e6x50 vs. e4x00

[zach0624]

I am building a rig for my brother (upgrading from a xp 2600+) and will be overclocking it. The rig will end up looking like this

Centurion 5 case
artic freezer 7
evga 680i nf63 tr (not retail package)
2gb ocz gold ddr2 800 444
7900gs

I can spend upto $200 on a processor shipped so my question is wether to get something like a e4500 or wait a week or 2 untill e6750s are under $200 shipped (now roughly 210)
I will probably upgrade this to a penryn quad for him when they get cheap, probably in a year.

 

[ethugholla]

I had the same issue.

The E4500 and the E6750 are both tempting--but I recommend you look for an even lower price, so that you can get an early investment for your Penryn quad.

The E4x00 series are excellent overclockers because they have such a great multiplier, whereas I've heard of problems that the E6x50 cannot overclock. There are a number of threads on various forums where people are having trouble overclocking.

My recommendation is this. It is to get an E4300 or an E4400, which you can find for 100 dollars or less nowadays. You can use that extra 100 dollars that you've just saved for the next Penryn series, AND you'll get an amazing overclock out of the E4x00 series. Generally speaking, the E4x00 series can OC up to 3.2-3.4 ghz (if you get a good chip), and that is more than enough to tide you over until Penryn.

If you decide not to upgrade, get the E6750 and that'll last you for a long while. Or if you ahve the money, just get the 6750 and upgrade when you please.

Make sure that your mobo supports the upcoming 45nm Penryn proc.

Cheers.

 

[zach0624]

thanks for the help I think I will get either the e4400 or 4500 as they overclock almost or equal to what the e6750 has been getting. I think I will put the extra money towards the a1 revision of the evga 680i for better ocing down the road.

 

[SerpentRoyal]

E4300 is out of production so you may get a good deal. Fry's was unloading some last week for 70ish. Look for SL9Tx on the box/chip. Good chance that you'll get at least 3.2GHz out of this bad boy with adequate cooling. I'm batting 5/5! Our club bought five chips during Fry's Anniversary sale.

 

[spinejam]

the 2 e4300's i had did 3.2 easily w/ minimal voltage bump!

 

[bryanW1995]

I've heard mixed reviews on e4300 oc results. Of course, I've heard almost all bad results on e6750 oc's, including mine. Most people end up btwn 3.4-3.6, I'm at 3.5 so right in the middle. e4500 might not be a bad choice b/c you'll probably get more money out of it when you sell it and you'll probably end up at a higher speed after oc'ing to tide you over until penryn.

 

[Markfw]

E6750.... WAY better than an E4xx0 series IMO.

 

[Ika]

I've heard a lot of bad feedback on the E4x00s not overclocking very well. There are a lot of users who can't manage to hit even 3.0ghz.

 

[dealmaster00]

Originally posted by: bryanW1995
I've heard mixed reviews on e4300 oc results. Of course, I've heard almost all bad results on e6750 oc's, including mine. Most people end up btwn 3.4-3.6, I'm at 3.5 so right in the middle. e4500 might not be a bad choice b/c you'll probably get more money out of it when you sell it and you'll probably end up at a higher speed after oc'ing to tide you over until penryn.

Huh?? 3.5GHz sounds pretty good to me on stock cooling. It starts at 2.67 GHz.

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Originally posted by: Markfw900
E6750.... WAY better than an E4xx0 series IMO.

Hmmm...you must be working for INTC's marketing. E6750 has twice onboard cache vs E4300. At the same core speed, 6750 is marginally faster with benchies...about 1 second with 1M Super Pi.

Real-world use? Perhaps a gain of a few FPS, but only with some games.

I can't justify paying twice the price for such mediocre boost in speed.

 

[Markfw]

Originally posted by: SerpentRoyal

Originally posted by: Markfw900
E6750.... WAY better than an E4xx0 series IMO.

Hmmm...you must be working for INTC's marketing. E6750 has twice onboard cache vs E4300. At the same core speed, 6750 is marginally faster with benchies...about 1 second with 1M Super Pi.

Real-world use? Perhaps a gain of a few FPS, but only with some games.

I can't justify paying twice the price for such mediocre boost in speed.

screw the cache. I just know the E4300's track record for OC'ing isn;t that great, and the worst E6750 is the 3.5 oe of bryan's, so I think the odds would be way better for an OC.

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Do you have any statistical database to support your theory? I see 50/50 mix of posts about E4300 @ 3.2GHz or higher. Perhaps the average top speed of E6750 is 3.5GHz. Why spend 2x the price when the improvement is less than a few %?

I'd rather put the $ in the bank (5% annual yield) and deploy it when 45 nm becomes more affordable.

 

[Markfw]

No, I don't have a statistical database. When I saw the article that said they were great OC'ers, I got one to try. It sucked. Then I kept reading a long stream of others that had the same experience. It based on my memory. If you want to believe otherwise fine, I am giving advice based on PERSONAL OWNERSHIP EXPERIENCE and reading MANY others post with similar bad experiences.

Want to buy my E4300 ? Its for sale, cheap.....I hate to sell crap, but....

 

[drakore]

Be forewarned not all e4300's are great overclockers... the newer ones seem to top out around 2.8ghz

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Let's go with the assumption that the average overclock speed of E4300 is 2.8GHz. Does this 700MHz gap warrant the 100% price hike? I'm sure that most users would not be able to differentiate between the two overclocked rigs in a double blind experiment.

