E2160, E2180, or E2200?

[Jax Omen]

They're $70, $80, and $85 right now.

I'm leaning strongly towards the E2200, just because it's an 11x multiplier for barely more money than a x9. I assume all the chips cap around 3GHZ though, so I dunno if I'd be throwing $15 away.

Thoughts?

 

[Winterpool]

According to v8envy here, at this point in the production cycle, the Pentium Es are all identical chips, just labelled differently. As you suspect, I'm not sure the higher multiplier on the E2200 will help you if everything is going to hit a wall round 3 GHz anyhow. You should probably look through the Pentium E OC results thread to get an idea of what's possible.

$15 is worth a good 75 or more GB hard disk space at today's price ratios. In my life, additional storage tends to prove more valuable than a few more MHz.

 

[Jax Omen]

Heh, I'll stick with the 2160 and take my girlfriend out for teriyaki, then.

I doubt I'll bother taking her CPU higher than 9x333 anyway. If I can get that stable for her I'm happy, I'm not hardcore by any means.

 

[v8envy]

There's anecdotal evidence that E2160s have lower VIDs on average than all the other chips, and hit slightly higher OCs at slightly lower volts than all the other chips. Plenty of evidence for that theory in that E series OC thread, for sure. Probably just placebo effect, IMO.

Intel is definitely not having problems with 2.2 ghz capable yields with their 65nm process, so the ultra cheap stuff is not aggressively speed binned. E2140 = E2200, except for the multiplier lock. As I said before, people with E2200s are not consistently getting better OCs than those with E2140 or E2180s. Most top out at 3.2 ghz, about 10% will hit 3 ghz with stock volts and you always have occasional chips not capable of more than 2.8 and a few hitting 3.6. If we had tens of thousands of samples I'm positive the E2160 results would also fall in line.

15 bucks buys an OK aftermarket heatsink too, if your goal is best mhz/buck.

Buy the cheapest one if your target is 3 ghz.

 

[Jax Omen]

I'm getting her an AF7Pro because I have one and it chills NICELY

Her and I are both temperature-paranoid. If it exceeds 50C while stress testing, it's too hot

It's a shame we're too cheap/lazy for watercooling.

 

[v8envy]

I have a bit of an obsessive/compulsive disorder when it comes to heat as well. But stock heatsink & thermal goop is good enough to keep this chip under 60C core temp with orthos at 3 ghz and 1.325v on my E2180. At 2.66 ghz and downvolted to 1.2 volts we're talking 48C! I have very nice airflow in an early Sonata case though.

In my experience gamer girlfriends are awesome until you marry them and they pop out a couple of kids. Then priorities change... Still awesome, but in a different way.

 

[Jax Omen]

Man, you just described exactly why I'm sticking her with an AF7Pro.

My E6600 is a pretty lame chip, I hit a ceiling around 3.1Ghz (I'm only stable at 3 with 1.4v, don't want to go higher). Even on 1.4v, I get idles around 5-10C higher than ambient, and stress test full loads around 20C higher than ambient (basically, it idles between 20C and 30C depending on the time of year, and it hovers around 40C to 50C under a stress test full load, again depending on the time of year).

60C makes me very, VERY uncomfortable.