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Macer · July 9th, 2008

It depends upon the performance you're after and your upgrade path. 5420's run with a 1333 fsb, but if you upgrade to say a 3.2G cpu in a year or so when they are more affordable (maybe faster by then?), you would really want to have a 1600fsb capable mobo to make the most of them - along with the faster ram.

But then again, by then you'll be able to get nehalem processors - which are already 20 percent faster clock for clock against the current 54xx xeons. As they have a different pin config you'd have to get a new mobo anyway. You might be better off getting the cheap stuff now and picking up some 8 core processors with a new mobo in a dual setup when you next upgrade - 16 cores bloody fast cores will really power through the renders!

Really comes down to how much power you want now - it won't make any difference if you're running 5420's at stock, unless you have the option to change the memory/fsb ratio in the bios (unlikely in most server boards).

I guess its only really worth while if you either o/c or upgrade to a 1600fsb capable cpu.

July 9th, 2008	#7 (permalink)
Macer Senior Member Join Date: May 2006 Location: Cumbria, UK Age: 34 Posts: 195 Name: Mark Cronin	Re: Severs value pack It depends upon the performance you're after and your upgrade path. 5420's run with a 1333 fsb, but if you upgrade to say a 3.2G cpu in a year or so when they are more affordable (maybe faster by then?), you would really want to have a 1600fsb capable mobo to make the most of them - along with the faster ram. But then again, by then you'll be able to get nehalem processors - which are already 20 percent faster clock for clock against the current 54xx xeons. As they have a different pin config you'd have to get a new mobo anyway. You might be better off getting the cheap stuff now and picking up some 8 core processors with a new mobo in a dual setup when you next upgrade - 16 cores bloody fast cores will really power through the renders! Really comes down to how much power you want now - it won't make any difference if you're running 5420's at stock, unless you have the option to change the memory/fsb ratio in the bios (unlikely in most server boards). I guess its only really worth while if you either o/c or upgrade to a 1600fsb capable cpu.