Any point getting a 6400?

Hawk Tuah · 29 Sep 2006 at 14:15

Is it worst the 30 odd more for a 6400, or should I just get an OEM 6300 and overclock it?

I'm not usually a big overclocker. Will a 6300 at 6400 speeds run hotter than a 6400, or will I be loosing out in any way. £30 isn't much difference really. Will 6400 ultimately be able to clock higher than the 6300?

wizardmaxx · 29 Sep 2006 at 14:19

I'd rather have the 6300 oem and a zalman 9500 than a 6400 with stock cooling. You will probably find that the 6300 and the zalman at 6400 speeds will run cooler than the 6400 at stock.

Jabbs · 29 Sep 2006 at 15:10

Wish i had got a 6400 tbh just means your ram don't need to be overclocked for example my 6300 is sitting at 2.8 that gives it 800mhz ram which i got now.

I don't really want to push the ram over 800mhz, so the 6400 with its higher multiplier would give you around 300mhz more at same overclock so instead of my being on 2.8 i would be in the 3.1ghz area.

Hawk Tuah · 29 Sep 2006 at 15:20

Jabbs said:
Wish i had got a 6400 tbh just means your ram don't need to be overclocked for example my 6300 is sitting at 2.8 that gives it 800mhz ram which i got now.

I don't really want to push the ram over 800mhz, so the 6400 with its higher multiplier would give you around 300mhz more at same overclock so instead of my being on 2.8 i would be in the 3.1ghz area.

Cheers dude. Thats what I really wanted to hear. 6400 it is then.

About to buy my new system. Havent invested in a whole new PC for a long while. I'm still using a P4 2.6 Northwood, so this will be a sizeable jump up the ladder.

This is what I'm about to press the buy button on.

MB-004-AK Asrock Conroe945G-DVI (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-004-AK)
£45.99 £45.99
MY-034-GL GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC5300 667MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB5300DC) (MY-034-GL)
£129.99 £129.99
GX-124-SP Sapphire ATI Radeon X1900 GT 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-124-SP)
£114.99 £114.99
CA-012-AS Asus TM-581 Series Mini Tower (Black) - 300W PSU (CA-012-AS)
£33.35 £33.35
CP-137-IN Intel Core 2 DUO E6400 "LGA775 Allendale" 2.13GHz (1066FSB) - OEM (CP-137-IN)
£135.99 £135.99
HS-017-AR Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 775) (HS-017-AR)
£11.99 £11.99

wizardmaxx · 29 Sep 2006 at 15:21

And you cant set the cpu:mem divider ?

Jabbs · 29 Sep 2006 at 15:24

I have it set on the lowest which puts my ram at 533mhz it won't go any lower than that, so 400x7 gives me 2.8 gig at 800mhz memory speed but obviously 400x8(6400) would give me 3.2 mark this depends on the cpu mind and if it overclocks ok.

The motherboard you have put down the Asrock i was advised when i went to overclockers that its not a brill overclocker i went for the Gigabyte GA_965P_S3 at £93.99 inc vat and ive had no issues at all with it top board.

wizardmaxx · 29 Sep 2006 at 15:27

Jabbs said:
I have it set on the lowest which puts my ram at 533mhz it won't go any lower than that, so 400x7 gives me 2.8 gig at 800mhz memory speed but obviously 400x8(6400) would give me 3.2 mark this depends on the cpu mind and if it overclocks ok.

Good point there. 6400 it is then. Enjoy

hp7909 · 29 Sep 2006 at 15:28

Bug One said:
{snip}Asus TM-581 Series Mini Tower (Black) - 300W PSU (CA-012-AS) £33.35{snip}

You planning to use the PSU in that case to power such a sweet setup?! :eek:

Come-on, invest in a better one + better case :mad:

You could drop the GFX to a X1800XT. Think the performance is same if not better than that X1900GT. PSU, reputable brand (e.g. Tagan, OCZ, Seasonic, Enermax & FSP) & 400W or more!

Jabbs · 29 Sep 2006 at 15:32

Yeah as hp7909 says don't scrimp on such an important thing as the psu you will regret it, i have Antec TruePower 2.0 550W and it runs my rig nicely which is, [email protected], 2 gig ddr800 ram, x1900xt, 1 raptor, 1 200gig sata, 5x80m fans, then if you want a faster card in 8 months or somet you got the psu to run it.

wizardmaxx · 29 Sep 2006 at 15:33

hp7909 said:
You planning to use the PSU in that case to power such a sweet setup? Come-on, invest in a better one + better case. You could drop the GFX to X1800XT. Think the performance is same if not better than that X1900GT. PSU, reputable brand (e.g. Tagan, OCZ, Seasonic, Enermax & FSP) & 400W or more!

