E8400 @3600 vs E7300 @4000

[ydafff]

I did move my q9450 to my new ESXI server and in presses to build new home desktop system( video, mp3 decoding, Photoshop, VMware workstation with 1-3 VMs.)
What will be better E8400 with VT and 6 mb cash @ 3600 or E7300 no VT and 3 mb cash @ 4000
my 8 GB memory CAN ONLY SUPPORT 400 bus speed.
I'm using Vista 64 bit, Thanks.

 

[mooseracing]

Originally posted by: ydafff
I did move my q9450 to my new ESXI server and in presses to build new home desktop system( video, mp3 decoding, Photoshop, VMware workstation with 1-3 VMs.)
What will be better E8400 with VT and 6 mb cash @ 3600 or E7300 no VT and 3 mb cash @ 4000
my 8 GB memory CAN ONLY SUPPORT 400 bus speed.
I'm using Vista 64 bit, Thanks.

I'd go for the larger cash since I always need more to pay the bills.




I've been impressed with my e8400's with VT enabled, 4GB's of RAM and RAID setup for VM machines. It also depends on the VM's you are running.

 

[brencat]

Originally posted by: mooseracing
I'd go for the larger cash since I always need more to pay the bills.

:laugh:

ydafff, I'm quite certain your RAM can be overclocked. Just because it's rated for 400 FSB doesn't mean it can't go faster. Mine is running 24/7 @ 531 FSB. Now if you're telling us your MOBO won't support higher vDIMM or is limited by your bios, that's another story. Let us know what you're running so we have more info.

But to answer your other question...if it's between the E8400 vs E7300, I'd go E8400. If you are open to another suggestion though, I'd pick neither and instead choose the E7200 which has a 9.5x multiplier and will save you money at ~ $119 shipped and is the best price/performance vs the other choices. 9.5x multi x 400 FSB = 3.8ghz if you have good cooling.

 

[boomhower]

You could also use a divider to keep your ram at 400Mhz and let your E8400 go to 4.0

 

[ydafff]

brencat, boomhower my Mb Asus P5K Deluxe and memory Patriot Dual Channel PC2-6400 1.8v, with 2.2 v it will go to 410 max...
correct me if I'm wrong e8400 @3600 ~= E7200 @3800, What role of VT ? beside VMs will it affect more staff from performance and functionality prospective

 

[JPB]

Yea, I agree with the others here. Go with the E8400. More cache and will most likely hit 4GHZ as well.

 

[AdamK47]

I picked up my E8400 at Microcenter for $186 back in January and it's been running at 4050MHz ever since then.

 

[brencat]

Originally posted by: ydafff
brencat, boomhower my Mb Asus P5K Deluxe and memory Patriot Dual Channel PC2-6400 1.8v, with 2.2 v it will go to 410 max...
correct me if I'm wrong e8400 @3600 ~= E7200 @3800, What role of VT ? beside VMs will it affect more staff from performance and functionality prospective

You said you used a Q9450 before right? That's a 333 FSB processor with an 8 multi for 2.66ghz stock. If you didn't touch any RAM settings when you had it running, most likely your board defaulted the memory divider to 1:1.2 (also known as 5:6) to keep the bus speed of 333 in relation to the 400 mhz RAM.

When you say your RAM can only go to 410, do you remember if you still had the divider set to 5:6 which means it was really running @ 492 mhz? -- that I would believe.

Make sure you set the divider to 1:1, and manually set the timings to 5-5-5-15 & 2T command rate when overclocking so FSB and RAM speed will be same initially. Then go back and tweak it later after CPU OC is set.

Btw, that's a very nice mobo you have there -- great for OCing.

 

[bobthedolebobdole]

Everyone seems to miss the point that 400 x 9 = 3.6 IS THE MAX OVERCLOCK for the E8400 because of his RAM
OBVIOUSLY E8400 @ 4GHz > E7300 @ 4GHz

@brencat - I highly doubt he would get much of an overclock on his 8gb of RAM considering its most likely 4 DIMMs.
@boomhower - If he's running a p35/p45 (I'm not sure about nvidia chipsets) then memory dividers only "go up," and the lowest he could run is 1:1. In other words he can't set his RAM to 400 MHz and his FSB to say 450 MHz.

This review shows that at equal clocks, the average performance difference for 3 MB vs 6 MB L2 cache is 5%. The biggest differences were in games so I don't think there would be > 5% difference for VMs, and the higher clocked E7300 would easily make up for it. Between the two I would vote for the E7300, but the E7200 is significantly cheaper and with good cooling should get 400x9.5 = 3.8 GHz (I have mine at 3.6 GHz @ 1.205v)

 

[brencat]

Originally posted by: bobthedolebobdole
@brencat - I highly doubt he would get much of an overclock on his 8gb of RAM considering its most likely 4 DIMMs.

Patriot is not bad RAM, and the P5K Dlx is a very capable board. Let's see what his response is.

Originally posted by: bobthedolebobdole
but the E7200 is significantly cheaper and with good cooling should get 400x9.5 = 3.8 GHz (I have mine at 3.6 GHz @ 1.205v)

Agreed on E7200, which I recommended earlier too. Welcome to the forums btw.

 

[Ratman6161]

Originally posted by: ydafff
I did move my q9450 to my new ESXI server and in presses to build new home desktop system( video, mp3 decoding, Photoshop, VMware workstation with 1-3 VMs.)
What will be better E8400 with VT and 6 mb cash @ 3600 or E7300 no VT and 3 mb cash @ 4000
my 8 GB memory CAN ONLY SUPPORT 400 bus speed.
I'm using Vista 64 bit, Thanks.

For VMWare workstation, definitely go with a processor that has VT. Also, consider a lower end quad core over any dual core. I'm having great success running multiple VM's concurrently with my setup. See below.

Update: One other note on running VMWare workstation VM's. I find it extremely useful to have at least two disk drives in my system with one dedicated exclusively to virtual machines. It really seems to speed things up and make everything more responsive if the VM's and the host OS are not contending for the same disk.

 

[ydafff]

Went with E8400 from Amazon.com.