e4300 or e4400 for mATX DDR2-900 OCing?

[p0wder]

I'm putting together a C2D system and I need help deciding if I should get the e4300 or e4400.

I will be using the new Abit F-I90HD matx mobo with 2gb Kingston HyperX PC7200. PSU is Corsair HX 620w modular, and I will be using a TT Blue Orb for cooling.

I was wondering if it might be worthwhile for me to OC an e4400 to 300FSB x 10 which the abit board should be able to handle, and have the memory run in sync at a 3.0 multiplier. Will this kind of setup make better use of my RAM or is the advantage negligible to running a e4300 @ >300FSB x 9 and having to drop the memory multi to 2? I'm pretty new to OCing but I've been doing a lot of reading online and my goal is an end OC of 3ghz.

Any input would be appreciated. Thanks!

PS: I already bought the RAM ($150 eBay) so getting a cheaper PC6400 kit is not an option.

 

[OldPueblo]

TBH I'd do the 4400. Get the largest gap between FSB and multiplier that you can to be able to stretch the processor the most.

 

[f4phantom2500]

i'd go with the e4400. the price difference is totally worth it for the 10x multi over 9x imo; there's no reason not to, if you couldn't afford the difference (like $20 last time i checked the egg) then you wouldn't be looking at a C2D in the first place, you'd be going for an x2 3600 with a biostar tforce 550 board. think about it...

FSB: 200 266 333 400

E4300 1800 2394 2997 3600

E4400 2000 2660 3330 4000

 

[magreen]

Just so you know, using faster RAM on a C2D doesn't make much difference, due to the latencies inherent in using an off-chip memory controller. At stock speeds, you get about a 3% increase in system performance using a multiplier to go from DDR2 533 to 667, and then another 3% increase going to DDR2 800. Link.

So let's say you OC and use a 300 FSB. Your choices are using a 2 memory multiplier for DDR2 600 speed or a 3 multi to get DDR2 900 speed. If going from 667 to 800 gives a 3% increase, then going from 600 to 900 will give you maybe a 6% increase in system performance. Not very significant, if you ask me.

Whereas if you can OC to 333 FSB you'll see an 11% increase in system performance over a 300 FSB. So I say forget the 3x memory multi -- you'll see more gain by OC'ing higher and using the 2x multi. But if you're stuck at 300FSB for some reason then you might as well get the boost by using the 3x multi. Alternatively, if your memory will OC to DDR2 1000 then you could use the 3x multi at 333 FSB.

The picture is totally different on AMD X2 chips due to their on-chip memory controller... 20% system performance increase going from DDR2 533 to DDR2 800.

 

[Skott]

As far as the F-I90HD mobo goes the 9 multiplier chips (E4300/E6600) have been consistently getting a higher FSB overclock than any other chip multiplier. Now I havent seen what the E4400 can do yet since its brand new and no one has posted their results that I know of. I'm guessing it'll run at a lower fsb than the E4300. FSB isnt everything though. There are other things involved in getting a good stable high overclock.

 

[p0wder]

Thanks everyone. I think I will wait and see if any e4400s hit eBay for cheaper, otherwise I may just pick up an OEM e4300 and overclock my memory to 1000mhz for 3x multi.

 

[kmmatney]

I get my new motherboard on Monday, and I'll see what my E4400 can do. I was able to overclock to 2.9 Ghz on a cheap ECS 775-DUAL-VSTA, so I'm hoping to do a little bit better when my new motherboard gets in. I have no idea how the ATI chipset will overclock but the Abit F-I90HD looks like a pretty sweet motherboard.

 

[kmmatney]

Well, my E4400 overclock has been quite an adventure. My first motherboard, the Asrock 775-DUAL-VSTA overclocked it pretty well, but was full of quirks, the biggest being that it would not see my SATA hard drive, no matter what I tried. I then tried another cheap motherboard, an ECS board based on the 945 chipset, and that had fewer quirks, but would not overclock the E4400 very well - the highest I could get was 2.3 Ghz. It saw my SATA drive, but refused to boot from it. What a pain. I bought this motherboard for a another system, so no money lost. but still it is disheatening to see so many issues with cheaper Core 2 Duo motherboards.

I finally decided a needed to get a better motherboard and spend at least $100, so I bought the one in my sig. No quirks, but overclocking took a while to fogure out.I could not overclock at all until I lowered my memory speed, first to 667, and then to 533. Then as I overclocked the memory speed came back up. So in the end I was able to get a nice overclock, using cheap memory and a under powered PSU. The key was to spend at least $100 on the motherboard.

 

[p0wder]

Did you try OCing your e4300 on the mobo in your sig also? I'm really torn between the two. If i can't find any advantages to the e4400 I'll go with the e4300 due to cost and eBay availability.

Also, does know if ATi chipsets are optimized for ATi graphics cards? Right now I have a BFG 7900gtx.

 

[PClark99]

FYI to the OP,

The abit board does not run the ram overclocked.

ie.

I have my fsb set to 300 with an e4300.

there are 2 options in the bios.

ddr667 and ddr800.

you set the ram frequency and its locked. it doesn't overclock with the fsb.

 

[Ssinjin]

Just my opinion after going through 3 E4300 CPU's and 1 E4400 cpu.

Its pretty much luck of the draw and how much you want to put into cooling the CPU as to what you will get out of it.

Me, my brother and my best friend all 3 have exact same Mobo the Evga 680i NF68 Sli - TR mother boards , same ram, same video cards. Only difference is in Cooling.

I am using the Thermaltake Armor LCS (Liquid cooled with Non-conductive thermal liquid)

my brother is using the Zalman 9700

my friend is using the Zalman 9500

Obviously my Liquid cooling is going to give the best performance but some funny things happened when testing out each others CPU's in the different systems.

My first E4300 in my Friends system wouldnt even run stable at 3ghz even with the Core Voltage at 1.5. However in my System on liquid cooling it ran rock solid at 3.475ghz at 1.45 core.

My brothers E4300 runs at 3.199ghz rock solid at 1.4 core on air and at 3.6ghz at 1.5 core on my system.

My friends E4300 runs stable at 3ghz rock solid at 1.35 core on his system (haven had chance to test on mine yet)

My new E4400 runs rock solid at 3.75ghz with 1.6 core in my system.

Basically I think its alot of luck in what batch you get and how much cooling you are willing to invest.

I will say this, any OC Over 3.2ghz you arent going to see an amazing increase in performance until you get up over 3.6ghz.

So if you want something that cost roughly 118$ to run 3,000 pnts better than a 1000$ E6800 Extreme CPU in Sisandra then go for the E4300 it seems to be the easiest to get to 3ghz.

If you want to push the limits and see how much bang for you uck you can get I would try the E4400 and you might just get lucky and hit 4ghz on it P