E6750 vs. E4500 (upgrade from Celeron DC E1200)

[PGHammer]

I'm faced with a rather ugly dilemma.

I'm looking to step up to a C2D from my Celeron DC (it's an intermediate step-up, not a final upgrade) and I have a choice of two C2Ds (E6750 vs. E4500) that are priced not even $8 apart (surprisingly, the E6750 is the cheaper of the two). Other than a RAM upgrade (which I'll be doing anyway, regardless of which processor I choose) and a graphics upgrade (again, that is going to happen regardless) I plan on not changing much else right away (there *will* be a quad-core processor swap-in later, but that also is a regardless of which CPU I upgrade to now deal, and I'll be pretty much certainly going to a Q9300 there).

Given that I likely will NOT be going with faster memory (my current memory is DDR2-800, and even though I'll be going with larger DIMMs, I likely won't be going with faster ones; this motherboard also does not support dual-channel mode), which C2D matches up best with DDR2-800?

 

[Zero82z]

The E6750 is quite obviously the better CPU. Really an obvious choice. The one disadvantage is that it has a lower multiplier, but aside from that, it has twice the cache, and is based on a core that will overclock significantly better than the E4500.

 

[EvilAlchemist]

If you are planning on upgrading the CPU to a quad later, then I would get a low end CPU and overclock the crap out of it until you get the quad.

I would get something like an E2140 , E2160 and overclock the crap out of it.
(will be selling my E2140 in 2 days --> send pm if interested)

I have my E2140 at 3.0Ghz and the E2160 can go slightly higher.
Then you can put that money toward a quad later on ....

I am sure there are other CPUs out there like the ones i mentioned, but you get the idea.

 

[PGHammer]

If you are planning on upgrading the CPU to a quad later, then I would get a low end CPU and overclock the crap out of it until you get the quad.

I would get something like an E2140 , E2160 and overclock the crap out of it.
(will be selling my E2140 in 2 days --> send pm if interested)

I have my E2140 at 3.0Ghz and the E2160 can go slightly higher.
Then you can put that money toward a quad later on ....

I am sure there are other CPUs out there like the ones i mentioned, but you get the idea.

Extreme overclocking is out because, whatever CPU I get I'll be holding on to (not selling) for a future upgrade (for Mom, not me); further, the lack of dual-channel RAM support in the mobo's case limits the bennies of tall overclocks. The E2140 (and stablemate E2160) are both out for the rather sensible reason that both are now priced higher than the E4500 (or even E6750).

Despite the fact that I have *half* the RAM I used to, and am actually giving up a GHz in clock speed (stock vs. stock, though the Northwood-C was seldom clocked bone-stock), I'm wishing I had been able to do this upgrade sooner.

Normally, the E6750 wouldn't even merit consideration (it's priced way too close normally to the quads) except for this particular return deal (which puts it in E4500 territory pricewise).

 

[dennisjai]

If you're not overclocking and the E6750 is cheaper, all signs point to E6750.

 

[Zero82z]

Well, even if you won't be overclocking, the E6750 is still the superior chip. It does still have a significantly higher clock speed than the E4500 as well as twice as much cache, and since it's cheaper, the decision is pretty much a no-brainer.

 

[dennisjai]

Well, even if you won't be overclocking, the E6750 is still the superior chip. It does still have a significantly higher clock speed than the E4500 as well as twice as much cache, and since it's cheaper, the decision is pretty much a no-brainer.

Yes, this is what I meant, my bad =D

Even if the E6750 was the more expensive one by only 8 bucks I would still get the E6750.