode and modifying it over the command prompt using a tool called cbrom195.exe.
Once again, all of this is explained in detail in the link in the description.
Then I had to install the bios using a tool called @Bios because the tool included with
the bios is not compatible with 64-bit windows
and the motherboard itself is so old that it can only be updated directly from a floppy
disk.
Which is something I will kindly remind everyone that comments about how this is not obsolete
or old hardware.
Finally, this whole thing has a TDP or Thermal Design Point of 120W... quite a bit over
our core 2 quad
and it has a substantially lower operational temperature so
I hunted local used PC parts for the cooler master TX3 which cost about 8 euros.
Since the previous CPU was about 13 euros the cooler was virtually the only added expense,
making the current referential price around 170 Euros.
But what do actually get in terms of gaming?
Games like Counter-Strike global offensive which people keep asking over and over for some reason are
just crushed with no problems.
Now, using the Intel Core 2 Quad I was able to play Overwatch at around 45 fps but our
Xeon goes above and beyond delivering over 60 fps through a standard match.
This... might become one my new Overwatch PCs.
From here on I wanted to try games that had too high CPU requirements for the intel core
2 quad... like Player Unknown's Battleground.
This game's rise in popularity and infamy as an unoptimized benchmark makes it the perfect
place to start.
But after the lag that always seems to happen on the first jump the game, running on full
1080 and lowest settings, seem to settle for around 40 FPS with both the CPU and GPU working
very hard.
I have seen PCs with twice the budget doing more or less the same so this is really, really
good.
Heck, I decide to play an entire match just to make sure there were no further performance
problems... and ended up playing the best match I have managed to do so far.
While I am not much into Destiny 2, it proves to be another interesting test.
The game can be made to work on low-end GPUs but usually requires a modern CPU to work...
but the Xeon does just fine.
I will be using the small tweaks from my Destiny 2 video but at full 720 resolution the
game performs almost perfectly.
If you push to some of the most intense sections you see it drop occasionally but recover quickly
and in general maintain its playable state.
But can it run Crysis? (I am getting tired of making that joke)
Yes.
Yes, it can.
And very well it seems.
This is Crysis 3 on lowest settings but full 1080 and it is pulling more than 60 fps in
most instances and keeping high fps all around.
Very impressive so far.
Finally the great and mighty Witcher 3 in 1080.
This game hit a very hard CPU bottleneck on the Intel 2 Quad and would stutter constantly,
but on the Xeon, it does fine, and the game stays close to 30 fps.
Funnily enough, Witcher 3 is another interesting way to measure GPU performance if you can
meet the minimum CPU requirements and at 1080 this is really good performance.
Just cutting resolution to 720p can already take a long way towards a better experience.
And of course, I did run the GTA V benchmarks on lowest settings to see how far we had gone
and in general, the Xeon crushed it, just having more difficulty on the driving section
at the end but in general doing really, really well.
However, not all is perfect and there are definitive limits to this technique.
The infamous Star Wars Battlefront 2 is a good example.
This version of the frostbite engine tends to have very strong CPU requirements and on
the trashtop Xeon, it was a bit of a stuttery mess with full CPU usage. Not really playable.
This motherboard has overclocking capabilities so there is the possibility we can get more
in that front.
Problem is the CPU has a very conservative temperature limit that we are already hitting
with our current cooler solution so, I am going to need something significantly better.
So I guess I will leave it at that.
What cooler should I use?
Let me know in a comment.
or you can enjoy this as a written article in the modmy website
And thank you if you are on the super cool Patreon people.
For more infomation >> Sally.Exe: CN (Exe Line 3) - Duration: 1:42. 
For more infomation >> THE CURSE OF THE BUTTERFLY | CRAZY TOWN INTERVIEW - Duration: 5:22. 
For more infomation >> Music & The Spoken Word - Live Stream January 28, 2018 - Duration: 1:29:14. 
For more infomation >> Get Your Clone To Go To Work For You! - Duration: 1:47. 
For more infomation >> Cotopaxi - Allpa 35L Adventure Travel Package - Duration: 6:00. 
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét