e6600 to e8400

[fleflikr]

currently have a conroe e6600 @3.2 on an asus p5b deluxe.

ati 4870 512mb

i like to game.

would it be worth it to jump to an e8400 and shoot for 4.0?

would that kind of oc even be possible on my asus p5b?

 

[faxon]

you're probably fine with what you have now. only upgrade it if it is currently laggy in the games you play. otherwise wait another upgrade cycle, software has barely begun to catch up with what last years dual cores can offer, i would expect your cpu to be just fine for gaming for another year lol

 

[Dadofamunky]

I think it's a valid upgrade. I went from an e6750 to an e8600 and the difference was noticeable. For games, every cycle you can get is helpful. Plus, it's a drop-in upgrade (make sure your BIOS supports it). I would think your board should be good to go for OCing it.

 

[Pneumothorax]

I upgraded from a E6600 to a E8400 and it's a noticeable upgrade, computer feels more snappy. I'm also on the same motherboard as you and if you do decide to upgrade:
Make sure you get the BETA 1237 bios for the p5b Deluxe BEFORE you drop in that 8400! I learned the hard way and had to remove my motherboard in order to reinstall the E6600 to reflash the bios. I'm currently running at 400X9 at stock voltage on a TRUE cooler. Running great so far on this OLD Skool motherboard lol.

 

[fleflikr]

thanks for your input.
i think ill go for the e8400. i was most concerned with the
motherboard compatibility/functionality than the
actual increase in speed. i love this little conroe but
4.0 gtz is just too tantalizing. that would be an 800 mhz increase
from where i am now.

 

[Pneumothorax]

BTW the 1236 official bios available for d/l will lock up an E0 stepping CPU with 4 gb of ram. Only the 1237 beta works at this time with a 4gb config.

Here's a great LINK on ASUS

 

[Dadofamunky]

Originally posted by: fleflikr
thanks for your input.
i think ill go for the e8400. i was most concerned with the
motherboard compatibility/functionality than the
actual increase in speed. i love this little conroe but
4.0 gtz is just too tantalizing. that would be an 800 mhz increase
from where i am now.

Yeah, and you even got the key BIOS skinny. Use a thumb drive with the BIOS upgrade utility to re-flash it. Good luck!

 

[njdevilsfan87]

Why not just push the e6600 a bit more? You could probably get 3.5-3.6 with more voltage - who cares if it runs hotter. It's not like you want it to last you another 2 years or so.

 

[us3rnotfound]

I did this exact upgrade and couldn't be happier. I really did notice a good speed boost with my E8400, it really tied everything together with my 4 gb of RAM and 8800 GT .

 

[Denithor]

I went from an e6400 @ 3GHz to an e8400 @ 3.6GHz. The biggest difference I noticed was lower temps on my chip. Seriously. Not much difference at all in games or other apps. And remember, that's a 2MB cache chip at 3GHz to a 6MB cache chip at 3.6GHz, a bigger jump than you're talking about.

 

[JustStarting]

I got 3.8+g out of my E6600 on my P5B deluxe- on water. Just upgraded to a Gigabyte E45P- UD3P and love it.

Day one has me at 4009mhz with a E8500 (water as well)- probably more room to go, but have not gone over 422FSB yet. I wanted the 4ghz mark out of the gate

I'd go for the 8500 for a few extra bucks for the 9.5 multiplier. That way you don't need great RAM or high FSB to get a nice OC. I'm at 422FSB and my G.Skilll has plenty of headroom. It went DDR2-1004 on my ASUS.

Retail from newegg is bringing mostly EO chips.... that what I got

 

[Gannon]

Originally posted by: fleflikr
currently have a conroe e6600 @3.2 on an asus p5b deluxe.

ati 4870 512mb

i like to game.

would it be worth it to jump to an e8400 and shoot for 4.0?

would that kind of oc even be possible on my asus p5b?

No it's not worth it, take it from me... save your money for the next videocard / upgrade. You'd be better off sinking that money into a better aftermarket heatsink if you don't have one already, if you are really desperate for extra mhz out of your E6600. If you're on a budget, just say no. Remember tech stuff is more of a liability, then an investment.

I usually only upgrade when a major software release hits that I want to play or use, otherwise I don't. I used to upgrade way too frequently and with all the changes in sockets, power supplies and memory, it just is not worth it. If you splurge on that CPU now, that's $200 less, you have to spend on the next upgrade (which you will have to spend it on anyway, eventually). The rule of thumb I use is - only upgrade when you are getting twice or more performance then the last generation. I usually skip video card generations for this reason.

 

[MTDEW]

Originally posted by: Gannon

Originally posted by: fleflikr
currently have a conroe e6600 @3.2 on an asus p5b deluxe.

ati 4870 512mb

i like to game.

would it be worth it to jump to an e8400 and shoot for 4.0?

would that kind of oc even be possible on my asus p5b?

No it's not worth it, take it from me... save your money for the next videocard / upgrade. You'd be better off sinking that money into a better aftermarket heatsink if you don't have one already, if you are really desperate for extra mhz out of your E6600. If you're on a budget, just say no. Remember tech stuff is more of a liability, then an investment.

I usually only upgrade when a major software release hits that I want to play or use, otherwise I don't. I used to upgrade way too frequently and with all the changes in sockets, power supplies and memory, it just is not worth it. If you splurge on that CPU now, that's $200 less, you have to spend on the next upgrade (which you will have to spend it on anyway, eventually). The rule of thumb I use is - only upgrade when you are getting twice or more performance then the last generation. I usually skip video card generations for this reason.

I agree with this.
Wife has an e6600 @ 3.2ghz and she can play anything my e8400 @ 4ghz can play.
Right now, an e6600@ 3.2ghz is good enough to "push" your 4870 just fine, you're not gonna gain much of anything in games going with an e8400 instead.

