With Skylake Out, It's Becoming Easier To Build A Cheap Haswell Xeon Linux System

[Kano]

Well, something else why it is no good idea to use a legacy gfx card in a new box: you can not disable CSM, you need it to init the gfx card. New cards support UEFI GOP mode, but interestingly i could only disable CSM with onboard - it was disabled with a gfx card added later, but impossible to disable with a PCI-E card connected. If you want to optimize the bootup CSM is a time killer.

[linuxcbon]

Some remarks :
- power supply : Corsair CX430 is very good, but the modular version is better (Corsair CX430M for $50), so you avoid having so many cables hanging.
- DDR3 2x8GB 1600MHz : usually they are at 90$ so it was a bargain.
- processor for DDR3 at $280 : Intel Xeon Processor E3-1241v3B is faster
- motherboard for LGA1150 : Gigabyte GA-H81M-S1 ($50) = excellent
- SSD : could choose if need more GB : Kingston HyperX Savage 2"5 240GB for $100

[Kano]

Well the H81 is a bad idea if you want to add a gfx card later. I would not say to buy DDR3 is a bargain as you can not use it on future boxes - for Skylake you find some legacy boards however with DDR3 if you want to REUSE it, would definitely not buy it NEW. H81 is limited to PCI-E 2.0 speed just like old Sandy Bridge. H61 with Ivy Bridge had PCI-E 3.0 but has only slow SATA II ports. This config is everything but not smart.

[Michael]

Well the H81 is a bad idea if you want to add a gfx card later. I would not say to buy DDR3 is a bargain as you can not use it on future boxes - for Skylake you find some legacy boards however with DDR3 if you want to REUSE it, would definitely not buy it NEW. H81 is limited to PCI-E 2.0 speed just like old Sandy Bridge. H61 with Ivy Bridge had PCI-E 3.0 but has only slow SATA II ports. This config is everything but not smart.

This system's hardware should never change in case a component dies since it's for LinuxBenchmarking.com where maintaining the same configuration for years.

[Michael]

Some remarks :
- power supply : Corsair CX430 is very good, but the modular version is better (Corsair CX430M for $50), so you avoid having so many cables hanging.
- DDR3 2x8GB 1600MHz : usually they are at 90$ so it was a bargain.
- processor for DDR3 at $280 : Intel Xeon Processor E3-1241v3B is faster
- motherboard for LGA1150 : Gigabyte GA-H81M-S1 ($50) = excellent
- SSD : could choose if need more GB : Kingston HyperX Savage 2"5 240GB for $100

For the few remarks, valid, yes, but unnecessary for this system when trying to save money but have a functional system so items like a module PSU are just luxury. And 120GB is more than sufficient for storage as well on these particular benchmark systems.

[Kano]

I really don't know what you want to benchmark with it all the time. Just the Intel onboard Haswell gfx? For gfx cards it is the wrong board with PCI-E 2.0.

[pal666]

this benchmark lacks fx 8350 for proper 8core comparison

[carewolf]

Because to get a similarly clocked CPU that's 4+HT, it would cost like $100+ USD more to get a Core i7 model, since I don't care about the integrated graphics in this case.

Xeons are more expensive. There are a few cheap ones but those are the ones without HT, and at sub-2GHz. They are just there to make base prices look attractive, before you realize you have to get the €1000 model if you want one that doesn't SUCK!

For fun try comparing 6 core i7 with 6 core xeon.. Yuck.

[linuxcbon]

For the few remarks, valid, yes, but unnecessary for this system when trying to save money but have a functional system so items like a module PSU are just luxury. And 120GB is more than sufficient for storage as well on these particular benchmark systems.

modular CX430M is at the same price as non modular CX430 .

[linuxcbon]

Is there any logic behind using a Xeon CPU on a desktop board? The Xeon branded CPUs are only needed for ECC support - maybe you get some i7 variants with lower speed a tiny bit cheaper but i would never buy that for this purpose, that's crazy.

That's not the point : he chose that Xeon because it is fast and cheap and for DDR3 and he needed it for his testing. That doesn't mean he won't be testing i7. Out of topic.