e8400?

Donovan Tipton

Weaksauce
Joined
May 2, 2008
Messages
102
I am currently clocking a e2200 @ 3Ghz. & am in the middle of building a new rig in which I will be buying a 45nm chip to install into it around the end of the month.

My questions are:

1)Should I go for the e8400 or should I save money & go with say an e7300 or should I spend the extra cash for an e8500?

2)Overclocking to 4ghz. is a very appealing thing but will I actually be able to tell the difference between say an e8400 @ 4ghz. compared to my e2200 @ 3ghz?

Opinions please, thanks everyone! :cool:
 
1) The price difference is rather small, go with the e8500.
2) I think you will, it's not only the 1Ghz difference but the 5Mb more l2 cache which is very important to games.

I hope that helps you. No let me make you a few questions:
1) What apps do you use?
2) Do you change cpu's very often?
3) Will you go for Nehalem soon?

Because if 2 or 3 is true or response 1 is just gaming you will be fine with dual core. Otherwise, better go with quad.
 
Cool, thanks for the response.

I am one of the leaders of a large gaming clan (500+ members) so most of my time is spent either playing Counter Strike Source or our forums & using IPSwitch for FTP...

No, I do not change cpu's often. Before I built the e2200 rig, I was still rockin' on my Opty 165 rig.

Don't plan on Nehalem...sounds like the improvement will be more geared for rendering etc. not gaming...
 
i think that the e8500 will be good..CSS is so much cpu dependant, so yes, get the e8500 and try to get a nice 3.6-4ghz out of it..
 
shell out the extra money and be assured to get better stepping when you buy a e8600.
 
e8400 is amazing, but wait for the new E0 stepping to saturate the market before you buy one. The C0 steppings are also very cheap used now that people are dumping them. No guarantees that you'll hit 4 GHz with an 8400, an 8500 is a little more likely. The 8400 is still blazing fast at 9x400FSB (3.6 GHz), and you can run your ram 1:1 at that speed.

If you can't wait, go for an e7200.
 
Didnt see much of a difference @ 4ghz compared to the upper 3's+ghz on my e8400 while gaming or anything.

But the e8400 is a nice cpu.
 
Excellent, thanks for the response everyone.

I have looked around & it seems the e8600 hits 4ghz. with little effort. Sounds great!

Since Intel has new models coming out at the end of the month should I wait 2 weeks to see if there is a price drop? I know I read the e5200 was coming out to replace the e2xxx series so I am not sure if that would effect pricing or if Intel has prices set in there roadmap...I don't know when the next price drop is scheduled...
 
Cool, thanks for the response.

I am one of the leaders of a large gaming clan (500+ members) so most of my time is spent either playing Counter Strike Source or our forums & using IPSwitch for FTP...

No, I do not change cpu's often. Before I built the e2200 rig, I was still rockin' on my Opty 165 rig.

Don't plan on Nehalem...sounds like the improvement will be more geared for rendering etc. not gaming...

dang! 500+ member on a clan? is it all CS:S or different kind of games? mind if i ask what clan and what's the ip of your CS:S server so i can visit it once in a while?
 
Excellent, thanks for the response everyone.

I have looked around & it seems the e8600 hits 4ghz. with little effort. Sounds great!

Since Intel has new models coming out at the end of the month should I wait 2 weeks to see if there is a price drop? I know I read the e5200 was coming out to replace the e2xxx series so I am not sure if that would effect pricing or if Intel has prices set in there roadmap...I don't know when the next price drop is scheduled...

I haven't seen an E8600 that won't hit 4.4GHz easily with low volts, on air. It's that pesky 4.5GHz that just skyrockets the voltage requirements and heat.
 
dang! 500+ member on a clan? is it all CS:S or different kind of games? mind if i ask what clan and what's the ip of your CS:S server so i can visit it once in a while?



