E4300 OR E6400????

[baskine]

I am not a very experienced overclocker, after reading the latest anandtech guide on midrange overclocking setups they suggested in great detail how to overclock the e6400 to levels that assuming stability are awesome. The article hints that despite all this the e4300 (which wasn't out yet at printing) may prove much better for overclocking despite it being "weaker". So in an attempt to make my purchase early this week, could you guys give me a suggestion on which cpu to go with. I like the cheap price of the e4300 but i prefer performance and stability over price. I am completely fine spending to get the e6400 if i know it will achieve higher speed and greater stability.
Thank You for your help

 

[Conky]

Get a B2 stepping E6400 and .

The B2's are Conroe and generally overclock better. L2 is the Allendale and while also good tend to run out of gas around 3Ghz although you could always get lucky.

 

[cnhoff]

I bought a 4300 and cheap G.Skill DDR2-800 CL5 instead of the 6400 with Corsair XMS2 DDR2-800 CL4 (or better) and am happily cruising @3.3GHz (8*413 CL4) at 1.45V infinitely Orthos stable.

Where i live, this translated into savings of about 150$. Wether a 6400 combo would have reached 3.5 GHz or slightly more? I don't care because with the saved cash i was able to get an 8800GTS instead of a 1950XT and this machine really rocks in 1600x1200 max detail

Just a thought...but performance/money wise not a bad decision imho.

 

[Wags1974]

id rather have my e4300 and dq6 than a 6400 and a ds3. I dont like hot chipsets!

 

[Tempered81]

i use an e4300 and a cheapo MB and i kept my ddr, agp card and ide drives...

i can get 2700mhz out of it

thats 900mhz overclock... and the processor/mobo was 200$ total!

 

[Agentbolt]

If money is no object then obviously get the E6400. My personal feeling is the $ saved from getting the E4300 can be sunk into other parts of the system that will overall improve performance more than the E6400 would.

 

[Agentbolt]

Not sure why the double post happened, but sorry

 

[tallman45]

E4300, DS3 and an HR-02 to really keep the NB cool and you are set

 

[Fallengod]

Yeah im in the same sorta area. I was thinking of the E4400 myself. If not that, probably the E4300. Not sure on memory or motherboard yet. 2gb of ocz pc2-6400 is around $160 is there any reason to go for something else?

 

[91TTZ]

I think I'm in the same boat as you. I want to have a fast CPU, and I like the idea of the overclocked E4300. However, I'm afraid that it won't overclock well and I'll be stuck with a "slow" E4300 at stock speed. That makes the 6400 attractive.

I'll probably just build a system that's identical to Anand's E4300 test system.

 

[catalysts17az]

wait for the 6400 to come out with the 4mb cache which will be due in another month i think. it will be called the 6450 i think or the 6420. i have heard reference to both monikers either way it means all conroe will have 4mb of cache. however i dont think the allendales will get this upgrade. also according to intel the 4mb of cache will not cost a penny more than the regular 6400, at least thats what they said.

 

[Conky]

Originally posted by: catalysts17az
wait for the 6400 to come out with the 4mb cache which will be due in another month i think. it will be called the 6450 i think or the 6420. i have heard reference to both monikers either way it means all conroe will have 4mb of cache. however i dont think the allendales will get this upgrade. also according to intel the 4mb of cache will not cost a penny more than the regular 6400, at least thats what they said.

The 4mb version of the E6400 will be called the E6420 and will not cost any more than the current E6400 when it comes out as you stated. Waiting for this chip which should be out in a month or so would probably be wise if you are waiting to get in on the C2D.

I suppose after the E6420 comes out that all of the E6400's will be based on the Allendale core after that instead of the current mix of both cores.

I just wish they would come out with a really super cheap quad-core sooner than the Intel roadmap indicates.

 

[ineedaname]

I personally wouldn't buy a 6400. Why even bother when the e6300's performance is pretty much identical. As for 6300 vs 4300 they are once again pretty much the same. I would just get the 4300 cuz its cheaper. Your best bet tho is the 6320 when it comes out.

I guess it really boils down to how much u plan to OC it in the first place. If you get a decent cooler you can probably get 3.3ghz with the 4300 with no problem. I did 3.3ghz for my friend using a P5N-E SLI.

 

[DNyholm]

I personally went with the 6400 because of the same reason as you did thinking that I might not be able to overclock the 4300 at all and might be stuck at the 1.8 instead of being stuck at 2.13 with the 6400. Well, I am happy with my purchase as I have attained 3.28 Ghz with the 6400 on my first ever overclock and it was easier than I thought it would ever be.

If i had to do it all over again, i would probably stay the same way that I did. The extra $50 that I spent I think was more for piece of mind, but for my first overclock it was worth it. I also think that I ended up getting a higher overclock with this chip than I would have been able to get with the 4300.

It all boils down to how much of an impact will $50 have on you? Will it be worth it to spend that $50 on something else in the build?? Personally, i only got a 1950XT with mine since i figured i'll wait and get a much better DX10 card when they are needed. I still get decent PCMark and 3DMark scores and I am able to run 40-50 FPS in the game that I play at full settings (Everquest2) which is all i really need at the moment.

Good luck with whatever you chose and everyone on here is a great help if you ever do need it!!

 

[Zambien]

I would most likely go with the e6400. The e6400s typically o/c a little higher, especially if you get the B2 stepping. The reason I would go with the 6400 over the 4300 is that clock for clock, expecially in games, the 6 series is significantly faster. Remember that anand article. ..

anand article where a 3.38ghz e4300 is only slightly faster than a stock e6600.
link

 

[nyker96]

I'm not sure E4400 will clock any better than 4300 if you got a board that can do 350 or so. that should max out both 4xxx. I think that chip has limited OC potential, many people who has boards that go way past 350 can only clock 4300 to 3.2 at high voltage. This just means it's not the FSB or multiplier that limited 4xxx but it's the chip itself that can't go past 3.2 or so. However, the E6xxx might be a good choice if you got the RAM to match it. That is 1000+ rams. If so, I think it will go higher than 4300 because it has higher OC potential and the increased FSB will definitely boost the final performance.