TREADLAYERS.COM: DUAL XEON MBs with PAXVILLE, WOODCREST and CLOVERTOWN CPUs

DUAL XEON MBs with PAXVILLE, WOODCREST and CLOVERTOWN CPUs

Introduction

Many of us enthusiasts have used both Opterons and Xeons in the past. Only recently have Xeons come back to match and even exceed the performance numbers of similarly-priced AMD Opterons. Here, we will examine the performance differences between the three generations of multi-core Xeons - Paxville, Woodcrest, and Clovertown. Clock speed, architecture, and number of execution threads/cores will all factor come into play here. Furthermore, chipset differences should also demonstrate measurable results.

Paxville is Intel's first dual-core Xeon. This is also one of the last Xeons based on the older 90nm NetBurst architecture, which means it supports Hyper-Threading. With two cores, two sockets, and two hyper-threads, a dual-Paxville system results in eight execution cores!

Codename	Paxville DP
Socket	604
Architecture	NetBurst
Model Number	7030
L2 Cache	2 x 2MB
sSpec	SL8MA
Clock speed	2.8 GHz
FSB	800 MHz
Multiplier	14x
Voltage	1.287v - 1.412v
TDP	135W
Instruction Set Support	MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, Hyper-Threading, XD, EM64T

Woodcrest is a dual-core Xeon based on the Core2 architecture. These CPUs use the 65nm process. Our test system will use the fastest model, the 5160 at 3.0GHz and a 1333MHz FSB.

Codename	Woodcrest
Socket	771
Architecture	Core 2
L2 Cache	4MB
Model Number	Dual Core Xeon 5110	Dual Core Xeon 5120	Dual Core Xeon 5130	Dual Core Xeon 5140	Dual Core Xeon 5150	Dual Core Xeon 5160
sSpec	SL9RZ	SL9RY	SL9RX	SL9RW	SL9RU	SL9RT
Clock speed	1.60 GHz	1.86 GHz	2.00 GHz	2.33 GHz	2.66 GHz	3.00 GHz
FSB	1066 MHz	1066 MHz	1333 MHz	1333 MHz	1333 MHz	1333 MHz
Multiplier	6x	7x	6x	7x	8x	9x
TDP	65W	65W	65W	65W	65W	80W
Instruction Set Support	MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, XD, EM64T, VT	MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, XD, EM64T, VT, EIST	MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, XD, EM64T, VT	MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, XD, EM64T, VT, EIST	MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, XD, EM64T, VT, EIST	MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, XD, EM64T, VT, EIST

Lastly, we have the quad-core Clovertown. These CPUs also use the 65nm process. We only have an E5320 1.86GHz test platform, but its slower speed should be somewhat equivalent to the 5160 Woodcrest above in terms of cost.

Codename	Clovertown
Socket	771
Architecture	Core 2
L2 Cache	2x 4MB
Model Number	Quad Core Xeon E5310	Quad Core Xeon E5320	Quad Core Xeon E5335	Quad Core Xeon E5345	Quad Core Xeon X5355	Quad Core Xeon X5365
sSpec	SL9XR	SL9MV	SL9YK	SL9YL	SL9YM	SL9YZ
Clock speed	1.60 GHz	1.86 GHz	2.00 GHz	2.33 GHz	2.66 GHz	3.00 GHz
FSB	1066 MHz	1066 MHz	1333 MHz	1333 MHz	1333 MHz	1333 MHz
Multiplier	6x	7x	6x	7x	8x	9x
Voltage	1.5v	1.5v	1.162-1.200v	1.162-1.200v	1.162-1.200v	1.162-1.200v
TDP	80W	80W	80W	80W	120W	150W
Instruction Set Support	MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, XD, EM64T, VT	MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, XD, EM64T, VT, EIST	MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, XD, EM64T, VT	MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, XD, EM64T, VT, EIST	MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, XD, EM64T, VT, EIST	MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, XD, EM64T, VT, EIST

Thanks to Wikipedia for the information above.

Memory used in the test were supplied by Kingston and Apacer:

The next most important component here is the power supply, to ensure stability. Naturally, the PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 was used:

For cooling the Xeons, the Verax X21 Heatpipe coolers were used. These are the quietest, best-cooling Xeon heatsinks / heatpipes we've found. Each heatsink consists of six copper heatpipes mounted on a solid aluminum base, a numerous array of aluminum thin-fins, an aluminum shroud, and two fans. Both fans are mounted on rubber, further reducing noise. The only requirement for the X21 to work is that the chassis MUST have Xeon heatsink mounting holes. Check out these photos:

Each motherboard was tested using the following benchmarking software:

Si Software Sandra 2007 Lite
CPUMark 2.1
Prime95 v24.14
SuperPi 1.1
DVD Shrink 3.2 (rip same pressed DVD movie with compression, in-depth analysis, with sharpening)
Cinebench 9.5
Memtest86+
WinRAR 3.41

We also measured power consumption using the Seasonic PowerAngel. Screenshots will be shown on each board's page while final results and other test data will be summarized on page 8.

Now, onto the motherboards...

1. Introduction

2. Asus PVL-D/SCSI

NEXT: Asus PVL-D/SCSI

3. SuperMicro X7DAE

4. Tyan Tempest i5000XL S2692ANR

5. Tyan Tempest i5000XT S2696WA2NRF

6. Tyan Tempest i5000PX S5380G2NR

7. Tyan Tempest i5000PW S5382WAG2NRF

8. Windows XP 64-bit Benchmark Results

9. Conclusion