Sure thing, we are an adult clan, 25+ years old. I lead our Counter Strike division & I have roughly 200 people on the roster dedicated to CS:S...our main website is www.obcgaming.com from there you can follow the link on the left to our CS:S website http://www.oldbastardsclan.org/ All of our servers are listed there...Thanks for the interest & come by anytime! I spend my time on there in our Atlanta Pub server... :cool:
 
We had a server dedicated to TF2 & it just couldn't sustain like CS:S does...We have pub,GG mods & occasional themes like the zombie mod for Halloween & one of my favorites is the occasional 24 hrs. of Dust2 on our Atl Pub server.
We also support MOH Spearhead, MOH Airborne, Battlefield2, Frontlines: Fuel of War, Call of Duty 4 & some role playing games as well... A little something for everyone. ;)
 
I haven't seen an E8600 that won't hit 4.4GHz easily with low volts, on air. It's that pesky 4.5GHz that just skyrockets the voltage requirements and heat.

You guys have me talked into an e8600...I think the upgrade from a 3ghz e2200 to an e8600 at 4.4ghz would be a noticeable difference... :cool:
 
The e8600 is a good choice. My e8400 "only" does 3.6ghz or so with reasonable vcore. Still a decent overclock, but disappointing for a Wolfdale. I wish I got an e8500 at least.
 
Donovan Tipton I see you are running the MSI P6N SLI Board. I Think were I you I would opt for either the e8400 or the 8500 they are only about $10 apart now @ newegg. I would not hold my breath for ultra high clocks with the MSI board though. With the E8500 if you could get to 400fsb you would be rolling right along at 4000mhz with it's 10 multi. Many people though have gotten more from thier 8400's. That's a toss up that kind of a luck of the draw. Either way you will achieve a lot better framerates with these 2 processors especially with your SLI. Someone mentioned running your mem 1:1. I would not recommend this. your board will do better by running your dividers to get as much stable ram speed as you can!! 1:1 is rather anemic quite frankly.

Here is a good example for you. On memory speed.

I run the E8400 on an Asus P5E. I also run PC6400 memory but, I run G.Skill 6400HZ
Here are 2 Aquamark runs at the same identical everything except memory speed
First here is 1:1
aqmkcompare1.jpg


As you can see the system is clocked up and running fast!!
Now compare the cpu score when I apply the 5:6 divider and speed the memory up even more
Also check the bottom line......The overall score.

aqmkcompare2.jpg


See the cpu score just hammers the 1:1 score and the overall socre pounds the 1:1 overall socre.

Now again everything set the same except even more mem speed, watch the jump from the 1:1 to the 4:5.
aqmkcompare3a.jpg


As you can see the difference is quite stunning. Not also how the higher cpu score pushes up the Graphics score as well. This is a part of the more frame rate equation.
Every little bit more you can get from the cpu memory lessen the limits they put on the card so it in turn gives higher scores.

So if you only get to to a OC somewhere between 400 and 500 or where-ever you run out of cpu clock
There is still more speed to be had by clocking and pushing the memory up as high as you can.

I am sure you will be fine with either processor with your sli set up.

Let us know which way you went and we'll help you get the most out of it.


WZ
 
Wow, I am very impressed! Yes indeed I have been running 1:1 & I settled on 3ghz. for the e2200 because of 200mhz. vs. a healthy jump in heat didn't compute for me.

Thank you for taking the time to show me that! Very impressed to actually see the difference. I had thought all this time that it didn't make much of a difference but obviously it does! This really inspires me to try some new settings & just see what else I can pull out of my rig.

My MSI P6N Platinum is going to be folding 24-7 after the end of this month. I am building my new rig & basing it around an absolutely beautiful Abit IP-35 Pro that I bought from a fellow member. I believe the e8600 should be a very good fit for that board & it's FSB capabilities. I know I could definitely use some pointers on squeezing out the most I can from the system once I get it all together..End of the month pay day can't come fast enough!!! :D
 
Hey, my pleasure Donovan i look forward to you getting your new set up!! I will be watching and will lend a hand when and where and if you need it. I like to get every last bit of speed out of a system I can as it just makes your dollar to performance ratio look that much better!!


WZ
 
Voltage was set at 1.58125 in bios. I have been torturing 2 e8400's since January and both still hit as high and fast as ever. One liquid cooled, one aircooled.

WZ
 
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