E2160 or E6550

[Wiggins]

I am torn between these two babies for gaming purposes.

I have read that the more L2 Cache there is, the better it is for gaming. Is this true?

I know that the E2160 can have the bejeesus clocked out of it so would I get similar performance to the E6550 if its clocked to around 2.8Ghz - 3Ghz?

If I get the E2160, I am going to have to get a better PSU with the extra cash but if I get the E6550 I will have to make do with my £25 550W PSU and suppose leave the E6550 at stock until I can get the cash to get a better PSU.

Along with this I will have 2 of the GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency and a P5N-E SLI with an Akasa 961 Cooler sat on the CPU.

 

[Wiggins]

2160 and better PSU.

What PSU do you have now?

EZcool 550W

Here is what the voltages currently are with a Pentium D 930 clocked to 3.6Ghz

 

[Wiggins]

you dont mention the board you have? If your board cant do 1333FSB then the answer is e2160 for sure. If your board can do 1333, skip the e6550 and get the e6750 for less than 10 quid more.

Edit - 15 quid difference actually.

Whats your total budget?

I have the P5N-E SLI and with the new Bios it does now support up to 1333 and will easily overclock to 1700 without a sniff giving me roughly a 3Ghz E6550.

Total budget is £200 with £20 either side. I suppose if I get the E2160 then some decent 667Mhz memory would be better especially if the FSB - Memory is linked.

I need to get another 250GB HDD as I want to put vista on it.

 

[Wiggins]

I'd measure the voltages in the BIOS, and the temps from coretemp/Intel TAT.

TAT doesnt support the Dual Cores unfortunately

Heres what i got in the Bios

Vcore 1.24
3.3v 3.21
5v 4.94
12v 11.96

Heres the spec of the PSU:

3.3v DC = 32A
5 DC = 40A
-5v = 0.5A
12v DC = 24A
-12v DC = 1A
5vsb = 2A

I was thinking along the lines of unlinking the FSB - Memory which got me thinking about the Geil 800Mhz.

If the PSU can carry the E6550 I will get the chip. But after reading your thrad on the 2 chips Melbourne, its thrown me completely off track now

 

[Wiggins]

??? Yes it does!

Whats this then!!!!!!

Only supports C2D and not Pentium D's

 

[Wiggins]

It doesn't work with VISTA I believe I'd use coretemp for your temps.

edit:didn't consider pentium Ds...

I'm still on XP and got this for coretemp



lmao

How does this look?

Dropped the price of the 2 1GB sticks of geil and went for the 4x512mb sticks instead. That way I get the HDD too.

 

[Wiggins]

I'd advise getting an e21*0 on a budget, very clockable and allows you to get a better psu. Also as Melbourne's review has shown, the cache size seems to make negligible difference in gaming.

You got 3.0Ghz on the Stock HSF???????????????

OMG

 

[Wiggins]

The Ram clock will be limited due to the 4 banks

I have 4 512Mb sticks of Samsung 533 clocked at just under 660.

I am not going to clock much out of the Geil Memory hence the 800Mhz instead of the 667Mhz.

I am just gonna clock the hells bells out of the CPU.

edit: Oh btw, does anyone know the price of delivery if i order on Friday for a Sat Delivery?

 

[Wiggins]

How strange...

Nice build btw. That should overclock nicely

Thanks for your help melbourne

I'll let you know what i get out of the 2160 over the weekend

 

[Wiggins]

Or even less than a tenner, if the OP got OCuk generic RAM:-

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-010-OK&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=813

(Hope he/she is still reading)

I fell asleep

You guys are right. If I install Vista then its going to be a bugger when upgrading to say another 3 - 4gig of ram as all 4 banks will be filled.

I was trying to avoid the Generic Ram to cut the possibilities down of it not working on my mobo.

How about I cut the cloth and get these instead?

 

[Wiggins]

2GB of 6400 is worth getting. It's not like it was 6 months ago, this stuff is dirt cheap!

I was going to order this but due to the memory holes I opted for this instead.

 

[Wiggins]

If you do get the Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C5 TwinX (2x1GB), as you have noted, and if you do intend to use Vista at one point would having 4 1GB sticks compromise your overclocking / stability as opposed to getting 2x2GB ones now...?

Assuming that you would want 4GB of memory for Vista.

(sorry to repeat my question but I'm not sure if I phrased it right )

Budget wont stretch that far at the mo

If the 2160 hits my expectations I will keep it and get another 2gb or ram.

if not then the missus can have it for her Sims and I'll get the 6750 and make do with the 2gb for the time being.


Edit: 4Gb of ram wouldnt make a lot of difference at the moment for me as I'll have xp on dual boot and use it for the video/music encoding. my Vista has been sat on my shelf for nearly 2 months now as I have been waiting patiently for this damn service pack to come out.