Alrighty so I'm going to be buying a Xeon instead of a i7 4770k, there is no need for me to over clock so I'm not worried about the Xeon not being unlocked. But which xeon would work best for me there's multiple out there for the socket 1150 z87 but there all priced differently and it seems as tho the only difference is the clock speed. Is that all? If so I think the e3 1230v3. But is that the best Xeon for the price and for gaming, rendering etc?
Why a Xeon? Why not an ordinary 4770 non K cpu? On Z87 you wouldn't get much benefit from a Xeon.
It's practically a 100 bucks cheaper. And with that I can buy alot more to improve the performance of my system then the i7
The difference between the Xeon and a 4770 is not $100, but yeas the Xeon is cheaper. And it is also slower than a i7 4770 (notice no K) and lacks the IGP for quicksync and the like. The only advantage the Xeon has is ECC RAM support, but you won't get that on Z87 anyway.
Get the 1230V3 , or the 1231 V3.
Also , get a nice cooler , it runs so cool that it will make the cooler completely silent.
The Xeon 1231v3 (Haswell refresh) is clocked a little higher than the 1230 and seems to be at about the same price. It would be a better buy, but I would still go for the 4770 or 4771 depending on deals etc.
I'm running a 1230v3 which is probably the best price to performance of the E3-12XX range and quite a bit cheaper (£45-50 in the UK) than both the 4770 ad 4790 non K with only a slightly lower clock speed. I have a Xigmatek Dark Knight nighthawk cooling it, 27 deg idle and not managed to get it to go higher than 50 deg so far with some CPU raytracing.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=35-214-042
Thus is the fan I found that will fit nicely in cooler master haf case. And apperently it's pretty silent.
Depends where the OP is buying - for example in Australia a 4770K is $389.00 and a E3 1230v3 is $285.00