But yeah, its hard to resist owning your first 4ghz cpu overclock.
I did it, and i also have a q6600@3.6ghz...LOL

 

[tigersty1e]

Push that E6600 higher.

I've got my E6320 up to 3.3 GHz. and wasn't going to push it much higher because temps are getting dangerously high.

But it can hit 3.5 and I'll probably push it up there and it "should" last me another year or so.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Originally posted by: MTDEW

Originally posted by: Gannon

Originally posted by: fleflikr
currently have a conroe e6600 @3.2 on an asus p5b deluxe.

ati 4870 512mb

i like to game.

would it be worth it to jump to an e8400 and shoot for 4.0?

would that kind of oc even be possible on my asus p5b?

No it's not worth it, take it from me... save your money for the next videocard / upgrade. You'd be better off sinking that money into a better aftermarket heatsink if you don't have one already, if you are really desperate for extra mhz out of your E6600. If you're on a budget, just say no. Remember tech stuff is more of a liability, then an investment.

I usually only upgrade when a major software release hits that I want to play or use, otherwise I don't. I used to upgrade way too frequently and with all the changes in sockets, power supplies and memory, it just is not worth it. If you splurge on that CPU now, that's $200 less, you have to spend on the next upgrade (which you will have to spend it on anyway, eventually). The rule of thumb I use is - only upgrade when you are getting twice or more performance then the last generation. I usually skip video card generations for this reason.

I agree with this.
Wife has an e6600 @ 3.2ghz and she can play anything my e8400 @ 4ghz can play.
Right now, an e6600@ 3.2ghz is good enough to "push" your 4870 just fine, you're not gonna gain much of anything in games going with an e8400 instead.

But yeah, its hard to resist owning your first 4ghz cpu overclock.
I did it, and i also have a q6600@3.6ghz...LOL

How true it is. The only upgrade worth it in my view when you have a Core2 at 3.2Ghz+ is a quad at the same or higher clock speed. A quad has added benefits in some situations and applications, even some newer games will use more than 2 cores. At the very least, you have more potential for higher performance later on (a few months down the line when apps are using 4 cores all the time) while keeping the same performance you have come to expect from the current dual core.

 

[Tempered81]

I went from a 3.4ghz E4300 to a 4.2ghz E8400, and felt it was a good upgrade for me.

 

[looper]

Those of you on this thread who have this specific combo....

E8400 / Asus P5B Deluxe...

Could you possibly post here all your changed bios settings you did for your OC. I would really appreciate it.

I'm getting ready to shortly install my new E8400 chip (replacing the E6600) on that Asus board. I did flash to the new "1237" Bios. Will use the Xigmatek S1283 HSF...

Thx for help on this.

Brian

 

[Pneumothorax]

You gotta be REAL careful with the P5B deluxe with an E0 chip though. The bios has a bug that if you o/c the FSB to 400 or so you will LOSE the ability to change the cpu voltage afterwards. In fact, the cpu volt becomes yellow and says "AUTO" But it's anything but AUTO as it WILL set your CPU voltage to 1.55! I was very pissed after finding this out after the fact. The way to do it is to first set your FSB to 333 and adjust the voltage to where you want it (for me it was 1.375 I needed to get 4.0 on my E8400) and reboot, then go back in bios again and WITHOUT touching any of the voltage settings (as you should already have set them correctly) BTW FSB termination voltage should never be above 1.3, if anything I like to run mine at 1.2 for safety. I run NB Vcore 1.45 and SB Vcore 1.6. I leave ICH alone. PCI/PCIx speeds should be 66/100 respectively. I also leave all the cpu features enabled. Run your ram conservatively, until you have your cpu stable then adjust the ram afterwards for performance.

 

[looper]

Pneumothorax

Thx for info, but you needed to "dumb that down" more for me...1/2 of what you just posted I'm clueless about. Anything you can direct me to that will break this down more...besides the OC guide here at Anand's...one specific to this cpu and MB...

 

[Pneumothorax]

Here's a good link
It's dated, but still pretty good
SET CPU freq to 333 initially like I said
I set DRAM freq at 800 or close to it (This will change as you change the CPU freq - remember this is the freq that is multiplied by your chip's multiplier like 333X9=3,000Mhz=3Ghz or stock chip speed
set the voltages like I said then reboot the computer


Honestly I pretty much enable all the CPU functions including speedstep as I like my cpu to downclock when saving energy, it can cause instability, but usually not at 4ghz. I don't enable the max cpuid value limit though, everything else is enabled

BTW to reset the bios, remove the E6600 and leave the socket open and turn your mobo on for 10 seconds and then shut off, or just short the clear RTC jumper, see manual. MAke sure your computer is off and the power to the mobo is off.

 

[looper]

Thx...

Never heard that one before...

"BTW to reset the bios, remove the E6600 and leave the socket open and turn your mobo on for 10 seconds and then shut off, or just short the clear RTC jumper, see manual. MAke sure your computer is off and the power to the mobo is off. "

Have to do this, even though I have the latest "1237" bios already?

If you think of other bios changes you made...fire them along to me...

Asus P5B/E8400

 

[looper]

Pneumothorax

WOW...

Just looked quick at that OC link for the P5B....that should be great...I will check it out later I hope....
Thx again...I need all the help I can get

 

[Pneumothorax]

You clear the CMOS so the bios will be forced to re-detect the CPU. This is to reset the settings. BTW clearing CMOS does not alter your bios so you would do this even if you didn't upgrade your bios.
It's not really necessary as I upgraded other motherboards before without doing this, but if your system fails to power up with your new cpu, you know what to do...