core 2 duo-need input

3Degree

Member
Oct 20, 2004
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I have my tax refund... Woohooo! And am finally gonna upgrade the old athlon based system and want to go Core 2 Duo. So the question is do I go with the 6300/6400 now with the 2mb cache or wait until 4/22/07 when the 6320/6420 4MB caches come out?? The upcoming price drop is somewhat a factor, but not much; I'm more worried about the old lady spending the refund before I get a chance to use it!! :>

I plan on trying to OC it and will be used as an all around machine including gaming.

Thoughts? Wait or pull the trigger?
 

Cheex

Diamond Member
Jul 18, 2006
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I was thinking of waiting too but I almost have enough money to get myself a DS3 and an E4300 and I think I might very well just pull the trigger on it. The price cuts are still a good 2 months away (April 22).

That's just me though.
 

3Degree

Member
Oct 20, 2004
28
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So is the 4mb cache going to give that much more performance over a 2mb cache on the same CPU?
 

Cheex

Diamond Member
Jul 18, 2006
3,123
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That will only apply in certain cases. Only with programs that actually make use of the extra 2MB.
 

mithrandir2001

Diamond Member
May 1, 2001
6,545
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4MB vs 2MB cache:

It depends of course. Overall (as general as can be), 4MB cache increases app performance by 3-10% over 2MB cache at equal clock speeds. In some CPU-intensive cases (like zipping files, encoding 2-ch audio) there is no difference at all.

The "problem" is that power-hungry applications down the road may increase this difference so 4MB is currently considered to be an "insurance" policy. However I find that argument to be lacking. If you wait for 6320/6420 then maybe by then you'll want to wait for K8L. Gotta pull the trigger sometime. If the E6300 makes sense for you now then I would buy it.
 

darkrisen2003

Senior member
Sep 13, 2004
382
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Is that the release date on the 1333 FSB Core 2's? Im about to have 800 to spend on my last 2 parts and I need to know when they are coming out. If its gonna be a while then ill just tack on another 300 and get a 6700 and a 8800 gtx but if its only gonna be another month im going to wait.

Parts I have bought thus far.

Antec 900
Thermaltake 850 watt modular
Asus Striker Extreme
Sceptre 22 inch HD Widescreen
2 x WD 250 gig Hard Drives
2 gigs of corsair value ddr2 667
Windows XP SP2 with upgrade coupon ( Pulled that trigger 1 week too early or I would have gotten Vista Ultimate
 

SickBeast

Lifer
Jul 21, 2000
14,377
19
81
IMO now is as good a time as any to buy a C2D if you need a new computer. You won't see a *massive* performance increase until intel unveils its sucessor, which will probably be in 2-3 years.
 

8 bit barbarian

Junior Member
Dec 31, 2006
10
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When to buy - always the question.

RAM prices are still dropping. I'm hoping they go a bit lower and stay there through the end of April. It always seems if you wait for one part to drop in price another part will rise an equal amount. It was like that before xmas when cpu prices dropped but RAM was spiking that it was a wash.

I'm contemplating the wait to get the e6700 at the end of April for the same price as the e6600 today. That would be a $200 difference for not really $200 performance and I could just as easily OC the e6600 above the e6700, too. My strategy is just to build the beefiest rig with my budget and have it last four years.

With my luck there will be a fire in the hard drive forest and hd prices will skyrocket in early April.



 

darkrisen2003

Senior member
Sep 13, 2004
382
0
76
even though i bought a rig that I could overclock im still looking at staying with stock performance with whatever I get in the begining untill I get a better understanding of how overclocking is done.
 

superfly

Member
Jan 13, 2000
63
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Some time in Q2 Intel is releasing a new chipset "bearclaw" and C2D processors that do 1333 FSB. Also, the new chipset has PCI-E 2.0.

http://www.computerworld.com/action/art...leBasic&articleId=9006938&pageNumber=3

The questions are how long until boards are actually in the retail channel and exactly how much real world performance improvement are we talking about? If you want to pop in a next gen quad core down the road will you need the extra FSB bandwidth?

This is the only thing holding me back from getting an E6600 rig today.
 

SickBeast

Lifer
Jul 21, 2000
14,377
19
81
Originally posted by: superfly
Some time in Q2 Intel is releasing a new chipset "bearclaw" and C2D processors that do 1333 FSB. Also, the new chipset has PCI-E 2.0.

http://www.computerworld.com/action/art...leBasic&articleId=9006938&pageNumber=3

The questions are how long until boards are actually in the retail channel and exactly how much real world performance improvement are we talking about? If you want to pop in a next gen quad core down the road will you need the extra FSB bandwidth?

