Intel Xeon E3-1226 v3 Haswell 3.3GHz 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1150 84W Server Processor BX80646E31226V3

Pros: Cool and quiet operation, excellent performance, price is a fraction of a comparable Core i7, includes built in graphics for motherboards that require it. Cons: Lower end of the Xeon family, uses more power than the Core i processors, but still significantly less than an AMD chip. Overall Review: I bought this for use in a Hyper-V / NAS box I built for my home lab setup. It’s running 4 VM’s on the host OS and CPU utilization stays nice and low. This is the first Intel processor I’ve used in any of my builds, but definitely not the last. The CPU fan is virtually silent and the temps (as reported by HWMonitor) are staying around 27 degrees C, even with all of my VM’s running. This makes it ideal for use in a smaller case, and the low power draw means I don’t feel wasteful leaving it running 24/7. One thing to note when looking at Xeon processors, the models ending in “5” and “6” (as far as I can tell) are the processors that have a built-in GPU. My mini-ITX board requires the CPU to have integrated graphics in order to use the on-board video ports, and since I’m using this as a server, I wasn’t planning on installing a graphics card. If your motherboard does not require a CPU that has built-in graphics support or you are planning on installing a video card, you can probably save yourself some money by going for a Xeon with a model number ending in “0” or “1”.