OCing the E4300

[Agentbolt]

I've read that the E4300 Intel chip can generally OC as far as the E6400 when combined with a decent heatsink. Since I'm pretty new to OCing, could someone please just tell me:

A: What speed memory I will need (I am comfortable OCing the memory to save some $)

B: What motherboard you'd recommend for OCing this processor

C: Is this really true? How much money do you save by going this route?

Anyways, thanks for any info on this. I'm not smart enough to figure out all these crazy numbers and speeds.

 

[n7]

Brief info.

E4300 = 9x200 (1800 MHz)

Default 1:1 (same RAM speed as FSB) RAM needed = DDR2-400 (200 MHz double data rate).
You can also run RAM faster than FSB, like say 4:5 (FSB speed multiplied by 1.25).

Now when you overclock, you increase FSB speed.

Here are some examples for the E4300; you can do the math for anything in between:
9x300 = 2700 MHz (DDR2-600 1:1 or DDR2-750 4:5)
9x350 = 3150 MHz (DDR2-700 1:1 or DDR2-875 4:5)
9x400 = 3600 MHz (DDR2-800 1:1 or DDR2-1000 4:5)

That should give you some pretty good ideas of what RAM you need.
Or, the spelled out version: Get some DDR2-800 RAM

Motherboard i'd suggest is either the Asus P5B-E or the Asus P5N-E SLI.
I'm not gonna go over all the reasons why; that's something you can research.

But both OC very well, are decently featured, & are quite well priced.

 

[Agentbolt]

Thanks!

 

[stogez]

Couldn't have explained it better than n7 already did. For the most part you should be ok with PC5300 to hit up to 3.2ghz but if you want to try higher, get PC6400.
I would also suggest the Gigabyte S3 or DS3 along with the P5B-E/Deluxe motherboards. S3 is only about $100 and OCs very well. Just comes down to what other features you want out of the MB.

 

[GreenGhost]

How stable is it at 3150GHz? I don't have an overclocked chip since the Celeron 300A, which didn't last very long running at 450MHz. For my mid-range system, I was more inclined to buy a Dell, but now I'm not sure anymore.