Balancing Mobo/CPU/RAM for a Conroe system?

Z

ziphnor

Weaksauce
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Jan 16, 2005
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Hi,

I normally use my computer for gaming and heavy multitasking in connection with programming( compilation of large programs, running in debugging mode), and in the future also some archiving of tv recordings (MPEG-2 -> MPEG-4) from my HTPC .But the real reason im upgrading is to be able to play MTW2 in its full glory :)

I have nice Watercooling setup with a 1m x 60cm passive radiator (external naturally), and i want to buy a really fast conroe system without spending an excessive amount of money.

I live in Denmark and the following approx prices apply for CPU's: ( 6DKK ~ 1$ )
E6300 - 1350 DKK
E6400 - 1650 DKK ( + 22% vs 6300)
E6600 - 2300 DKK ( + 70% vs 6300)

I am unsure about which of these to choose, i have the impression from this forum that all of these CPUs goes to about the same frequency when OC'ing( though the database seems to say otherwise ), so now im wondering how much those +2MB of cache is worth for development work.

Furthermore im a bit confused as to what mobo to choose, i dont want to buy an expensive unless there is a good performance reason to do so. Among the reasonably priced ones are the Asus P5B ( 950 DKK) and the Asus P5B-E ( 1080 DKK ). The 975X boards are more expensive starting at 1300-1400 DKK.

Finally there is memory, it seems that there is little price advantage of 667Mhz RAM to 800Mhz RAM so im stuck between CL4 and CL5 memory. How important is this difference, ie how much is it worth paying to go from one to the other? Is it for example better to forget CL4 and just buy even faster memory? The price i have found seems to be:

800Mhz - CL4 - starting at 2300-2400 DKK for 2x1GB (though some G-Skill CL4 should be available around the 14/11 for 2100 DKK).
800Mhz - CL5 - starting at 1600 DKK
1000Mhz - CL5 - starting at 2500-2600 DKK

Im looking forward to finally upgrading (my current gfx card is a Geforce 4600 and the CPU a Athlon XP 2500+ OC'ed to 3200+ ;) so i hope someone will help me out :)

I realize some of this might be covered on this forum already, but my problem is how to balance the spendings based on the above prices, for example a E6600 with 800Mhz CL5 RAM vs a E6300 with 1000Mhz CL5 ram or 800 CL4 etc.
 
CPU: e6300 or e6400 (depending on how much you can spend)
MEMORY: DDR2 800mhz CL4
MOTHERBOARD: Good OCing 965 motherboard (Gigabyte DS3, Biostar 965P, ASUS P5B-E.)
 
I recommend the E6600 for the higher multiplier and easier top speed overclocking. For motherboard I too recommend the Gigabyte GA-965P DS3 as a way to offset the price of the more expensive CPU. It's cheaper then most excellent overclocking motherboards and VERY easy to OC with.
 
nullzero:
Thanks for the reply.

I would like to hear your reasoning on memory, is the timings really that important?(ie its 700 DKK down to CL5 and only 200 DKK upto 1000Mhz CL5).
 
moshpit:
Thanks to you as well for responding.

I see the point of the E6600 certainly, but money doesnt grow on trees, is the additional cost really worth it?

As to mobo's the Asus P5B-E and Gigabyte DS3 costs exactly the same. I prefer to OC within windows if possible because its very easy so it would be nice if the mobo worked well with clockgen. I recently helped OC a P5B ( non -E i think) with an E6600, it went to 3.0Ghz straightaway using clockgen, doesnt get any easier than that(it might have gone higher, but the owner was happy at just above X6800 speed :) Any particular reason to choose the gigabyte over the Asus or vice versa?
 
Honestly I think that depends on who you ask ;)

ask a DS3 owner and he'll tell ya the DS3 is tops and have links to show why, ask a P5B owner the same and thier response will be the same and with links to back it. That said, you cannot really go wrong with either. Considering both are cheaper boards tho, that would help you offset some of the cost of the more expensive E6600. Truth is that the E6600 does have more bite per clock (pun intended ;) ) then the Allendale (E6300, E6400) chips do. Double the L2 cache is nothing to sneeze at when that double hits 4mb. There's no question that the Conroe's a tiny bit faster per clock then the Allendale's are. The Allendale also is saddled with a lower multiplier meaning you will have less chance of hitting a higher clock, tho that part is highly debatable based on the old YMMV rule.

