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AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 6400+ Black Edition/Upgrade is it worth it?

Any cooler will do the job to be honest as the temps are ridiculously low...

I brought a Zalman cooler which also cools the mobo but covers 2 of the ram slots (cant remember name) and it runs the cpu at 32 degrees idle in Vista x64 and 55 degrees under heavy load after 8 hours and thats with the multiplier whacked upto 3.3ghz overclock.

My view:-

If you want a good gaming cpu which will handle anything you throw at it with ease for a cheap as chips price of £80 then this is the chip to go for...

I know a lot of people are saying "wait for the quad core" but as far as performance goes it isn't going to make much of a difference unless your planning on getting an extreme end rig for top end crysis.

As for the 6400+ BE i'd say ignore it.

The 5000+ easily overclocks above the stock of this chip and performs at a lower voltage and temp!!!
 
I'm with Tefty, for the money the 5000+ BE overclocked is fantastic value and will easily feed the top end graphics cards for some time to come.
 
So the 5000 black is better than the 6000, because it uses less votage and that and it will easly overclock to its standards! Will my power supply handle ththis processor? Antec TPII-550 WATT-ATX 12v and what is the mutiplier?
 
Well the 6000 will be slightly faster ~5% clock for clock because it runs 1MB L2 whereas the 5000+ runs 512k.

However the 5000+BE is a 65nm die, it runs cooler, uses less power and potentially overclocks better because of this - needless to say it will more then likely match the 6000's overclocking headline figure (3.3-3.5GHz).

Your PSU is plenty enough.

I ran an opty and 6800 Ultra on a 380w Antec for a good year, my system was 'over spec' for the PSU but it never complained and was rock solid. :)
 
I'm running my 5000+ Black Edition @ 3ghz on stock volts. Cant get it any higher because the mobo wont let me increase the vcore above the default. Cant complain too much though - performance is good :)
 
Edleake said:
Well the 6000 will be slightly faster ~5% clock for clock because it runs 1MB L2 whereas the 5000+ runs 512k.

However the 5000+BE is a 65nm die, it runs cooler, uses less power and potentially overclocks better because of this - needless to say it will more then likely match the 6000's overclocking headline figure (3.3-3.5GHz).

Your PSU is plenty enough.

I ran an opty and 6800 Ultra on a 380w Antec for a good year, my system was 'over spec' for the PSU but it never complained and was rock solid. :)
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Is there a lot of difference between the 1MB L2 + 512k. The way it sounds for £20 quid extra I may as well go for the 6000, would it easly overclok to the 6400 black then?
 
N1ghthawk97 said:
Is there a lot of difference between the 1MB L2 + 512k. The way it sounds for £20 quid extra I may as well go for the 6000, would it easly overclok to the 6400 black then?
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Not as easily. The 6000+ runs hotter and doesnt have the unlocked multiplier. Overclocking the 5000+BE to 3.2/3.3ghz would probably be a close match the 6000+ @ stock.
 
it looks as if your mobo will overclock well (someone back me up here?!) which is the first place to start...you could buy a 5000 and overclock to 6400 speeds comfortably. however as you dont seem to be particularly bothered about the notes involved i would get the 6400BE and a Freezer 64 (much better than that asus imo and 1/2 the price)
 
J0hnb0y said:
it looks as if your mobo will overclock well (someone back me up here?!) which is the first place to start...you could buy a 5000 and overclock to 6400 speeds comfortably. however as you dont seem to be particularly bothered about the notes involved i would get the 6400BE and a Freezer 64 (much better than that asus imo and 1/2 the price)
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Yeah my mobo has a rep for overclocking well and numerous people have said the 5000 be is the best, and if it overclocks to the 6400be speeds no hastle then I think I have made my choice, plus the cost of the 6400be doesnt seem worth it? All Iam conserned with is the 5000be much of a jump from mine? Not including the Overclocking obviously.
 
If thats 100% Prime/Orthos stable for at least 12+Hours and validated, you should log it as thats more than most get on any AM2, I topped out at 3350mhz on 2 different Stepping6000+'s

Problem is I do not have the urls anymore as had enough of buggy Crosshair which fried after 4weeks.
 
skullman said:
Not as easily. The 6000+ runs hotter and doesnt have the unlocked multiplier. Overclocking the 5000+BE to 3.2/3.3ghz would probably be a close match the 6000+ @ stock.
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I have a 6000+ and the multiplier is unlocked, I am running 13X247@3211mhz
with the stock heatsink and fan, for the price I dont think you can go wrong.
 
i have a 6000+ it overclocked to 3.45mhz on my old asus m2r32-mvp, very stable. about 52c load...

the multiplier didn't drop... only the HT droped to about 915
 
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