Just wanted to update my Xeon posts from a number of months ago. After a false start will the incredible garbage of an ASRock motherboard (as I found to my dismay, the 1155 CPU Socket is Foxconn'e bottom quality type. After a month of use it seems the weight of a XIGMATEK Gaia SD1283 bent the pins, ...

Trados- I applaud your use of the Xeon. I'm running the 1240V2 (I really prefer a discrete graphic solution) and I absolutely love it. In your case however I don't understand why you would go for a server Board. As nothing that you listed seems mission critical I certainly don't see the need for ECC...

Sorry! Forgot about that requirement. Looks like you are stuck with the Asus board as that is the only one (as I guess you already knew) that has IDE in a Micro form. Personally I'd make sure that device had an unfortunate accident.

Dommage, n'est-ce pas?

Specifically ASRock uses the ASMedia ASM1083 bridge chip to implement PCI on the Z77. But to point, JJ didn't think that Legacy PCI and IDE exists on Z77 motherboards. Just wanted to inform him that it does.

If you are really set on the Z77 board, the ASRock Z77 Professional LGA 1155 seems to fit your needs. It has both PATA support as well as 2 PCI slots. Good thing is also that it takes socket 775 coolers (if you happen to have one).

Without a doubt one can find a card that may be lower power. The reason that I used the 6450 as an example was that it is the graphics card that I use and, all in all (for a non-gamer like me), it has all the performance I want, has newer technology than the majority of fanless cards of similar powe...

That would be absolutely true; however remember that currently there are only 3 flavors of Ivy Xeons with the 4000 graphics: the 1225V2, 1245V2 and the 1275V2- although the 1225 runs at a 100MHz clock lower than the 1220 (3.1GHz vs 3.2GHz base, 3.5 vs 3.6 Turbo), the 1245 and the 1275 has the same c...

A CPU with graphics will almost always use less watts than a CPU plus discrete video card, but to what extent will be up to your choice of cards. The Xeon 12X5's will take about 8 watts more than the Xeon 12X0's, but even the most innocuous non-gaming graphics card, the Radeon 6450 (fanless, of cour...

Finally was able to get a e3-1270V2 and run a few tests on it. No surprises, it was almost identical in testing to a non-overclocked i7-3770. So now we have the full family of Xeons (except for the 1280 which is quite expensive) to have a little performance/cost comparison: With the E3-1230v2 as the...

Pity that the new V2's weren't available for you. Although I much prefer a CPU without integrated graphics, a Xeon very similar to what you needed is the E3-1245v2. This has HT, HD 4000 & Vt-d; it does run at a Frequency of 3400 MHz, Turbo frequency 3800 MHz vs the I7's 3500/3900. That extra 100MHz ...

Superbiiz has MX-4 on sale today for $6.40 (4 gram tube) and free shipping with code POCKY7504. The sale is good on 5/20-21. About a 33% savings over the Egg.

http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=FAN-MX4

I'm not surprised about the Sandy-Ivy difference. It's getting to be well established that a decrease in process architecture is inversely proportional to temps.

Sorry about that! I actually held back on purpose as I'm certain that my smearing on of the thermal paste varied from one CPU to the next. But with that in mind: I won't give the absolute numbers as that would vary with the heatsink and fan used. The results: The 2600K ran coolest at rest and at loa...

Finally got my hands on the 1230v2 and would like to present a few findings. Please note 2 things: 1). I am in NO WAY a professional tester. 2). Those that should be interested in the Xeon as a desktop CPU are non-gamers, non-overclockers. For the test I used the same computer based on an ASRock Z77...

Finally priced, alas at a premium at ~245USD. Surprised that version 1 hasn't moved down at launch.

Looks like Intel will release the V2 Xeons to the rest of the world on May14th. Preorder price has also been tweaked lower, so am hoping for a retail on the 1230 to be about 230USD. Energy requirements do far seem to be coming in as 45w at idle (3.3), 105w at full turbo (3.7). Update- Passmark final...

Now available (OEM only) in Singapore also. Bulk in USD is $215, so final retail when it gets to the USA should be ~$250. And just something that may be of interest to the SPC crowd, the new Xeon E3-1220L: Cores:2 Threads:4 Frequency: 2.3 GHz Turbo Freq.: 3.5 GHz L3 Cache: 3 MB TDP: 17 Watt Yes, 17 ...

Intel did a limited rollout of the V2's in HK prior to the general release this month. And I guess I wasn't clear on the BIOS comment. Only the desktop board BIOS's need the tweak. If a board already accepts a Xeon first generation it will also accept the V2 version without issue.

DVD- only one mini-ITX board is in production currently, the Intel DBS1200KP Mini ITX based on the C206 chipset (1155 slot). Specifications here: http://ark.intel.com/products/60637/Intel-Server-Board-S1200KP And Faug- Many desktop boards happily accept a Xeon. It's really just a matter of the BIOS ...

Guys- I think you're missing the original point. If any feel the need for a server, by all means build a server. But most here do not want/need ECC and other server bells and whistles for a home machine. The point I originally wanted to make was that there is another cheaper alternative to an I7 CPU...

There are a number of advantages to running a Xeon on a non-server board. My goal in building a computer is getting a computer powerful enough for my needs while also keeping both heat and costs low. There is sufficient data comparing the original Xeon to the I7 showing that the Xeon is non-inferior...

I don't know how popular these are you you folk, but for non-gamers the Xeon Family of sever chips are worth consideration. Although my favorite the E3-1230 is currently available, Intel will be releasing (this week) an Ivy version of it, dubbed E3-1230 V2. It is a 22nm part running at 3.3 Core, 3.7...

I would really hold off on buying the 2500K. Intel's Ivy line will be coming out (as was intimated above) in about a week and the prices are not bad at all. See: http://vr-zone.com/articles/intel-cuts-desktop-ivy-bridge-cpu-pricing-ahead-of-launch/15557.html But for your specific needs, you should r...

May be better very soon. Intel is releasing the 330 series SSD's in about 10 days. Pre-release pricing is at $149 for a 128gb drive. It is based on the 25nm NAND flash memory process with SATA 6Gb/s interface support to deliver read speeds of 500 MB/s and write speeds of 450 MB/s. Current Intel driv...

The reviews seem quite positive, but so far only for the 512gb drive. As the 128 and 256gb varieties will almost certainly not perform as well I'll bet that the M4 will outclass Octane.

My point was not so much that one should avoid running a drive at low temps, but in keeping with the Philosophy of this website that one should not in any way feel obliged to run a fan specifically to cool the hard drive(s). The data charts plainly showed that those drives with the highest failures ...

Actually the data was far from limited as I really can't recall ever seeing a HD failure analysis so extensive (over 100,000 drives were in the study). But perhaps I should have phrased the statement better- I was utilizing the fan in the attempt to keep the drives as close to room temperature as po...

Hi Doveman- You bring up interesting points. First off, as I use an older Antec case with plenty of floor space I've laid down 2 packs, placed the HD top side up on top of them. I'm really not concerned about the filter (vent) hole as this exists not to cool the drive in any way but is for the equil...

Hi Guys- A number of years since I last posted and am thrilled that some here are still using Coolpaks to reduce HD noise, Vibration, etc. I've been employing them since I originally posted the idea back in mid-2004, and can assure all that there still really hasn't been any downside to the techniqu...

Please check out the Coolmax CR-450B at newegg. At $50 it is a great buy and very quiet. Also if you ever do heavy gaming there is a switch to increase the fan speed.