Choosing a CPU

[pwnagesarus]

So, with all these new 6x50s out, I'm a bit confused. I stopped following this stuff for about a month. So now I have a few questions.

Last time I checked, people were talking about the E6420s. Are they still a good choice for OC'ing? I was under the impression the prices were gonna drop even more

Seeing as how I bought the HP DDR2 667s a month back, getting one of the E6x50s to OC isn't the best idea, right?

I guess what I'm tryin to get at is what's the best bang for buck right now for C2D, minus the E4x00s?

Thanks!

 

[f4phantom2500]

dude, if that ram doesn't oc well (which is what i gathered from the hot deals thread), i would just get an e4400 or 4500 if i were you. since they have a really low stock fsb (200), they have high multipliers to make up their clock speeds. the e4400 is 10x and the 4500 11x, so at 333, the stock speed of your ram (let's assume the ram won't oc at all), the e4400 would be at 3.33ghz, and the e4500 at 3.663ghz. in any case, get something with a higher multiplier, at least 9 (that would give you 3ghz at 333), that will oc well. check fs/ft for an e4300 that oc's well or if you want an e6xx0, i would really REALLY suggest not getting a 1333 chip since that's the stock speed of that ram.

if you must, get a 1066 chip; with one of those, 333 would be a 25% overclock. but with an e4x00, it would be a 66% overclock. honestly, the only thing "wrong" with the e4x00's is their stock low fsb's. you're ocing anyway, so that's not a problem, but they need that higher multiplier to make that fsb give them a high clock speed, which is a huge bonus for ocing. they all have 2mb of cache, which is hardly detrimental for these chips.

i realize i repeated myself, but i really want you to get the point.

 

[bryanW1995]

what f4phantom said. that's my big problem with the cheapie ram right now. even the ddr2 800 5-5-5-15 is going to have problems overclocking the 1333fsb chips. And don't even think about trying to oc a future penryn 1600 fsb chip. ddr2 is so freakin' cheap right now that 1066 or, at least 4-4-4-12 800 is the only way to go imho. A new mobo buyer might even look at one of the ddr3/ddr2 combo boards b/c that would at least allow to get some cheap stuff now and then upgrade to ddr3 later on when prices go down.

 

[pwnagesarus]

I wasn't planning on getting a 1333 chip anyway, was just wondering.

From the hot deals thread, seems like they do OC up to DDR2 800, which was why I purchased them in the first place, besides being dirt cheap. Heh, if for some reason they don't OC well, I will have to grab a 4xx0.

Thanks! Appreciate the info.

BTW, what's a 6xx0 any of you guys would recommend, that isn't a 1333.

 

[kenny0813]

e6600 is one of the better 1066's out there. unless you were planning to spend some more money on the q6600 1066.

 

[JustaGeek]

You don't have to OC your RAM at all, assuming your motherboard has an ability to run the FSB "unlinked" to memory bus.

You can control it with the RAM divider, or RAM/FSB ratio. It is 16/13 in my case, with FSB 325MHz and memory bus at 400MHz, for the DDR2 speed of 800MHz.

With that in mind, you should not have a problem overclocking any of the processors - even the ones with 333MHz FSB, asuming that the divider can be set to something like 13/16 (e.g. FSB 400MHz, Memory bus 325MHz, DDR2 speed 650MHz - reverse to my setup).

Your memory bandwidth might hold you back a bit though - but you won't know until/unless you try.

 

[bryanW1995]

do you have a mobo yet? if not then you should consider a newer p35 mobo or 680i if you're planning sli. Justa geek has the right idea re the unlinked fsb/memory bus if you can find a good board for it. If you already have an older board then, um, there's always the fs/ft forum...

 

[pwnagesarus]

I haven't bought a motherboard yet. Previously I had planned to pick up an Asus P5N-E Sli or a Gigabyte DS3 (something like that). I'll go look around for a P35 or 680i just like you said bryan.

Thanks!

 

[f4phantom2500]

Originally posted by: JustaGeek
You don't have to OC your RAM at all, assuming your motherboard has an ability to run the FSB "unlinked" to memory bus.

You can control it with the RAM divider, or RAM/FSB ratio. It is 16/13 in my case, with FSB 325MHz and memory bus at 400MHz, for the DDR2 speed of 800MHz.

With that in mind, you should not have a problem overclocking any of the processors - even the ones with 333MHz FSB, asuming that the divider can be set to something like 13/16 (e.g. FSB 400MHz, Memory bus 325MHz, DDR2 speed 650MHz - reverse to my setup).

Your memory bandwidth might hold you back a bit though - but you won't know until/unless you try.

i thought that was only for the nvidia boards? i could be wrong though, i haven't used an intel board since the northwood days.

the memory bandwidth will almost certainly not be an issue, as long as his board runs his ram in dual channel mode, which it should.