Will my dual Xeon e5430 run BF4

[npowell28]

Hi guys,

 

I have recently been given a dual e5430 xeon computer with 8gb of ram and an fx 4600 graphics card and 670W PSU. The main board is an intel s5000xvn if that means anything to you. I was looking at doubling the RAM and fitting an up to date gaming card and then running windows 7 64 bit. I'm looking to play BF4. It doesn't have to be at ultra settings just as long as it looks ok.

 

Do you think i'm wasting my money. Looking to spend about

[jimbo312]

I think you would probably be okay. The Xeon isn't really optimized for gaming but you have enough speed and cores that I think it would run games fine with a decent graphics card. Just don't think you can expect to run ultra with what you have and with what you want to spend. But since that's not a major concern I say go for it.

[SpikeSoprano]

Looks like you would be ok to run it, even 8 gb of ram should be fine, but you definitly would need a better video card.

[npowell28]

Just looked at the manual for the mainboard and it mentions DDR2 Ram 667mhz which i am familiar with but it then goes on about FBDIMM which is beleive is fully bufferred memory. This looks a bit expensive at the few sites i've looked at. If i wanted to increase the ram could i strip the existing ram out and then replace it with normal DDR2???

 

Obvoiusly i'm trying to keep the cost down. I'm not a massive gamer but having played BF4 on the PC i build for my lad this christmas i really enjoyed it. I was crap but still enjoyed it.

 

Thanks again

[npowell28]

Just looked at the manual again to see about PCI express 16 and it doesn't mention it. These are the PCI slots that it lists. Are any of these PCI express x16???:-

 

A. PCI-X* 64-bit, 100-MHz

slot 1

P. Processor 1 socket EE. Enclosure management SAS

SES (available only with product

code S5000XVNSAS or

S5000XVNSASR)

B. PCI-X 64-bit, 100-/133-MHz

slot 2

Q. Processor 2 socket FF. Hot-swap backplane A header

C. PCI Express* x4 or x8 slot 3 R. Processor 2 fan header GG. SATA 0

D. PCI Express x4 slot 4 S. Processor 1 fan header HH. SATA 1

E. CMOS battery T. System fan 4 header II. SATA 2 or SAS 0 (SAS 0 is

available only with product code

S5000XVNSAS or

S5000XVNSASR)

F. PCI Express x8 slot 6 U. System fan 3 header JJ. SATA 3 or SAS 1 (SAS 1 is

available only with product code

S5000XVNSAS or

S5000XVNSASR)

G. CD-ROM In connector V. IPMB connector KK. SATA 4 or SAS 2 (SAS 2 is

available only with product code

S5000XVNSAS or

S5000XVNSASR)

H. P12V4 connector W. System fan 2 header LL. SATA 5 or SAS 3 (SAS 3 is

available only with product code

S5000XVNSAS or

S5000XVNSASR)

I. Back panel I/O ports (see

Figure 4 on page 11)

X. System fan 1 header MM. USB port

J. Diagnostic and Identify

LEDs (see Figure 4 on

page 11)

Y. Processor power connector NN. Front control panel header

[SpikeSoprano]

http://www.intel.com/Products/Workstation/Motherboards/S5000XVN/S5000XVN-specifications.htm

 

according to this it dose have pcix16, but there is a star by it , it dose not say pci x times 2, so maybe it won't support a decent video card ????

[npowell28]

Just checked on the Nvidia site and the Quadro 4600 which it is running is x16 so all good.

[Andrewr05]

I wouldn't bother trying to find anymore memory, just throw a decent last-gen GPU at it and you'll be good to go.

 

Even with two processors though you'll be limited in what games you run as those two dual cores won't be equivalent to a new quad core.

Edited December 27, 2013 by Andrewr05

[npowell28]

I wouldn't bother trying to find anymore memory, just throw a decent last-gen GPU at it and you'll be good to go.

 

Even with two processors though you'll be limited in what games you run as those two dual cores won't be equivalent to a new quad core.

 

I checked on cpuz and it shows them both as quad core. Windows xp 64 also shows 8 cpus/cores?

[npowell28]

 

I wouldn't bother trying to find anymore memory, just throw a decent last-gen GPU at it and you'll be good to go.

 

Even with two processors though you'll be limited in what games you run as those two dual cores won't be equivalent to a new quad core.

 

I checked on cpuz and it shows them both as quad core. Windows xp 64 also shows 8 cpus/cores?

 

Sorry further to that, when you say last-gen GPU what sort of thing are you talking about???

[Crow47]

Looks like the Quadro 4600 is a workstation video card based on the good 'ol GeForce 8800. That was a great card circa 2007, but I would hesitate to say that it would play BF4 in any resolution or quality setting fluently.

 

You're gonna need to spend some money on a decent GPU to bring that computer up to par for that game. You should be able to find a good deal right now on something like an AMD 7850 right now. Check eBay, Amazon, and Newegg.

 

Don't waste your time buying new RAM for DDR2 ECC, it's going to be expensive, and that money is better put towards an overall newer machine.

[MercuryDoun]

CPU wise you're solid, those dual quad-cores will smash. Especially in games like BF4 which can use more than 4 threads.

 

RAM wise, 8GB is ok, you honestly dont need more.

 

GPU wise, get at least a AMD 7870 or NVIDIA GTX660. Anything above those such as the AMD 79xx cards, AMD R9 280X or higher... NVIDIA 760 and above as well. BF4 is a really GPU intensive game, lol.