4 ms·

Market segmentation. Core i{5,7} with ECC support is sold as Xeon E3.

by lmz 11y ago

miahi 11y ago
For a while some of the Xeon E3s were the thing to buy, as they were sold at lower prices than the equivalent i7 CPUs (Xeons with 4 cores+HT and lots of cache were sold at the same price as the quad or dual+HT i5s), but this was "fixed" and now the cheap Xeons are crippled (no HT anymore).
caycep 11y ago
What about motherboard support? I can't usually find any motherboard with ECC support that also has decent onboard sound...
- hga 11y ago
  Don't know about the quality of the support†, or what "decent" onboard sound is, but Supermicro sells a bunch of boards that support 1 or 2 Xeons (and generally also support consumer chips), ECC and have onboard sound. E.g. for the low, low price of $289 this board http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182967 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182... will support two processors, up to a half terabyte of memory, and has a Realtek ALC888 for 7.1 channels of sound. †I'm using a one processor chip X9SAE to type this with, with HDMI output with sound included to my receiver and then monitor.
- lmz 11y ago
  ECC support + decent onboard sound seems like a niche feature combination (at least in the Intel world where ECC support means buying a Xeon and a compatible server/workstation motherboard). Some AMD consumer boards do support ECC if you want to go down that route (e.g. http://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/M5A97_PLUS/specifications/ http://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/M5A97_PLUS/specification... ).
- soylentcola 11y ago
  Not sure of your particular usage case but wouldn't it be just as easy to pick up a cheap (or decent) sound card that would meet or beat anything onboard could do? I personally tend to stick with onboard because it does what I need (sound for music and movies) and I use external sound interfaces when I want to mess with anything requiring more sound performance/options (like recording or making my pitiful attempts at producing music).

Market segmentation. Core i{5,7} with ECC support is sold as Xeon E3.

by lmz 11y ago

Market segmentation. Core i{5,7} with ECC support is sold as Xeon E3.

miahi 11y ago

For a while some of the Xeon E3s were the thing to buy, as they were sold at lower prices than the equivalent i7 CPUs (Xeons with 4 cores+HT and lots of cache were sold at the same price as the quad or dual+HT i5s), but this was "fixed" and now the cheap Xeons are crippled (no HT anymore).

caycep 11y ago

What about motherboard support? I can't usually find any motherboard with ECC support that also has decent onboard sound...

hga 11y ago
Don't know about the quality of the support†, or what "decent" onboard sound is, but Supermicro sells a bunch of boards that support 1 or 2 Xeons (and generally also support consumer chips), ECC and have onboard sound. E.g. for the low, low price of $289 this board http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182967 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182... will support two processors, up to a half terabyte of memory, and has a Realtek ALC888 for 7.1 channels of sound. †I'm using a one processor chip X9SAE to type this with, with HDMI output with sound included to my receiver and then monitor.
lmz 11y ago
ECC support + decent onboard sound seems like a niche feature combination (at least in the Intel world where ECC support means buying a Xeon and a compatible server/workstation motherboard). Some AMD consumer boards do support ECC if you want to go down that route (e.g. http://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/M5A97_PLUS/specifications/ http://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/M5A97_PLUS/specification... ).
soylentcola 11y ago
Not sure of your particular usage case but wouldn't it be just as easy to pick up a cheap (or decent) sound card that would meet or beat anything onboard could do? I personally tend to stick with onboard because it does what I need (sound for music and movies) and I use external sound interfaces when I want to mess with anything requiring more sound performance/options (like recording or making my pitiful attempts at producing music).