E5-1680 v2 VS E5-2690 v2 for Z420

[Brian1965]

All of the CPU's we have mentioned, e.g. 1680v2, 2667v2, or 2690v2, will make a significant performance improvement on your current 1620v0 CPU. All the CPU's discussed support 1866MHz RAM and all have 25MB onboard cache, (which significantly boosts the CPU's performance - 1620v0 has only 10MB). You just want to get the best balance between all-core and single-core CPU performance. Since it appears your DAW and plugins are very CPU hungry, personally I wouldn't want to go down the overclocking root, since this will generate a lot of heat without even overclocking. I would opt for the 2667v2 myself as I feel it covers both single threaded and multi-threaded tasks with ease and speed. It might be worthwhile running HW Monitor while you are using the plugins to precisely see the CPU utilization, power and temperatures on the current 1620v0?

[MaxxCobra]

Yes it's certainly down to those 3 CPU's. I've been considering running the 2667v2 myself, seeing that it has some nice performance without the added concern of overclocking. 

The DAW itself is actually VERY CPU friendly, its just been designed to be able to run on all cores. It's great that you can specify the amount of cores to use for the DAW itself, meaning you could specify it to run on a limited amount whilst leaving maybe 1 or 2 cores free for VST plugins etc. Obviously this makes the consideration even more difficult, as core count becomes even more relevant in the equation.

I'll have to do a test to see the utilisation and temps with various scenarios, and post the results. 

[MaxxCobra]

Here is some data from HW Monitor, one with just the DAW running, and the other with an offending 'Amp Sim' (Bias FX 2) running on an intensive preset.

In both scenarios I've got anit-virus running etc.

Here is just the DAW (Reaper) running alone;

Reaper. Win 10. E5-1620 0

And here is Reaper running with Bias FX 2 'Amp Sim' VST;

Reaper. Win 10. Bias FX 2 VST. E5-1620 0

Here is another view of the core settings within Reaper. This time is a shot of my own settings. Please see the setting at the bottom where you have the choice to set cores for 'Live FX Multiprocessing'. This is a crucial consideration I believe as it implies more cores would have an effect on live processing of input recording... and in my situation, of Guitar amp sim live recording. How effective this setting is, who knows??

Reaper CPU Core Settings

[Turlo]

Hi BambiBoomZ,

I have a z420 and I am choosing between a 1650v2 and a 2667v2. I have to use this pc for gaming (valorant and warzone), and engineering programs like autocad, matlab, hecras, swmm, excel. It is a budget configuration and I will use 1600Mhz ECC ram 12800E that I alredy have.

"There is also some performance advantage in a using a single-configuration processor instead of a multiple configuration in that the synchronization of the data stream requires a one cycle parity check- the role or registered RAM and anecdotally, it appears that at the same clock speed in the same system, a multi-CPU design with ECC registered will not perform as well as a single CPU design using unbuffered RAM."

You said this, but I really do not understand if i should go for the "safe" choice (1650v2) or for the 2667v2, especially talking about game latencies and overall performance.

Aliexpress price of the 1650v2: 58€

Aliexpress price of the 2667v2: 80€

Thank you in advance

[BambiBoomZ]

Turlo,

The Xeon E5-2667 v2 (8C@ 3.3/4.0) is an excellent processor for a dual processor configuration given the 4GHz Turbo speed and being less costly than the E5-2687W v2  which only has the advantage  of a 3.4Ghz base clock. 

However, in my view, the clear choice is the Xeon E5-1650 v2 (6C@ 3.5/3.9) which will have a higher all-core clock and more importantly, is one of the very few Xeons that may overclocked using the Intel Extreme Tuning Utility (XTU).  XTU is very simple to use as one sets the multiplier- the clock rate, e.g., 41x for 4.1GHz and then adds voltage in mV e.g., 87.500 mV to ensure it remains stable. There is a self-protection circuit that will kick it off if it's unstable.

The office z420_3 uses a Xeon E5-1650 v2 overclocked to 4.3GHz on all cores:

HP z420_3: (2015) (R11) Xeon E5-1650 v2 (6C@ 4.3GHz)(XTU= XTU-5.2.0.14)  / z420 Liquid cooling / 64GB (HP/Samsung 8X 8GB DDR3-1866 ECC registered) / NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB/ Samsung 860 EVO 500GB + HGST 4TB / ASUS Essence STX + Logitech z2300 2.1 / 600W PSU > Windows 7 Professional 64-bit (HP OEM ) > Samsung 40" 4K

[Passmark System Rating: = 5644 / CPU = 15293 / 2D = 847 / 3D = 10953 / Mem = 2997 Disk = 4858 /Single Thread Mark = 2384 [6.27.19]

In Passmark system ratings, z420_3 is No. 11 of 1,552 tested , and is also No.1 when it was being run with an E5-1680 v2:

HP z420_3 (2014) (R5) > Xeon E5-1680 v2 (8-core@ 4.3GHz) (XTU= XTU-5.2.0.14) / z420 Liquid cooling / 64GB DDR3-1866 ECC Reg / Quadro P2000 5GB / HP Z Turbo Drive 256GB AHCI + Intel 730 480GB + HGST 7K6000 4TB / 600W PSU /> Windows 7 Prof.’l 64-bit > 2X Dell Ultrasharp U2715H (2560 X 1440) / Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 USB interface
[ Passmark Rating = 6227 / CPU rating = 17006 / 2D = 826 / 3D= 8877 / Mem = 3025 / Disk = 14577 / Single Thread Mark = 2373 [5.28.18]

In both these listings, note the very important addition of the special z420 AIO liquid cooler that is required to increase the clock speed substantially:

That is the z420 liquid cooler shown in z620_2 which uses a  motherboard nearly identical to the z420.

The added voltage increases the heat generated. Of course, that cooler and the overclocking may be done later. Even at the standard clock speed the important single-core performance (STM) of the 3.9 Turbo E5-1650 v2 will be acceptable- 1934 as compared to the 4.0 Turbo E5-2667 v2 - 2029.

The HP zX20 series are of very high build quality, completely reliable, and may still be developed to a performance level completely usable in the most demanding workstation applications.  The 15th highest rated HP Z4 G4 has a Passmark system rating of 6228, one point above z420_3 with an E5-1680 v2.  It has definite advantages: It's Xeon W-2145 8C @ 3.7 / 4.5GHz has an STM of 2643, and much faster memory which would be quite noticeable- as would the cost of more than $5,000.

Let us know what you end up doing.

BambiBoomZ

[Turlo]

Thanks for the fast reply, I think that i'll go for the 1650v2.

I have never done overclocking before and I prefer to stay with air cooling but I saw that I can use the hp Z440/640 cooler on the z420 so maybe I will upgrade that too even though I don't know if the difference will be so relevant.