e6550 any good

[mattux]

hi there

are these processors any good? i dont see many people talking about them that much and i dont really want to pay any more for the 6600 which seems to be the proc of choice.
what memory will work with this chip? i will NOT be overclocking at all and want about 2 gig. i thought i would be looking to match the fsb of the proc but this doesnt seem to be the case.
also i have an enermax noisetaker EG495AX-VE(W) (24P) power supply, will this be ok to run upto date components?

appreciate any help

matt

 

[zero-one]

I have it's bigger brother, the E6750, and can tell you that it is very fast at stock. I would imagine the E6550 is also very fast.

Any DDR2 667 RAM will match the processor's FSB. If you don't overclock, the cheapest will do.

Link to RAM: Linky

Don't know too much about that PSU i'm afraid.

 

[SBD]

you could just get a Intel Core 2 Duo E2200 for half the price runs a little slower but not much then you can put the cash towards something else.

 

[mattux]

you could just get a Intel Core 2 Duo E2200 for half the price runs a little slower but not much then you can put the cash towards something else.

would i not benefit from the faster fsb of the 6550 which i can get for £99 inc?

hey zero does the memory have to be 667 so half the fsb of the proc?
could i stick 800 mhz and see any benefit without overclocking or is that why its 800 mhz ie guaranteed overclock.

sorry about all the q's

matt

 

[zero-one]

Hiya mate

Ram at 667mhz will run the same speed as the e6550 fsb. if you got 800mhz ram you could overclock the CPU to 2.8ghz and still have the ram running at the stock speed.

basically, the fsb of the e6550 is 333mhx x 4 to give you 1333. ddr2 667 ram is 333 x 2. so all runs the same speed. hope this makes sense.

to be honest, ddr2 800 ram is dirt cheap at the moment so if you get that or ddr2 667 ram it will run a charm.

if not overclocking at all then cheapo 667 ram will work no problem. get 800 if you plan on experimenting with overclocking. gives you 500mhz headroom before you even start ocing the ram.

 

[mattux]

thanks zero much appreciated

matt

 

[Phemo]

Just to clarify the above point about the RAM matching FSB - that's absolutely correct, but one small detail is missing:

E6550 FSB is 333x4 for 1333
DDR2 667 is 333MHz but it carries 2 bits of data per clock cycle so it's as if it's running at 667MHz .. however, when you have two sticks of DDR2-667 in dual channel mode, you get the same theoretical bandwidth as if it were a single stick running at 1333MHz.

So in short, with no overclocking, DDR2-667 is plenty. You'd just as well go for 800 though as it's so cheap. If you did that the RAM would be good for a 1600FSB CPU at stock speeds (CPU being 400x4=1600 and 800MHz RAM in dual channel mode = 1600).

 

[bimmerboii]

ive got the e6550 @ 3.15 (450x7) with 4 x 1gb ocz pc6400 ram. temps around 33 idle 45 on load stock volts!. amazing chip! can push further but my ram is limiting my oc

 

[Reality|Bites]

DDR2 actually carries 4bits per cycle, 2 on the rising and 2 an the falling.

DDR3 carries 8 bits per cycle.