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e5200 - What is it ?

Subliminal Aura

Subliminal Aura

Subliminal Aura

Soldato
Joined
27 Oct 2006
Posts
7,600
Location
London
The more I look at this CPU the more I think it's tosh. Yes it'll overclock but clock for clock something is just not right...

Looking at some of the super-pi results for an e5200 @ 3.6ghz and I'm thinking that my 2 year old e6420 overclock is better.

But more to the point - e5200 what is it really ? Some classify it as a pentium dual core :eek:

And it's performance does not in my opinion correlate with the wolfdales.

I'm just thinking that I should go for an e8x00 but am not sure how much better they are clock for clock in comparison to the e5xxx and e6xxx

Can someone shed some light ?
 
I reckon it depends what you want to use the cpu (and the rest of the pc :p) for. One thing to consider is that the e5200 only has 2mb L2 cache where the e6420 has 4mb I believe.
One forum member here, "pastymuncher" did a pretty good review a while back of the e5200 wrt overclocking, performance, etc and came to the conclusion that if you have a e4300 or e6600 then its not worth changing for the e5200. Its only worth upgrading from summat like an e 21** series cpu as the e5200's performance increase warrants the change.
 
Yeah thanks mate... I saw his thread the other night, very good comparisons.

PC use will be as a HTPC with the occasional gaming flurry.

So this leaves me with the e8xxx option - clock for clock what is it 10-20% gain over the old conroes ? Think they are pricey too for so little gain ?
 
The E5200 is pretty much the 45nm equivalent to the older 65nm E2200, so I guess that is why you won't be expecting much out of it.

Like it's older brother, it does overclock quite well and is very good as a budget CPU which is where it is targetted at. And this is the reason why they are labelled as "Pentium Dual Core".

You will get a considerable performance inscrease with a E8X00 CPU and of course, they are the 45nm equivalent of the 65nm E6x00 series.

Thing is if this is going to be used as a HTPC with the occasional game now and then, I don't see why you wouldn't be happy just keeping the E5200. I have one in my own HTPC and it performs exceptionally well and is perfect for it's use.

An E8X00 whilst performance will be great, will be a complete waste of money for a HTPC. Unless you want a pure gaming computer which is what it is better at, otherwise the cheaper budget CPU will do. Don't let benchmarks tell you otherwise. If your CPU runs well for the tasks that it does, then you don't need to upgrade.
 
The E5200 is a genuine 45nm Wolfdale core albeit with a cut down cache. It is a good little cpu but it's nothing special really. Clocking is hit and miss. Usual is 3.6Ghz, some, such as P4radigm, have been extremely lucky to get to 4Ghz. A lot of people have been stuck at 3.2Ghz though which really is pretty poor. Mine maxxes out at 3.6Ghz prime stable no matter how many volts i give it, what motherboard it's in or if it's air or water cooled. They are fsb limited and the lack of cache hurts them. I certainly would'nt get one from a 6000 series. Only logical dual core upgrade for you would be a 7000/8000 series.
 
The E5200 is brilliant for the price, keep in mind that the E8xxx range is double the price or more.
 
pastymuncher said:
The E5200 is a genuine 45nm Wolfdale core albeit with a cut down cache. It is a good little cpu but it's nothing special really. Clocking is hit and miss. Usual is 3.6Ghz, some, such as P4radigm, have been extremely lucky to get to 4Ghz. A lot of people have been stuck at 3.2Ghz though which really is pretty poor. Mine maxxes out at 3.6Ghz prime stable no matter how many volts i give it, what motherboard it's in or if it's air or water cooled. They are fsb limited and the lack of cache hurts them. I certainly would'nt get one from a 6000 series. Only logical dual core upgrade for you would be a 7000/8000 series.
Click to expand...

Fair enough, but surely it would be a good upgrade from a 6300 or 6400 which only has 2 MB cache in the first place?

I only ask because I'm about to upgrade a mate.
 
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Jay_t said:
Fair enough, but surely it would be a good upgrade from a 6300 or 6400 which only has 2 MB cache in the first place?

I only ask because I'm about to upgrade a mate.
Click to expand...


An e6420 has 4mb L2 cache as opposed to the e6400 2mb L2 cache. Now if teh e5200 had 4mb L2 cache I reckon it would be different story:)
 
pastymuncher said:
The E5200 is a genuine 45nm Wolfdale core albeit with a cut down cache. It is a good little cpu but it's nothing special really. Clocking is hit and miss. Usual is 3.6Ghz, some, such as P4radigm, have been extremely lucky to get to 4Ghz. A lot of people have been stuck at 3.2Ghz though which really is pretty poor. Mine maxxes out at 3.6Ghz prime stable no matter how many volts i give it, what motherboard it's in or if it's air or water cooled. They are fsb limited and the lack of cache hurts them. I certainly would'nt get one from a 6000 series. Only logical dual core upgrade for you would be a 7000/8000 series.
Click to expand...

I think some of the overclocking probelems are due to them being budget chips so the people buying them will put them with poor components and not fully understand how to overclock. Mines only got a vid of 1.1875v and I'm at nearly 4ghz on air so the people stuck at 3.2 are probably doing something wrong. There again that's nearly a 50% overclock.
 
An artic cooler extreme which isn't rated brilliantly though seems to do the job for me. I got to 3.4ghz on the stock cooler.
 
Great little chips for the price.

A 5200 @ 3Ghz+ is plenty fast enough for a 4870 / GTX260 etc and is only £60

The bonus is you can buy a cheap board (with 45nm support) set the FSB to 1066 and you have an instant 3.3Ghz chip.

Bang for buck, little can touch it.

AD
 
decto said:
The bonus is you can buy a cheap board (with 45nm support) set the FSB to 1066 and you have an instant 3.3Ghz chip.

Bang for buck, little can touch it.

AD
Click to expand...

That, or you can do a BSEL mod to them to unofficially make them a 1066FSB CPU. Especially useful for those who cannot get past 2.8Ghz or so by normal overclocking methods or if they want to risk voiding their CPU.
 
latercomer2 said:
Or perhaps just dont have a chip thats as good for overclocking.

What cooler are you using out of interest?
Click to expand...

I have had it on high end custom water with a window mounted rad, a freezer 7 Pro and now my excellent £5 Spire Verticool III solid copper quad heatpipe cooler. It has been in a Asus P5E X38, Biostar P35-D2A7 and now my Gigabyte P35 DS3R. It will not pass Orthos/Prime/IBT at more than 3.6Ghz and just last weekend i even tried 1.52v which is far too much for one of these. I have given up on it now and am running it at 3.33Ghz at 1.28v.

Going from a E6300/6400 to one of these would be a worthless exercise. No more than a side step.

Have a read of my review.
 
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