Would an E6600 represent a worthwhile investment over an E4300/6400?

[Cheex]

Originally posted by: GuitarDaddy
E6600/E6700/X6800 = conroe with full cache
E6300/E6400 = conroe with 1/2 cache disabled
E4300/E4400 = allendale

It is a common misconception that E6300/E6400 are allendales, they are not.
IMO the performance difference between E6400 and E6600 is not worth the price difference, even less so if you consider overclocking.

Your paying 50-60% more for 5-15% more performance. Worth it to many, not me.

I totally agree with this. I couldn't have said it better myself.

Originally posted by: Snatchface
Well I don't care about voltage or the extra heat. I have always pushed my procs to the melting point and have never killed one yet. I also plan on using high end air - either a Thermalright Ultra-120 or a Scythe Infinity. Also being paired with an Antec Nine Hundred case. Volts don't scare me

If you consider the HSFs you listed as high end then.....
Ultra high end air = Tuniq Tower 120. Nothing else running on air beats it.

 

[The Sauce]

Originally posted by: Extelleron

Originally posted by: classy

Originally posted by: Extelleron

Originally posted by: classy
It looks to me the difference is about $100. A couple bucks less than $100 difference actually. If you don't like to upgrade often I would say easily get the 6600. That extra cache really makes a difference. Being a Core 2 user I wish I would have went ahead and got the extra cache. And 10% depending on the application can be significant.

Where can you find an E6600 for $260? Newegg lists the E6600 as $314.

Well on Fry's/Outpost I only see the E6300 OEM and thats $180. Comparing the average selling price of the two, the difference is about $95-100. Maybe its walk-in sale maybe for $160 oem E6400, but I don't see it on the site.

Type in e6400, the OEM is $159.99 on Outpost.

Just checked. The 6400 isn't even listed as OEM. The 6300 is and is going for $180.

 

[Mashed Potato]

Originally posted by: Imyourzero
I've seen quite a few people with E6400s running @ 2.8-3.2 either at stock voltage or slightly undervolted. Now that's pretty cool IMO...you're getting roughly 1 GHz more for free, and keeping voltages low = lower temps which means stock cooling should be more than adequate.

But, I'll admit the E6600 is tempting as even oc'ed to 3.0 it reigns over most other CPUs in the benches. But are people reaching that on stock voltage? And I'm not so sure that the E6600 will reach 3.4-3.6 as easily as some people think. Maybe on water, but I haven't seen too many running on air at those speeds.

I just got my rig running last week and have been bumping the speed up little by little. So far I have 3.2 stock air. Idle temps are at 37c, and load are around 60c. I haven't given it the ol' 24 hour orthos test but I have had no problems with my gaming. Very happy with the 6600.

 

[Extelleron]

Originally posted by: Snatchface

Originally posted by: Extelleron

Originally posted by: classy

Originally posted by: Extelleron

Originally posted by: classy
It looks to me the difference is about $100. A couple bucks less than $100 difference actually. If you don't like to upgrade often I would say easily get the 6600. That extra cache really makes a difference. Being a Core 2 user I wish I would have went ahead and got the extra cache. And 10% depending on the application can be significant.

Where can you find an E6600 for $260? Newegg lists the E6600 as $314.

Well on Fry's/Outpost I only see the E6300 OEM and thats $180. Comparing the average selling price of the two, the difference is about $95-100. Maybe its walk-in sale maybe for $160 oem E6400, but I don't see it on the site.

Type in e6400, the OEM is $159.99 on Outpost.

Just checked. The 6400 isn't even listed as OEM. The 6300 is and is going for $180.

Wait, it's microcenter, sorry. Don't know where I got Fry's from.

 

[Zim]

At $160 for an E6400 it's a no-brainer in my mind. I had the same dilemma ( trilemma ? ) a few weeks back. I did a lot of reading around and concluded that some people were not getting great results from the E4300's. There seemed to be no huge gain in an E6600 over an E6400 so I opted for a retail E6400. Currently running it at 3.2GHz (400x8) at stock voltage so overall I'm very happy. I just wish I had got it for $160 though!

 

[OneOfTheseDays]

A E4300 or E6400 @ 3Ghz is a beast of a machine. Until the next generation of CPU's is ushered in you will have more than enough computing power.