Be aware that some E4300s may work better with some boards. Your board may be able to hit 500MHz FSB, but it may run out of gas with the E4300 at 310MHz. Ever come across mysterious memory compatibility issue with some boards?

 

[JD50]

I just bought an e4400 (L2 stepping) for $126 from Microcenter and using an Asus P5k (not deluxe) and a Zalman c7700 cooler I'm stable at 3.0GHz and 1.3875 vcore, thats for over 12 hours using orthos (I stopped it at 12 hours). First time overclocker too BTW.

Edit - BTW, I bought an e4400 so that I could save the rest of my money for when Penryn comes out.

 

[SerpentRoyal]

It's probably a rebadged E4300 with 10x multi. With more voltage and tweaks, you may be able to hit 3.1-3.2GHz. I'd bump Vcore in BIOS to 1.4 and gradually raise the FSB by 5 MHz. Run Orthos Large mode for 10 minutes. Also drop memory divider to 1:1 with 5-5-5-15 timing.

 

[JD50]

Originally posted by: SerpentRoyal
It's probably a rebadged E4300 with 10x multi. With more voltage and tweaks, you may be able to hit 3.1-3.2GHz. I'd bump Vcore in BIOS to 1.4 and gradually raise the FSB by 5 MHz. Run Orthos Large mode for 10 minutes. Also drop memory divider to 1:1 with 5-5-5-15 timing.

I tried to hit 3.1GHz a few days ago with the Vcore at 1.4 and Orthos small FFT errored out after about 10 minutes. Thats with my ram at 5-5-5-15 and I think the divider is set to auto because it stays around 370mhz, its DDR 800 so that should be good. Maybe I'll need to bump the Vcore up a little more.

 

[zach0624]

Thanks for all the replies. I will probably be getting a e4500 from chiefvalue for 147 and get a t1 revision 680i for upgradability. my dad( who is helping pay for the rig because my brother has no job) and I have the extra $75 bucks is not worth a extra two or three hundred megahertz overclocking. Also the higher multi was a big selling point because to get a super overclock with a 6750 you have to get to a fsb of over 400 which no matter what board you have can get tricky overclocking that high.

 

[JD50]

Originally posted by: zach0624
Thanks for all the replies. I will probably be getting a e4500 from chiefvalue for 147 and get a t1 revision 680i for upgradability. my dad( who is helping pay for the rig because my brother has no job) and I have the extra $75 bucks is not worth a extra two or three hundred megahertz overclocking. Also the higher multi was a big selling point because to get a super overclock with a 6750 you have to get to a fsb of over 400 which no matter what board you have can get tricky overclocking that high.

Why the 680i mobo for upgradeability? Will it support penryn?

 

[SerpentRoyal]

If RAM speed is set to AUTO detect, then you're already running at 400MHz speed (DDR2 800) with 200MHz FSB! Use CPUz to check your RAM speed at the overclocked setting. It may show 600MHz RAM speed with 300MHz FSB.

E4300 can handle 1.45Vcore if you have a decent CPU cooler.

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Originally posted by: zach0624
Thanks for all the replies. I will probably be getting a e4500 from chiefvalue for 147 and get a t1 revision 680i for upgradability. my dad( who is helping pay for the rig because my brother has no job) and I have the extra $75 bucks is not worth a extra two or three hundred megahertz overclocking. Also the higher multi was a big selling point because to get a super overclock with a 6750 you have to get to a fsb of over 400 which no matter what board you have can get tricky overclocking that high.

Note that the 680i runs HOT. Tremendous amount of inrush current when you hit the power switch. Saw a post about this board going up in smoke during boot. OP said that there are reports about similar incident.

Abit IP35-E runs cool and quiet. It's only $98 AR at MWAVE. This board works very well with E4300s and value ram. You can get a 1GB stick of HP DDR2 667 for $20 AR. Check out motherboard and hot deals forum.

 

[JD50]

Originally posted by: SerpentRoyal
If RAM speed is set to AUTO detect, then you're already running at 400MHz speed (DDR2 800) with 200MHz FSB! Use CPUz to check your RAM speed at the overclocked setting. It may show 600MHz RAM speed with 300MHz FSB.

E4300 can handle 1.45Vcore if you have a decent CPU cooler.

I'll have to check it when I get home, but I believe that CPU-Z is showing the RAM speed around 370mhz, which is really 740 mhz because its DDR2 right?

If I manually change it to a 1:1 divider, doesn't that mean that I would have to get my FSB up to 400mhz for my RAM to be at its stock speed?

 

[zach0624]

I know the 680i runs hot but this the mobo will need to last a couple of years without being replaced so it will probably need sli (don't like crossfire) and yes the 680i will support penryn.

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Originally posted by: JD50

Originally posted by: SerpentRoyal
If RAM speed is set to AUTO detect, then you're already running at 400MHz speed (DDR2 800) with 200MHz FSB! Use CPUz to check your RAM speed at the overclocked setting. It may show 600MHz RAM speed with 300MHz FSB.

E4300 can handle 1.45Vcore if you have a decent CPU cooler.

I'll have to check it when I get home, but I believe that CPU-Z is showing the RAM speed around 370mhz, which is really 740 mhz because its DDR2 right?

If I manually change it to a 1:1 divider, doesn't that mean that I would have to get my FSB up to 400mhz for my RAM to be at its stock speed?

Correct...your FSB = Memory speed with 1:1 divider.