[effie]

Server architecture: more cpu cores, more cache (resulting in better performance per clock period), detection of RAM errors (1-bit and 2-bit) and correction for those (1-bit), built for non-stop operation.

ECC arch. is worth the money wherever correctness of the computed results or integrity and stability of running programs is imperative - scientific and engineering calculations, database systems handling precious information (money), etc.

In practice, it seems ECC in a personal computer is not necessary for most people, but in 2009, a study of DRAM errors in datacenters, ECC was found to be very benefitial:

"Across the entire fleet, 8.2% of all DIMMs are affected by correctable errors and an average DIMM experiences nearly 4000 correctable errors per year"

http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~bianca/papers/sigmetrics09.pdf

[StillBored]

Outside of the rare socket 2011 i7's (the only real i7 IMHO) you get more PCIe lanes and significantly more memory bandwidth with xeons too. The extra PCIe lanes can matter for SLI setups..

But this is where Intel irritates me. I want a socket 2011 CPU with both an unlocked (or low core high clock rate) multiplier as well as ECC RAM. For some reason, intel refuses to make such a product.

[effie]

I was looking for something similar and indeed there isn't much choice in that department. I eventually switched to the high-core lots-of-performance/per-buck E5-2670 especially considering its low price. But if you want high single thread performance, take a look at E5-1650 or, if you have unlimited budget, E5-1680 v2 (12% faster).

[StillBored]

The latest v4 parts have turbo frequencies again peaking at 4ghz. Which when compared with the i7-7700, that is a 12% frequency deficit. If you count in a couple percent between haswell & kaby lake, its probably at least a 15% single thread advantage to the part that costs far less.

Hence the unlocked 2011 parts which people routinely run up in the ~4.5Ghz range (myself included) with little issues. The only point of instability seems to be the larger cache, which can have its multiplier independently limited, at which point the stock voltages suffice for a significant clock rate increases. Why intel couldn't bin and sell a 4.2Ghz 2011 part like devils canyon is a mystery.

[hashhar]

Thanks a lot. Does it make sense to have more cores vs faster cores if I only plan on using IDEs and doing general development? No video editing or doubling my machine as an application server to serve my personal website.

The DIMM vs ECC point and data you bring up is very interesting. Thanks for that link.