What's the differance

Apparently:

After a fair amount of testing, it became apparent that the Xeon W5580 is identical to the Core i7 965 Extreme, except that you can run two Xeons on a workstation motherboard and the price is astronomical.
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(source)
 
Nehalem-based Xeons have an extra QPI link that let them communicate with each other, so they can be used in dual-processor motherboards. i7 CPUs cannot be used in dual-processor boards, only one at a time. And the Xeon presumably has a locked multiplier whereas the i7 has an unlocked multiplier.
 
Wow, running two of those would be insane.

Locked multiplier? That is for overclocking them, right?
 
I think an unlocked processor is for more flexible overclocking to be more specific.
 
budec said:
Locked multiplier? That is for overclocking them, right?
Click to expand...

In the i7's multiplier X BCLK = clock speed

In the case of an i7-920 the multiplier is locked at 20 (21 with turbo mode on)

20 x 166 = 2.6 GHz

Most of us that OC our I7's run them around

20 (or 21) x 200 = 4.0 (4.2)

Raising your Bclk too much stresses your RAM (and NB) more, so at some point they will give out, become unstable or, in extreme cases, die.

Along comes the unlocked multiplier - combine that with good silicone, as is the case with the i7-965/975s you can crank that multiplier up; for the sake of argument, 24x200 for 4.8 GHz, without over stressing the rest of the system.

Yes, you will notice the difference between 4.0 and 4.8 LOL
 
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