E6600 worth the extra against a E6300?

[serenity888]

I’m looking to get either the E6300 or E6600 cpu but can’t decide which one. Please help! I see the E6300 is a great overclocker and can easily keep up even with overclocked E6600 clock speeds. But I’m wondering the extra 2mb cache will be beneficial to me. The pc will be used for gaming as well as video encoding and editing raw photo images in adobe premier and photoshop. I’m also going to the far east at the end of the month so can pick up the e6300 for £90 and e6600 for £160. So is the extra 2mb cache gonna make that much difference and worth shelling out the extra money? The motherboard I’m teaming it up with is the Gigabyte DS3.

any advice or speed comparisons is helpful!

 

[MaX_PoWah]

lol thats the exact same question i am pondering over, its going to put me £60 over budget getting a 6600, but is it worth it ? i intend to overclock it, so maybe it isnt worth it for me ?

 

[Bananadude]

If you are going to be doing video encoding the E6600 is definitely the one to go for. The extra cache will make a difference for video, but not much else really.

 

[div0]

The extra cache seems to provide very few real-world benefits. So if you're overclocking then the 6300 is almost certainly the one to go for!

/edit - lol posted at the same time as the guy above Guess we're giving conflicting opinions! I'm sure someone will be able to add some more info, but so far I've not heard anything of the cache adding any real-world benefits. But if I was to name something that *might* benefit, then it would be video encoding.

 

[serenity888]

i'm even more confused now!



I've also noticed that most o/c settings that people post here seem to have the e6600 at very high voltages (>1.5V) whereas the e6300 overclocks well at stock volts or close to stock volts. would high voltages have an long term reliability impact?

 

[WJA96]

I reckon the current sweet spot is the E6400 with 2Gb of OcUK PC6400 Value RAM. That way you can do 3.2GHz at stock volts and you don't even need to overclock the RAM.

With an S3/DS3/DS4 and E6400 you can easily hit 3.2GHz whereas with the E6300 you need to mess about with RAM timings and possibly voltages as well if you want to get over 3GHz.

That's just my current take on the situation.

 

[MaX_PoWah]

that ocuk memory is cheap, is it any good tho ? i was gonna go for the crucial anniversary originally

 

[WJA96]

that ocuk memory is cheap, is it any good tho ? i was gonna go for the crucial anniversary originally

What do you mean by good? Will it run at 800MHz/PC6400 - yes. It will run that at 5-5-5-15 guaranteed. The Geil will run that at 4-4-4-12 guaranteed and the Anniversary will run at 667MHz at 3-3-3-12 guaranteed.

Now, if you accept that all you want to do is to hit 3.2GHz as cheaply as possible then the E6400/OcUK value will do that. To get the Geil over 800FSB (and to do 3.2Ghz you need to hit 915MHz) the Geil has to have it's timings loosened to 5-5-5-15 anyway. I don't know what the anniversary will do at 800 or even 915MHz but I think it's safe to say it'll be the same as or better than the OcUK Value.

My way isn't sexy, you don't need hand-picked components, but it is cheap and pretty much guaranteed not to knacker anything. They only way you can damage RAM or CPU's once they are in a computer is to over-volt them. If you run them at stock volts, then you're not going to add to the heat load or the risk of damage. I like that strategy.

So is the OcUK Value stuff good? Yes. It does what it says on the tin.

 

[MaX_PoWah]

excellent answer lol, thankyou

 

[Socaddict]

I would go for the E6300. As someone who swapped form an E6300 to an E6600, apart from super pi, I really haven't noticed much of a difference.

 

[gurusan]

the higher multiplier might come in handy for clocking though

 

[easyrider]

Depends on if you have the money and you want 3.6ghz +

DS3
6300
Geil 6400

Is a nice setup and will allow 7x 500 3.5ghz with a decent chip.

I think the geil is worth the extra TBH.

 

[easyrider]

the higher multiplier might come in handy for clocking though

Not really,

3.4ghz should be easy enough with a 6300 and nice ram.

3.6-3.8ghz should be ok with a nice 6600 but 3.8ghz is not guaranteed.

for the extra 100 odd quid the difference in clocks is not worth the extra IMO.

 

[sampo]

From what I have heard the extra cache of the 6600 is beneficial for video work, other than that the difference is minimal. Having said that, a clocked 6300 is no slouch when it comes to video editing anyway.

The anniversary is extremely good ram, most sets seem to be hitting PC8000 speeds without any trouble at all - and at pretty good timings.

The setup I am going to be getting is 6300, p5b deluxe (or DS4, not decided), and anniversary ram with an aim for a safe 24/7 3.2ghz clock, which should be easy with a decent air cooler. May go higher if the chips good, we'll see.

So really you just got to decide whether or not the extra £££ is worth it for a gain whilst video encoding - depends on how much you'll be doing and how much money you got floating about I guess!

 

[FreeStream]

Depends on if you have the money and you want 3.6ghz +

DS3
6300
Geil 6400

Is a nice setup and will allow 7x 500 3.5ghz with a decent chip.

I think the geil is worth the extra TBH.

My Geil doesn't pass a mhz past 444 at any voltage or timings.

Get the E6400 atleast TBH, I'd personally get the E6600.

 

[vocch]

My Geil doesn't pass a mhz past 444 at any voltage or timings.

I'd personally get the E6600.

But then again my Geil have gone up to 1100mhz.....IMO having used both chips E6300 all the way.

@sampo....The Ds4 is a great board....but if you want the absolute highest o/c i would have to say Asus.

 

[Gashman]

What do you mean by good? Will it run at 800MHz/PC6400 - yes. It will run that at 5-5-5-15 guaranteed. The Geil will run that at 4-4-4-12 guaranteed and the Anniversary will run at 667MHz at 3-3-3-12 guaranteed.

Now, if you accept that all you want to do is to hit 3.2GHz as cheaply as possible then the E6400/OcUK value will do that. To get the Geil over 800FSB (and to do 3.2Ghz you need to hit 915MHz) the Geil has to have it's timings loosened to 5-5-5-15 anyway. I don't know what the anniversary will do at 800 or even 915MHz but I think it's safe to say it'll be the same as or better than the OcUK Value.

My way isn't sexy, you don't need hand-picked components, but it is cheap and pretty much guaranteed not to knacker anything. They only way you can damage RAM or CPU's once they are in a computer is to over-volt them. If you run them at stock volts, then you're not going to add to the heat load or the risk of damage. I like that strategy.

So is the OcUK Value stuff good? Yes. It does what it says on the tin.

plus intel architectures don't really care much about latency, whereas high latencys kill K8 performance with intel chips, higher frequency = better (memory i mean)