Dual Core 6300 or 6400

[imported_Bonzo]

I am wondering which Core 2 Duo to get: 6300 or 6400 . Is it worth the $60 difference (in my country)? I am not an Overclocker (yet) nor a big gamer. Also as far as motherboards with on board graphics are concerned, is the Asus P5B-V /VM better than the Intel ones? Anyone have any comments? Thanks

 

[imported_goldlight]

Dude go with the e6400.
I just overclocked mine today to 3.2ghz!!!!
My system is stable and I'm a noobie!!!So lets do the math....
$216 for a e6400 that runs at 2.13ghz....
Overclock it easily to 3.2ghz(it can go even higher!!!).
e6800 2.8ghz sells for $1000....$1000...$1000!!!!!
Need I say more!!!!!Lol

 

[Roguestar]

^ !!!!!!!!! exclamation!!! mark...!!!!!

Bonzo: Depends how much you want to spend the $60 difference. If you don't, I'd say keep it and spend the money on better RAM. The E6300 and E6400 seem to overclock to around the same anyway. I'd say ask someone like n7 who has both!

 

[MichaelD]

Here's my $.02.

While it's true that the 6300 and 6400 overclock to the same frequency most of the time, how you get there can be very different. For your extra $60 for the 6400, you get a 8 multiplier on the CPU.

What this means in plain English is this: With PC6400 ram, which by spec runs at default 200MHz (400MHz/DDR2) you simply raise the CPUs front side bus from it's stock 266MHz to 400MHz and voila! 3.20GHz. 8 multiplier x 400 FSB = 3200MHz.

This will happen WITHOUT having to crazy overclock some really expensive ram to 500+MHz with crazy voltages, etc.

Everything will run in-spec. Ram running at it's defautl speed and default voltage. CPU running at a normal FSB (normal being 266/333/400FSB), etc.

The CPU will likely need to be hard-set at it's normal voltage core which is 1.320v.

The only thing you WILL need is a better heatsink for your CPU. There are many out there, but for "normal overclocking use" you can't do better (price vs. performance) than the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro. I have one and it's great.

With a 6300, you'll still need better cooling, PLUS you'll have to fiddle with super crazy settings and every system is different so you'll probably have to do a LOT of fiddling to get it stable.

My overclock took me exactly 5 minutes to do (Not including the hours of research before hand! LOL!). I set it up and it's not given me a single problem since.

For your extra $60 for the 6400, you most likely will get no more performance POTENTIAL than the 6300, but you'll get the same performance with a lot less hassle.

/My two cents, MHO, YMMV, 4.3% financing on new purchases, only on Tuesdays

 

[caberguy]

Yeah, but dude I've got my e6300 clocked to 3.29ghz!!!!!

If you're doing serious number crunching it might be worth the extra $60, but it's hard to say b/c to some people $60 is nothing. What are you going to be doing with it?

 

[nyker96]

get 6400 is you planning to buy a weak OC board with low FSB. It don't require as high FSB to push it.