E4300 that requires high voltages to 3GHz upgrade?

[Kaiju]

My E4300 has been a good sport over the last year, but i'm now in the mood of a change due to the high voltages I need to make 3GHz.

3GHz (334x9) needs 1.35v + .1v offset (1.45v) to be stable.
3.15GHz (350x9) needs 1.425v + .1v offset (1.525v) to be stable.

I've spent countless hours with p95, OCCT, etc and trying lower multiples with different bus speeds, but the amount of FSB holes i've found and not being able to run the bus in sync with the RAM 800DDR (400x9,7 & 6 won't boot) has led me to find greener pastures, not that sync/async really matters.

So, the E2160 looks like a good overclocker and damn cheap. What are your suggestions?

I don't program or edit movies, so the cache is irrelevant to me.

 

[Kaiju]

If in doubt look at the benchmark thread in my sig to get an idea of the performance you'll be getting/losing.

Woah, excellent review on the E4300/2160 comparison. Really good work indeed!

So, you think I should stick with the E4300? As I'm back with the Intel stock HSF, I need to shove a huge fan to the open side of my case @ 1.45v/3GHz. Maybe my next purchase should be a Tuniq Tower or Zalman 9700NT. I had a SI-120 that cooled the chip nicely, but I moved to Hong Kong and forgot to take it with me. Bah!

So yeah, is there really a substantial upgrade to a 3GHz Dual core at the moment bar Quad cores, which i'm really not fussed about anyway as a gamer, lack of movie editing, etc.