Intel Xeon E5-2670 8-core LGA 2011

The Intel Xeon E5-2670 is an 8-core, 16-thread server CPU from 2012 that still makes sense for budget homelab and multi-threaded workstation builds. It's cheap on the used market, especially in the UK and US, but single-thread performance is weak and gaming is a lost cause. Buy it for cores per dollar, not for speed.

The E5-2670 posts a PassMark multi-thread score of 8877, which lands it in the middle of the pack compared to other CPUs in our database. For an eight-core chip from 2012, that's respectable. It'll chew through video encoding, file compression, and virtual machine workloads without breaking a sweat. The 20MB of L3 cache helps keep those eight cores fed, and 16 threads mean you can run a decent number of VMs on a homelab box without things grinding to a halt.

Single-thread performance is a different story. The 1467 single-core PassMark score puts it in the bottom third of CPUs we track. That's the Sandy Bridge architecture showing its age. Everyday tasks like web browsing and office apps will feel fine, but anything that leans on one fast core, like older games or poorly threaded software, will feel sluggish. The DDR3 memory support up to 1600MHz is another reminder that this platform is old. It works, but you're not getting modern memory bandwidth.

Compared to something like the AMD Ryzen 5 2600, the E5-2670 looks rough. The Ryzen 5 2600 is newer, faster per core, more efficient, and sits on a platform with actual upgrade options. If you're building a general purpose PC, the Ryzen is the obvious choice. The Xeon only makes sense when you specifically need cheap multi-threaded performance and you're willing to deal with old server hardware.

The Dell Xeon E5-2637 V2 is an interesting alternative in the same family. It's a newer Ivy Bridge chip, but it's a quad-core part, so you're trading core count for slightly better per-core performance. For most homelab use, the E5-2670's eight cores win out. The Intel Core i3 10105F is another budget option that beats the Xeon in single-threaded tasks by a wide margin, but it's a quad-core chip, so heavy multi-threaded workloads favor the old Xeon. It really comes down to what you're running. If your software scales across cores, the E5-2670 holds its own. If it doesn't, almost any modern chip will embarrass it.

Value is where the E5-2670 gets interesting. In the US, you can find it for around USD 150, and in the UK it's been spotted for as little as GBP 20. The EUR listings are all over the place, ranging from EUR 224 to EUR 299 across German, Spanish, French, and Italian sellers. That's a EUR 75 spread for the same chip, so if you're in Europe, shop around before you buy. The cheapest EUR listing in our data is the one to chase. At the low end, this is an absurd amount of cores for the money. At the high end, you're paying too much for a 2012 processor. The sweet spot is finding one of these used for well under USD 100, at which point it becomes a genuinely smart buy for a budget server or workstation.

The Intel Xeon E5-2670 is one of those old server chips that refuses to die. It's an 8-core, 16-thread Sandy Bridge era processor from 2012, and it still shows up in budget workstation builds and homelab servers. You're looking at a 2.6GHz base clock, 20MB of L3 cache, and a 115W TDP on the LGA 2011 socket. Used prices bounce around a lot depending on where you shop, but you can often find these for pocket change on the secondhand market.

People searching for this chip usually want to know one thing: is a decade-old Xeon still worth buying in 2024? The short answer is maybe, if you know exactly what you're getting into. It's not a gaming CPU, and it's not going to impress anyone with single-threaded speed. But if you need a pile of cores for cheap and you already have, or can find, a compatible LGA 2011 motherboard, the E5-2670 can still do real work.

Our database puts this chip's total score at 42.4 out of 100. That sounds rough, but context matters. For productivity it manages 50.7, and for server workloads it's 46.2. Gaming is where it falls off a cliff at 21 out of 100. This is a chip with a specific audience, and if you're in that audience, the math can work out nicely.

Skip the E5-2670 if you're building a gaming PC, a general purpose desktop, or anything where single-threaded speed matters. The 21 out of 100 gaming score tells the whole story. You should also skip it if you don't want to deal with old server hardware, DDR3 memory, or the LGA 2011 socket's lack of upgrade options. If you need a modern platform with a future, look at a Ryzen 5 2600 or a Core i3 10105F instead. And if you're not comfortable troubleshooting memory recognition issues or hunting down compatible motherboards, this chip will frustrate you more than it saves you money.

Should you buy an Intel Xeon E5-2670 in 2024? If you're building a cheap homelab server, a NAS that needs to run a few VMs, or a budget workstation for multi-threaded tasks, and you can find one for under USD 100, yes. It's a lot of cores for very little money, and the LGA 2011 platform has plenty of cheap motherboards and DDR3 RAM floating around.

But if you're building a gaming PC, a daily driver, or anything where single-threaded speed matters, skip it. The 21 out of 100 gaming score isn't a fluke. This chip will bottleneck modern GPUs and feel sluggish in everyday single-threaded tasks. The E5-2670 is a specialist. It does one thing well, cheap multi-threaded work, and it does that thing surprisingly well for its age. Just don't ask it to do anything else.