 

[Imyourzero]

Originally posted by: Mashed Potato

Originally posted by: Imyourzero
I've seen quite a few people with E6400s running @ 2.8-3.2 either at stock voltage or slightly undervolted. Now that's pretty cool IMO...you're getting roughly 1 GHz more for free, and keeping voltages low = lower temps which means stock cooling should be more than adequate.

But, I'll admit the E6600 is tempting as even oc'ed to 3.0 it reigns over most other CPUs in the benches. But are people reaching that on stock voltage? And I'm not so sure that the E6600 will reach 3.4-3.6 as easily as some people think. Maybe on water, but I haven't seen too many running on air at those speeds.

I just got my rig running last week and have been bumping the speed up little by little. So far I have 3.2 stock air. Idle temps are at 37c, and load are around 60c. I haven't given it the ol' 24 hour orthos test but I have had no problems with my gaming. Very happy with the 6600.

Now that's sweet. What other components are you using (mb/ram) and where did you order your E6600 from?

 

[The Sauce]

Originally posted by: Zim
At $160 for an E6400 it's a no-brainer in my mind. I had the same dilemma ( trilemma ? ) a few weeks back. I did a lot of reading around and concluded that some people were not getting great results from the E4300's. There seemed to be no huge gain in an E6600 over an E6400 so I opted for a retail E6400. Currently running it at 3.2GHz (400x8) at stock voltage so overall I'm very happy. I just wish I had got it for $160 though!

Well I certainly understand that. I usually go for the hot deal. But if I can get another 400 MHZ and 2 MB L2 cache from a 6600 that would be worth it for me. That might prevent my having to upgrade for another 4-6 months. I am buying this with a business expense account so it's virtually free for me anyway.

 

[Zim]

Originally posted by: Snatchface
But if I can get another 400 MHZ and 2 MB L2 cache from a 6600 that would be worth it for me. That might prevent my having to upgrade for another 4-6 months. I am buying this with a business expense account so it's virtually free for me anyway.

There is no reason to thank that an E6600 would overclock better than an E6400, and I believe the facts show that it doesn't. Admittedly, the multiplier makes choice of RAM easier, but getting an E6600 to 3.6GHz is not a sure thing. At that speed you would be teetering on the edge of stability. The next question then is, is that extra 2MB worth an extra $140 of anyone's money? That said, if money was not a consideration, I'd go for an E6600.

 

[idiotekniQues]

from the reading i did a month back to do my build - very few proggies benefit from the extra 2mb cache.

check the benchies. unless you use one of the few programs that really benefits from the 4mb cache - at the same clock speed the 6400 will match the e6600 in all but a few programs. and then the 2mb xtra cache will give you like a 10-15% performance boost for those proggies.

 

[idiotekniQues]

http://techreport.com/reviews/2006q3/e6300-vs-sff/index.x?pg=4

http://techreport.com/reviews/2006q3/e6300-vs-sff/index.x?pg=6

virtually no gain in gaming from a downclocked 6700 to 6300 speeds as seen above.

http://techreport.com/reviews/2006q3/e6300-vs-sff/index.x?pg=8

video editing and audio encoding does not benefit from the extra cache as seen above

the article re-iterates what i ahve read in many places - the xtra 2mb cache is not very beneficial for most things.

 

[Cheex]

Originally posted by: Zim
At $160 for an E6400 it's a no-brainer in my mind. I had the same dilemma ( trilemma ? ) a few weeks back. I did a lot of reading around and concluded that some people were not getting great results from the E4300's. There seemed to be no huge gain in an E6600 over an E6400 so I opted for a retail E6400. Currently running it at 3.2GHz (400x8) at stock voltage so overall I'm very happy. I just wish I had got it for $160 though!

Where is the E6400 for $160?
All I see there is $260.

 

[The Sauce]

It was at microcenter - OEM. Well...that's what Extelleron said above anyway...still not finding it. Might have been a pricing error.

 

[Capt Caveman]

It's $159 at Microcenter B&M with a $100 coupon from their ad. It was online with no coupon but is now OOS.
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=40&threadid=2010683&enterthread=y