# Intel Xeon

Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/intel-xeon/

8 people recommended Intel Xeon in Hacker News comments, 5 had mixed feelings and 10 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 4 of 12 months, in 7 threads. It does not meet the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** More people criticize it than recommend it. Long-lived server and workstation chips that are cheap used and stable for years, but they draw a lot of power and have slow individual cores.

Summary written by Claude from the comments below.

## What people warn about

- High power draw (2 comments in the sample): "but it chugs power like it's not even funny" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49027177)) "These old servers are not energy efficient at all" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48354961))
- Premium pricing, locked to workstation (2 comments in the sample): "it has a 500W TDP and retails north of $17000" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47238754)) "Intel making and keeping it workstation/Xeon-exclusive for a premium for too long" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47272749))
- Slow individual cores (1 comment in the sample): "The core density is bullshit when each core is so slow that it can't do any meaningful work." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47238452))

## Why people recommend it

- Go-to pro workstation and server CPU (4 comments in the sample): "Last time I looked, anything remotely useful here was only on the Xeon chips" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48907185)) "professional/workhorse level CPUs like EPYC/Threadripper/Xeon" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47543835)) "Zen 5 Ryzen or Epyc CPUs and Granite Rapids Xeons" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47309867))
- Cheap used chips and reasonable builds (3 comments in the sample): "you can build a micro-ATX machine with a Xeon or an EPYC in it for what feels like a pretty reasonable price" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46151561)) "There’s a lot of Xeon chips for $10 on eBay. Too bad there’s no drive for cpu based inference." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48519658)) "8480s and 8592s have been quite accessible" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47239835))
- Stable and long-lived, still capable (2 comments in the sample): "Been going strong for ten years and still overpowered for what I use it for." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48360839)) "it's been very stable this whole time" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48410002))

## Other server CPUs people recommend

- [AMD EPYC](https://hackerapproved.com/p/amd-epyc/): 18 recommend, 7 mixed, 2 criticize
- [AWS Graviton](https://hackerapproved.com/p/aws-graviton/): 13 recommend, 1 mixed, 7 criticize
- [AMD EPYC Turin](https://hackerapproved.com/p/amd-epyc-turin/): 7 recommend, 0 mixed, 0 criticize
- [Ampere CPU](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ampere/): 6 recommend, 2 mixed, 6 criticize

## Where to get it

- [Visit the official site](https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/details/processors/xeon.html)

## The badge

A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged.

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Intel Xeon", https://hackerapproved.com/p/intel-xeon/ (8 recommend, 5 mixed, 10 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026).

Counts updated 2 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.