e6300+?

[aaaaaaaaaaandy]

i was originally going to just go for a e6600 for my new build, but due to a bad budget, im forced to go for a e6300/e6400. (correct me if im wrong) im assuming that e6300 is going to give me a better bang for my buck and is going to oc better.but i was looking at ram and im really not too sure what will go well with that cpu. im mostly looking for your experiences with your builds. any recommendations?

ps. sorry if its a redundant post :-/

 

[Zinn]

I think you need to do some research.

 

[aaaaaaaaaaandy]

been doing research in addition. i figure its easier to have more then 1 resource.

 

[Dan_D]

An E6300 won't necessarily OC better than an E6400. Most people like the E6400 better because they have a higher multiplier than the E6300. That can make overclocking quite a bit easier.

 

[aaaaaaaaaaandy]

yeah i looked more into it and i decided the extra 30 bucks or so is worth it for the 6400, so im going to go with that. i was thinkn of getting some 800mhz dominator ram. any feedback on that? or are they cheaper/better options out there.

 

[Dan_D]

yeah i looked more into it and i decided the extra 30 bucks or so is worth it for the 6400, so im going to go with that. i was thinkn of getting some 800mhz dominator ram. any feedback on that? or are they cheaper/better options out there.

Cheaper options yes, better, well that depends. Everyone's experiences with ram will differ quite a bit. The Corsair Dominator PC6400C4 stuff is pretty good, but damn is it expensive.

 

[nullzero]

If you get a newer revision e6400 it will probably OC better then a E6600. I have to pump 1.5v in my e6600 to get it stable and running at 3.44ghz. I have seen e6400s doing 3.6ghz or more stable on 1.4v. I would wait for the 6420 to hit the stores and get that its basically a e6400 with 4MB cache. My friend has a newer revision e6300 on a gigabyte S3 and he is pulling 3.3ghz at 1.375v stable np, the only thing holding him back is the mobo because of the FSB wall.

 

[Dan_D]

If you get a newer revision e6400 it will probably OC better then a E6600. I have to pump 1.5v in my e6600 to get it stable and running at 3.44ghz. I have seen e6400s doing 3.6ghz or more stable on 1.4v. I would wait for the 6420 to hit the stores and get that its basically a e6400 with 4MB cache. My friend has a newer revision e6300 on a gigabyte S3 and he is pulling 3.3ghz at 1.375v stable np, the only thing holding him back is the mobo because of the FSB wall.

My E6600 clocks at 3.6GHz and is stable at 1.385v. The advantage to getting an E6600 is not having to have a motherboard capable of FSB speeds much higher than 400MHz. To achieve the same speeds (3.6GHz) on an E6400 would require a FSB speed of 450MHz. To achieve the same result on an E6300 requires a 514MHz bus. Even with a multiplier change of one, the FSB increase needed to get the same results increases by a fairly large number. 400MHz isn't that hard to get. 450MHz is moderately difficult, and of course that depends on your board. An i975x board is going to be harder to reach 450MHz FSB on than a P965 Express or 680i board. 500MHz+ FSB speeds are not necessarily hard to acheive depending on the board you are using, but there is no assurance that you can do it with any given board. I've seen a few P965 Express boards that can't do this and plenty of 680i boards that can't either. (I've also seen a few of both that can.)

 

[nullzero]

On the e6600 OCs I got one of the mediorce steppings, on average however the e6400 yields a higher OC % with less volts. No doubt on the motherboard that a high FSB is hard to get. However most S3s are hitting FSB walls in the +450 range. I dont think the multi of 8 will be a big hinderance for OCing. Since 8X450= 3.6ghz which should be the top of the range goal for a e6400 OC.

 

[Dan_D]

On the e6600 OCs I got one of the mediorce steppings, on average however the e6400 yields a higher OC % with less volts. No doubt on the motherboard that a high FSB is hard to get. However most S3s are hitting FSB walls in the +450 range. I dont think the multi of 8 will be a big hinderance for OCing. Since 8X450= 3.6ghz which should be the top of the range goal for a e6400 OC.

As far as overclock % go the lower end CPUs are usually king. Some people care more for bang for your buck purchases, in which case a lower clocked cheaper CPU with a higher OC % is more appealing. For people like me who are concerned with absolute performance, E6600 and higher CPUs are generally going to give you better clocks because of their higher multipliers. That combined with lower FSB requirements make them an obvious choice for performance.

On my P5W DH my E6300 topped out at 2.8GHz because my FSB was limited to 410MHz. On my P5W DH, the E6600 will reach speeds of 3.6GHz at 400MHz FSB. So the E6600 privides better performance. Granted my E6300 did better on P965 Express boards, but only to around 3.4GHz with air cooling. The E6600 I have will run at 3.93GHz, but I can not keep it cool running on air cooling. With water, I can do 3.6GHz easily, but for some reason, my E6600 seems to run slightly hotter than most. Fortunately, it clocks high on nearly stock voltage wich does help my temps a little bit.

 

[aaaaaaaaaaandy]

i think we may be straying from the topic of the thread a bit. i decided to go for a 6400, how about ram.

 

[Pooky]

i think we may be straying from the topic of the thread a bit. i decided to go for a 6400, how about ram.

Are there any brands you prefer? Buy their DDR2 800 and you're done Or you could choose something, then look for reviews on it etc.

I'm using Patriot DDR2 667 @ 340 for a 3.4Ghz OC on my E6700. I'm not really into overclocking, so the high base speed coupled with minimal effort is good for me.