Edit: Just for reference sakes, I have 800mhz 5-5-5-15 ram and with my current settings tuned like they are got this score in SuperPi:

48zwkko.jpg


So in answer to your example in the OP, I'd pick the E6600 with 800mhz 5-5-5-15 ram if your on a budget. The bang for the buck is immense at these speeds.
 
Good ram is a must it will aid you into OCing some nice numbers. The CL5 ram wont clock as high as the CL4. This will limit your OC espically on e6300 or e6400 where you have to push the FSB over 420mhz to get some good OCing with the lower multi. e6300 or e6400 and some good ram on a gigabyte DS3 is the best bang for your buck combo.
 
nullzero:
In that case shouldnt i just go straight for the 1000Mhz@CL5 memory? (the price difference is pretty marginal).

moshpit:

Im not on a strict budget in that i could afford the E6600 as well as expensive memory, its just that i would like to keep a good total performance / price ratio. Sometimes you end up spending hundreds of dollars to get 1% more performance, while this money could for example have gone into a better video card etc. Im just trying to gauge whether or not the E6600 is worth the +70% cost over the E6300. It seems that i could get away with 700kr cheaper memory. Do you know of any reviews that gives some hard numbers on the advantage of 4mb cache on video encoding or code compilation tasks?
 
Tomshardware has an interactive CPU chart, but I won't insult you by linking you to that. Honestly tho, I don't know of any specific online tests done at equal clocks to show the difference, but maybe some others here do?
 
I decided to buy some nice cheap A-DATA 800Mhz CL5 RAM which i read in a review could usually OC nicely, apparently at 1.8V it handles 900Mhz. Its also nice to have some memory thats designed for 1.8V to avoid initial bootup problems. Another review also has it as a nice OC'er reaching 5-5-5-15 / 2.3V / 1020MHz or 4-4-4-12 / 2.3V / 894MHz.

I also decided to risk giving the E6400 a try, but after ordering everything one of the shops called and said they didnt have any more E6400's (probably sold the last while i was deciding), so i changed the order to an E6600 since anything else would be a logistic nightmare(i ordered the parts in lots of different places :)

For the mobo i went with the Asus P5B-E.
 
Nice setup, yeah some CL5 ram will clock higher but since you went with a e6600 ram wont matter as much. You can clock your FSB at 390 and get 3.5ghz! with the 9x multi. Great choice on setup im running close to the same e6600 on a DS3 oced to 3.53ghz on water.
 
Good choice on the E6600. It's a dream chip overall. And paired up with that fast 965P mobo you choose will make a sweet rig, absolutely. Congrats on your choices :D
 
When deciding on E6400 vs E6600 i considered the following:

1. The +2mb cache can give 5-10% boost in some applications(compression being one of them)

2. The E6400 would run at a higher FSB, which does give a small boost, maybe 1-2%

3. The E6400 would run the memory higher, which also gives a small boost.

4. If im willing to boost the vcore voltage the E6600 might go higher than the E6400, and i do have watercooling to deal with the extra heat. Originally i didnt want to do this but then i remembered that RMClock can be set to reduce the multiplier and set a different voltage when idle, so i wouldnt spend too much on the electricity bill.

Overall, i think the conclusion was that if i could get sufficient OC out of the cheap RAM the E6400 probably had at least a decent performance/price advantage, but if i had to buy more expensive memory it would pretty much be a tie at stock voltage(though the E6400 might be slightly faster if it went higher) and a win for the E6600 at high voltage. However, with the memory actually in stock in stores in Denmark currently the E6400 + CL4 800Mhz memory would have actually been slightly more expensive than the E6600 + CL5 800Mhz.

Looking forward to see what i can squeze of out of this system :) If i keep the FSB just under 400Mhz, there is a good chance that the memory will accept running in CL4 even without upping the voltage according to one reviewer at least.
 
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