This is the only thing holding me back from getting an E6600 rig today.
I doubt it will be much, and current graphics cards aren't even remotely bandwidth-starved, so PCI-E 2.0 is a moot point. I'm sure it will also be backward compatible.

Intel does not have competetion in the high end right now and I expect them to stand pat until AMD does something. Now is a great time to buy as a result.

There are rumored price cuts coming; that might be good timing to follow if you can wait.
 

TAL0N

Senior member
Feb 21, 2000
210
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The news has been all over the various tech sites the last few weeks about "Intel to launch new Processors and cut prices in second quarter of 2007". I believe the story originated from the Chinese-language website HKEPC, which claims that the date will be 22nd April '07. I think these are quantity = 1000 pricing, text formated for my own reference.

- Price Cut E4300 (1.8GHz/800FSB/2MB) $163 to $113
Core 2 Duo E4400 (2.0GHz/800FSB/2MB) $133

- Price Cut E6300 (1.83GHz/1066FSB/2MB) $183 to $163
Core 2 Duo E6320 (1.83GHz/1066FSB/4MB) $163
- Price Cut E6400 (2.13GHz/1066FSB/2MB) $224 to $183
Core 2 Duo E6420 (2.13GHz/1066FSB/4MB) $183
- Price Cut E6600 (2.40GHz/1066FSB/4MB) $530 to $316
- Price Cut E6700 (2.66GHz/1066FSB/4MB) $316 to $224

Core 2 Quad Q6400 (2.13GHz/1066FSB/2x4MB)
- Price Cut - Q6600 (2.40GHz/1066FSB/2x4MB) $851 to $530

to be available in June...
Pentium dual-core E2160 (1.8GHz/800FSB/1MB) at $84
Pentium dual-core E2140 (1.6GHz/800FSB/1MB) at $74
Celeron 420 (1.6GHz/800FSB/512KB) at $39
Celeron 430 (1.8GHz/800FSB/512KB) at $49
Celeron 440 (2.0GHz/800FSB/512KB) at $59

 

herbiehancock

Senior member
May 11, 2006
789
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Originally posted by: TAL0N
The news has been all over the various tech sites the last few weeks about "Intel to launch new Processors and cut prices in second quarter of 2007". I believe the story originated from the Chinese-language website HKEPC, which claims that the date will be 22nd April '07. I think these are quantity = 1000 pricing, text formated for my own reference.

- Price Cut E4300 (1.8GHz/800FSB/2MB) $163 to $113
Core 2 Duo E4400 (2.0GHz/800FSB/2MB) $133

- Price Cut E6300 (1.83GHz/1066FSB/2MB) $183 to $163
Core 2 Duo E6320 (1.83GHz/1066FSB/4MB) $163
- Price Cut E6400 (2.13GHz/1066FSB/2MB) $224 to $183
Core 2 Duo E6420 (2.13GHz/1066FSB/4MB) $183
- Price Cut E6600 (2.40GHz/1066FSB/4MB) $530 to $316
- Price Cut E6700 (2.66GHz/1066FSB/4MB) $316 to $224

Core 2 Quad Q6400 (2.13GHz/1066FSB/2x4MB)
- Price Cut - Q6600 (2.40GHz/1066FSB/2x4MB) $851 to $530

to be available in June...
Pentium dual-core E2160 (1.8GHz/800FSB/1MB) at $84
Pentium dual-core E2140 (1.6GHz/800FSB/1MB) at $74
Celeron 420 (1.6GHz/800FSB/512KB) at $39
Celeron 430 (1.8GHz/800FSB/512KB) at $49
Celeron 440 (2.0GHz/800FSB/512KB) at $59

Methinks you mixed up the E6600 and E6700 prices...... :)
 

jvwheel

Member
Jul 30, 2004
27
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0
Does anyone have any input on a better combo; Would a person be better off with the ASUS Striker and a E6400 or an eVGA MoBo and the E6600. The money works out to be even. I was going to pull the trigger on a eVGA mainboard but have second thoughts after reading that it slowly consumes memory and doesn't support a HDD Array very well. In fact I have read so many isues that I am surprised the eVGA is so popular. I have always built with ASUS but liked the eVGA until I studied it further. I only have the budget for the striker with the E64000 but have read it could be OCed as high as a E6600's OC capability. Please let me know your experiences.