I have a 5,1 which currently has the x5650 stock configuration. This machine is my general desktop, plex server, what little photo editing I do, as well as, some Xcode work. I do not use photoshop (not that creative), but will be doing some iMovie. I have an SSD boot, a R9-280X video card, and a USB3.0 card. I am looking to do the CPU's next, because they are next on the hit parade of things I want to do with this machine. I also have a second 5,1 with the same CPU configuration that I am currently leaving stock (which is the family iTunes server, my wife's photo backup, and a place for me to stash hard drives for storage). Anyway, what I am looking at is adding some pep to my desktop experience, though I admit, the performance is pretty good generally, I would like a little faster user response. I picked these chips, because depending the days of the week, they are all can all be had in the $100-$150 range for a pair on eBay, a little less for the 5677 and a little more for the 5679. I guess specifically I am looking at the tradeoff between clock speed and cores?
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Intel x5679 or x5675 v. x5677
- Thread starter usna92
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I must admit, I am starting to lean toward clock speed over cores. Were cost no issue I would defiantly go x5690s, but at 5x the price I just can't seem to justify it. I am really happy with my MacPro and I am really glad my office decided to upgrade because these were a bargain, but $500 just for processors seems a little expensive on a machine that is a daily driver, but not a rendering box. I am just seeing what people made for tradeoffs and whether they had regrets going with one over the other.
X5677 will run 3.6GHz all cores turbo.
X5679 will run 3.2GHZ all cores turbo.
I'd opt for the X5677's for general use. X5679's if it was a dedicated render/handbrake box.
X5679 will run 3.2GHZ all cores turbo.
I'd opt for the X5677's for general use. X5679's if it was a dedicated render/handbrake box.
$500? They are selling for $330/pair on Ebay.
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_sacat=0&_nkw=x5690 pair&LH_Complete=1&LH_Sold=1&rt=nc
Wow, your search was a LOT better than mine and I really didn't put anything different in the search boxes. eBay is a mysterious beast sometime.
I went with 5675's because I was trying to budget my build and knew that I could upgrade again when prices were down on the 5690's. I have learned more now and looking back I should have gone with X5677's. I use Photoshop primarily for my work so the extra cores really don't help me but the clock speed would have.
But the processors are still double the costs of the other options. These are getting rarer given their age, just not sure of the price/performance value is there for x5690s.
Agreed. I was not suggesting that you buy anything in particular, I was just correcting the price which seemed way off.
Fair enough. I looked the x5677s are so much cheaper than the other options.
According to Mango awesome thread, I believe you are correct. I am having a memory conundrum as well anyway. I have two identical machines, with what I believe to be identical RAM setups, and one reports 1066 and the other reports 1333. I haven't been able to figure it out yet. I am going to do a complete RAM swap and see if that changes anything. If it doesn't, then I think one of the RAM sticks might not be what it advertises to be.
Be careful when considering the 130W CPUs. In dual CPU configurations, they can run really hot. I had to use SMC Fan Control to increase fan speeds to bring temps back down to acceptable levels when I was using Handbrake. This, of course, resulted in a whole lot of noise.
That is an interesting thought. I hadn't really considered the thermal headspace, but I had assumed (I know not something that should be done), that because of the possibility of 130W processors that the cMP had sufficient thermal space for that. I haven't really put this thing through the paces yet, just trying to get it into fighting shape, so not really sure how much I temp-wise to play with. Right now I am running the fans in default with the 5650s in it and A/B temps are 41/35 C. I had thought there are enough people running the x5690s that if 130W load was a temperature issue, it would have surfaced by now. I am only running the one graphics card, so no really whacky high-end rendering flops for this machine. Was it possibly just your version of handbrake? I know it had thread issues at one point....
The cMP can safely handle dual 130W CPU, the real world problem is not temperature or power, but just the noise. Because you should make your own fan profile to "teach" your cMP how to deal with 130W CPUs. There is no 130W CPU option for stock dual processor cMP, the SMC may not know how to cool them down properly. It's just software issue, the heatsink, fan, etc can handle up to X5690 without any trouble.
http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Xeon-X5680-vs-Intel-Xeon-X5677
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This is interesting.
Does the modification for the SMC/fans affects overall noise only under full CPU load, or also when idling and light CPU loads?
[doublepost=1486541963][/doublepost]
This is interesting.
Does the modification for the SMC/fans affects overall noise only under full CPU load, or also when idling and light CPU loads?
I don't know any easy way to modify the SMC yet, but we can easily create our own fan profile by installing MacsFanControl.
As long as you make it spin up according to the CPU temperature, then the noise level should stay low when the CPU loading is low.
I personally go for this open source software an custom make to fit my need. You may go to have a look.
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...ol-now-version-2.1340705/page-6#post-20982276
Thanks for the tip.
By the way, do you know what's with the "automatic post merge"?, my posts were not related, they shouldn't have been merged.
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Do all Xeons support the Turbo mode on all cores?
I thought that Turbo always required some cores to slow down, to compensate the heat and keep the overall thermal profile stable.
If all cores go to Turbo, then it cannot be long lasting. How long are the cores in Turbo? Is there a tool to check CPU clock speed in realtime?
By the way, why does everybody talks about the X5690? The X5680 should be very comparable, clock speed difference is less than 5 %, right?
They can stay in turbo indefinitely on all cores as long as the CPU is staying under TDP watts and it's under max junction temp. All-core turbo is nearly always less than 1-2 core turbo. X5677 for example runs 3.46 nominal. 3.6 all-cores(3-4) or 3.73 on 1-2 cores. It's possible to exceed TDP on 4 cores in turbo, even if the chip is under max temp, so you won't always see 3.6. Nominal is the highest frequency at which TDP can't possibly be exceeded.
Since you use the tool I have one more question, did you have to change the idle fan speed?
My flashed 5,1 is the single CPU model, can't represent your dual processor behaviour.
Even though I do custom my idle fan speed (about 100RPM more than stock), however, I will say that's not require. I do that because the noise level is same in my case, but the north bridge can go up to 5C cooler during idle (Yes, it's all about the North bridge, but not the CPU). And I personally believe this is a good trade off. Also, I assume that extra 100RPM won't significantly shorten the fan life span.
It's a time thing. If you post twice within a certain amount of time, don't know what that is, this forum merges those posts.
I also have X5677s and use Macs Fan Control. My profile is attached. Not really noisy for me, and the temps are under control.
Lou
Interesting. Well I am not concerned a whole lot about noise, because I am running two of these beasts, and together they are still both quieter than my Drobo Array, which sounds like a freight train. Might be time to take the drobo apart and put in a decent fan....
The prices on the x5677s make them very attractive. I know budget isn't everything, but 8x3.46 v. 12x3.02 for the sameish price is an interesting trade off. I have been running iStat menus to look at fan speeds and CPU temps. I guess, what is a hot temperature under load? Regardless of which CPUs I get, I am sure that these machines would benefit from replacing the thermal paste after all this time....
Ok well the debate was great and all the information was awesome. eBay is a fickle beast, but I found a pair of x5680s for less than $200 so I ran with those. It seemed like a stretch to go for the x5690s, and with the price difference of only $70 between the x5680s and the x5677s, that going for the extra L1 cache and extra cores in the x5680s seemed like an ok way to go. I might still get some x5677s for my other machine eventually, so this debate may come again.
So now that I have picked a processor (which I am pretty excited about putting in the machine), I need to morph the conversation a bit to fan speeds. I did download and install Mac Fan Speed Control, but I need to know what custom options have people chosen with their 130W processor selections.