Introducing the E4300 - the new budget overclocking champ

[harpoon84]

http://xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core2duo-e4300.html

As predicted, this is the ultimate budget overclockers chip. Just look at this overclocked $163 chip leave the $1000 X6800 in its wake, it should bring a smile to any overclocker.

EDIT
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2903&p=1
Anandtech's own review is up: 3.37GHz 1.47V STOCK COOLER

 

[DrMrLordX]

That's a pretty high vcore setting though . . . I wish they had tested the chip a bit more to see if they could get it to the same clock speed with lower vcore when using a lower multiplier (as that one Japanese site has already indicated).

 

[harpoon84]

Originally posted by: DrMrLordX
That's a pretty high vcore setting though . . . I wish they had tested the chip a bit more to see if they could get it to the same clock speed with lower vcore when using a lower multiplier (as that one Japanese site has already indicated).

You are correct, I would not put 1.6V through a C2D for everyday use.

From what I've seen (there were 2 other previews in Chinese before this article) it seems the E4300s tend to get around 3GHz at stock volts (Xbitlabs is 2.97GHz in this case) and up to 3.5GHz benchable with raised voltages.

I would guess that a 'moderate' Vcore increase should enable stable operation in the 3.2 - 3.3GHz range, which is still a very decent overclock % wise.

 

[Noubourne]

The E6300 is $190. This saves you less than $30, and overclocks poorly in comparison (3.2Ghz is common on air with the 6300s, and WELL BELOW 1.6v).

This isn't a king. It's a pauper.

 

[Lonyo]

Originally posted by: Noubourne
The E6300 is $190. This saves you less than $30, and overclocks poorly in comparison (3.2Ghz is common on air with the 6300s, and WELL BELOW 1.6v).

This isn't a king. It's a pauper.

You are ignoring one thing.
The chip itself may only be $30 cheaper, but then add in cheaper RAM and a cheaper motherboard, and the overall package becomes cheaper.
The E4300 doesn't need a high FSB to reach 3GHz, which means it doesn't need a super top end overclocking motherboard, or super high end RAM (for 1:1 overclocking).
The OVERALL cost of an E4300 overclocker system is less than the overall cost of an E6300 setup.

 

[harpoon84]

Originally posted by: Noubourne
The E6300 is $190. This saves you less than $30, and overclocks poorly in comparison (3.2Ghz is common on air with the 6300s, and WELL BELOW 1.6v).

This isn't a king. It's a pauper.

E4300 has a 9x multiplier, which means it doesn't require high speed RAM and a 500FSB capable mobo in order to get a big overclock like the E6300 (and to a lesser extent, E6400).

The savings go well beyond the CPU price alone.

 

[Brunnis]

Hmm... I'm thinking of getting this and a cheap 965 mobo. Just put it at 333MHz FSB and be done with it. Sounds awfully tempting. I just wonder how much more power that thing will draw, compared to my X2 @ 2.2GHz (1.2V)...

 

[Avalon]

Hardly the ultimate budget overclocking champ when its price looks to be more than an E6300 by $20 on average. You'll save a bit on the RAM, but that's about it. A Biostar 965PT or Gigabyte S3 are as cheap as decent OC'ing mobos go, and they can handle 500FSB, so you aren't going to find any motherboard savings.

*Edit*
I just noticed that Xbit didn't mention what air cooler they used. They just said "we used an air cooler." It very well could be the stock Intel heatsink. If so, tickle me impressed.

 

[KayKay]

I hope the claim in the article that says the Allendale CPUs dont seem to overclock as high as the conroes/disabled conroes (E6300/6400) is not true!

 

[Brunnis]

Originally posted by: Avalon
Hardly the ultimate budget overclocking champ when its price looks to be more than an E6300 by $20 on average. You'll save a bit on the RAM, but that's about it. A Biostar 965PT or Gigabyte S3 are as cheap as decent OC'ing mobos go, and they can handle 500FSB, so you aren't going to find any motherboard savings.