The x1800xt is slightly faster than the x1900gt overall, but its also noisier

RoachycaL · 29 Sep 2006 at 15:39

Im running a 6400 - is there much difference between the two? I havent tried overclocking yet and Im using a Zalman aeroflower

Jabbs · 29 Sep 2006 at 15:40

The day i got my stuff from overs i picked my bro a x1800xt up too and i mentioned to the chap behind the counter that me bro had a 375wpsu and he said it won't be anywhere good enough, he advised a 500w as a minimum with all the rest of the bits in ya pc.

In regards to your ram speed it will resrict your overclocks abit, if you clocked your 667mhz ram too the same speeds i am currently running on a 6300 this would give you 133mhz overclock on the ram straight away so will restrict your overclock abit.

For the lower end Allendale(6300/6400) i reckon 800mhz ram is needed if you plan on overclocking, or maybe concider the 6600 with its higher clock(2.4) and 4mb L2Cache so hitting 3 gig won't be so much a push on 667 ram you planning on buying.

In reply too RoachycaL they only difference between the 6300 and 6400 is the higher multiplier 6300=7x(1.86ghz), 6400=8x(2.13ghz).

Hawk Tuah · 29 Sep 2006 at 15:54

wizardmaxx said:
The x1800xt is slightly faster than the x1900gt overall, but its also noisier

but its more expensive? I was going to get a 7900GS, but it was suggested a x1900gt is a lot better.

Anyhoo, got a 550watt PSU included now. That should be plenty.

What are the retail coolers like that come with these (non OEM I mean). I'm guessing they are more than adequate. With the 6400 I doubt I will be overclocking. I'm guessing it'll have more than enough oomph to play all todays games without playing around with the fsb.

Hawk Tuah · 29 Sep 2006 at 16:01

hp7909 said:
invest in a better case

Thing is, thats the kind of case I want. I just want a small black mini tower case, as small and understated as possible. I really like the design of the Asus terminators, and did want to keep using them, but they dont make one capable of running a Core2Duo. So mini tower it'll have to be.

I've looked at the Antec NSK1300, but we have one at work and I dont really like it. Runs very hot. I'm also interested in the Lian-Li PC-V300, but to be honest it just looked a bit too ugly.

Jabbs · 29 Sep 2006 at 16:39

Bug One said:
but its more expensive? I was going to get a 7900GS, but it was suggested a x1900gt is a lot better.

Anyhoo, got a 550watt PSU included now. That should be plenty.

What are the retail coolers like that come with these (non OEM I mean). I'm guessing they are more than adequate. With the 6400 I doubt I will be overclocking. I'm guessing it'll have more than enough oomph to play all todays games without playing around with the fsb.

Overclockers are doing Connect3D ATI Radeon X1800 XT 256MB £135.11inc vat, for example the Sapphire ATI Radeon X1900 GT 256MB £135.11 too i know which i would have the x1800xt.

The retail cooler i had on my 6300 was noisy as hell i soon changed it and got a freezer 7 cooler, i will add i had it on full as i was overclocking if you not o/c then retail cooler do the job i guess.

Hawk Tuah · 29 Sep 2006 at 17:22

Thanks for the info guys. Just bought it. Certainly hope I notice some improvement over my P4 2.6 and a 6600gt.

2gb pc 5300, asrock conroe945, x1900gt, e6400, 550psu and a silverstone TJ08 in black.

Already got a 300gb and 200gb sata hd's and a black DVDRW so they should plonk in nicely.

Next will probably be a 20inch widescreen tft, but that can wait.

-Ad- · 29 Sep 2006 at 18:22

noes, shoulda gone for the E6300. Soo easy to overclock and easy to get stable.

anyhow, enjoy.

Jabbs · 29 Sep 2006 at 18:45

his ram speed lets down overclocks on a 6300 so the extra speed of the 6400 will help but he said he don't want to overclock.

mortals · 29 Sep 2006 at 19:29

For overclock I'd say pay the extra for the e6400 for the multiplier

I've just ordered a e6400 over the e6300.

Wouldn't of thought that mobo and that RAM would give much of a clock anyway :confused:

altho I've not seen anyone clock on a i945 yet.

Hawk Tuah · 29 Sep 2006 at 19:40

mortals said:
For overclock I'd say pay the extra for the e6400 for the multiplier I've just ordered a e6400 over the e6300.

Wouldn't of thought that mobo and that RAM would give much of a clock anyway altho I've not seen anyone clock on a i945 yet.

I'm not really that worried about overclocking.

Are there any games you can think of that this rig wont be powerful enough to play? Perhaps in a years time of something there might, then I'll look into either overclocking or upgrading.

Whilst I'll test it out with super pi, I'm not going to be competing in the who can get the lowerst time / blow up their PC the fastest.