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E7400 or E8400 for SFF PC?

R

rei

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 26, 2005
Messages
211
i'm in a quandry and i need some advice. i'm considering a prebuilt small form factor PC where primary consideration will be placed on silence--anitec's spcr-approved asus t3-based silent3 system: http://www.silentpcreview.com/Anitec_SilenT3_PC

it will accept a midrange video card (radeon hd4760) and appears to have room in the next slot for one with a dual-slot cooler.

here are my choices for video cards:
sapphire ddr4 hd4670 512mb: http://www.sapphiretech.com/us/products/products_overview.php?gpid=279&grp=3
sapphire ddr3 hd4670 512mb ultimate: http://www.sapphiretech.com/us/products/products_overview.php?gpid=280&grp=3
his hd4670 512mb or 1gb isilence: http://www.hisdigital.com/un/product2-412.shtml

no overclocking--i will be running stock speeds cpu and gpu.

my only cpu options are the intel core 2 duo e7400 and e8400 for $60 more.

which one would you get (bearing in mind diminishing returns) for this video card? is it worth the $60 delta?
 
I would go with the E7400. For an HTPC, the faster CPU isn't necessary. The E7400 will be able to handle everything you need it to.
 
this is going to be primarily PC gaming and video conversion.

this is downgrading from a quadcore box in an antec solo case with 4 hard drives (+4 more esata ones) with a HD4870 to using a macbook for everything non-pc-gaming, having grown sick of dealing with windows.

since i won't be on the pc, i guess i can live with video conversion duties (the free media encoding tools are lacking on mac) taking a little longer (versus having a quad-core) since i'll just be remoting in or something.

i wanted to 'max out' the chip in the silent3 since it being so small, i figured it wasn't going to be easy to get at later and i'd be too lazy to bother with the hassle. if the $60 difference was only say <10% difference in performance, then i definitely won't bother.

the video cards i listed are all the same chip (4670) with the difference being:

-Sapphire vs HiS for warranty/support/replacement purposes?
-512 MB vs 1GB (Sapphire vs HiS)
-Really active cooling with an Arctic Cooling fan vs passive heatsink designs
-DDR3 or DD4 (only on the active cooling one)

how much difference does hardware support for virtualization on the e8400 make?
 
If you're planning on gaming I would definitely recommend the E8400 over the E7400. Games and virtualization will appreciate extra cache. As for video, I would stay away from Sapphire because of their notorious technical support. You can find used 8800GT cards for a few dollars more than the 4670 you were looking at that are much faster provided you can fit it in your enclosure.
 
the video card choices are limited to the 4670 since the 8800gt is too long. i had an xfx passive 8800gt (with an arctic cooling heatsink) that i sold to a friend.
 
I suggest one of those first generation phenom tri-cores. I seen they were pretty good for htpc's.
 
Thanks for the input. I'm going to go for the Sapphire DDR4 HD4670 to push the extra airflow and the E8400 for the CPU since the E7400 doesn't have hardware virtualization.
 
rei said:
and the E8400 for the CPU since the E7400 doesn't have hardware virtualization.
Click to expand...
Do you need that feature though? There's no point in spending the extra money on a CPU with VT if you won't be running any virtual machines on it.
 
fair enough. looks like the store just added in a 500gb hd option today for $50 and i'll go for that instead of an e8400.
 
rei said:
the video card choices are limited to the 4670 since the 8800gt is too long. i had an xfx passive 8800gt (with an arctic cooling heatsink) that i sold to a friend.
Click to expand...

The Gigabyte non-reference design (with a Zalman fan) is a bit shorter than the normal 8800GT/9800GT. I had to change the fan though (it looked like it was GLUED to the GPU) and replaced it with a VF900 (pretty quiet). Also it's factory O/Cd at 700MHz.
 
NichoTL said:
The Gigabyte non-reference design (with a Zalman fan) is a bit shorter than the normal 8800GT/9800GT
Click to expand...

This. You can even get a 9800GTX+ in the same form factor from Gigabyte, although they use (much) slower clocked memory than on the reference 9800's. They're as long as the 7900 cards, 7 1/2" inches long IIRC. Hopefully your enclosure will allow you to slip one of those inside...
 
Mr. Bluntman said:
This. You can even get a 9800GTX+ in the same form factor from Gigabyte, although they use (much) slower clocked memory than on the reference 9800's. They're as long as the 7900 cards, 7 1/2" inches long IIRC. Hopefully your enclosure will allow you to slip one of those inside...
Click to expand...

I had the shorter Galaxy 9800GTX+ in my small case and it fit easily. Power supply might be a little lacking with that kind of a card though as it needs 2x6 pin power plugs.
 
Personally, I'd go with the e7400. IMO, the 8400 would be a bit of overkill for this system.
 
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