Well, the price is hardly going to remain higher than the E6300. This may not be the ultimate overclocker, but it's the perfect chip for those of us that don't want to mess with extreme FSBs and still get good performance.

Originally posted by: Avalon*Edit*
I just noticed that Xbit didn't mention what air cooler they used. They just said "we used an air cooler." It very well could be the stock Intel heatsink. If so, tickle me impressed.

I seem to remember that the article states that they used the Zalman 9500.

 

[Avalon]

Certainly, the price will drop to normal given time, but now is now. The OP declared it the king now, but looking at the prices I don't see how that makes it so.

I'll go through the article again and see if they mentioned a Zalman. I didn't catch it.

*Edit*
Yep, you are right. It was a Zalman 9500.
Simply, just a good overclock on a good cooler. Still not that bad.

 

[munisgtm]

would E4300 be good for me ?

1- i have never overclocked(but i intend to do it )
2- i can't buy high-end ram just budget Kingston ram (DDR-667)
3- i'll be buying BadAxe 2 mobo because thats the only good mobo available in my country :-(

guessing by above comments that E4300 would be way better than E6300...

 

[Avalon]

Originally posted by: munisgtm
would E4300 be good for me ?

1- i have never overclocked(but i intend to do it )
2- i can't buy high-end ram just budget Kingston ram (DDR-667)
3- i'll be buying BadAxe 2 mobo because thats the only good mobo available in my country :-(

guessing by above comments that E4300 would be way better than E6300...

The E4300 would be better for you than the E6300 on that board with that sort of RAM, definitely.

 

[KayKay]

Originally posted by: munisgtm
would E4300 be good for me ?

1- i have never overclocked(but i intend to do it )
2- i can't buy high-end ram just budget Kingston ram (DDR-667)
3- i'll be buying BadAxe 2 mobo because thats the only good mobo available in my country :-(

guessing by above comments that E4300 would be way better than E6300...

The article claimed to have some issues with the E4300 and the 975X chipset. could be a bios/sample cpu problem that can be fixed, but if other options are available, explore them

 

[harpoon84]

Avalon - price gouging always occurs on new products. Once the prices steady it should be around $20 LESS than the E6300.

The S3 or 965Tforce boards are NOT guaranteed for 500FSB operation. I've seen many top out at around 475FSB or thereabouts, so there is some variance. Also, think about the user who wants to keep his old DDR RAM but upgrade to C2D, a $50 775Dual VSTA normally maxes out at around 300MHz FSB. That would mean for a little over $200 you can have a 2.7GHz C2D. With the 7x multi on the E6300, you will be limited to $2.1GHz in this case. Therefore, for the BUDGET overclocker, the E4300 comes up trumps.

Besides, any way you look at it, the E4300 is BY FAR the more flexible overclocker compared to the E6300. The E6300 is limited to the 6x and 7x multi, the E4300 has the 6x, 7x, 8x and 9x to work with.

 

[harpoon84]

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2903&p=1
Anandtech's own review is up: 3.37GHz 1.47V STOCK COOLER

Any more doubters?

 

[DrMrLordX]

Anandtech had much better luck with their chip which is impressive. I must admit that the flexibility of the 9x multiplier . . . and any prospect of the Rev G2 Brisbane core being a good overclocker now seems lackluster in comparison. The cheapest Brisbane is, what, $170 for the X2-4000+?

 

[harpoon84]

Originally posted by: DrMrLordX
Anandtech had much better luck with their chip which is impressive. I must admit that the flexibility of the 9x multiplier . . . and any prospect of the Rev G2 Brisbane core being a good overclocker now seems lackluster in comparison. The cheapest Brisbane is, what, $170 for the X2-4000+?

I wouldn't say Anand had *that* much better luck - I bet if Xbitlabs ran it at 1.47V instead of 1.6V they could've still got 3.3GHz stable. Xbit just wanted the more impressive screenshot. Of course on the flip side we can argue that Anand could've gotten 3.5GHz stable with more voltage and a better HSF.

As for Brisbane, it would need to clock at a whopping 4.1GHz to be competitive with a C2D @ 3.4GHz! Current Brisbanes are topping out at 3GHz... there is just no comparison.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Some were hoping for maybe 3.6 ghz out of Rev G2 Brisbane chips. At the moment, we just don't know. Even still, for $170 that just doesn't seem to be worth the trouble.

 

[nyker96]

this chip is excellent! two thumbs up! You get to use DDR800 RAM in a 1:1 ratio and still run up to 3.6 on this chip. This is very cool.

 

[lopri]

Once the price of this chip settles, this chip looks to be the last straw to kill off A64 recommendation until K8L debuts, the only exception being existing Socket 939 platforms where a simple CPU swap can see a decent performance improvement. There will be no reason to build a new A64 system even on a tight budget. With current E6300 going for as low as $170, I expect this chip to drop in price below $150 rather quickly.

E4300 (~$150, ~$130 in Q2)
Decent budget P965 board (~$120)

It is amazing that once overclocked to 3.0GHz+, the $250 combo will overpower even the almighty 4x4 in gaming scenario. But for serious gamers, I'd still recommend an E6600. As I've stated before and Anand's E4300 review proves, the 4MB CPUs are much better in 3D. Not only for average FPS, but for whatever reason I feel like I experience less 'stuttering'(?) with 4MB CPUs.

 

[lopri]

Also it is possible that Anand's overclock of E4300 is rather conservative. (Especially considering his Core 2 Duo launch review was later criticized for cherry samples) I looked at the CPU-Z screen of E4300 in the review, and it defaults to an impressive 1.136V! I'm aware that it is still an engineering sample, but it certainly looks promising. Considering that current E6x00 series' max vCore is denoted 1.35V (remember it's for 4MB L2 CPUs), this 'true' Allendale core will run cooler and possibly could tolerate more voltages. Imagine how high it'd go with 1.60V!

 

[KayKay]

Originally posted by: lopri
Also it is possible that Anand's overclock of E4300 is rather conservative. (Especially considering his Core 2 Duo launch review was later criticized for cherry samples) I looked at the CPU-Z screen of E4300 in the review, and it defaults to an impressive 1.136V! I'm aware that it is still an engineering sample, but it certainly looks promising. Considering that current E6x00 series' max vCore is denoted 1.35V (remember it's for 4MB L2 CPUs), this 'true' Allendale core will run cooler and possibly could tolerate more voltages. Imagine how high it'd go with 1.60V!

CPU-Z inaccurately detects the Vcore... An example would be the x-bit labs review, where CPU-Z reported a Vcore of 1.29V ? which was actually set as 1.525V in the bios

 

[Markfw]

Originally posted by: KayKay

Originally posted by: lopri
Also it is possible that Anand's overclock of E4300 is rather conservative. (Especially considering his Core 2 Duo launch review was later criticized for cherry samples) I looked at the CPU-Z screen of E4300 in the review, and it defaults to an impressive 1.136V! I'm aware that it is still an engineering sample, but it certainly looks promising. Considering that current E6x00 series' max vCore is denoted 1.35V (remember it's for 4MB L2 CPUs), this 'true' Allendale core will run cooler and possibly could tolerate more voltages. Imagine how high it'd go with 1.60V!

CPU-Z inaccurately detects the Vcore... An example would be the x-bit labs review, where CPU-Z reported a Vcore of 1.29V ? which was actually set as 1.525V in the bios

Its called vdroop. My S3 board don't have much, but my new P5B does. I set it to 1.4875 and it comes out at 1.408. My S3's I set at 1.450 and they end up 1.41

 

[dantonic]

From Anandtechs review it seems that it has the lowest power consumption at stock speeds.

Of course with overclocking it is a different story.